BioScience articles from April 2009

BioScience archives from April 2009

The individual benefits of evolution.(Editorial)
April 1, 2009... The 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin's birth, widely and properly celebrated last 12 February, was a gratifying event for biologists. The founding father of modern biology was feted in articles, broadcasts, and gatherings, and evolution was...

An ecological stimulus.(Viewpoint essay)
April 1, 2009... Washington, DC, is abuzz with economic stimulus. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 invests $787 billion in the domestic US economy, giving priority to "shovel-ready" infrastructure projects, mostly in transportation and energy....

Sweet home Alabama: hot spot for phylogeography: phylogeographers use molecular methods to map herpetological biodiversity in the heart of Dixie.
April 1, 2009... In the mid-1990s, the diversity of freshwater fishes, snails, mussels, and turtles endemic to the waterways of Alabama and neighboring states prompted biologists to call for more attention to the region. They noted that conservation measures...

The Professional Science Master's: the MBA for Science.(Eye on Education)
April 1, 2009... When Jay Duffner decided to go to graduate school to advance his career in biotechnology, he chose North-eastern University's Professional Science Master's (PSM) program rather than a traditional master's or PhD track. He recognized the...

Grand theories: how far have we come and where will we go?(Washington Watch)(scientific research investment)
April 1, 2009... President Obama's call for science to be restored to its proper place" excites science policy advocates. Science, it appears, may play an important role in informing societal decisions and restarting the country's economic engines. Lawmakers...

New accomplishments and approaches for assessing protistan diversity and ecology in natural ecosystems.(21st Century Directions in Biology)(Report)
April 1, 2009... Ecological research of microorganisms sensu latu (archaea, bacteria, protists, viruses) has come of age within the last few decades. This newfound importance is a consequence of a greater appreciation for the enormous diversity present among...

Biological field stations: research legacies and sites for serendipity.(Field Stations)(Report)
April 1, 2009... Biological field stations are distributed throughout North America, capturing much of the ecological variability present at the continental scale and encompassing many unique habitats. In addition to their role in supporting research and...

Toward immunogenetic studies of amphibian chytridiomycosis: linking innate and acquired immunity.(Report)
April 1, 2009... Recent declines in amphibian diversity and abundance have contributed significantly to the global loss of biodiversity. The fungal disease chytridiomycosis is widely considered to be a primary cause of these declines, yet the critical question...

Ecology in times of scarcity.(Report)
April 1, 2009... In an energy-scarce future, ecosystem services will become more important in supporting the human economy. The primary role of ecology will be the sustainable management of ecosystems. Energy scarcity will affect ecology in a number of ways....

Can biological complexity be rationalized?(Forum)(Report)
April 1, 2009... The Precambrian world, biologically speaking, was remarkably simple and populated exclusively by microbes. In sharp contrast, our contemporary biological world is perceived as remarkably diverse and complex. What were the processes that...

How forests attract rain: an examination of a new hypothesis.(Forum)(Report)
April 1, 2009... A new hypothesis suggests that forest cover plays a much greater role in determining rainfall than previously recognized. It explains how forested regions generate large-scale flows in atmospheric water vapor. Under this hypothesis, high...

The Logic Behind the Science.(Evidence and Evolution: The Logic Behind the Science)(Book review)
April 1, 2009... Evidence and Evolution: The Logic Behind the Science. Elliott Sober. Cambridge University Press, 2008. 412 pp., illus. $29.99 (ISBN 9780521692748 paper). When Darwin was developing his theory of evolution, philosophy of science was just...

An ecological text with a two-track academic mission.(The Ecological World View)(Book review)
April 1, 2009... The Ecological World View. Charles Krebs. University of California Press, 2008. 592 pp., illus. $59.95 (ISBN 9780520254794 paper). The Ecological World View, Charles Krebs's important new textbook, is a lively overview of ecological...

A tree is just a forest's way of making another forest.(Forest Genetics)(Book review)
April 1, 2009... Forest Genetics. Timothy L. White, W. Thomas Adams, and David B. Neale. CABI Publishing, 2007. 704 pp., illus. $100.00 (ISBN 9780851993485 paper). Ten thousand years before Mendel's laws and modern genetics, humans began domesticating crop...

