BioScience articles from October 2006

BioScience archives from October 2006

Conflict and harmony.(Editorial)(Editorial)
October 1, 2006... Two articles in this issue of BioScience have the word "conflict" in their titles. The parallels--and the differences--are instructive. In the article that begins on p. 801, Tamas Szekely and colleagues write about studies conducted over...

Buddhism's metaphysical basis for interdependence.(Letters)(Letter to the editor)
October 1, 2006... In their recent letter to the editor (BioScience 56: 373), John Silvius and Lynn Holtzman raise two interesting points in connection with my article "Ethics for Wildlife Conservation: Overcoming the Human-Nature Dualism" (BioScience 56:...

The marginalization of methods.(Viewpoint)
October 1, 2006... Being a scientist is not simply knowing facts; it is not being a Google on legs. Being a scientist implies an approach to knowledge, one in which supporting evidence and data are essential. Data are no good unless the methods of obtaining those...

Biodiversity: the interplay of science, valuation, and policy: report from the AIBS 2006 annual meeting.(Special Report)(American Institute of Biological Sciences)(Conference notes)
October 1, 2006... In recent years, policymakers have recognized the economic values associated with biodiversity; economists have found ways to incorporate values associated with biodiversity into economic thinking; and scientists have documented the variety of...

Cultivating plant scientists.(Eye on Education)(Botanical Society of America)
October 1, 2006... At the 2003 annual meeting of the Botanical Society of America (BSA), keynote speaker Bruce Alberts offered members an educational challenge: Bridge the connections between scientists and science classrooms, and develop inquiry-based programs...

Global warming: Congress still stalled, states and cities act.(Washington Watch)
October 1, 2006... Back in 1992, Representative Henry A. Waxman (D-CA) introduced legislation aimed at dealing with global climate change by controlling emissions of greenhouse gases. Fourteen years later, the California Democrat and other environmentally...

Sexual conflict, ecology, and breeding systems in shorebirds.
October 1, 2006... Evolutionary biologists strive to understand the immense variation in animals' breeding systems. Shorebirds represent an ideal model system for this endeavor, because they exhibit diverse breeding systems that include monogamy, with the parents...

Disturbance and aquatic biodiversity: reconciling contrasting views.
October 1, 2006... Opinions about how disturbance affects stream biodiversity differ. Models that assume that communities are shaped by biotic interactions emphasize the positive effects of stream disturbance (such as possible colonization by species that would...

Are vultures birds, and do snakes have venom, because of macro- and microscavenger conflict?(Forum)
October 1, 2006... I outline models that describe vertebrate and microbial competition for carrion resources and help explain the resultant morphologies observed in extant vertebrate scavengers. Odors from microbial decomposition signal the presence of a carcass...

Development in the Sea of Cortes calls for mitigation.(Forum)
October 1, 2006... Islands in the seas of northwestern Mexico have the largest number of insular endemic species in North America. The islands have the greatest number of extinct mammalian taxa in Mexico, and many of the remaining taxa are rare, threatened, or...

Redesigning science: recent scholarship on cultural change, gender, and diversity.(Fall Focus on Books)
October 1, 2006... The current debate over girls and women in science and engineering abounds in contradictions. On the one hand, the debate includes ideas like those proposed last year by Lawrence Summers, former president of Harvard University, that women may...

Redesigning agriculture.(Fall Focus on Books)
October 1, 2006... Modern industrial agriculture is incredibly good at the mass production of low-priced commodities. Such single-minded efficiency has given developed countries consistently full supermarket shelves and allowed the world's population to grow from...

An extraordinary experiment in human development.(1491: New Revelations of the Americas before Columbus)(Book review)
October 1, 2006... 1491: New Revelations of the Americas before Columbus. Charles C. Mann. Knopf, New York, 2005. 478 pp., illus. $30.00 (ISBN 140004006X cloth). In studying the complex ways that human societies on Earth have interacted with their...

Living with large carnivores.(Coexisting with Large Carnivores: Lessons from Greater Yellowstone)(Book review)
October 1, 2006... Coexisting with Large Carnivores: Lessons from Greater Yellowstone. Tim W. Clark, Murray B. Rutherford, and Denise Casey, eds. Island Press, Washington, DC, 2005. 290 pp., illus. $27.95 (ISBN 1597260053 paper). Unlike a large number of...

