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Predators Drive the Evolution of Poison Dart Frogs’ Skin Patterns

By Guest PostNovember 25, 2011Natureamazon forest, athieu chouteau, biologist, butterfly, evolutionary process, exotic defensive signal, forest, heliconius genus, mathieu robert sauve, museum national d histoire naturelle, natural selection, Paris, peruvian, plasticine models, poison dart frog, poisonous frog, predators, ranitomeya, salamanders, skins patterns, snakes, tarapoto, university of montreal

Natural selection has played a role in the development of the many skins patterns of the tiny Ranitomeya imitator poison dart frog, according to a study that will be published in an upcoming edition of American Naturalist by University of Montreal biologist Mathieu Chouteau. The researcher’s methodology was rather unusual: on three occasions over three days, at two different sites, Chouteau investigated the number of attacks that had been made on fake frogs, by counting how many times that had been pecked. Those that were attacked the least looked like local frogs, while those that came from another area had obviously been targeted. (more…)

Former British Prime Minister Discusses Faith and Action

By Guest PostNovember 24, 2011Culture, Politicsanna siu, bahai, british prime minister, christian, davina finn, farhana rahman, global health, globalization, internet, jewish, malaria endemic countries, malaria projects, migration, multi faith centre, muslim, online communities, phantom, st george campus, tony blair, tony blair faith foundation, uganda, university

*Tony Blair visits U of T Multi-faith Centre*

Former U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair, founder of the Tony Blair Faith Foundation, applauded the efforts of the foundation’s six Canadian Faiths Act Fellows to help eradicate malaria and address other pressing community issues.

Blair recently took part in a discussion at the Multi-faith Centre on U of T’s St. George Campus where he talked about the impact of faith communities on global health outcomes alongside expert U of T academics, faith leaders and his foundation’s Faiths Act Fellows (See photos of Blair’s visit). Faiths Act is the foundation’s multi-faith social action program comprising 34 fellows across the world taking action together against preventable disease and extreme poverty. (more…)

New Projection Shows Global Food Demand Doubling by 2050

By Guest PostNovember 24, 2011Economy, Generalagricultural land, agricultural practices, agronomic practices, belinda befort, carbon dioxide, christian balzer, david tilman, earth, ecosystems, Environment, environmental effects, extinction of species, global agriculture, global food demand, greenhouse gas emissions, human prosperity, jason hill, nitrogen, nitrogen fertilizers, poorer countries, saran twombly, technology transfer, united states, university of minnesota, yield

*Increasing yield in poorer countries could decrease adverse environmental effects*

Global food demand could double by 2050, according to a new projection reported this week in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

The analysis also shows that the world faces major environmental challenges unless agricultural practices change.

Scientists David Tilman and Jason Hill of the University of Minnesota (UMN) and colleagues found that producing the amount of food needed could significantly increase levels of carbon dioxide and nitrogen in the environment, and may cause the extinction of numerous species. (more…)

Art Detective

By Guest PostNovember 24, 2011Cultureamerican identity, annika johnson, art detective, artist, bill magdalene, clara mairs, depression era, detective, digital revolution, enigmatic status, historical fiction, industrial revolution, minneapolis, minnesota artist, minnesota historical society, minnesota state, paintings and prints, st paul, united states, university of minnesota

*A forgotten artist’s work can help us understand ourselves, says U graduate*

“I am a detective of sorts,” Annika Johnson says. “And I find clues in paintings, documents, and letters that tell me about who the artist was that made them and when, where, and why they made them.”

Johnson, who received her art history degree from the U this past May and is now applying to graduate schools across the country, did undergraduate research on Clara Mairs—a little known Minnesota artist from the depression era. Johnson describes Mairs’ work as “playful yet psychological, monumental yet humble” and says she not only helped activate the state’s modern and avant-garde art movements but also was central in the early development of arts education in St. Paul. (more…)

Deforestation Causes Cooling in northern U.S., Canada

By Guest PostNovember 24, 2011Environmentalbedo effect, atmosphere, carbon, climate monitoring strategies, cooling, david hollinger, deforestation, florida, forests, global warming, local climate, manitoba, minnesota, north Carolina, northern latitudes, open areas, reflection of sunlight, solar radiation, surface temperatures, turbulent, vegetation types, xuhui lee

Deforestation, considered by scientists to contribute significantly to global warming, has been shown by a Yale-led team to actually cool the local climate in northern latitudes, according to a paper published Nov. 17 in Nature.

“If you cut trees in the boreal region, north of 45 degrees latitude, you have a net cooling effect,” says Xuhui Lee, the study’s principal investigator and professor of meteorology at the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies. “You release carbon into the atmosphere by cutting down trees, but you increase the albedo effect — the reflection of sunlight.” (more…)

How the Brain Strings Words Into Sentences

By Guest PostNovember 23, 2011Healthbrain imaging, language disorders, language impairments, language processing, nerve fibers, neural pathways

Distinct neural pathways are important for different aspects of language processing, researchers have discovered, studying patients with language impairments caused by neurodegenerative diseases. (more…)

Research Sheds New Light on Body Parts’ Sensitivity to Environmental Changes

By Guest PostNovember 23, 2011Sciencealexander shingleton, beacon, blood sugar levels, body parts, brain, changes in nutrition, energy, evolution in action consortium, fruit flies, glucose, humans, insulin, malnutrition, michigan state university, nongenetic, normal size, sensitive to environmental change, sensitivity to environmental issues, type 2 diabetes, variety of diseases, zeroing, zoology

EAST LANSING, Mich. — Research by a team of Michigan State University scientists has shed new light on why some body parts are more sensitive to environmental change than others, work that could someday lead to better ways of treating a variety of diseases, including Type-2 diabetes.

The research, led by assistant zoology professor Alexander Shingleton, is detailed in the recent issue of the Proceedings of the Library of Science Genetics. (more…)

Yale Researchers Discover Promising Anti-HIV Agents

By Guest PostNovember 23, 2011Health, Sciencebristol myers squibb, chemical compounds, d4t, DNA, effective hiv treatments, festinavir, function of an enzyme, genetic material, hiv 1 reverse transcriptase, hiv and human t cells, hiv drugs, hiv replication, human t cells, infection of human cells, jlj494, karen s anderson, less toxic aids drugs, mariela bollini, non nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors, prevent hiv, prophylactic anti hiv treatment, reverse transcriptase inhibitor, tai shun lin, toxicity, vinay v thakur, wild type, wild type hiv, william h prusoff, william l jorgensen, yung chi tommy cheng, zerit

Researchers at Yale University have discovered new chemical compounds that prevent HIV from replicating in human T-cells. These compounds could result in new, highly effective HIV treatments that are 10 to 2000 times more potent than HIV drugs now on the market.

“The current compounds or slight variants could become drugs,” said Professor William L. Jorgensen, one of two principal investigators behind the research. The other is Karen S. Anderson, a pharmacology professor at Yale School of Medicine. They reported their results online Nov. 15 in the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry. (more…)

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