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Mass Extinctions Reset the Long-Term Pace of Evolution

By Guest PostJuly 3, 2012Scienceandrew z krug, animal kingdom, birth rate, bivalve, chicago esque, david jablonski, evolution, evolutionary rate, fossil, fossil mollusk, jurassic period, maryland outcrop, mass extinction, oysters, pace of evolution, paleontologist, pleistocene epoch, richard bambach, scallops, species diversification, time boundaries, university of chicago

A new study indicates that mass extinctions affect the pace of evolution, not just in the immediate aftermath of catastrophe, but for millions of years to follow. The study’s authors, University of Chicago’s Andrew Z. Krug and David Jablonski, will publish their findings in the August issue of the journal Geology.

Scientists expected to see an evolutionary explosion immediately following a mass extinction, but Krug and Jablonski’s findings go far beyond that.

“There’s some general sense that the event happens, there’s some aftermath and then things return to normal,” said Krug, a research scientist in geophysical sciences at UChicago. But in reality, Krug said, “Things don’t return to what they were before. They operate at a different pace, sometimes more rapidly, other times more slowly. Evolutionary rates shift, and that shift is permanent until the next mass extinction.” (more…)

Despite Hardships, Black Men in Urban Communities Are Resilient, MU Researcher Says

By Guest PostJuly 3, 2012Healthblack men, racial discrimination, resilience strategies, societal stressor, urban communities

Health programs should focus on men’s strengths to help them thrive amid societal stressors

COLUMBIA, Mo. –Black men, especially those living in low-income, urban areas, face many societal stressors, including racial discrimination, incarceration and poverty. In addition, these men have poorer health outcomes. Now, a University of Missouri faculty member has studied these men’s efforts to negotiate social environments that are not designed to help them attain good health and success. (more…)

Weevils and Weeds

By Guest PostJuly 3, 2012Environmentamanda stout, chester county, China, coverdale farm preserve, creek state park, dave pro, delaware, doug tallamy, judy hough goldstein, margo mcdonough, mile a minute, pea patch island, photosynthesize, rhinoncomimus latipes, shrubs, weed, weeds, weevil, weevils, white clay, yard

UD researchers use weevils to check spread of prolific mile-a-minute weed

Mile-a-minute weed has declared war on Doug Tallamy’s yard. This non-native, invasive vine is growing up his trees, scrambling over shrubs and smothering tree seedlings. By blocking sunlight, it weakens a plant by reducing its ability to photosynthesize.

Mile-a-minute doesn’t care one whit that Tallamy, professor and chair of the University of Delaware’s Department of Entomology and Wildlife Ecology, is a highly respected proponent of native gardening who doesn’t believe in planting any non-natives, let alone a highly invasive non-native.

“The deer brought mile-a-minute from our neighbor’s yard three years after we moved in,” says Tallamy. “We had just a few plants the first year, a few hundred the second year, and 20 trillion the third year.” (more…)

European Women Drive Majority of Engagement at Online Retail and Community Websites

By Guest PostJuly 2, 2012Technologycommunity website, Comscore, cosmetics, Europe, european women, fragrances, german, internet usage, odnoklassniki, online retail, otto gruppe, russia, russian internet audience, social networking site, tumblr, turkey

comScore Releases May 2012 Overview of European Internet Usage Showing Tumblr, Otto Gruppe and Groupon among Most Women-Oriented Web Properties

London, UK, 2 July 2012 – comScore, Inc., a leader in measuring the digital world, today released an overview of internet usage in Europe, showing that 395.7 million Europeans went online in May 2012 for an average of 27.6 hours each. The data for May, which includes internet usage in 49 European markets aggregated into the European region and individual reporting on 18 markets, also highlights the site categories and web properties with the highest concentration of usage among women in Europe. Tumblr.com had the highest concentration of usage among women, who accounted for 69 percent time spent on the popular social network. The report also showed that women generated the majority of time spent on multiple Retail subcategories, such as Fragrances/Cosmetics (71 percent share), Apparel (67 percent) and Department Stores (65 percent). (more…)

Programmable DNA Scissors Found for Bacterial Immune System

By Guest PostJuly 2, 2012Scienceartificial enzymes, bacterial immune system, bacterial protein, dna scissors, gene targeting, genome editing

Discovery Could Lead to Editing Tool for Genomes

Genetic engineers and genomics researchers should welcome the news from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) where an international team of scientists has discovered a new and possibly more effective means of editing genomes. This discovery holds potentially big implications for advanced biofuels and therapeutic drugs, as genetically modified microorganisms, such as bacteria and fungi, are expected to play a key role in the green chemistry production of these and other valuable chemical products. (more…)

Despite Efforts for Change, Bangladeshi Women Prefer to Use Pollution-Causing Cookstoves

By Guest PostJuly 2, 2012Environment, Generalanimal dung, bangladeshi district, bangladeshi household, bangladeshi women, biomass, black carbon, cooking, cookstove, environmental impact, flooding, greenhouse gas, hatiya, health risk, jamlpur, mushfiq mobarak, pollution causing, puneet dwivedi, robert bailis, rural bangladesh, traditional stove, women, yale study, yale university

Women in rural Bangladesh prefer inexpensive, traditional stoves for cooking over modern ones — despite significant health risks, according to a Yale study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

A large majority of respondents (94%) believed that indoor smoke from the traditional stoves is harmful. Still, Bangladeshi women opted for traditional cookstove technology so they could afford basic needs.

“Non-traditional cookstoves might be more successful if they were designed with features valued more highly by users, such as reducing operating costs even if they might not reduce environmental impact,” said Mushfiq Mobarak, a co-author and associate professor of economics at the Yale School of Management. (more…)

Responsibility Misused by Politicians

By Guest PostJuly 2, 2012Politicsconcept of responsibility, moral values, political debate, political theorist, politicians, responsibility

The concept of responsibility is being used by politicians as a distraction from the real problems in society, which have to do with inequality according to research from the University of Exeter.

In the wake of the financial crisis there has been a renewed interest in issues of fairness and responsibility. The political debate about equality of opportunity, holding people responsible for their choices and helping people out when they suffer from undeserved bad luck has formed the focus of a four-year research project led by the University of Exeter. (more…)

Opposites Attract

By Guest PostJuly 1, 2012Sciencechemical crosslinking, energy engineering, fuel cell membranes, human hair, opposites attract, thickness

UD professor reports milestone in fuel cell membrane research

It looks like a plastic candy wrapper that’s been charred on both sides, but it may hold the solution to commercially viable fuel cells. (more…)

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