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From obscurity to dominance: Tracking the rapid evolutionary rise of ray-finned fish

By Guest PostAugust 6, 2013Nature, Scienceadaptive radiation, age of fish, backboned animals, darwins comment, devonian era, end devonian extinction, evolutionary biologist, evolutionary rise, fossils from scotland, fouldenia, glaciers, hangenberg extinction, japanese amberjack, john megahan, lauren sallan, long extinct fish, mass extinctions, michael coates, misclassified fouldenia, oceans, post devonian tetrapods, predatory fish, ray finned fish, romers gap, sea levels, shell crushing, styracopterus, tropics, university of chicago, university of michigan, vertebrate species, yellowtail

ANN ARBOR — Mass extinctions, like lotteries, result in a multitude of losers and a few lucky winners. This is the story of one of the winners, a small, shell-crushing predatory fish called Fouldenia, which first appears in the fossil record a mere 11 million years after an extinction that wiped out more than 90 percent of the planet’s vertebrate species.

The extinction that ended the Devonian Era 359 million years ago created opportunities quickly exploited by a formerly rare and unremarkable group of fish that went on to become—in terms of the sheer number of species—the most successful vertebrates (backboned animals) on the planet today: the ray-finned fish. (more…)

Economists provide better measurement and assessment tools for study of inequality

By Guest PostJuly 25, 2013Economyassessment tools, china based scholars, conference in beijing, dali yang, developmental psychologists, economists, geneticists, james heckman, measurement, peking university, socio economic inequality, steven durlauf, study in china, study of inequality, university of chicago, yang yao

One-day conference in Beijing kicks off summer training for graduate students studying socio-economic inequality

A team of scholars who are engaged in researching ways to improve human capital and economic opportunity convened the “Conference on the Study of Inequality” on Monday, June 17, at the University of Chicago Center in Beijing.

The conference, which was co-sponsored by the Human Capital and Economic Opportunity Global Working Group, the University of Chicago Center in Beijing and the China Center for Economic Research at Peking University, kicked off a week of events. (more…)

Cosmochemist discovers potential solution to meteorite mystery

By Guest PostJuly 11, 2013Sciencealexei fedkin, british mineralogist, carnegie institution, chondrules, cosmochemist, crystal structures, discover, early solar system, forming jupiter, fred ciesla, gaseous magnesium, henry sorby, high pressure collisions, iron oxide, jay melosh, lawrence grossman, magnesium silicates, meteorite mystery, mystery in cosmochemistry, olivine, oxide bearing olivine, planets, potential solution, primordial gas cloud, silicates, solar nebula, steven simon, sun, university of chicago, Washington

Chondrules may have formed from high-pressure collisions in early solar system

A normally staid University of Chicago scientist has stunned many of his colleagues with his radical solution to a 135-year-old mystery in cosmochemistry. “I’m a fairly sober guy. People didn’t know what to think all of a sudden,” said Lawrence Grossman, professor in geophysical sciences.

At issue is how numerous small, glassy spherules had become embedded within specimens of the largest class of meteorites—the chondrites. British mineralogist Henry Sorby first described these spherules, called chondrules, in 1877. Sorby suggested that they might be “droplets of fiery rain” which somehow condensed out of the cloud of gas and dust that formed the solar system 4.5 billion years ago. (more…)

Cloud modeling expands estimate of life-supporting planets

By Guest PostJuly 2, 2013Sciencebrazil, cloud cover, cloud modeling, dark side, dorian abbot, dwarf stars, earth like planets, earth size planet, global climate simulation, indonesia, james webb, jun yang, kepler mission, larger habitable zone, life supporting planets, milky way galaxy, NASA, nicolas cowan, northwestern university, one dimensional, space telescope, sub stellar region, thermostat, university of chicago

Larger habitable zone suggests 60 billion planets could sustain water, life

A new study that calculates the influence of cloud behavior on climate doubles the number of potentially habitable planets orbiting red dwarfs, the most common type of star in the universe. This finding means that in the Milky Way galaxy alone, 60 billion planets may be orbiting red dwarf stars in the habitable zone.

