Tag Archives: university

Cambrian Fossil Pushes Back Evolution of Complex Brains

By Guest PostOctober 10, 2012Nature, Scienceancient animal, arachnids, arizona, arthropods, brain anatomy, branchiopod brain, branchiopods, brine shrimp, cambrian fossil, cambrian period, China, common ancestor, complex brain, course, crustaceans, dna sequence, evolution, evolutionary biologist, fuxianhuia protensa, gregory edgecombe, hypothesis, insects, malacostracans, microscope, missing link, modern brain, modern malacostracan, molecular data, morphology, mudstone, multicellular animals, Nature, neural anatomy, neurobiologist, neurocladistics, neuropils, nicholas strausfeld, optic lobes, origin, sensory organ, species, taxonomic group, transformative discovery, university, xianguang hou, xiaoya ma, yunnan province, yunnan university. kunming

Complex brains evolved much earlier than previously thought, as evidenced by a 520-million-year-old fossilized arthropod with remarkably well-preserved brain structures.

The remarkably well-preserved fossil of an extinct arthropod shows that anatomically complex brains evolved earlier than previously thought and have changed little over the course of evolution. According to University of Arizona neurobiologist Nicholas Strausfeld, who co-authored the study describing the specimen, the fossil is the earliest known to show a brain.

The discovery will be published in the Oct. 11 issue of the journal Nature. (more…)

Amazonian Tribal Warfare Sheds Light on Modern Violence, Says MU Anthropologist

By Guest PostOctober 10, 2012Culture, Scienceafghanistan, altercation, Amazon, amazon forest, amazonian, amazonian warfare, anthropologist, cause, christianity, civilization, clash, cultural factor, cultural identity, culture influence, deadly attack, death, drew bailey, european contact, europeans, evolutionary history, external raid, frequency, global goal, humans, instinctual motivation, intensity, internal raid, intertribal warfare, libya, missouri, modern gang, mortality, primate ancestor, rival group, river basin, robert walker, south america, tribal life, tribal society, university, us embassy, violence, violent conflict, war, was treachery

Developing a shared sense of global community could help reduce major episodes of violence

In the tribal societies of the Amazon forest, violent conflict accounted for 30 percent of all deaths before contact with Europeans, according to a recent study by University of Missouri anthropologist Robert Walker. Understanding the reasons behind those altercations in the Amazon sheds light on the instinctual motivations that continue to drive human groups to violence, as well as the ways culture influences the intensity and frequency of violence.

“The same reasons – revenge, honor, territory and jealousy over women – that fueled deadly conflicts in the Amazon continue to drive violence in today’s world,” said Walker, lead author and assistant professor of anthropology in MU’s College of Arts and Science. “Humans’ evolutionary history of violent conflict among rival groups goes back to our primate ancestors. It takes a great deal of social training and institutional control to resist our instincts and solve disputes with words instead of weapons. Fortunately, people have developed ways to channel those instincts away from actual deadly conflict. For example, sports and video games often involve the same impulses to defeat a rival group.” (more…)

Scientists Uncover Vast Differences in Earth’s Polar Ocean Microbial Communities

By Guest PostOctober 10, 2012Environmentalison murray, Antarctica, arctic ocean, biodiversity, biodiversity pattern, biogeographically, canada, changing climate, coast, community, continental, drainage basin, earth, environmental selection, flow, france, freshwater, glacial melt, global ocean, jean françois ghiglione, kevin bakker, marine, marine life, marine microbe, michigan, microbial community, microbial diversity, new zealand, ocean, oceanic circulation, oden, polar ocean, polar region, polar year, pole, sea ice, sloan foundation, southern, spain, structure, Sweden, swedish icebreaker, united states, university

ANN ARBOR— An international team of scientists, including a University of Michigan graduate student, has demonstrated that a clear difference exists between the marine microbial communities in the Southern and Arctic oceans, contributing to a better understanding of the biodiversity of marine life at the poles.

