BioScience articles from October 2005

BioScience archives from October 2005

Science in the spotlight.(Editorial)
October 1, 2005... The fearful truth about the hurricane that wrecked the Gulf Coast in late August is that one of similar intensity will sometime wreak havoc on another shoreline in the hemisphere, and probably sooner than most people expect. Meteorologists are...

Organic and conventional agriculture reconsidered.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
October 1, 2005... In a recent paper by Pimentel and colleagues, "Environmental, Energetic, and Economic Comparisons of Organic and Conventional Farming Systems" (BioScience 55: 573-582), two claims made by the authors warrant closer examination. The authors...

Response from Pimentel and colleagues.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
October 1, 2005... Conventional and organic corn, soybean, and wheat showed no significant differences in yield. Average yields in all crops were at or above the county levels for conventional farmers in both the conventional and organic systems. Initially,...

Tamarisk tensions.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
October 1, 2005... In the August 2005 feature article, "Tiff over Tamarisk: Can a Nuisance Be Nice, Too?" the author raises several issues about which there is currently scientific debate, and presents some of the differing perspectives. A phenomenon surrounding...

More taxonomy, not DNA barcoding.(Viewpoint)
October 1, 2005... DNA barcoding is a term used to describe efforts to use the mitochondrial COI (cytochrome oxidase subunit I) gene as a molecular marker to allow easier and more efficient identification of specimens of known and unknown species. The Web sites...

Joint ventures: a different approach to conservation.
October 1, 2005... Robert Mesta sits in a dingy office in an old converted YMCA building a few blocks from the University of Arizona campus in Tucson, pondering the answer to a reporter's question. "We are facilitators," says Mesta, coordinator for the US Fish...

Simon A. Levin's passion for ecology.(Interview)
October 1, 2005... Simon A. Levin, professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Princeton University, was awarded the Kyoto Prize in 2005 for "the establishment of the field of spatial ecology and the proposition of the biosphere as a...

Learning the nature of science.(Eye on Education)
October 1, 2005... Media headlines question scientists' concerns about global warming. Magazines advertise weight loss products--results guaranteed. Web-based articles and best-selling books explain the evolution of species as "intelligent design" creationism....

Streamlining the federal water research portfolio.(Washington Watch)
October 1, 2005... In the United States, vicious battles over water were once viewed as the sole domain of the American Southwest. But today, conflicts over water are brewing all over the country. In 2002, the New York Times reported on water conflicts in 29...

How much is enough? The recurrent problem of setting measurable objectives in conservation.
October 1, 2005... International agreements, environmental laws, resource management agencies, and environmental nongovernmental organizations all establish objectives that define what they hope to accomplish. Unfortunately, quantitative objectives in...

Principles of the atmospheric pathway for invasive species applied to soybean rust.
October 1, 2005... Aerial transport alone is seldom responsible for the introduction of nonindigenous species into distant regions; however, the capacity to use the atmospheric pathway for rapid spread in large part determines the invasive potential of organisms...

Vulnerability of northern prairie wetlands to climate change.
October 1, 2005... The prairie pothole region (PPR) lies in the heart of North America and contains millions of glacially formed, depressional wetlands embedded in a landscape matrix of natural grassland and agriculture. These wetlands provide valuable ecosystem...

Ecology, values, and objectivity: advancing the debate.(Thinking about Biology)
October 1, 2005... We add to current discussions about the interface between ecology, values, and objectivity by reporting on a novel Delphi-based study of the scientific reasoning employed by a group of eight ecologists as they collectively considered current...

Employment in the life sciences: a mixed outlook.(Professional Biologist)
October 1, 2005... Have employment opportunities matched the tremendous growth in the production of biological scientists? Has job growth been consistent across the various biological and agricultural disciplines? And has compensation for these highly trained...

Assessing the environmental impacts of beach nourishment.(Forum)
October 1, 2005... With sea levels rising under global warming, dredge-and-fill programs are increasingly employed to protect coastal development from shoreline erosion. Such beach "nourishment" can bury shallow re@ and degrade other beach habitats, depressing...

