BioScience articles from October 2007

BioScience archives from October 2007

Road to nowhere?(Editorial)
October 1, 2007... Years ago, many of us slogged through exercises involving null hypotheses, postulates that some suspected effect does not exist. We showed that data were unlikely to have arisen if a null hypothesis were true, so we decided that the null...

Captive-bred tigers and the fate of wild tigers.(Letters)(Letter to the editor)
October 1, 2007... Dinerstein and colleagues (2007) urged in BioScience that action be taken to ensure the protection of wild tigers (Panthera tigris). We agree that this is necessary, but unlike Dinerstein and colleagues, we believe that captive breeding is part...

Response from Dinerstein and colleagues.(Letters)(Letter to the editor)
October 1, 2007... Jiang and colleagues continue to propose misinformed and fallacious solutions to the crisis facing wild tigers. They state that captive breeding is essential to conserve wild tigers, yet China lacks space to release captive tigers into the...

Why the NSF biology budget should be doubled.(Viewpoint)
October 1, 2007... A Pollonius of Perga was a Greek mathematician who worked at the museum of Alexandria shortly after its founding around 280 BCE. The museum was the world's first center of pure learning and research, a place where mathematicians and...

Evolutionary biology and human health: the 2007 AIBS annual meeting focused on the importance of evolutionary biology in many aspects of health science, such as understanding the human genome, the normal functions and malfunctions of human genes, and the origin and evolution of infectious diseases.(Special Report)
October 1, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Biologists and physicians drew attention to the links between evolutionary biology and human health at this year's annual American Institute of Biological Sciences (MBS) conference in Washington, DC. More than 250...

Teach for America, hope for the future.(Eye on Education)
October 1, 2007... Joslyn Woodard is doing something she never thought she would--teaching environmental science and biology to high school students in Chicago's south side. As an undergraduate student in molecular biology and neuroscience at Yale, Woodard was...

Government looks into health of federal science collections.(Washington Watch)
October 1, 2007... Researchers at university-based natural science collections have long known that their institutions face daunting budgetary and infrastructure challenges. It is becoming equally apparent that federal collections face comparable challenges. ...

Long-term trends in population, farm income, and crop production in the Great Plains.
October 1, 2007... Despite concern about the social, economic, and ecological viability of the agricultural Great Plains, a century-long examination reveals that threats to society, economy, and environment are counterbalanced by surprising stability and the...

Evolutionary perspectives on seed consumption and dispersal by fishes.
October 1, 2007... Fishes probably were the first vertebrate seed dispersers, yet little research has examined this phenomenon. We review evidence of fruit and seed consumption by fishes, and analyze the evolution of frugivory and granivory using South American...

A framework for understanding conservation development and its ecological implications.
October 1, 2007... Suburban, exurban, and rural development is a leading cause of biodiversity loss and natural resource degradation in the United States. In response to this threat, conservation development has been advanced as a way to combine land development...

Applying ecological risk assessment to environmental accidents: harlequin ducks and the Exxon Valdez oil spill.(Forum)
October 1, 2007... Ecological risk assessment is a systematic way to evaluate the likelihood that an environmental accident has caused significant ecological consequences. I apply this framework retrospectively to evaluate a scenario linking the Exxon Valdez oil...

Dualism, science, and statistics.(Forum)
October 1, 2007... The hypothetico-deductive method, as currently taught, confuses students and distorts their understanding of science. Part of the confusion arises because the dualistic approach of the hypothetico-deductive method conflicts with the inherent...

Plants, biodiversity, and climate change.(Fall Focus on Books)
October 1, 2007... Plants: We depend on them for food, and we surround ourselves with their beauty, but as a society, we generally don't want to be bothered with how photosynthesis works, with how chemical compounds produced by plants serve as important vitamins...

Humanized landscapes.(Time and Complexity in Historical Ecology: Studies in the Neotropical Lowlands)(Book review)
October 1, 2007... Time and Complexity in Historical Ecology: Studies in the Neotropical Lowlands. William Balce and Clark L. Erickson, eds. Columbia University Press, New York, 2006. 432 pp., illus. $80.00 (ISBN 9780231135627 cloth). Time and Complexity in...

Human agency gone awry.(People and Nature: An Introduction to Human Ecological Relations)(Book review)
October 1, 2007... People and Nature: An Introduction to Human Ecological Relations. Emilio F. Moran. Blackwell, Malden, MA, 2006. 232 pp., illus. $30.95 (ISBN 9781405105729 paper). We certainly live in ecologically interesting times. In 2005, the Millennium...

A missed opportunity to influence fire policy.(Wildfire: A Century of Failed Forest Policy)(Book review)
October 1, 2007... Wildfire: A Century of Failed Forest Policy. George Wuerthner. Island Press, Washington, DC, 2006. 350 pp., illus. $75.00 (ISBN 978159726069X cloth). [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The ecology and politics of fire are big topics, and Wildfire:...

We know it when we see it.(The Altruism Equation: Seven Scientists Search for the Origins of Goodness)(Book review)
October 1, 2007... The Altruism Equation: Seven Scientists Search for the Origins of Goodness. Lee Alan Dugatkin. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ, 2006. 188 pp. $24.95 (ISBN 9780691125909 cloth). In my undergraduate course on animal behavior, the...

