BioScience articles from November 2005

BioScience archives from November 2005

How can we help students really understand evolution?(Editorial)
November 1, 2005... Public understanding of science in the United States leaves much to be desired. Scientists frequently put the blame for this shortcoming on literal readings of religious texts, dubious political motivations, or the mistaken assumption that...

Ineffective bibliographic search engines?(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
November 1, 2005... Ivan Valiela and Paulina Martinetto correctly point out the increasing volume of academic literature published yearly and the challenges involved in keeping up to date (BioScience 55: 688-692). It is, however, disturbing to learn only an...

What every undergraduate should know about evolution (and why).(Viewpoint)
November 1, 2005... In 1860, the year after publication of Darwin's The Origin of Species, the wife of the Bishop of Worcester reportedly said, "My dear, descended from the apes! Let us hope it is not true, but if it is, let us pray it will not become generally...

What makes life tick: taking apart the living clock.
November 1, 2005... In the fourth century BC, the Greek Androsthenes recorded the first written observation of a circadian rhythm--the daffy opening and nightly closing of the leaves of a tamarind tree. To Androsthenes, it must have seemed that the leaves moved in...

Does the president's science adviser have an audience?(Washington Watch)
November 1, 2005... Much ink has been spilled about how the current Bush administration has used--or, in the opinion of some, abused--science. Critics point to a handful of well-trod examples: Bush's public embrace of the intelligent design movement's "teach the...

The evolution and development of novel traits, or how beetles got their horns.(Cover Story)
November 1, 2005... How do major novel traits originate and diversify in natural populations? This question addresses one of the most fundamental, yet unresolved, issues in evolutionary biology. Over the past decade, a peculiar group of organisms, horned beetles,...

Collectively seeing complex systems: the nature of the problem.(Special Roundtable Section)
November 1, 2005... The modern world is characterized by an unprecedented fragmentation and specialization of knowledge, including scientific knowledge. Yet to solve the problems--especially environmental problems--created in part by the successful application of...

Collectively seeing climate change: the limits of formal models.(Special Roundtable Section)
November 1, 2005... Understanding the risks posed by anthropogenic climate change and the possible societal responses to those risks has generated a prototypical example of the challenge of "collectively seeing complex systems." After briefly examining the ways in...

Practicing interdisciplinarity.(Special Roundtable Section)
November 1, 2005... We explore the practical difficulties of interdisciplinary research in the context of a regional- or local-scale project. We posit four barriers to interdisciplinarity that are common across many disciplines and draw on our own experience and...

Deliberative methods for understanding environmental systems.(Special Roundtable Section)
November 1, 2005... Environmental problem solving needs science but also inevitably requires subjective judgment. Science can help in dealing with subjectivity, because scientists have long experience developing institutions and practices to address the subjective...

METALAND: characterizing spatial patterns and statistical context of landscape metrics.(Biologist's Toolbox)
November 1, 2005... In ecosystem science, understanding the link between spatial heterogeneity and ecological processes is an active area of current research that requires repeatable, quantifiable methods of comparison. Our research has suggested that interpreting...

Policy-driven versus evidence-based conservation: a review of political targets and biological needs.(Forum)
November 1, 2005... "How much is enough?" is a question that conservationists, scientists, and policymakers have struggled with for years in conservation planning. To answer this question, and to ensure the long-term protection of biodiversity, many have sought to...

The effect of engaging prior learning on student attitudes toward creationism and evolution.(Education)
November 1, 2005... American adults and K-12 students frequently report nonrationalist views about creationism and evolution. Efforts to force educators to include material on "intelligent design" theory are causing widespread concern in the science education...

Could do better.
November 1, 2005... America's Environmental Report Card: Are We Making the Grade? Harvey Blatt. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 2005. 277 pp. $27.95 (ISBN 0262025728 cloth). In the last few years there have been many notable books reporting on the state of the US...