New titles.(Brief article)(List)
April 1, 2009... The Illustrated Moss Flora of Antarctica. Ryszard Ochyra, Ronald I. Lewis Smith, and Halina Bednarek-Ochyra. Cambridge University Press, 2008. 704 pp., illus. $250.00 (ISBN 9780521814027 cloth). Living at Micro Scale: The Unexpected Physics...

Registration and poster submissions open for 2009 AIBS Annual Meeting.(AIBS news)(American Institute of Biological Sciences)
April 1, 2009... The 2009 AIBS annual meeting, "Sustainable Agriculture: Greening the Global Food Supply," will be held 18-19 May at the Westin Arlington Gateway Hotel in Arlington, Virginia. The program chair is 2009 AIBS president May R. Berenbaum, of the...

AIBS partners with member organizations to bring new lobbying tool to scientists.(AIBS news)(American Institute of Biological Sciences)(Brief article)
April 1, 2009... The AIBS Public Policy Office is pleased to announce that through a partnership with four member organizations, biologists and science educators may now quickly and effectively influence policy and public opinion. In February, the Public Policy...

AIBS now hosting NESCent's "Evolution in the News" on YouTube.(AIBS news)(American Institute of Biological Sciences)(Brief article)
April 1, 2009... AIBS is pleased to host on its YouTube channel the video series "Evolution in the News" from the National Evolutionary Synthesis Center in Durham, North Carolina. The series is a collaboration of NESCent and the Understanding Evolution Web site...

AIBS teams with University of Oklahoma on introductory biology experience project.(AIBS news)(American Institute of Biological Sciences)
April 1, 2009... The US National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded a $398,020 research coordination network (RCN) grant to the University of Oklahoma to help university and college faculty members improve instruction in introductory biology courses. MBS...

AIBS welcomes new policy staff.(AIBS news)(American Institute of Biological Sciences)(Palakovich Carr )(Brief article)
April 1, 2009... The AIBS Public Policy Office (PPO) is pleased to announce that Julie Palakovich Carr joined the PPO in February as a public policy associate. Carr has a master's degree in biology from the University of Minnesota, where she studied the...

Notre Dame bio students receive policy, media training from PPO.(AIBS news)(Public Policy Office)(Brief article)
April 1, 2009... On 28-29 January, Jenna Jadin, AIBS public policy associate, was in South Bend, Indiana, to share with University of Notre Dame biology graduate students insights into how to effectively communicate their science to the media and policymakers....

AIBS, ESA team to conduct policy training.(AIBS news)(American Institute of Biological Sciences and Ecological Society of America)(Brief article)
April 1, 2009... MBS director of public policy Robert Gropp and Ecological Society of America director of public affairs Nadine Lymn traveled to the Seviletta Long Term Ecological Research station in January to conduct a one-day workshop on communicating...

Recent articles online at www.actionbioscience.org.(AIBS news)
April 1, 2009... "Technology: An Educational Issue?" blog post * Online Darwin Resources * BioQuest Investigative Cases Spanish translation of a previously posted article * "Fueron las Bacterias las Primeras Formas de Vida en la Tierra?" [Were...

Recent public policy reports online at www.aibs.org.(AIBS news)(Brief article)
April 1, 2009... Public Policy Report for 2 March 2009 * AIBS partners with member organizations to launch new lobbying effort * President releases outline for FY 2010 budget * House passes FY 09 spending bill * Congressional committees...

Calendar of meetings.(Brief article)(Calendar)
April 1, 2009... April 10-15 Cactus and Succulent Society of America, Tucson, AZ; http:// 2009.tucsoncactus.org 13-18 Coastal Education and Research Foundation, Lisbon, Portugal; www.cerf-jcr.org 16-18 Cooper Ornithological Society, Tucson, AZ;...

Evolutionary fast forward.(BioBriefs)
April 1, 2009... WHITE-EYE SPECIATION Nothing says "origin of species" like an island archipelago. The radiation of finches in the Galapagos is a prime example. Cichlid fish, known for their extraordinarily rapid species diversification, inhabit rift...