BioScience articles from February 2005

BioScience archives from February 2005

The right time for synthesis in evolutionary biology.(Editorial)
February 1, 2005... It is 2005, and I find myself leading the new National Evolutionary Synthesis Center (NESCent) in Durham, North Carolina. NESCent is funded by a $15 million grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to help bring about a broad synthesis...

In defense of N > 1.(Viewpoint)
February 1, 2005... Expert scientific witnesses willing to exchange dollars for their reputation have in recent years, and with considerable justification, been blamed for all manner of ill use of science in our courts. Yet entirely overlooked is an insidious...

Challenging Darwin: a new book argues that diversity undermines sexual selection theory.
February 1, 2005... The bluegill sunfish (Lepomis macrochirus), which inhabits North American lakes, has three kinds of males, each one using a different tactic to fertilize eggs of the species' one female gender. Same-sex encounters are common among the bonobo...

Planning of neon moves ahead.(Special Report)
February 1, 2005... Think big. From the beginning, that's been the charge for planners working to envision the National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON), the biological sciences' first continent-spanning major research platform. What they came up...

White House responds to ocean commission reports.(Washington Watch)
February 1, 2005... As required by the Oceans Act of 2000, President Bush has formally responded to the final report of the US Commission on Ocean Policy. On 17 December 2004, the White House released the "U.S. Ocean Action Plan," a 40-page document summarizing...

A synthesis of information on rapid land-cover change for the period 1981-2000.
February 1, 2005... This article presents a synthesis of what is known about areas of rapid land-cover change around the world over the past two decades, based on data compiled from remote sensing and censuses, as well as expert opinion. Asia currently has the...

The adaptive significance of coloration in mammals.
February 1, 2005... Coloration is a diagnostic tool for identifying mammals, but inquiry into its function has lain dormant for almost a century. Recently, the topic has been revived and modern phylogenetic methods have been applied to large data sets, allowing...

Surface films: areas of water bodies that are often overlooked.
February 1, 2005... Material accumulates at the water-air interface of all natural water bodies to form a surface film. The interface is a dynamic environment, so surface films are altered by water movements, solar radiation, and biological processes. These films...

Threats to vertebrate species in China and the United States.
February 1, 2005... We analyzed the threats to imperiled vertebrate species in China and compared our results with those from a similar study conducted in the United States. Overexploitation is the most pervasive threat to Chinese vertebrates, contributing to the...

Linking landscapes and food webs: effects of omnivorous fish and watersheds on reservoir ecosystems.
February 1, 2005... Ecologists increasingly recognize the need to understand how landscapes and food webs interact. Reservoir ecosystems are heavily subsidized by nutrients and detritus from surrounding watersheds, and often contain abundant populations of gizzard...

Strongly interacting species: conservation policy, management, and ethics.(Forum)
February 1, 2005... Obsolescence of environmental laws and regulations is unavoidable, and policies dealing with endangered species and ecosystem conservation often lag decades behind the relevant science. For example, endangered species laws and regulations and...

What we can and can't learn about biology from feminism.
February 1, 2005... Sexual Selections: what We Can and Can't Learn about Sex from Animals. Marlene Zuk. University of California Press, Berkeley, 2003. 250 pp. $16.95 (ISBN 0520240758 paper). The temptation to infer humanlike motivations and thought processes...

Do animals have gender?
February 1, 2005... Evolution's Rainbow: Diversity, Gender, and Sexuality in Nature and People. Joan Roughgarden. University of California Press, Berkeley, 2004. 474 pp. $27.50 (ISBN 0520240731 cloth). Soon after transitioning as a trans-gendered woman, Joan...

The life and times of a living fossil.
February 1, 2005... The American Horseshoe Crab. Carl N. Shuster Jr., Robert B. Barlow, and H. Jane Brockmann, eds. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 2004. 427 pp., illus. $95.00 (ISBN 0674011597 cloth). Each spring, unnumbered thousands of American...

New titles.(Books)
February 1, 2005... American Heritage Science Dictionary. Houghton Mifflin, Boston, 2005. 704 pp., illus. $19.95 (ISBN 0618455043 cloth). Amphibians and Reptiles of La Selva, Costa Rica, and the Caribbean: A Comprehensive Guide. Craig Guyer and Maureen A....

AIBS partners with new national evolutionary synthesis center.(AIBS news)
February 1, 2005... The new National Evolutionary Synthesis Center (NESCent), in Durham, North Carolina, has opened its doors--with a little help from AIBS. Established with a $15 million, five-year grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF), the center is a...

An invitation to comment on NEON Design.(AIBS news)
February 1, 2005... The initial meeting of the NEON (National Ecological Observatory Network) Design Consortium, held in Los Angeles, 4-6 January 2005, has produced first drafts of the project's committee and subcommittee reports. Those documents have been posted...

NEON postdocs arrive at AIBS.(AIBS news)
February 1, 2005... Six postdoctoral associates have joined the NEON Project Office to contribute their scientific expertise and research skills to the design process of the continental-scale ecological observatory network. Kit Batten earned her PhD and MS in...

Two new student chapters join AIBS.(AIBS news)
February 1, 2005... The John Carroll University Biology Club (University Heights, Ohio) and the Howard University Environmental Biology Scholars (Washington, DC) are the newest additions to the roster of AIBS student chapters. Student chapters appoint a...

Diversity programs and outreach directory online.(AIBS news)(Directory)
February 1, 2005... The AIBS Web site now has a section devoted to diversity programs and resources (www.aibs.org/diversity/). This section serves as a resource for biologists interested in diversity issues by providing links to diversity programs offered by AIBS...

Recent articles online at www.actionbioscience.org.(AIBS news)
February 1, 2005... Original article in English * "Natural Selection: How Evolution Works," interview with Douglas Futuyma, professor of evolutionary biology at the State University of New York at Stony Brook Lesson for classroom activities * "The...

Recent public policy reports online at www.aibs.org.(AIBS news)
February 1, 2005... Public Policy Report for 18 January 2005 * Back at it: A look at the 109th Congress thus far * Graduate students: Apply for the 2005 AIBS Emerging Public Policy Leadership Award * OMB releases new peer review guidelines *...

Calendar of meetings.(Calendar)
February 1, 2005... February 7-10 Annual Meeting of the Weed Science Society of America, Honolulu, HI; Web site: http:// abstracts.co.allenpress.com/ cgi-bin/wssa/index.pl 20-25 Aquatic Sciences Meeting, American Society of Limnology and Oceanography,...

Big birds.(Evolution's Fast Lane)
February 1, 2005... An unforgettable replica of New Zealand's largest bird, the giant moa, looms three meters tall in the Auckland Museum's natural history gallery. Created in 1913, the replica stands with its head erect, as it was imagined to look before...

Domesticated dogs.(Evolution's Fast Lane)
February 1, 2005... When it comes to rapid changes in body plan, artificial selection reveals what's possible. The wide range of sizes and shapes of dog breeds, from 1- to 5-kg Chihuahuas to 50- to 90-kg Great Danes, shows the power of selective breeding. Where...

The human brain.(Evolution's Fast Lane)
February 1, 2005... Another wonder of rapid evolutionary change is the human brain. What kinds of genetic or developmental changes made brains of this size and complexity possible, especially given the similarity of human and chimpanzee genomes? Researchers...