Why are animals so honest?(The Evolution of Animal Communication: Reliability and Deception in Signaling Systems)(Book review)
October 1, 2006... The Evolution of Animal Communication: Reliability and Deception in Signaling Systems. William A. Searcy and Stephen Nowicki. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ, 2005. 270 pp., illus. $39.50 (ISBN 0691070954 paper). A campus...

The emergence of shape.(Mechanisms of Morphogenesis: The Creation of Biological Form)(Book review)
October 1, 2006... Mechanisms of Morphogenesis: The Creation of Biological Form. Jamie A. Davies. Elsevier Academic Press, Burlington, MA, 2005. 374 pp., illus. $99.95 (ISBN 012204651X paper). Jamie A. Davies is a reader in developmental cell biology at the...

Think ecologically, act ethically.(Rene Dubos, Friend of the Good Earth: Microbiologist, Medical Scientist, Environmentalist)(Book review)
October 1, 2006... Rene Dubos, Friend of the Good Earth: Microbiologist, Medical Scientist, Environmentalist. Carol L. Moberg. ASM Press, Washington, DC. 2005. 260 pp. $29.95 (ISBN 1555813402 cloth). Carol Moberg's authoritative and compassionate biography of...

Short-term freshwater environments.(Vernal Pools: Natural History and Conservation)(Book review)
October 1, 2006... Vernal Pools: Natural History and Conservation. Elizabeth A. Colburn. McDonald and Woodward, Blacksburg, VA, 2004. 426 pp., illus. $29.95 (ISBN 0939923912 paper). The goal of writing Vernal Pools: Natural History and Conservation was, in...

New titles.(Fall Focus on Books)
October 1, 2006... All Creatures: Naturalists, Collectors, and Biodiversity, 1850-1950. Robert E. Kohler. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ, 2006. 380 pp., illus. $35.00 (ISBN 0691125392 cloth). Amniote Paleobiology: Perspectives on the Evolution of...

Date, theme set for 2007 AIBS annual meeting.(AIBS news)
October 1, 2006... The 2007 AIBS annual meeting, "Evolutionary Biology and Human Health," will be held 14-15 May at the Capital Hilton Hotel in Washington, DC. The program chair is 2007 AIBS President Douglas Futuyma, professor of ecology and evolution at the...

AIBS, BSCS, and NESCent cosponsor evolution symposium.(AIBS news)
October 1, 2006... The American Institute of Biological Science is cosponsoring, along with the Biological Sciences Curriculum Study (BSCS) and the National Evolutionary Synthesis Center (NESCent), the third annual evolution science and education symposium,...

AIBS 2006 Board elections under way; polls close 27 October.(AIBS news)(American Institute of Biological Sciences)
October 1, 2006... Ballots for the AIBS Board elections have been mailed; members can also vote online at www.aibs.org/vote. At the end of 2006, the following positions become vacant on the 13-person AIBS Board of Directors for individual members to vote on:...

Public Policy Office welcomes science policy intern.(AIBS News)(Brief article)
October 1, 2006... For the second consecutive year, the American Society for Mammalogy (ASM), an AIBS member society, is sponsoring a graduate student's internship in the AIBS Public Policy Office in Washington, DC. The 2006 ASM/AIBS intern is Natalie Dawson, a...

Recent highlights from NEON.(AIBS News)(National Ecological Observatory Network)(Conference notes)
October 1, 2006... Ten NEON representatives were among 63 participants at a Modeling and Environmental Observatories Workshop held 16-17 May 2006 in Tuscon, Arizona. The event focused on cross-cutting modeling issues relevant to the environmental observatory...

A new staffer for the NEON project office.(AIBS News)(appointment of Cheryl Solomon)(National Ecological Observatory Network )
October 1, 2006... NEON welcomes Cheryl Solomon as a science associate with the project office in Washington, DC. Her initial task will be to assist in defining the linkages between NEON science questions and remote sensing, GIS, and bioinformatics applications....

Calendar of meetings.(Calendar)
October 1, 2006... October 3-7 Cooper Ornithological Society, Veracruz, Mexico; www. naoc2006.org 10-14 American Society of Plant Biologists, Snowbird, UT; www.aspb.org/meetings/ ...

Molecular adaptations in bacteria.(BioBriefs)
October 1, 2006... STRUCTURE OF PILI Bacteria may seem like simple organisms on a cellular level, yet they have evolved elegant molecular machinery that can perform multiple functions. On the surface of gram-negative bacteria (so called because they do not...