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Scientists Urge New Approaches to Plant Research

By Guest PostJune 30, 2012Nature, Sciencearms race, Environment, evolution, genetic engineering, kurt stepnitz, metabolic pathway, metabolic reaction, michigan state university, molecular biology, new approach, nonrenewable energy, plant metabolism, plant research, robert last, ron milo, satellite image, therapeutic properties, weizmann institute

EAST LANSING, Mich. — You’d be amazed at how much you can learn from a plant.

In a paper published this week in the journal Science, a Michigan State University professor and a colleague discuss why if humans are to survive as a species, we must turn more to plants for any number of valuable lessons.

“Metabolism of plants provides humans with fiber, fuel, food and therapeutics,” said Robert Last, an MSU professor of biochemistry and molecular biology. “As the human population grows and nonrenewable energy sources diminish, we need to rely increasingly on plants and to increase the sustainability of agriculture.” (more…)

Evolution of Religious Patriarchy as a Mate-Guarding Strategy?

By Guest PostJune 15, 2012Culture, Scienceadultery, african population, african society, beverly strassmann, Bible, biological anthropologist, brenda gillespie, brendan hugg, christianity, contraception, cuckoldry, dogon belief, dogon people, dogon practice, eneticist, erin burke, evolution, female sexuality, fertility status, fidelity, genetic data, ideology, indigenous, islam, Mali, menstrual huts, menstrual taboos, michael hammer, monotheistic religion, nikhil kurapati, pollution, quran, rates of cuckoldry, religious patriarchy, religious practices, sacred texts, tatiana karafet, traditional, united states, university of arizona, university of michigan, village, virginity, west africa, word of god, y dna mismatch

One of the largest and longest studies in a traditional African society sheds light on religious practices and cuckoldry. Genetic data suggest religious patriarchy is directly analogous to the mate-guarding tactics used by animals to ensure paternity.

Religious practices that strongly control female sexuality are more successful at promoting certainty about paternity, according to a study published in the June 4, 2012 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

In an interdisciplinary collaboration, a group of researchers around biological anthropologist Beverly Strassmann from the University of Michigan and University of Arizona geneticist Michael Hammer analyzed genetic data on 1,706 father-son pairs in a traditional African population – the Dogon people of Mali, West Africa – in which Islam, two types of Christianity and an indigenous, monotheistic religion are practiced in the same families and villages. (more…)

Not a One-Way Street: Evolution Shapes Environment of Connecticut Lakes

By Guest PostMay 24, 2012Environment, Naturealewife, atlantic coast, bosminia, colonial settlers, colonial times, connecticut, daphnia, david post, ecology, environmental change, evolution, evolutionary change, evolutionary feedback, fish, force, genetic changes, john delong, lake, loop, matthew r walsh, organism, plankton, population growth, predator, prey, torrance hanley, water fleas, yale university, zooplankton

Environmental change is the selective force that preserves adaptive traits in organisms and is a primary driver of evolution. However, it is less well known that evolutionary change in organisms also trigger fundamental changes in the environment.

Yale University researchers found a prime example of this evolutionary feedback loop in a few lakes in Connecticut, where dams built 300 years ago in Colonial times trapped a fish called the alewife.

In a study published May 23 in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Academy B, the Yale team describes how this event fundamentally changed the structure of the alewife and, with it, the water flea that the alewife feeds upon and the food chain that supports them both. (more…)

Biologists Turn Back the Clock to Understand Evolution of Sex Differences

By Guest PostMay 9, 2012Nature, Scienceabderrahman khila, antlers, battle, darwin, ehab abouheif, evolution, hooks, locke rowe, male guppies, mating, mcgill university, moose, peacocks, plumage, rheumatobates rileyi, rna interference, sex differences, sexes, traits in nature, tusks, university of toronto, walruses, water striders, wild colours

Battles of sexes shown to spur adaptive sex differences

Sex differences account for some of the most of the spectacular traits in nature: the wild colours of male guppies, the plumage of peacocks, tusks on walruses and antlers on moose. Sexual conflict – the battle between males and females over mating – is thought to be a particularly potent force in driving the evolution of traits that differ in males and females.