From species to altered landscapes.
November 1, 2005... How the Earthquake Bird Got Its Name and Other Tales of an Unbalanced Nature. H. H. Shugart. Yale University Press, New Haven, CT, 2004. 240 pp., illus. $27.50 (ISBN 030010457X cloth). If a book can't be judged by its cover, neither should...

Keeping it in the family.
November 1, 2005... Evolution of Communication Systems: A Comparative Approach. D. Kimbrough Oiler and Ulrike Griebel, eds. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 2004. 338 pp., illus. $45.00 (ISBN 0262151111 cloth). Evolution of Communication Systems: A Comparative...

Why care about bacterial species?
November 1, 2005... Microbial Diversity: Form and Function in Prokaryotes. Oladele Ogunseitan. Blackwell Publishing, Malden, MA, 2005. 292 pp., illus. $84.95 (ISBN 0632047089 paper). In the introduction to Microbial Diversity, Oladele Ogunseitan states that...

New titles.(Books)
November 1, 2005... The Art of Being a Parasite. Claude Combes, trans. Daniel Simberloff. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 2005. 292 pp., illus. $25.00 (ISBN 0226114384 paper). Bears: A Year in the Life. Matthias Breiter. Firefly Books, Westport, CT,...

AIBS and NSC Alliance sign strategic agreement.(AIBS news)
November 1, 2005... The American Institute of Biological Sciences (AIBS) and the Natural Science Collections (NSC) Alliance, each a major umbrella group for biological science organizations, have signed a strategic partnering agreement that will advance the public...

NEON progress report.(AIBS news)
November 1, 2005... Planning for the National Ecological Observatory Network is beginning to yield new specifics about NEON science and the deployment of sensors and cyberinfrastructure. NEON's ultimate goal is to forecast the future state of key ecological...

AIBS and NESCent at the 2005 SACNAS conference.(AIBS news)
November 1, 2005... The Society for Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in Science (www.sacnas.org) held its annual conference in Denver, Colorado, 29 September through 2 October 2005. The goal of SACNAS is to improve and expand opportunities for Latin...

Long Term Ecological Research Network holds Hill briefing.(AIBS news)
November 1, 2005... Scientists from the Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) Network, which marks its 25th anniversary this year, briefed Capitol Hill staffers, government officials, and members of the press on 13 September at the Rayburn House Office Building....

Scientists head to Capitol Hill in support of the National Science Foundation.(AIBS news)
November 1, 2005... On 14 September, scores of scientists met with members of Congress and their staffers on the first Congressional Visits Day sponsored by the Coalition for National Science Funding, of which AIBS is a member. Scientists worked in...

Recent articles online at www.actionbioscience.org.(AIBS news)
November 1, 2005... Original article in English * "More Misconceptions to Avoid When Teaching about Plants," by David R. Hershey (University of California-Davis), a biology education consultant and author who also answers botany questions for madsci.org, an...

Recent education reports online at www.aibs.org.(AIBS news)
November 1, 2005... * Evolution symposium and session on defending the teaching of evolution at NABT 2005 * Call for proposals: National Evolutionary Synthesis Center * Announcing the new "Understanding Evolution" Web site * Professional societies and...

Recent public policy reports at www.aibs.org.(AIBS news)
November 1, 2005... Public Policy Report for 11 October 2005 * Congress approves first continuing resolution to fund federal government * Agriculture and Defense appropriations update * AIBS and BSCS release evolution book and video * Senate...

Calendar of meetings.(Calendar)
November 1, 2005... November 1-4 American Society for Gravitational and Space Biology, Reno, NV; www.asgsb.org/ annual_meeting.html 6-9 Entomological Society of America, Fort Lauderdale, FL; www.entsoc.org/annual_ meeting/current_meeting/index. htm ...

A hitchhiker's guide to ...(BioBriefs)
November 1, 2005... HUMAN MIGRATION Last month two Australians, pathologist Robin Warren and physician Barry Marshall, won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for discovering the infectious agent responsible for ulcers, Helicobacter pylori. Typically...