Category Archives: Biology

Alabama has one of the richest river systems in North America and is ranked among the nation's top five states for biodiversity. Land Trust of North Alabama According to The Nature Conservancy, the Tennessee Valley River Basin is the single most biologically diverse river system for aquatic organisms in the U.S. So its no surprise that Dr. Bruce Stallsmith, an associate professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH), spends a lot of time there. My research is on the ecology and conservation of the regions freshwater fishes, with a particular emphasis on cyprinid minnows, killifishes of the genus Fundulus, and percid darters, says Dr. Stallsmith, whose Stallsmith Lab is renowned for its aquatic ecology research. And while the primary focus has been on their reproductive biology, I am also interested in the monogenoidean gill parasites that can impact their ability to reproduce. His most recent foray to the basin was at the behest of Hallie Porter, development director of the Land Trust of North Alabama. She asked if I would be interested in assessing Bethel Spring for rare species of freshwater fish, and of course I jumped at the chance, says Dr. … Continue reading →

Flash Physics is our daily pick of the latest need-to-know developments from the global physics community selected by Physics World's team of editors and reporters The quantum properties of molecular ions have been controlled by physicists in the US and Germany. Led by Chin-wen Chou of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in the US, the researchers determined a molecular-ion's quantum state by transferring the information to an atomic ion. A calcium ion and calcium-hydride ion are first confined in an electromagnetic trap. The atomic ion is then laser cooled, which also slows the motion of the partner molecular ion. Although the molecular ion is now in its lowest-energy electronic and vibrational states, it still rotates randomly. A pulse of laser light is applied to the molecule at a frequency that targets only one, unique transition in its rotational spectrum. If the molecule does jump into the target state, the system remains motionless. But if it makes the transition, both ions start moving again because energy is returned to their shared motion. This movement can be detected by applying a laser pulse to the atomic ion that changes its internal state, causing it to scatter light that can … Continue reading →

Kartik Iyer from the International Community School in Kirkland was selected as one of 20 high school students to participate in the 15th Annual USA Biology Olympiad (USABO) National Finals. Iyer and the other students will meet May 28 to June 9 in metro Washington, D.C. to participate in 10 days of intensive biology instruction including high-level laboratory training and concepts. These activities will be followed by two days of testing to determine the USABOs Dream Team: the four students who will represent Team USA at the International Biology Olympiad (IBO) from July 23-30 in Coventry, United Kingdom. CEE is proud to work with Marymount University to train the USABO National Finalists in practical and theoretical biology, said Joann DiGennaro, president of the Center for Excellence in Education (CEE), in a press release. These students are some of the highest-achieving biology students from this country and it is exciting to prepare them for the international competition in the United Kingdom. Nearly 10,000 students from across the country registered for the USABO, according to Kathy Frame, CEE director of USABO and Special Projects. The twenty finalistsrepresenting nine stateswere selected based on their scores from the USABO open and semifinal exams. The … Continue reading →

Understanding evolution is one of the cornerstones of biology -- evolution is, in fact, the sole explanation for life's diversity on our planet. Based on the evolution of proteins, researchers may explain the emergence of new species and functions through genetic changes, how enzymes with novel functions might be engineered, or, for example, how humans are related to their closest relatives such as gorillas or bonobos. One popular approach to the study of evolution is to compare genome data using bioinformatics (computer-aided) tools. Scientists using these approaches may compare specific proteins, which consist of combinations of 20 universal building blocks, called amino acids. So far, the bioinformatics tools used to study the evolution of single proteins have assumed that the speed at which different regions of proteins evolve can be modeled with a statistical distribution whose shape is determined by a single variable. "That assumption, however, does not reflect reality, and it might have led to a large proportion of biased phylogenetic results being published over the last two decades or so," explains Minh Quang Bui, from the Center for Integrative Bioinformatics (CIBIV) and co-author of the study. A new algorithm allows insights into protein evolution Arndt von Haeseler, group … Continue reading →

Virginia Western Community College is one of 15 institutions in the United States to become part of the 10th cohort to participate in the Howard Hughes Medical Institutes (HHMI) Science Education Alliance Phage Hunters Advancing Genomics and Evolutionary Science project (SEA-PHAGES). The project is intended to spark an interest in science among students by teaching them to creatively and critically use the scientific method to address real-world issues. Thus far, 142 colleges and universities, including Carnegie Mellon, James Madison University, Virginia Tech and Johns Hopkins University, have participated in SEA-PHAGES. Virginia Western is the only community college in Virginia that has been selected to participate. Training for Virginia Western faculty begins this summer and the project will be available to students as part of a two-semester course of study starting Fall Semester 2017. This is an exciting opportunity for students at Virginia Western to be introduced to the scientific method while significantly contributing and connecting to the larger scientific community, says Amy White, Dean of STEM. Our aim, along with HHMIs mission, is to contribute to the scientific body of knowledge and inspire future scientists. Open enrollment for Virginia Westerns Fall Semester will begin on June 21; returning students may … Continue reading →

