Category Archives: Biology

More than 1,000 people, including USD students, chose to participate in the March for Science in Sioux Falls on Earth Day. Morgan Matzen / The Volante In recognition of Earth Day and in light of President Trumps proposed cuts tothe Environmental Protection Agency budget, marches took place on Saturday around the globe. More than 1,000people joined in solidarity in the Sioux Falls March for Science, including USD students from the biology, sustainability and chemistry clubs on campus. Jessica Romero,president of the biology club, said several concerns prompted her to march. Im marching for truth from the government, especially in the modern political climate, Romero said. Theres a lot of denial on things like climate change, and so many budget cuts for food safety and public health, and for what Im interested in, which is ecology and conservation. Romero, a junior majoring in conservation biology and sustainability, said she was upset to see that the EPA is at risk for budget cuts and that the National Park Service (NPS)is being censored. When NPS is being censored, what does that mean for us? Its upsetting to see all these cuts to my future, Romero said. Funding is really important. I think we … Continue reading →

Post Register Hillcrest senior to study wildlife biology Post Register Johnson will have earned 11 AP/dual credits when she graduates high school, including credits in literature, economics, statistics and biology. Dual credit and AP classes have helped me become dedicated to learning, Johnson said. If you want to get ... See original here: Hillcrest senior to study wildlife biology - Post Register … Continue reading →

BUFFALO, N.Y. Michael Levitt, a 2013 winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, isnt Swedish but he began his speech at the Nobel Banquet in Stockholm like this: Ers Majestter, Ers Kungliga Hgheter, Ers Excellenser, Mina Damer och Herrar. Jag brjar p svenska fr att bevisa att jag fortfarande kan lra mig ngot nytt 45 r efter arbetet som frde mig hit. I start in Swedish to prove that I can still learn something 45 years after doing the work that brought me here. On May 2, scientists, students and interested community members will hear about that work, which he is still passionately pursuing, when Levitt, a Stanford University School of Medicine biophysicist and professor of structural biology, gives the O.P. Jones Lecture at the University at Buffalo. Free and open to the public, it takes place at 3:30 p.m. in Butler Auditorium, 150 Farber Hall, on UBs South Campus. The talk is sponsored by the UB Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI) and the Department of Biomedical Informatics in the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at UB. It is part of the CTSI Science Seminar series. Levitt shared the 2013 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Martin Karplus, … Continue reading →

Addie Schlussel is a biology and environmental studies major and over the last two semesters has been working on her biology St. Marys Project (SMP) looking at the effects of neonicotinoids (a class of insecticides) and an antidepressant (specifically Prozac) on Daphnia (Common Water Flea) survival. The two chemicals investigated are commonly found in the environment as water pollution due to runoff and other contaminants entering the environment. Schlussels work investigated if the neonicotinoid insecticides and antidepressants were able to work conjunctively with one another in order to become more toxic and harmful to macroinvertebrates than they would have been able to alone. This is a problem which needs to be understood if both of these chemicals as pollutants in the environment would have more harmful effects on nature and the environment than one of them would have had alone. She hypothesized that the two would combining effects and would cause a synergistic toxicity to the Daphnia she said. Schlussel used Daphnia, to test this relationship. Daphnia are a common ecotoxicology model organism Schlussel explained. Neonicotinoids function as insecticides by causing paralysis and death in the insects they come in contact with by impacting the insects central nervous systems. Since … Continue reading →

Science became a science because it spoke truth to the ignorance that threatened human well-being. Science also spoke truth to power, especially when that power profited from the ignorance of others. Science and scientists often get criticized for this, especially when they challenge ignorance and power at the same time. The history of science, and especially the history of biology, lies in the history of our efforts to understand infectious diseases and develop policies to combat them. Many modern methods of science first appeared during battles to control infectious diseases and save lives. Societies develop public policies in response to challenges they face. They base policies on their understanding of a challenge and its cause. Get the hypothesis to explain the cause wrong and, the policy to confront the challenge likely will fail. The Black Death presented 14th century European society with such a challenge. Traveling the Silk Road from Central Asia, the plague invaded Crimea in 1343 and spread to all of Europe. The inability of European policymakers to understand the pandemics causes led to the death of half of Europes population, according to some historians. Hypotheses at the time included that the plague was the wrath of God, … Continue reading →

