BioScience articles from February 2008

BioScience archives from February 2008

A magisterial mutualism.(religion and science)(Editorial)
February 1, 2008... Despite repeated court decisions establishing that creationism in all of its guises has no place in public school science classrooms, the public's perception of the evolution--creation controversy persists. In short, a significant portion of...

Coupling cyberinfrastructure and geographic information systems to empower ecological and environmental research.(Viewpoint)
February 1, 2008... With the burgeoning global population, complex climate changes, and the growing demand for natural resources, ecological and environmental researchers must look for the best strategies to ensure a sustainable supply of ecosystem services that...

Permafrost in flux: tracking carbon in the Alaskan tundra: ecologists are trying to determine how much of the carbon stored in permafrost may be released as temperatures warm and permafrost thaws.
February 1, 2008... Interior Alaska around the summer solstice belies any descriptions of America's far north as desolate or inhospitable. In late June, the tundra explodes with life. Mosses and lichens cushion the ground, the bushes--including abundant wild...

Fertilizing the seas for climate mitigation--promising strategy or sheer folly?(Washington Watch)
February 1, 2008... As the effects of global warming appear more ominous, and the world community makes minimal progress in curbing fossil-fuel emissions, geoengineering schemes for climate mitigation are taking on new allure. One proposal, "fertilizing" ocean...

Progress in the ecological genetics and biodiversity of freshwater bacteria.(21st Century Directions in Biology)(Report)
February 1, 2008... The field of microbial ecology has grown tremendously with the advent of novel molecular techniques, allowing the study of uncultured microbes in the environment, and producing a paradigm shift: now, rather than using bacteria cultures for...

The green algal underground: evolutionary secrets of desert cells.(Report)
February 1, 2008... Microscopic, unicellular, free-living green algae are found in desert microbiotic crusts worldwide. Although morphologically simple, green algae in desert crusts have recently been found to be extraordinarily diverse, with membership spanning...

The demise of fire and "mesophication" of forests in the eastern United States.(Report)
February 1, 2008... A diverse array of fire-adapted plant communities once covered the eastern United States. European settlement greatly altered fire regimes, often increasing fire occurrence (e.g., in northern hardwoods) or substantially decreasing it (e.g., in...

Beyond urban legends: an emerging framework of urban ecology, as illustrated by the Baltimore ecosystem study.(Report)
February 1, 2008... The emerging discipline of urban ecology is shifting focus from ecological processes embedded within cities to integrative studies of large urban areas as biophysical-social complexes. Yet this discipline lacks a theory. Results from the...

Plant diversity in the human diet: weak phylogenetic signal indicates breadth.(Report)
February 1, 2008... Worldwide, humans have access to a greater range of food plants than does any other species. Examination of phylogenetic patterns in plants consumed by animals has recently uncovered important ecological processes. The same techniques, however,...

The female praying mantis just ... oh, don't look.(Cartoon)
February 1, 2008... "The female praying mantis just... oh, don't look. Love is cruel."

Assessment of research performance in biology: how well do peer review and bibliometry correlate?(Professional Biologist)(Report)
February 1, 2008... Bibliometric indices based on publishing output, and citation records used to measure scientific quality, are increasingly being employed to supplement and even replace traditional alternatives, such as the peer-review system. In this article...

Rotenone: an essential but demonized tool for assessing marine fish diversity.(Forum)(Report)
February 1, 2008... Coral reefs, one of the most biologically diverse and important ecosystems on Earth, are experiencing unprecedented and increasing ecological decline, yet the fish faunas of such reefs and other tropical shoreline habitats remain poorly known...

Solving the "sapient paradox".(Origins and Revolutions: Human Identity in Earliest Prehistory)(Book review)
February 1, 2008... Origins and Revolutions: Human Identity in Earliest Prehistory. Clive Gamble. Cambridge University Press, New York, 2007. 364 pp., illus. $27.99 (ISBN 9780521677493 paper). The origin of humankind continues to be one of the most difficult...

Deep sea in peril.(The Silent Deep: The Discovery, Ecology, and Conservation of the Deep Sea)(Book review)
February 1, 2008... The Silent Deep: The Discovery, Ecology, and Conservation of the Deep Sea. Tony Koslow. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 2007. 312 pp., illus. $35.00 (ISBN 9780226451251 cloth). The Silent Deep has been published at critical time: the...

