Trends in conservation funding are changing, according to a recent study in World Development. “We see a shift toward funding conservation work that’s increasingly about combatting wildlife trafficking,” says coauthor Jared Margulies, a human-environment geographer at the University of Alabama … Continue reading
Journal Club
Highlighting recently published papers selected by Academy members
Trends in conservation funding track popular narratives about the illegal wildlife trade
Categories: Ecology | Journal Club | Political Science | Social Sciences
Tagged conservation, COVID-19, illegal wildlife trade, novel coronavirus, wildlife
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In plea for face masks, researchers visualize how speech sends fluid droplets flying
As COVID-19 ravaged Wuhan, China, in January, scientists remained unsure how the virus was spreading so rapidly. Biophysicist Adriaan Bax, chatting over dinner with his linguist wife Ingrid Pufahl, started to suspect that the saliva we project as we speak … Continue reading
PREVIEW News Feature: To counter the pandemic, clinicians bank on repurposed drugs
Teams are pursuing a dizzying array of therapeutic strategies to stymie COVID-19. It’s not yet clear which approach, or combination of approaches, will work best. *Editor’s Note: We’re providing a preview of this content due to the urgent and rapidly … Continue reading
Categories: Cell Biology | Immunology | Infectious disease | Medical Sciences | News feature | Pharmacology
Tagged choloroquine, COVID-19, hydroxycholoroquine, novel coronavirus, pandemic, remdesivir, SARS-Cov-2, TMPRSS2
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Fluid dynamics work hints at whether spoken word can spread COVID-19
As of April 3, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is advising that everyone—sick or healthy—wear masks to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Recent research on how fluids travel from our respiratory tracts when we sneeze, speak, or … Continue reading
Categories: Applied Physical Sciences | Immunology | Infectious disease | Journal Club | Medical Sciences
Tagged aerosol particles, coronavirus, cough, COVID-19, facemask, fluid dynamics, saliva, SARS-Cov-2, sneeze, social distancing
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PREVIEW Inner Workings: Molecular biologists offer “wartime service” in the effort to test for COVID-19
*Editor’s Note: We’re providing a preview of this content due to the urgent and rapidly unfolding events surrounding the novel coronavirus pandemic. An updated version will appear in PNAS in the coming weeks. As COVID-19 spreads, communities across the United … Continue reading
Categories: Inner workings | Medical Sciences
Tagged coronavirus, COVID-19, COVID-19 testing, pandemic, qPCR, RNA extraction, SARS-Cov-2
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Variation in a single gene increases plant yield in groups but not in pairs
Groups of diverse plant species often produce more seeds than monocultures. But whether plants ramp up yield in response to genetically distinct, direct neighbors, as opposed to a broader neighborhood of diverse plants, remains an open question in ecology. “It’s … Continue reading
Categories: Agriculture | Ecology | Genetics | Journal Club
Tagged farming, monoculture, MPK4 gene, plant breeding, wild coyote tobacco plant
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Judging others based on the rewards they receive correlates with political leanings
Which employee deserves the highest salary? Should a professor receive tenure? Did my spouse do their fair share of the household chores? These types of questions all require people to pass judgment on the effort expended by others. According to … Continue reading
Categories: Journal Club | Neuroscience | Political Science | Psychological and Cognitive Sciences
Tagged decision-making, politics, rewards
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Rice gene could make “green revolution” plants greener by cutting back on fertilizer
The green revolution was launched, in large part, with rather squat plants. In the 1960s, farmers began using semidwarf varieties of wheat and rice that produced many grain-bearing branches known as tillers. When farmers added nitrogen fertilizer, the plants gained … Continue reading
Categories: Agriculture | Climate science | Genetics | Sustainability Science
Tagged fertilizer, Green Revolution, greenhouse gas, NGR5, nitrogen, rice, tiller, wheat
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Molecular evidence supports Darwin’s adaptationist view, informing the debate over what drives evolution
Myriad genetic differences distinguish the genomes of two species. What fraction of those differences arises by positive natural selection versus random genetic drift is a central question and topic of debate in evolutionary biology. A recent study in Nature Ecology … Continue reading
Categories: Evolution | Genetics
Tagged adaptation, natural selection, negative selection, neutral theory of evolution, positive selection
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