The new "just so" stories.
October 1, 2005... Endless Forms Most Beautiful: The New Science of Evo Devo and the Making of the Animal Kingdom. Sean B. Carroll. W. W. Norton, New York, 2005. 350 pp., illus. 525.95 (ISBN 0393060160 cloth). This book is unique in that it is the first in...

Sustaining hope for fisheries in the 21st century.
October 1, 2005... Sustainable Management of North American Fisheries. E. Eric Knudsen, Donald D. MacDonald, and Yvonne K. Muirhead, eds. American Fisheries Society, Bethesda, MD, 2004. 281 pp. $69.00 (ISBN 1888569654 paper). Human use of the bounty of...

Growing the future.
October 1, 2005... Biomass and Agriculture: Sustainability, Markets, and Policies. Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). OECD, Paris, 2004. 565 pp. $86.00 (ISBN 9264105549 paper). Biomass, particularly in the form of plants and animal...

New titles.
October 1, 2005... Antipredator Defenses in Birds and Mammals. Tim Caro. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 2005. 592 pp., illus. $38.00 (ISBN 0226094367 paper). Benthic Habitats and the Effects of Fishing. Peter W. Barnes and James P. Thomas, eds....

AIBS launches Hurricane Katrina support network for biologists.(AIBS news)
October 1, 2005... In response to the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, several scientific societies are actively working to support researchers, institutions, and collections in the affected area. AIBS has established an online forum for biologists affected by...

Program set for AIBS evolution symposium and session on creationism/ intelligent design.(AIBS news)
October 1, 2005... AIBS is convening an all-day symposium on the theme of "Evolution and the Environment" at the 2005 annual meeting of the National Association of Biology Teachers (NABT) on 7 October in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The cosponsors of the symposium are...

AIBS and BSCS release evolution book and video.(AIBS news)
October 1, 2005... The Biological Sciences Curriculum Study is now taking orders for the BSCS/ AIBS video Evolution--Why Bother? and for the BSCS/AIBS book Evolutionary Science and Society: Educating a New Generation, which is based on the symposium of the same...

AIBS board elections under way; polls close 15 October.(AIBS news)
October 1, 2005... Ballots for the AIBS Board elections are in the mail; members can also vote online at www.aibs.org/vote. As a member-governed organization, AIBS can continue fulfilling its scientific mission to its members and the broader biological...

BioOne appoints Susan Skomal as executive director.(AIBS news)
October 1, 2005... BioOne, a nonprofit online aggregator of scholarly journals in the biosciences, has appointed Susan Skomal as executive director and chief operating officer, starting in mid-October 2005. Skomal has been a staff member of the American...

AIBS representatives participate in summit on diversity.(AIBS news)
October 1, 2005... At the end of August, the Minority Environmental Leadership Development Initiative at the University of Michigan's School of Natural Resources and Environment hosted a summit on diversity in the environmental field. This summit, entitled...

Recent articles online at www.actionbioscience.org.(AIBS news)
October 1, 2005... Original article in English * "Once in a Million Years: Helping Students Understand the Magnitude of Geologic Time," by Susan E. Lewis, Kristen A. Lampe, and Andrew I. Lloyd, Carroll College, Waukesha, Wisconsin Spanish translation of...

Recent public policy reports online at www.aibs.org.(AIBS news)
October 1, 2005... Public Policy Report for 12 September 2005 * NSF and Energy respond to Hurricane Katrina * AIBS launches Hurricane Katrina Support Network for Biologists * Democrats speak out against politicization of science * Creationists...

Calendar of meetings.(Calendar)
October 1, 2005... October 5-8 National Association of Biology Teachers, Milwaukee, WI; www.nabt.org/sub/convention/ 2005_convention.asp 16-19 Radiation Research Society, Denver, CO; www.radres.org/ ...

Potential habitat for bees.(What's the Buzz?)
October 1, 2005... Times are tough for bees and other pollinators. The US Department of Agriculture declared a pollination crisis a decade ago, but bee populations, which pollinate nearly a third of the food crops we eat, have continued to decline. The extent of...

Dance and olfactory bee-havior.(What's the Buzz?)
October 1, 2005... Forty years ago, Karl von Frisch described the dances honeybees use to communicate the location of food sources to fellow foragers. The round dance announces there is nectar in the immediate vicinity of the hive; the waggle dance directs...