Researchers at the University of Chicago and Northwestern University based their study, which appears in Astrophysical Journal Letters, on rigorous computer simulations of cloud behavior on alien planets. This cloud behavior dramatically expanded the estimated habitable zone of red dwarfs, which are much smaller and fainter than stars like the sun. (more…)

Fat cells in breast may connect social stress to breast cancer

By Guest PostJune 23, 2013Healthacaca, acetyl coa carboxykase, acly, aggressive breast cancer, antigen mice, atp citrate lyase, breast, carcinoma in situ, chronic stress, erin wonder, estrogen, fat cells, female mice, gene, her2, hexokinase, hk2, hormones, leptin, lumpectomy, mammary fat, mammary glands, martha mcclintock, matthew brady, maxwell skor, metabolism, metabolism of glucose, multiple tissues, paul volden, progesterone, receptor, social stress, suzanne conzen, sv40 t, triple negative, tumor growth, tumors, university of chicago

Local chemical signals released by fat cells in the mammary gland appear to provide a crucial link between exposure to unrelenting social stressors early in life, and the subsequent development of breast cancer, researchers from the University of Chicago report in the July 2013 issue of the journal Cancer Prevention Research.

Some forms of stress exposure may be associated with an increased risk of certain types of aggressive breast cancer. But the mechanisms linking the biology of social stress to cancer have been hard to identify. To unravel that mechanism, the researchers looked for differences between mice raised in small groups and those that grow up in an isolated setting—an established model of chronic stress without social supports. (more…)

Evolutionary study shows bridge species drive tropical engine of biodiversity

By Guest PostJune 12, 2013Environment19th century, biodiversity, biodiversity on earth, biological patterns, christina l belanger, david jablonski, dynamic, equator, evolutionary analysis, evolutionary study, fossil record, fossil species, hurricanes, living organisms, overexploitation, pattern, poles, pollution, present day patterns, sarah k berke, shan huang, temperate zones, temperature differences, tropical cradle, tropical engine, tropical species, university of chicago

Although scientists have known since the middle of the 19th century that the tropics are teeming with species while the poles harbor relatively few, the origin of the most dramatic and pervasive biodiversity on Earth has never been clear.

New research sheds light on how that pattern came about. Furthermore, it confirms that the tropics have been and continue to be the Earth’s engine of biodiversity. (more…)

UCLA life scientists present new insights on climate change and species interactions

By Guest PostJune 11, 2013Environmentanthony dell, biotraits database, climate change, cold blooded animals, consumer, coral reefs, ecology, ecosystems, feeding event, feeding relationship, flowering in plants, fluctuation, Germany, global increase, global warming, immobile prey, interactions, juvenile possum, knowledge, life scientists, massive dataset, mean temperature, metabolic rate, mobile prey, moving prey, natural ecosystems, policymakers, predator, prey, python, rainforests, rate, resource, rising temperatures, samraat pawar, species, species interactions, timing, ucla, university of chicago, university of gottingen, van savage, variability in temperature

UCLA life scientists provide important new details on how climate change will affect interactions between species in research published online May 21 in the Journal of Animal Ecology. This knowledge, they say, is critical to making accurate predictions and informing policymakers of how species are likely to be impacted by rising temperatures.

“There is a growing recognition among biologists that climate change is affecting how species interact with one another, and that this is going to have very important consequences for the stability and functioning of ecosystems,” said the senior author of the research, Van Savage, an assistant professor of ecology and evolutionary biology and of biomathematics at UCLA. “However, there is still a very limited understanding of exactly what these changes will be. Our paper makes progress on this very important question.” (more…)

Meeting online leads to happier, more enduring marriages

By Guest PostJune 9, 2013Culture, Generalamericans, eharmony, elizabeth ogburn, find, gestalt research, gian gonzaga, happier, harris interactive, john cacioppo, marital satisfaction, marriages, meeting online, online dating encounters, partner, survey, tyler vanderweele, university of chicago

More than a third of marriages between 2005 and 2012 began online, according to new research at the University of Chicago, which also found that online couples have happier, longer marriages.

Although the study did not determine why relationships that started online were more successful, the reasons may include the strong motivations of online daters, the availability of advance screening and the sheer volume of opportunities online. (more…)

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