Jackson Kehoe is a master’s student at Northwestern University studying the evolution and population genetics of Brugmansia, a genus of flowering plants in the nightshade family, Solanaceae. They are passionate about using art and media to spark curiosity about the natural world, particularly the incredible biodiversity of our planet. Jackson hopes to inspire excitement, wonder, and appreciation for science through creative forms of communication, including art and music. In the midst of a global biodiversity crisis driven by human activities, scientific messaging can often focus on loss, urgency, and frustration. While these realities are important to acknowledge, Jackson believes that one of the most powerful tools for creating meaningful change is fostering a sense of curiosity, respect, and care for one another and for the world around us.
For their outreach project, Jackson is using toy theater to communicate scientific stories through social media, with a particular focus on varKoder, a tool that uses variation in k-mer frequencies to create DNA barcodes. Toy theater is a form of puppetry that became popular in 19th-century Europe and typically features a miniature stage, set pieces, and characters made from paper. In recent years, it has experienced a revival within the puppetry community, in part because it can be easily adapted for virtual audiences.
Jackson chose this creative medium to showcase varKoder, an innovative tool that they have helped develop and test. varKoder generates visual DNA barcode images, known as varKode images, from k-mer frequency data and uses them to train neural network models. These models can accurately identify species, with prediction rates exceeding 90%, and can even distinguish variation below the species level. Potential applications range from species identification to using unique microbiomes to identify individuals or even determine the geographic origin of unknown soil samples. Stay tuned for more updates on Jackson’s project!