However, the genetic processes responsible for producing such traits are not well understood, nor how they evolved from their simpler less elaborate ancestral forms. We tend to assume that each tiny step in evolution is an advantage. But are they really? (more…)

IBM Study Reveals Critical Shift in the Role of Chief Information Security Executives Globally

By Guest PostMay 3, 2012Technologyasia-pacific, ceos, chief attribute, cisos, david jarvis, Europe, evolution, ibm study, influencer, information security organization, it security, marc van zadelhoff, Technology

Analysis of 130+ interviews presents a new class of security chiefs; CISO role follows the evolution of CIO and CFO with more strategic organizational responsibilities

ARMONK, N.Y. – 03 May 2012: A new IBM study reveals a clear evolution in information security organizations and their leaders with 25 percent of security chiefs surveyed shifting from a technology focus to strategic business leadership role. (more…)

Microsoft’s Certifications Reinvented for the Cloud

By Guest PostApril 11, 2012Technologycloud, cushing anderson, don field, evolution, it environment, mcsa, mcsd, mcse, mcse certification, mcsm, Microsoft, microsoft certification, peter de tender, private cloud, program, public cloud, Technology

*New program reflects changes coming to IT jobs.*

REDMOND, Wash. — April 11, 2012— Microsoft today announced that it has reinvented its certification program to directly address technology’s evolution to the cloud.

Organizations are increasingly turning to the cloud to improve productivity, cut costs and fuel business growth. By 2015 IT innovation produced by the cloud could create US$1.1 trillion a year in new business revenues according to a recent IDC study (1). As a result, top of mind for companies today is making sure they have the right skills and people in place to help them fully realize the benefits the cloud has to offer. (more…)

New Understanding of Earth’s Mantle Beneath The Pacific Ocean

By Guest PostMarch 24, 2012Scienceasthenosphere, boundary, carnegie, crust, earth, evolution, factors, gutenberg discontinuity, lab, lithosphere, lithosphere asthenosphere boundary, mineral, molten rock, nick schmerr, pacific ocean basin, planet, plate tectonics

Washington, D.C. — Scientists have long speculated about why there is a large change in the strength of rocks that lie at the boundary between two layers immediately under Earth’s crust: the lithosphere and underlying asthenosphere. Understanding this boundary is central to our knowledge of plate tectonics and thus the formation and evolution of our planet as we know it today. A new technique for observing this transition, particularly in the portion of Earth’s mantle that lies beneath the Pacific Ocean basin, has led Carnegie and NASA Goddard scientist Nick Schmerr to new insight on the origins of the lithosphere and asthenosphere. His work is published March 23 in Science.

The lithosphere-asthenosphere boundary, or LAB, represents the transition from hot, convecting mantle asthenosphere to overlying cold and rigid lithosphere. The oceanic lithosphere thickens as it cools over time, and eventually sinks back into the mantle at Earth’s so-called subduction zones. (more…)

What Makes Ticks Tick?

By Guest PostMarch 11, 2012Healthanaplasmosis, antibiotic therapy, apple, arthritis, babesiosis, bacterium, climate change, dengue fever, disease, durland fish, european ancestry, evolution, infectious diseases, iPhone, lyme disease, maine, malaria, michigan, minnesota, neurological problems, North America, Pennsylvania, placebo, ticks, united states, virginia, west nile virus, wisconsin

Durland Fish has researched ticks and their associated diseases for decades. A professor in the Division of Epidemiology of Microbial Diseases at the Yale School of Public Health, he has, among other things, contributed to the discovery that the bacterium that causes Lyme disease has European ancestry and that the disease, once nearly eradicated in North America, roared back with reforestation. More recently he helped develop a Lyme disease “app” for the iPhone and other Apple devices that provides users with detailed information about tick populations in any given area in the United States and even comes with a video on how to safely remove a tick. He has also worked on mosquito-borne West Nile virus and dengue fever. Students selected Fish as the school’s mentor of the year in 2010. (more…)

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