Tag Archives: university of arizona

Division of Labor Offers Insight into the Evolution of Multicellular Life

By Guest PostAugust 8, 2012Scienceann dornhaus, avida, beacon center, beacon researchers, ben kerr, charles ofria, communication system, digital organism, evolution, evolution platform, evolutionary history, genetic material, heather goldsby, human economies, michigan state university, multi celled, multicellular life, organism, single celled, university of arizona, university of washington

EAST LANSING, Mich. — Dividing tasks among different individuals is a more efficient way to get things done, whether you are an ant, a honeybee or a human.

A new study by researchers at Michigan State University’s BEACON Center for the Study of Evolution in Action suggests that this efficiency may also explain a key transition in evolutionary history, from single-celled to multi-celled organisms.

The results, which can be found in the current issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, demonstrate that the cost of switching between different tasks gives rise to the evolution of division of labor in digital organisms. In human economies, these costs could be the mental shift or the travel time required to change from activity to another. (more…)

Hunter-Gatherers Expend Same Calories as Average Americans

By Guest PostAugust 3, 2012Scienceafrica, audax mabulla, brian wood, caloric intake, calories, cause, david raichlen, energetic expenditure, evolutionary science, frank w marlowe, gym membership, hazda, herman pontzer, hunter college, hunter gatherer, obesity, obesity pandemic, physical exercise, susan b racette, Tanzania, Technology, university of arizona, western population, yale anthropologist

Taking in too many calories far outweighs getting too little exercise as a cause of obesity, according to a study of a hunter-gatherer society co- authored by Yale anthropologist Brian Wood and recently published in the July issue of the journal PLoS One.

Using state-of-the-art technology to measure the daily energetic expenditure of the Hazda, a foraging people of Tanzania, Wood and co-authors Herman Pontzer (Hunter College) and David Raichlen (University of Arizona) discovered that even though these last remaining hunter-gatherers in Africa are quite physically active, they expend on average no more calories in a day than the adult population of the industrialized world. Given the total lack of obesity among the Hadza, whose average daily calorie consumption is far lower than that found in the developed world, the researchers concluded that increased caloric intake is the main source of rising obesity in Western populations. (more…)

More Than Matters of the Heart

By Guest PostJuly 18, 2012Health, Sciencecause of death, chronic disease, complicated grief scale, death, genetic code, genetic variation, Germany, hannover medical school, Health, inflammation, journal brain, los angeles, mary frances oconnor, pro inflammatory, spouse, stress, symptoms of loss, university of arizona, university of california, university of ulm, widowhood effect

A team of researchers, including Mary-Frances O’Connor at the UA, has found a genetic variability linked to stress and inflammation that may impact the health of some widows and widowers.

The death of a spouse can be one of life’s most distressing events, and for many years bereavement researchers have noted increased mortality risk in some widows and widowers. This has been called the “widowhood effect.”

Researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles, the Hannover Medical School in Germany, the University of Ulm in Germany and the University of Arizona have found a genetic variability linked to stress and inflammation that may impact the health of some widows and widowers. (more…)

Today in the Milky Way: Cloudy Skies

By Guest PostJune 30, 2012Scienceadam block, aquila dark cloud, aquila rift arcs, astronomy picture, cloudy skies, dust lanes, Galaxy, gas and dust, herbig haro object, hh32, infrared, ldn 673, light years, Milky Way, mount lemmon skycenter, radiation, radio wave, rno 109, schulmann telescope, stellar winds, summer triangle, university of arizona

Adam Block of the UA’s Mount Lemmon SkyCenter brings us a rare view of the clouds wafting through our Milky Way in this Astronomy Picture of the Day.

In silhouette against the Milky Way’s faint starlight, its dusty molecular clouds likely contain raw material to form hundreds of thousands of stars, prompting astronomers to eagerly search the clouds for telltale signs of star birth.

This telescopic close-up looks toward the region at a fragmented Aquila dark cloud complex identified as LDN 673, stretching across a field of view slightly wider than the full moon.

For this image selected by NASA as the June 29 Astronomy Picture of the Day, astrophotographer Adam Block of the University of Arizona’s Mount Lemmon SkyCenter remotely operated the 32-inch Schulmann Telescope to peer into the vast chasms of gas and dust wafting through the Milky Way, exposing for about 15 minutes at a time during several nights in April and May. (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…)

Largest Meteorite Hunt in History Yields Treasure for UA

By Guest PostMay 16, 2012Sciencean ounce, california, carbonaceous chondrites, daniel stolte, dante lauretta, dolores hill, ed beshore, greg hupe, hiroshima bom, meteorite, meteorite hunt, michael farmer, NASA, nevada, nuclear explosion, osiris rex mission, planetary science, robert ward, scientists, sierra nevada, sky, solar system, spacecraft, sutters mill, university of arizona

Thanks to the generosity of three professional meteorite hunters, the UA Lunar and Planetary Laboratory will own three samples of a rare kind of meteorite leftover from the earliest beginnings of the solar system.

To the untrained eye, the black, smooth-edged lump that is sitting under a glass cover looks similar to a piece of charcoal. But to scientists Dante Lauretta and Ed Beshore from the University of Arizona Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, it is one of the most intriguing stones they have ever seen.

“This meteorite is the oldest rock you’ll ever find on Earth. In fact, it formed 50 to 60 million years before the Earth even existed,” said Lauretta, who is a professor of planetary science and principal investigator of NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission, which will send a spacecraft to return a sample from an asteroid in 2023. (more…)

UA Researchers Hunt Bomb-Eating Bugs

By Guest PostApril 29, 2012Environment, Weaponsarmy, aromatic amines, bacteria, bacterial eating habits, bio augmentation, bomb eating bugs, cancer, carcinogenic compound, conventional explosive, cytotoxic, degradation pathway, department of defense, ed stiles, environmental effect, environmental fate, environmental impact, fate and toxicity, food source, groundwater, humic polymer, humus, imcs, insensitive munitions compounds, james a field, jon chorover, molecular ecology technique, munition, mutagenic, nitro aromatic compound, organic matter, polymerization, reyes sierra, site selection, surface water, threat, tnt, university of arizona

UA researchers are investigating bacterial eating habits as part of a $1 million study to determine the environmental fate of newly developed munitions.

University of Arizona researchers are studying the environmental effects of insensitive munitions compounds, or IMCs, which are new, more stable explosives that won’t detonate in response to heat or shock.

Not much is known about the environmental impact of IMCs, which the U.S. Department of Defense hopes will reduce injuries and fatalities among troops who handle explosives. (more…)

Playing the Odds to Your Favor

By Guest PostApril 25, 2012Educationamerica, applied stochastic processes, area, average, China, chinese native, energy, evaluation, flinn scholarship, galileo circle, ireland, jason xu, kevin lin, knowledge, mathematical statistics, mathematics, ming xu, monte carlo method, physics, population, probability distribution, queen's university belfast, random sample, research, tucson, ua student, university of arizona, Wuhan

UA student Jason Xu has been recognized by the College of Science for his undergraduate research.

Wuhan, China and Tucson, Ariz.: These cities are thousands of miles apart, but they have one commonality – University of Arizona student Jason Xu.

A Chinese native and mathematics senior in the Honors College, Xu was selected as the recipient of this year’s Excellence in Undergraduate Research award by the UA College of Science at its Galileo Circle reception event.

The award “is a huge honor and means a lot to me. I feel really good to be representing the math department,” Xu said. (more…)