biology

Unidan

Unidan is a biology topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Unidan rather than just read about it. In short: Ben Eisenkop, known online by his Reddit username Unidan (born August 9, 1986), is an American ecologist. He became popular on the social media website Reddit as the "excited biologist" who answered questions and explained concepts related to biology and ecology before being banned from the website for vote fraud – using multiple secret accounts to increase the popularity of his own posts and decrease the popularity…

Key takeaways

Unidan belongs to biology; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Unidan to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Unidan from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Ben Eisenkop, known online by his Reddit username Unidan (born August 9, 1986), is an American ecologist. He became popular on the social media website Reddit as the "excited biologist" who answered questions and explained concepts related to biology and ecology before being banned from the website for vote fraud – using multiple secret accounts to increase the popularity of his own posts and decrease the popularity of competitors' posts.

Background Eisenkop earned his bachelor's degrees in biology and environmental science from Binghamton University in Vestal, New York. He was a doctoral student there from 2011 until 2018, but left before completing his doctoral degree. He worked as a graduate instructor in the Department of Biological Sciences at Binghamton University, teaching courses in biology, ecology, and environmental science. He performed doctoral research on ecosystem ecology, studying how communally roosting crows in New York affect the environment.

Career Eisenkop wrote an article for Mental Floss. He has been a graduate instructor for Biology 117: Introduction to Organismal, and Population and Environmental Studies 101: Environment and Man/Women: An Ecological Perspective, and helps instruct an animal behavior course with professor Anne Clark and has been involved in studying communally roosting crows in New York, by tracking them across the state and monitoring their environmental impact. He was also a collaborator on the book Great Adaptations, which teaches concepts of evolution to kids. In April 2014, Eisenkop hosted a TEDx with Binghamton University, "Alternative Futures of Science Funding".

Reddit Eisenkop, using the pseudonym Unidan, had been answering biology-related questions on Reddit for several years, when an Ask Me Anything ("AMA", a Q&A style event hosted on Reddit) he did in 2013 made it to the front page of Reddit. Thereafter, his popularity rose and he became one of the most recognizable Reddit users. Eisenkop's popularity and visibility on Reddit garnered him many science education-related job offers, such as with Mental Floss.

Vote fraud and site ban In July 2014, Eisenkop's Unidan account was banned from Reddit for using alternate (or "sock puppet") accounts. The accounts were used to upvote his own submissions and downvote submissions made by other users that were posted around the same time and were potentially attracting attention away from his own. He also used them during discussions in which he upvoted his own comments and downvoted comments from users whom he was debating. Reddit community manager Alex Angel (cupcake1713) described Unidan's actions as "pretty blatant vote manipulation, which is against our site rules", and The Daily Dot wrote that "Unidan's fall adds him to a list of power users who have abused their influence of Reddit's system for their own benefit".

References

External links

UnidanX on Reddit

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Unidan

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Unidan claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In biology, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Unidan before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Unidan ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Unidan

In research: Unidan appears in biology research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Unidan in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Unidan is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1986 births, 21st-century American biologists, American Internet celebrities, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Unidan outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Unidan in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Unidan means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Unidan out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Unidan in simple terms?

Why does Unidan matter?

Because it connects several biology ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Unidan?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Unidan.