[QSB-grads] Play along during March Mammal Madness!

[Jessica Blois]

Hi faculty, postdocs, and students,

Each March, a wonderfully geeky event happens called March Mammal Madness.  Modeled on the basketball version of March Madness, this competition features different species of mammals (and sometimes other species, real or mythical) that battle it out until an eventual winner is chosen.  Battle outcomes are determined probabilistically, and the organizers have designed battles that are based on the ecological characteristics of each species and the habitats where they are fighting.  Commentary during the battles includes facts about the ecology and evolution of different species, as well as cool accompanying art work.

Read all about the event here: http://mammalssuck.blogspot.com/2018/02/march-mammal-madness-2018.html.  There is also a Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/MammalMadness/ and a Wikipedia entry: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mammal_March_Madness

The battles are announced via twitter, but you don’t need to use twitter to follow along.  Each night, the battle outcome will be posted to the blog.

For the past several years, my lab has had a friendly competition to see who can predict the winner. The winner gets an appropriately themed, inexpensive gift of my choosing and the adulation of 1000s (or 10s) of fans.  If you’d like to play along, send me your completed bracket by Monday March 12th at 5pm Pacific.

You will need to download and fill out a bracket.  Then send or bring the bracket to me with your name on it, and I’ll post all of the brackets on the wall outside my office (2nd floor, the short bar of SE1). The wildcard competition starts Monday March 12th at 5pm Pacific.  If you’ve sent your completed bracket by then, you’ll be entered into the prize competition, but if you’re late to the game I will still post your bracket and you can play along.

FYI, for those of you with kids, this is a really fun activity for them, and there is a specific twitter account you can follow (@2018MMMletsgo<https://twitter.com/2018MMMletsgo?lang=en>) that just posts the basic battles and facts, and screens tweets for kid-friendliness.

Please also forward to your lab postdocs and undergrads.

Best,
Jessica

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Assistant Professor
School of Natural Sciences
University of California, Merced

Office: SE1 296
Phone: (209) 228-2256
Email: jblois at ucmerced.edu<mailto:jblois at ucmerced.edu>
Web: http://jessicablois.com

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