Walking the Tree of Life – Adventures in Phylogenetics
"What's the last common ancestor of a bear and a weasel?" "Which animals are more related to pigs than cows?" "Are birds reptiles?" "Am I a fish?"
With a recent interest in phylogeny – the science of evolution, diversification, and speciation – these are the kinds of questions I've been asking myself. I wanted to find a tool that would let me examine the relationships between species and find the answers to these questions, but, as I looked around I couldn't find anything that did what I wanted. So I made it myself.
Come with me as I share my journey that led me to talk to some of Australia's top scientists, give up on talking to other top scientists, and accidentally stumble my way into making an actual contribution to science. Learn why I made this tool, how I made this tool, what stage it's at, and where you can use it yourself. And maybe learn some things about life on Earth along the way.
Oh, and to answer the questions above: dog-bears, peccaries, yes, and yes!
See this talk and many more by getting your ticket to PyCon AU now!
I want a ticket!I've always been interested in zoology – my dad has a degree in zoology – and over the past year or two, I've started learning more about phylogeny. Phylogeny is the study of the evolution of species, seeking to understand their common ancestors, when and how they branched, and how closely related various species are.
A common tool in phylogeny is the cladogram, a "tree of life" showing the different relationships between species. Cladograms are a great tool for understanding a family of organisms. However, when I started wanting to explore cladograms myself, I couldn't find anything that had all the features I wanted. This led me to start building it myself, and as I did so, I started thinking that maybe it was something that scientists and educators might find useful.
And so I dove into the problem with gusto, and built a cladogram tool that could do it all, and is nice and user friendly, and great for students of all ages. In this talk I'll explain what I wanted it to do, the saga of trying to work out if it already existed, and how I built the tool. I'll also show you where you can access it to try out yourself and maybe learn something interesting about your favourite animal!
As CTO of two small education related startups (ConnectEd Code and Kumo Study) and with plenty of varied consulting under my belt, I have a focus on how tech can help other fields progress. I love to learn what the problems are and how I can actually make an impact, ideally with as simple a program as possible.
I’ve been using Python for years, working in both the professional and education sectors, and have focussed on bringing the power of Python to everyone.