Biology students guided by professional mentors network at a scientific meeting by writing news stories suitable for the public. Their web stories explain topics from coral reef diversity to the evolution of soccer kick skills.
SICB Annual Meeting Workshop by Randy Olson. Olson’s solution to science boredom? ‘Narrative Training,’ an age-old discipline known to storytellers as the ability to structure stories – in this case about science and scientists – with a full narrative arc, a beginning, middle, and end, and a human connection that listeners can relate to.
Most adults remember their first success in learning to swim using the ‘dog paddle’. This classic maneuver has been used to describe swimming in armadillos, turtles, even humans – just about everything except dogs. Dr. Frank Fish, a professor of biology at West Chester University, set out with his colleagues to understand how real dogs perform the dog paddle. Fish has spent most of his career studying the swimming of marine mammals such as whales. But looking at swimming in dogs afforded Fish the opportunity to investigate how swimming in marine mammals may have evolved from walking in their terrestrial ancestors.
Early studies of alligators led Dr. Guillette to realize that something in the environment was affecting their reproduction. Juvenile female alligators had malformed ovaries, while males had lower than average testosterone levels and a small penis. He and his colleagues discovered that the changes were caused by environmental contaminants, which were acting as endocrine disruptors.
As winter approaches, many of us hunker down and virtually “hibernate” for the season. Classic hibernation in the wild conjures images of furry bears, but other animals are not so lucky to have immense fat stores or fur to protect them from the elements. Frogs that live at northern latitudes have neither of these, but must find ways to survive the harsh winter season. Their solution? Freezing…but not to death.
High temperatures can cause proteins within the embryo to become denatured—an unraveling that results in loss of function, an ineffective or denatured protein. Moreover, denatured proteins can form aggregates that are toxic. Understanding this process has important implications for human health, because such protein aggregates are a hallmark of neurodegenerative diseases, such as Parkinson’s and Huntington’s.
Love may be a battlefield, but most wouldn't expect the fighters to be a parasitic virus and its cricket host. Just like a common cold changes our behavior, sick crickets typically lose interest in everyday activities. But when Dr. Shelley Adamo of Dalhousie University found her cricket colony decimated by a pathogen, she was shocked that the dying insects didn't act sick. Not only had the infected crickets lost their usual starvation response, but they also continued to mate. A lot. How were the pathogen and the exuberant amorous behavior in the sick crickets connected?
Your mother probably warned against playing with your food, but she may have neglected to mention playing with your drinks. Dr. Lisa Burton, a scientist from MIT, thankfully missed that lesson. Inspired by a love of experimental cuisine, Burton and her colleagues developed several bio-inspired edible cocktail novelties as part of her graduate research. These devices take advantage of fluid-surface interactions first observed in nature to provide a fun science twist to fancy beverages.
What new insights might be gleaned when engineers and mathematicians work with biologists to answer fundamental questions? A special symposium at the 2014 Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology annual conference brings together biologists, mathematicians and engineers, who will investigate the potential and power of a new, quantitative organismal systems biology to address these questions.
New research shows that mating pairs of the bird species known as great tits become more similar in their hormones over time. The results of this study will be presented at the annual conference of the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology in West Palm Beach, Florida on January 7, 2015.
Hands-on, innovative educational material is being developed to help blind students learn about evolution. The development of toolboxes for the blind will be presented at the annual conference of the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology in West Palm Beach, Florida on January 6, 2015.
New research shows rapid evolution has helped to make the venom of black widow spiders so toxic. The results of this study will be presented at the annual conference of the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology in West Palm Beach, Florida on January 6, 2015.
New research shows that the circadian clock of arctic ground squirrels works differently during the cold of hibernation. The results of this study will be presented at the annual conference of the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology in West Palm Beach, Florida on January 5, 2015.
New research shows that being monogamous is an advantage for mantis shrimp, helping them to avoid predators. The results of this study will be presented at the annual conference of the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology in West Palm Beach, Florida on January 4, 2015.
New research shows that flashes of light from an unusual clam help it to fend off predators and perhaps to attract prey. The results of this study will be presented at the annual conference of the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology in West Palm Beach, Florida on January 4, 2015.
New research on bioluminescent ostracods shows how tiny crustaceans are helping scientists to understand evolution by sexual selection. The results of this study will be presented at the annual conference of the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology in West Palm Beach, Florida on January 5, 2015.
New research shows rapid evolution has helped to make the venom of black widow spiders so toxic. The results of this study will be presented at the annual conference of the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology in West Palm Beach, Florida on January 4, 2015.
New research zeroes in on how the hooded sea slug safely loses limbs.
New research on snakes shows that eating increases the amount of damaging reactive molecules in the body, potentially shaping and constraining life history evolution across animal groups.
New research finds that escape behaviors cause the normally transparent Pederson’s cleaner shrimp to turn opaque, disrupting their camouflage.
Some corals may cope with climate change by changing markings on their DNA to modify what the DNA produces.
Simple consumer-grade equipment was used to study the combat flight behaviors of carpenter bees right at the researcher’s home.
Parasitoid wasps manipulate their caterpillar hosts into eating a more wasp-friendly diet.
7th graders conducted classroom experiments using live Trinidadian guppies to test questions related to evolution, increasing both knowledge about and acceptance of evolutionary concepts.
