BioScience articles from July 2001

BioScience archives from July 2001

Call for Papers.
July 1, 2001... Four billion years of adaptation to Earth's physical environment, and to its increasingly complex biotic environment, have produced the stunning diversity of organisms with which we cohabit this small blue planet. We may never know exactly how...

National Science Board Addresses the Need for Setting Research Funding Priorities.(Brief Article)
July 1, 2001... A childhood lesson about sharing involves a piece of cake and two children. To ensure a fair outcome, one cuts and the other chooses. Scientists are looking for a more scientific method to share federal research dollars. The draft report of the...

Portraits of Evolution: Studies of Coloration in Hawaiian Spiders.
July 1, 2001... THE DISCRETE COLOR POLYMORPHISMS IN SPIDERS ALLOW THE STUDY OF EVOLUTION "IN ACTION" Color variation, when genetically determined, provides a visual tool with which to investigate natural selection. Here we examine how color variation in...

Fruit Fly Immunity.
July 1, 2001... THE FRUIT FLY PROVIDES A SUITABLE EXPERIMENTAL MODEL FOR STUDYING VARIOUS ASPECTS OF THE CELLULAR AND HUMORAL MECHANISMS, GENETICS, SIGNALING CASCADES, AND CYTOTOXIC MOLECULES INVOLVED IN INSECT INNATE IMMUNITY The evolutionary origins and...

Feces in Aquatic Ecosystems.
July 1, 2001... FEEDING ANIMALS TRANSFORM ORGANIC MATTER INTO FECAL PELLETS, WHICH SINK OR ARE TRANSPORTED HORIZONTALLY BY CURRENTS; THESE FLUXES RELOCATE ORGANIC MATTER IN AQUATIC ECOSYSTEMS Think of trophic levels, and what probably comes to mind is an...

The Rise of the Concept of Scale in Ecology.
July 1, 2001... THE CONCEPT OF SCALE IS EVOLVING FROM VERBAL EXPRESSION TO QUANTITATIVE EXPRESSION Recognition of the concept of scale occurred rapidly in the 1980s, but the concept itself is far older. The last quarter of the 20th century witnessed major...

Return to the Magic Well: Echolocation Behavior of Bats and Responses of Insect Prey.
July 1, 2001... In 1793 the Italian scientist Lazzaro Spallanzani found that blinded bats avoided obstacles and flew just as skillfully as when they could see. But it was his contemporary Louis Jurine of Geneva, who first discovered that plugging the external...

Echolocation by Insect-Eating Bats.
July 1, 2001... WE DEFINE FOUR DISTINCT FUNCTIONAL GROUPS OF BATS AND FIND DIFFERENCES IN SIGNAL STRUCTURE THAT CORRELATE WITH THE TYPICAL ECHOLOCATION TASKS FACED BY EACH GROUP Bats (order Chiroptera) are ecologically more diverse than any other group of...

How Some Insects Detect and Avoid Being Eaten by Bats: Tactics and Countertactics of Prey and Predator.
July 1, 2001... EVOLUTIONARILY SPEAKING, INSECTS HAVE RESPONDED TO SELECTIVE PRESSURE FROM BATS WITH NEW EVASIVE MECHANISMS, AND THESE VERY RESPONSES IN TURN PUT PRESSURE ON BATS TO "IMPROVE" THEIR TACTICS Some insects have evolved audition and evasive...

Should Auld Acquaintance Be Forgot: Possible Influence of Computer Databases on Citation Patterns in the Biological Literature.(Statistical Data Included)
July 1, 2001... SUBSAMPLING LITERATURE CITATIONS FOR 1968--BEFORE THE WIDESPREAD USE OF COMPUTERIZED DATABASES FOR LITERATURE SEARCHES--AND 1998, WE FOUND SIMILAR BIASES TOWARD CITING THE RECENT LITERATURE IN BOTH YEARS The number of papers published...

Endangered Species and the Decline of America's Western Legacy: What Do Changes in Funding Reflect?
July 1, 2001... Americans are passionate about the use and protection of public lands, wildlife, and the ecosystems they represent. Congressional action resulted in the establishment and expansion of national parks beginning in 1872, early land use edicts that...

Are Our Enemies' Enemies Our Friends?(problems with pesticide use)(Review)
July 1, 2001... Biological Control: Measures of Success. Geoff Gurr and Steve Wratten, eds. Kluwer Academic Publishers, Boston, 2000. 429 pp., $193.50 (ISBN 0-412-84280-7 hardcover). Serious health, environmental, and economic problems associated with the...

2001 AIBS Annual Meeting Held in March.(list of plenary speakers)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2001... AIBS held its 2001 AIBS annual meeting, "From Biodiversity to Biocomplexity, a Multidisciplinary Step toward Understanding Our Environment," in Arlington, Virginia, 24-26 March 2001. Meeting attendance was limited to 350 to encourage...

MSO Representatives Attend Council Meeting.(member societies and organizations send representatives to annual meeting of American Institute of Biological Sciences)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2001... Representatives from the 79 member societies and organizations (MSOs) in the AIBS federation, including many presidents and executive directors, were on hand for the annual AIBS council meeting on 27 March 2001. The council serves as an...

AIBS Posts Public Policy Reports on Web site.(American Institute of Biological Sciences)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2001... "News from the AIBS Public Policy Office," a report distributed by e-mail every two weeks to AIBS membership leaders and contacts, is now available online at www.aibs.org. The report contains legislative analyses, alerts, and action items of...

Congressional Visits Day Held in May.(Science, engineering, and technology representatives spend two days in Washington, D.C.)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2001... The sixth annual Science-Engineering-Technology Congressional Visits Day--an event coordinated by the Coalition for Technology Partnerships and the Science-Engineering-Technology Work Group--was held in Washington, DC, on 1-2 May 2001. The AIBS...