Feeling the heat.(Birds and Climate Change)(Book review)
October 1, 2007... Birds and Climate Change. Anders P. Moller, Wolfgang Fiedler, and Peter Berthold, eds. Elsevier, Burlington, MA, 2006. 276 pp., illus. $49.95 (ISBN 9780123736147 paper). With the launch this year of the latest reports by the...

The broad view of landscapes.(Ecosystem Function in Heterogeneous Landscapes)(Book review)
October 1, 2007... Ecosystem Function in Heterogeneous Landscapes. Gary M. Lovett, Clive G. Jones, Monica G. Turner, and Kathleen C. Weathers, eds. Springer, New York, 2005. 489 pp., illus. $59.95 (ISBN 9780387240909 paper). Ecosystem Function in...

Paying gould tribute.(Macroevolution: Diversity, Disparity, Contingency: Essays in Honor of Stephen Jay Gould)(Book review)
October 1, 2007... Macroevolution: Diversity, Disparity, Contingency: Essays in Honor of Stephen Jay Gould. Elisabeth S. Vrba and Niles Eldredge, eds. Paleontological Society, Lawrence, KS, 2005. 210 pp., illus. $25.00 (ISBN 9781891276491 paper). Stephen J....

Wicked problems.(Sustainability: A Philosophy of Adaptive Ecosystem Management)(Book review)
October 1, 2007... Sustainability: A Philosophy of Adaptive Ecosystem Management. Bryan G. Norton. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 2005. 608 pp., illus. $37.50 (ISBN 9780226595214 paper). Sustainability: A Philosophy of Adaptive Ecosystem Management is...

New titles.
October 1, 2007... Acid Rain--Deposition to Recovery. Peter Brimblecombe, Hiroshi Hara, Daniel Houle, and Martin Novak, eds. Springer, New York, 2007. 430 pp., illus. $169.00 (ISBN 9781402058844 cloth). Ancestral Sequence Reconstruction. David A. Liberles,...

2008 AIBS annual meeting to examine climate, environment, and infectious diseases; Rita Colwell to chair.(AIBS news)(American Institute of Biological Sciences)(Brief article)
October 1, 2007... Plan now to attend the 2008 AIBS annual meeting, to be held 12-13 May in Washington, DC. Chaired by 2008 AIBS President Rita R. Colwell, the meeting will feature invited speakers and discussion leaders examining linkages among climate,...

Coalition on the Public Understanding of Science nears 100 organizations, hubs forming.(AIBS news)
October 1, 2007... The Coalition on the Public Understanding of Science (COPUS) project--www.copusproject.org---continues to grow and build toward Year of Science 2009. Nearly 100 organizations are now part of the network; among the most recent members are the...

AIBS submits comments on STEM education plan.(AIBS news)(American Institute of Biological Sciences on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics program)(Brief article)
October 1, 2007... On 24 August, AIBS submitted comments to the National Science Board (NSB) in response to the board's draft action plan for improving science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education. The 20-plus-page document, "A National...

William F. McComas wins the 2007 NABT Evolution Education Award.(AIBS news)(National Association of Biology Teachers)(Brief article)
October 1, 2007... The National Association of Biology Teachers (NABT) announced that William E McComas, Parks Family Professor of Science Education in the College of Education and Health Professions at the University of Arkansas, is this year's winner of the...

DIBS holds fall meeting.(AIBS news)(Diversity in Biological Sciences)(Brief article)
October 1, 2007... On 6 September, the Diversity in Biological Sciences (DIBS) coalition held its fall meeting at the offices of the Science and Engineering Alliance, Inc., in Washington, DC. The meeting opened with a presentation by Robert Shepard, executive...

NEON welcomes senior staff.(AIBS news)(National Ecological Observatory Network's Michael Keller and Marshall Peterson)
October 1, 2007... NEON is pleased to announce that Michael Keller and Marshall Peterson have joined the headquarters staff in Washington, DC. Chief of Science. Michael Keller, project scientist for the NASA component of the Large-scale Biosphere-Atmosphere...

David Kirschtel joins CUAHSI.(AIBS news)(Consortium of Universities for the Advancement of Hydrologic Science, Inc.)
October 1, 2007... NEON congratulates David Kirschtel on his new position as senior program manager for the Consortium of Universities for the Advancement of Hydrologic Science, Inc. (CUAHSI). CUAHSI is a National Science Foundation-funded alliance of research...

Recent articles online at www.actionbioscience.org.(AIBS news)
October 1, 2007... Original article in English * "Polar Bears and Climate Change," by Andrew E. Derocher, professor of biological sciences at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada Spanish translations of previously posted articles *...

AIBS public policy reports online at www.aibs.org.(AIBS news)(American Institute of Biological Sciences )
October 1, 2007... Public Policy Report for 4 September 2007 * Feds request comments on climate change plan * AIBS comments on NSB STEM education plan * Intelligent design/creationism goes Hollywood * William McComas wins NABT evolution education...

Calendar of meetings.(Brief article)(Calendar)
October 1, 2007... October 4-6 Association of College and University Biology Educators, Dubuque, IA; http://papa.indstate.edu/amcbt 11-13 Association for Politics and the Life Sciences, Cincinnati, OH; www.aplsnet.org 22-23 Welch Conference on...

Biosphere 2, Version 3.0.(BioBriefs)
October 1, 2007... Remember Biosphere 2? That controversial experiment in space living and would-be research center in the Sonoran Desert near Oracle, Arizona? That place so many people thought was defunct? Well, Biosphere 2 is back. The University of...