Another perspective on Yellowstone's northern range.(Yellowstone's Destabilized Ecosystem: Elk Effects, Science, and Policy Conflict)(Book review)
February 1, 2008... Yellowstone's Destabilized Ecosystem: Elk Effects, Science, and Policy Conflict. Frederic H. Wagner. Oxford University Press, New York, 2006. 392 pp., illus. $64.50 (ISBN 9780195148213 cloth). Yellowstone National Park (YNP) and its...

New titles.(Books)(Bibliography)
February 1, 2008... Acid Rain in the Adirondacks: An Environmental History. Jerry Jenkins, Karen Roy, Charles Driscoll, and Christopher Buerkett. Cornell University Press, Ithaca, NY, 2007. 256 pp., illus. $65.00 (ISBN 9780801474248 paper). Biobazaar: The...

BioOne announces new agreement with Allen Press, Atypon.(AIBS News)
February 1, 2008... BioOne (www.bioone.org) has announced that it has signed a new agreement with Allen Press, Inc., to continue the organizations' seven-year partnership and provide a superior new online platform through a strategic alliance with Atypon Systems,...

Coalition of scientific and teaching organizations issues report on evolution and science education.(AIBS News)
February 1, 2008... AIBS is pleased to be a part of the broad coalition of 17 scientific societies and organizations (representing teachers, biologists, physicists, astronomers, chemists, and social scientists) that wrote the article "You Say You Want an...

Updates to the AIBS Annual Meeting this May.(AIBS news)
February 1, 2008... The 2008 AIBS annual meeting, to be held 12-13 May, will explore the theme of climate, environment, and infectious diseases. Relationships among climate, the environment, and human health are manifested in infectious disease patterns, notably...

AIBS messes with Texas.(AIBS news)(inclusion of intelligent design into the public school science curriculum)
February 1, 2008... The year 2007 ended with the eruption of several evolution education controversies, positioning Texas as the next battleground for science education. In November 2007, Christine Castillo Comer, with nearly three decades of experience as a...

ActionBioscience.org continues to grow.(AIBS news)(Brief article)
February 1, 2008... ActionBioscience.org page views exceeded two million for the second year in a row. A page view occurs every time a visitor loads a page on the Web site. The site's traffic-tracking service, SuperStars, reported 2,356,954 page views in 2007....

NEON expands its Board of Directors.(AIBS news)(National Ecological Observatory Network)
February 1, 2008... The National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON) has announced seven additions to its Board of Directors. The NEON, Inc., board conducted an at-large election to fill two open seats, adding Margaret Leinen and David Douglas to the board; five...

AIBS and NESCent cohost evolution symposium for biology teachers.(AIBS news)
February 1, 2008... AIBS and the National Evolutionary Synthesis Center (NESCent) cohosted the fourth annual evolution symposium, "Evolution: Applications in Human Health and Populations," at the National Association of Biology Teachers conference in Atlanta on 1...

Ask-a-Biologist podcast in the National Science Digital Library.(AIBS news)(Brief article)
February 1, 2008... AIBS Director of Education and Outreach Samantha Katz was interviewed for a podcast shown on the Arizona State University "Ask a Biologist" Web site. The podcast focused on the National Science Digital Library (NSDL) and its role in the...

Recent executive director's blog entries online at http://blogs.aibs.org/richardogrady/.(AIBS news)
February 1, 2008... * A presidential debate on science * AIBS and National Council for Science and the Environment meetings on climate science: 16-18 January and 12-13 May

Recent articles online at www.actionbioscience.org.(AIBS news)(Brief article)
February 1, 2008... Original article in English * "Evolution for Everyone," by David Sloan Wilson, professor in the Departments of Biology and Anthropology at Binghamton University Original lesson to accompany an article * "Save Our Frogs" ["Why Do...

Recent public policy reports online at www.aibs.org.(AIBS news)(Brief article)
February 1, 2008... Public Policy Report for 22 January 2008 * Ecologists issue biofuels statement * NSB releases 2008 Science and Engineering Indicators * New Academies book on evolution * Collections community workshop on curating small...

Calendar of meetings.(Calendar)(Brief article)(Calendar)
February 1, 2008... February 25-1 March Society for Northwestern Vertebrate Biology, Missoula, MO; www.snwvb.org/annualmeeting.html March 2-6 American Mosquito Control Association, Sparks, NV; www. mosquito.org/meetings/mtg-overview.aspx?Meeting=23...

To be, or not to be, chimpanzee.(BioBriefs)(genetic difference between humans and chimpanzees)
February 1, 2008... MOLECULAR-LEVEL COMPARISONS If there were a cosmic cheat sheet with the answer to just one question, wouldn't we want it to tell us what makes us human? Having entered the postgenomic era with the sequencing of the human genome, we...