Prologue

I have confessed my love for R in my previous posts, so I won’t repeat the same here. It is absolutely the best tool for performing statistical analysis of data, but as it is a programming language, it can do so much more. It may not be as complete or powerful as Python, but people in academia love it for the myriad of packages available, and new ones are being developed daily. R also has a fantastic integrated development environment (IDE) called RStudio. Beginners should definitely take advantage of the user-friendly interface to get used to the language faster, but…

Disclaimer 1: This is not a review of Manjaro Linux distribution, this is my personal opinion on why I feel Manjaro is the best among all the distributions (distros in short!) I have tried so far. The opinion I present here is biased and limited by my knowledge of Linux, my aesthetic sense and my Laptop’s performance. So, read this post keeping those things in mind.

Disclaimer 2: I am not a programmer or software engineer - I am a postdoctoral researcher working on animal behaviour and ecology, who is very interested in open-source software. …

R is like any other programming language — just with a keen focus towards statistical analysis of data. Therefore, if you are familiar with any programming language, it gets very easy to start working with R. Many say R has a steep learning curve. Maybe it is true, but I feel that once you get going with R, you won’t go elsewhere.

The problem arises if you are not familiar with any programming languages, and have never tried to learn one yourself. The absolute introduction to any programming language should be through its data structures, yet I have seen people…

Many mistake the behaviour of stealing to only appear in human societies. Scientists across centuries have studied thieves in different animals, and we now know that thieves appear in species that range from small worms to large mammals. Hyenas are a famous example of thieves and have been recorded to steal hunt from seven other large predators including lions, cheetahs and leopards. Birds like ravens and gulls are well-known for stealing food from others of their own species using stealth and/or force. But these animals either live alone or live in packs or groups. We started with discussing theft in…

This is my first post in this blog, and I start with my favourite programming language — R.

I am not saying that R is the best programming language. On the contrary, I think Python is much easier to learn, more efficient and powerful. But R is probably the best for what I do, and it makes my work so much easier.

I am a research scholar working in the field of behavioural ecology. For the data I collect and work with, I personally think R is the easiest and most useful to work with. …