Variation in egg-coat and sperm expressed genes influences fertility in diverse organisms, from sea stars to mice to humans.
When Australian geologist Griffith Taylor explored Antarctica in 1911, he came across a glacier with a feature resembling a bleeding wound in the ice. The oddity came to be known as “Blood Falls.”
Ph.D. student Matt Kolmann studies freshwater and marine rays to understand how jaw morphology relates to diet
New research shows that orchids relying on mosquitoes for pollination attract them by producing the same odors found in common mosquito blood-hosts. The results of this study will be presented at the annual conference of the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology in New Orleans, LA on January 7, 2017.
Do bats adjust their echolocation calls in response to other bat calls
The individual and the group: insignificant alone, awesome together. Like ants in a colony or neurons of a brain, the collective action of single actors can beautifully coalesce into something more complex than the parts.
More than 200 species of “true toads” have fully functional inner ears, but cannot fully use them because they have lost their tympanic middle ears, the part of the ear which transmits sound air pressures from the outside world to the inner ear. These “earless” toads rely on sounds to communicate, so why would they lose a sense that is key to their survival and reproduction?
Yet, how this key innovation evolved remains a mystery locked within the leathery shell of a lizard egg. Now, Dr. Thomas Sanger at Loyola University in Chicago has developed new techniques to understand more about the process of evolutionary diversification by observing development in real time.
One potential is to create some sort of biomimetic earwax adhesive surface that can be used in a ventilation system for robotics or for other kinds of machinery.
One potential is to create some sort of biomimetic earwax adhesive surface that can be used in a ventilation system for robotics or for other kinds of machinery.
linked changes in social behavior with sublethal exposure to the neonicotinoid pesticide, imidacloprid.
To create prototype suction cups that are capable of glomming onto rough, wet surfaces and staying there, Ditsche has found inspiration in an aptly-named marine creature: the clingfish.
One potential is to create some sort of biomimetic earwax adhesive surface that can be used in a ventilation system for robotics or for other kinds of machinery.
New research on the isotopic composition of barnacle shells shows that prehistoric whales were undertaking migrations, just like their modern-day descendants.
New research shows that the electrosensory organs of cartilaginous fish contain chitin, an invertebrate biopolymer. The results of this study will be presented at the annual conference of the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology in San Francisco, CA on January X, 2018
New research shows that bonnethead sharks are able to digest seagrass, challenging the notion that all sharks survive on a purely carnivorous diet. This work will be presented at the annual conference of the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology in San Francisco, CA, on January 7th, 2018.
New research applies machine learning to classify the behavior of juvenile salmon based on tracking data. Scientists are using these approaches to identify when and where salmon are being eaten by invasive fishes. The results of this study will be presented at the annual conference of the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology in San Francisco, CA on January 7, 2018.
New research characterizes jumping behavior in larval midge flies. Even though these larvae are typically restrained during development, they can use a unique physiological mechanism to jump long distances. These results will be presented at the annual conference of the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology in San Francisco, CA.
Scans of fossilized dinosaur prints show how some dinosaur feet moved not just on top of but through the earth. The results of this study will be presented at the annual conference of the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology in San Francisco, CA on January 4, 2018
Scientists and artists will gather in San Francisco to discuss ways of engaging broad audiences with science using narrative, through a special symposium, a workshop, and a story booth at the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology Annual Meeting in San Francisco, CA, on January 5, 2018.
New research shows that inflammation was modified by uterine decidual cells to facilitate implantation in placental mammals. The results of this study will be presented at the annual conference of the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology in San Francisco, CA on January 5, 2018.
New models identify factors that put coral reefs at risk of extinction in the face of climate change, and suggest that facilitating migration of corals could allow reefs to adapt. The results of this research will be presented at the annual conference of the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology in San Francisco, CA on January 7, 2018.
People, animals, and even vehicles face the problem of tradeoffs – being good at one thing often means being bad at others. Circumventing tradeoffs can be a key to success. Some swimming turtles have solved this problem and are both highly stable and maneuverable in water – tasks usually at odds.
Climate change, pollution, and a multitude of threats are putting our freshwater supplies at risk. Water collection and purification technologies are becoming increasingly important, especially in major urban areas. In places such as the San Francisco Bay area, access to freshwater is limited. There, fog collection technologies have piqued the interest of many engineers looking to mediate the shortage of freshwater.
Just two years ago, the U.S. Embassy in Havana was bustling with U.S. personnel sent by the Obama Administration to restore diplomatic relations with Cuba. Today it is nearly empty. In late 2016, diplomats started hearing a loud, piercing noise. Two dozen of them reported symptoms such as ear pain and dizziness, and were diagnosed with injuries consistent with a concussion. Suspicions of politically motivated “sonic attacks” soon followed.
Light pollution is on everyone’s minds in Reno, Nevada, a city famous for its bright lights and nightlife. Nighttime light pollution is a growing concern for cities worldwide. Artificial light at night has been found to cause serious health effects including disrupting our sleep-wake cycle ¬–our circadian rhythm.
RSS
Medicine keyboard_arrow_right
Sciencekeyboard_arrow_right
Life keyboard_arrow_right
Business keyboard_arrow_right
Journal News keyboard_arrow_right
By Location keyboard_arrow_right
Meetings, Grants, and Events keyboard_arrow_right