Photo credit: Jian Bautista For many biology majors, a microbiology focus is not only beneficial, but recommended. Due to the high demand for microbiology in various biological fields, being educated in the subject will allow more opportunities for jobs around the globe. Most states already have some sort of a microbiology program. Microbes are intricately involved in our own lives: how we digest food, theres research coming out about our own moods, antibiotics, antibiotic resistance in the medical field, to some of the stuff I do out in the environment, Brandon Briggs, assistant professor for the biology department at UAA, said. The need for microbiology in various fields is growing, the desire for a course in microbiology is becoming more and more of a necessity. [Microbes] really affect every aspect of our lives, Khrys Duddleston, professor in the biology department, said. A lot of what we learned, especially early on about genetics, we learned by studying bacteria. Because microorganisms are so easy to grow in the lab many of them are, I should say so you can grow them overnight, generate a lot of cells, you can carry out a variety of studies in which you can mutate their genomes. … Continue reading →

Clinton County Student Receives Biology Award at IUP NorthcentralPa.com Adam Wasser, son of Todd and Alicia Wasser, of Beverly Drive, Beech Creek, was honored at the third annual Biology Department Student Recognition Award Ceremony at Indiana University of Pennsylvania. The ceremony was held to recognize outstanding ... See the article here: Clinton County Student Receives Biology Award at IUP - NorthcentralPa.com … Continue reading →

A biology society is hiring three editors to screen images in submissions to its journal, Journal of Biological Chemistry which we think is a great idea. We dont typically mention job ads on our site, except when they become relevant to cleaning up the literature and with the latest job ad, the JBC joins the ranks of other journals that have taken a proactive stance against image problems, including manipulation. The publisher,American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (ASBMB), plans to hire three Technical Image Editors, which will screen the images contained within the thousands of papers the journal publishes each year, many of which contain multiple panels and supplemental data. Kaoru Sakabe, Data Integrity Manager at ASBMB, told us: We hope that by screening images during pre-publication, we can catch these errors and help authors correct them. We believe that this pre-publication step will also improve the overall quality of the figures because the Technical Image Editors will help authors prepare their figures for print (i.e., correct resolution, size, etc). She added: This is one in a series of initiatives weve undertaken to educate our authors and the community (the Due Diligence column in ASBMB Today and our workshops … Continue reading →

The Hindu IIT Bombay: Bird's eye view and quantum biology The Hindu Now, a group from IIT Bombay has tied this theory with observed features of the birds' biological compass to get a clear picture of how it works. They affirm that it is due to the interplay of chemical reactions, electron spins and the magnetic fields ... and more » Read this article: IIT Bombay: Bird's eye view and quantum biology - The Hindu … Continue reading →

Enlarge / Pictured: Probably an editor who peer-reviewed stuff for Tumor Biology. The journal Tumor Biology is retracting 107 research papers after discovering that the authors faked the peer review process. This isnt the journals first rodeo. Late last year, 58 paperswere retracted from seven different journals25 came fromTumor Biologyfor the same reason. Its possible to fake peer review because authors are often asked to suggest potential reviewers for their own papers. This is donebecause research subjects are often blindingly niche; a researcher working in a sub-sub-field may be more aware than the journal editor of who is best-placed to assess the work. But some journals go further and request, or allow,authors to submit the contact details of these potential reviewers. If the editor isnt aware of the potential for a scam, they then merrily send the requests for review out to fake e-mail addresses, often using the names of actual researchers. And at the other end of the fakee-mail address is someone whos in on the game and happy to sendin a friendly review. Fake peer reviewers often know what a review looks like and know enough to make it look plausible, said Elizabeth Wager, editor of the journal … Continue reading →