By Oluwatobi Alabi OLECULAR Biology and Biotechnology Department of Nigeria Institute of Medical Research (NIMR) will be holding its seventh Annual Molecular Biology Hands-on-Training workshop. The 2017 Molecular Biology Hand-on-training workshop with the theme: Protein Expression is schedule to hold from August 7-11, 2017 at NIMR conference room, Yaba, Lagos. Areas which the conference will focus on during the five-day Hands-on-Training workshop include: Current Methods in Molecular Biology,Ethical issues of challenges in Genetic Research, Molecular Evolution of viruses of Public Health Importance: from Genomics to Proteomics, Introduction and Principles of SDS-PAGE and Basic Protein Interaction Techniques. Also, there will be practical sessions on PCR, SDS-PAGE and Western Blotting. The Molecular Biology hands-on-Training workshop started in 2009 with the theme Molecular Biology and Biotechnology: Roadmap to Specific Diagnosis. The themes for the previous years are: Molecular Biology: The Backbone of Evidence-based Medicine (2010); Role of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology in Research and Development (2011); Emerging Infectious Diseases: Combating multi-drug resistance using molecular biology approach (2012); The Importance of Molecular Biology Typing Techniques in Disease Mapping (2013); Practical Applications of Genetic Markers (2014). The idea of MBBT hands-on-training workshop was first muted informally in 2007/2008. In 2009, a total of 48 participants … Continue reading →

Guest column by Nishaa Sharma, sophomore strategic and corporate communications and peace studies major Nishaa Sharma, sophomore strategic and corporate communications and peace studies major I remember the exact moment I realized that the word family means something different for everybody. I was a freshman, getting ready to go to my first high school dance which was our winter formal. My parents had been divorced for five years, and I was living with my sister, my mom and her boyfriend of three years. My father had just started dating his third girlfriend, but I only saw them every other weekend and on special occasions. He wasnt exactly a hands-on parent, and after they split up, he became even less involved in our lives. I was going with a guy friend to winter formal, and was trying on my heels when my moms boyfriend came in and jokingly reminded me that I didnt know how to dance. He patiently led me step-by-step through a waltz as I stumbled around in my heels. Thats when it hit me that somebody doesnt have to be your father to be your dad, and that you dont have to be directly related to someone for … Continue reading →

The News Tribune Indiana beekeepers turn to biology to save colonies The News Tribune Standing feet from around 250,000 bees, Ellie Symes spoke about the nearly 4.25 million more The Bee Corp. is in the process of acquiring. The fact that she is allergic earned a casual mention. "I used to bee-keep in dresses," Symes said, adding that ... and more » See the original post here: Indiana beekeepers turn to biology to save colonies - The News Tribune … Continue reading →

Babies have five colour categories: red, yellow, green, blue and purple, experiments showed. Photograph: Alamy Categories of colour are not born of language but are rooted in biology, according to research that shows babies divide colours up into red, blue, green, yellow and purple. Humans see colour as a result of cells in the eyes known as cones, which are sensitive to either long, short or medium wavelengths of light. The way in which the brain interprets combinations of signals from these cells allows us to see a whole spectrum of colour. But whether biology underpins the way in which we label colours has been a matter of debate. While babies have previously been shown to have some colour categories, different languages have different groupings some do not separate green and blue, for example suggesting categorisation of colour might be down to culture. We wanted to find out whats the connection between the two, what is it that babies are using to make their colour categories and what can that tell us about the way we talk about colour as adults, said said Alice Skelton, first author of the research and a doctoral candidate at the University of Sussex. Writing … Continue reading →

An important skill for scientists is knowing where to spend your funding, which explains why Keene State Colleges Denise Burchsted sounded proud when she described her protocol for studying beaver ponds: Rather than investing in winches to pull undergraduate students out of the muck, I invested in a few GoPro cameras. Dont worry, KSC parents: This assistant professor of environmental studies isnt abandoning biology majors to the Cheshire County mire. Rather, Burchsted is developing a new and cheap way to understand the difficult-to-investigate ponds that are created by beaver dams, which are a focus of her research partly because they havent been analyzed as much as you might think. Its hard to study beaver ponds. Boating is usually difficult, because the ponds are too shallow and full of dead trees (gunk holes, as my colleague says). Wading is also difficult, because the bottom is incredibly mucky, is how Burchsted described the situation. Its well-known that beaver ponds are important for the New Hampshires ecosystem, since theyre rich in nutrients and organic material, and are home to a variety of invertebrates, fish and birds, but even a very basic fact like how many fish live in them is hard to obtain, … Continue reading →