Quaint cobblestone towns and green pastures dot the Pyrenees Mountains, at the gates of Catalonia’s Aigüestortes i Estany de Sant Maurici National Park. Hike a few miles into the park, though, and the Spanish landscape of trickling rivers and montane … Continue reading
Journal Club
Highlighting recently published papers selected by Academy members
Sweeping study finds big landscape changes on the fringes of Europe’s protected areas
Categories: Ecology | Environmental Sciences | Journal Club
Tagged buffer zone, conservation, CORINE data
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Nitrogen-fixing bacteria talk to soybean roots via tiny RNAs, suggesting new avenue to improve yields
In order for soybean plants to get their necessary dose of nitrogen, they partner with bacteria called rhizobia, which can convert atmospheric nitrogen into organic forms the plant can use. But scientists don’t have the full picture of what facilitates … Continue reading
Categories: Agriculture | Biochemistry | Genetics | Journal Club | Plant Biology
Tagged legume, messenger RNA, nitrogen, nodule, rhizobia, small RNAs, soybeans, tFR, transfer RNA
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Climate disasters fuel only a small boost in green energy investments
In the wake of devastating floods in Germany in 2013, some affected householders recognized the connection between extreme weather and climate change and sought out green energy sources, according to analyses of insurance payouts and Internet searches conducted by … Continue reading
Categories: Climate science | Energy | Environmental Sciences | Journal Club | Sustainability Science
Tagged climate change, disaster, extreme weather, flood, green energy
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Honeybee queens influence offspring caste through egg size
Queen bees have surprising sway over the future development of their eggs, a recent study reports. The reigning bee matriarch lays larger eggs in the wax honeycomb cells where workers raise new queens as compared with the eggs laid in … Continue reading
Categories: Developmental Biology | Genetics | Journal Club
Tagged honeybee, maternal effect, queen
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New protein structure reveals hotspot for cystic fibrosis drug binding
The newly revealed structure of a cystic fibrosis drug, captured in tandem with its target channel protein, could help scientists design better medications for the condition. Cystic fibrosis results from mutations in the gene for the cystic fibrosis transmembrane … Continue reading
Predators can harm rather than help biodiversity
Rich biodiversity depends on the ability of species to coexist. And yet, ecologists are still grappling with the requisite mechanisms. Recent findings published in Nature suggest that predators might not be as helpful a driver of species coexistence as … Continue reading
Categories: Animal Behavior | Ecology | Journal Club | Population Biology
Tagged anole, biodiversity, lizard, population dynamics, predator, prey
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Journal Club: Psychological tasks in the lab are poor predictors of real-world self-regulation
Skipping dessert to stay healthy, saving money for a rainy day, not shouting at your boss even when there might be good reason—psychologists group these and other human behaviors under the large umbrella of “self-regulation.” That is, despite the near-term … Continue reading
Categories: Journal Club | Psychological and Cognitive Sciences
Tagged psychological space, self-regulation, surveys, tasks
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Journal Club: Protozoan predators help pinpoint how evolution and ecology shape predator-prey dynamics
A hungry lynx bounds after a scampering hare. Occasionally the lynx secures its catch. Often, it doesn’t. For ecology students, this back and forth battle is the textbook example of an ecological process driving predator–prey population dynamics. The predator population … Continue reading
Categories: Ecology | Evolution | Journal Club
Tagged bacteria, eco-evolutionary, hare, Lotka-Volterra equation, lynx, predation, predator-prey population dynamics, protozoan
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Journal Club: Neurons fire in sync, helping elucidate the biological basis of learning
Our brains change as we learn. But how exactly does a cluster of neurons change their activity or connections? It seems the phenomenon is due, at least in part, to neurons starting to fire in sync, according to a recent … Continue reading
Categories: Cell Biology | Journal Club | Neuroscience
Tagged learning, maze, memory, neurons, plasticity, prefrontal cortex, rat
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