Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS
Dr. Jeff Bradshaw is a Research and Extension Entomologist in the Department of Entomology at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. He received his Masters in Zoology at Southern Illinois University and PhD in Entomology and Plant Pathology at Iowa State University. Postdoc Energy Biosciences University of Illinois. Jeff is with us today to tell us about his journey through life and science.
Jeff studies the applied ecology and biology of insects common to the crops and rangeland managed in the High Plains Ecoregion of the United States. Specifically, his research concentrates on the conservation of the ecosystem function of insects on crops (e.g. ground beetles that feed on weed seeds) and rangeland (e.g. dung beetle recycling of cattle manure) and the discovering of insect-resistant traits in plants (e.g., cereal aphid resistance in switchgrass). Additionally, he helps to develop innovative communications products and services for economically and environmentally sustainable production practices (e.g., www.iwheat.org).
So sorry to hear about losing research through losing a hard drive! While I lived in Guatemala for 5 years I became friends with a man who collected bugs as a hobby. He sent them to biological supply companies so people could do this kind of research. Sadly, dung beetles were not what he collected… Mostly tarantulas, scorpions, fleas and cockroaches!
Thank you for your thoughts, Kathy. It’s been a long time since that fateful day that I discovered that three years of my research and numerous photos and presentations had been lost. It took quite a lot of stamina and time to set everything back on track again. Some people have said to me that this is the risk of the digital era. However, I think that fire is just as big a risk to a paper world. It was more of a very hard lesson for me to keep redundant records and to take a harder look at fail-resistant systems. I currently keep a replica copy of everything on my desktop also on my laptop. The laptop pretty much stays with me most of the time. My desktop has a backup system onto a redundant array of 4 hard drives that are each mirrored copies of themselves such that if one goes down, I just buy another, plug it in, and keep going. I think that has brought me at least closer to safe data storage.