The most comprehensive comparison of microbial diversity at both of Earth’s polar oceans showed that about 75 percent of the organisms at each pole are different. This insight sheds light on newly recognized biodiversity patterns and reinforces the importance of studying Earth’s polar regions in the face of a changing climate. And it highlights the need for further research on the impacts of sea ice, seasonal shifts and freshwater input in both regions. (more…)

Student Success

By Guest PostOctober 9, 2012Educationacademic support, african american, american issue, campus, center, climate, commission, delaware, diversity, energy, freeman hrabowski, higher education, hispanic, middle states, newark, patrick harker, program, social journey, success, super nerd, trabant university, umbc, university, university leader, vincent tinto

UD conference highlights diversity and student retention

Freeman Hrabowski and Vincent Tinto both believe that creating a culture of trust and support is a key ingredient in retaining students from underrepresented groups while achieving genuine campuswide diversity.

Hrabowski, president of the University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC), and Tinto, Distinguished Professor in the School of Education at Syracuse University, shared their expertise on diversity and student retention during the Student Success and Retention Conference, held Wednesday, Oct. 3, in the Trabant University Center on the University of Delaware campus in Newark. (more…)

Doctors Wary of Studies Funded by Pharmaceutical Industry, Study Shows

By Guest PostOctober 8, 2012General, Healthaaron kesselheim, arizona, biomedical research, christopher robertson, clinical trial, doctor, fda, federal budget, good drug, good science, high quality, method, methodological rigor, nih, pharmaceutical company, physician, quality, research, trust, university

Physicians are about half as willing to prescribe drugs tested in pharmaceutical-industry funded trials than those in NIH-funded studies, a new study finds.

Physicians are less likely to trust the results of clinical trials when they know those trials were funded by pharmaceutical companies, regardless of the quality of the research, a recent study in the New England Journal of Medicine shows.

The study, led by Dr. Aaron Kesselheim of the Harvard Medical School in Boston and co-authored by University of Arizona associate professor of law Christopher Robertson, evaluated physicians’ confidence in the results of drug trials conducted with a high, medium or low level of methodological rigor. It then looked at how their confidence in those same results changed when a trial’s funding source was revealed as either the National Institutes of Health or a company in the pharmaceutical industry, versus when no funding source was disclosed. (more…)

Among Voters Lacking Strong Party Preferences, Obama Faces 20 Percent Handicap Due to Race Bias

By Guest PostOctober 7, 2012Politicsamerican electorate, anthony greenwald, association test, Barack Obama, black, brian nosek, data, election, electorate, eligible voter, ethnicity, gender, implicit, kaiyuan xu, mitt romney, online study, polarized, political party, politically partisan, popular vote, preference, presidential candidate, race, race bias, racial attitude, sexuality, sianna ziegler, sriram natarajan, teri kirby, university, Washington, white

An online study of eligible voters around the country revealed that preferences for whites over blacks among the least politically-partisan voters are strong enough to have substantial impact on their presidential candidate preference.

Among these voters, race biases against Barack Obama could produce as much as a 20 percent gap in the popular vote in a contest that would otherwise be equal. (more…)

Right to Science?

By Guest PostOctober 6, 2012Scienceaaas, abuja, africa, african university, apa, article 15, benefit, bill ullman, cultural rights, deborah ehrenthal, delaware, developing world, doug buttrey, doug doren, economic, human right, institution, intellectual property, international covenant, jessica wyndham, mark barteau, nelson mandela, nigeria, nmi, rights, Science, scientific advancement, scientific inquiry, sepp, social, steve dentel, sub-saharan, Technology, tom powers, ud campus, united nations, university, workshop, world bank

Workshop helps to define the human right to benefit from science

Conscience. Expression. Property. Fair trial. Peaceful assembly. And science?

Yes, says the University of Delaware’s Tom Powers, the international community has declared that there is an inalienable human right to science.

In 1948, the United Nations adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which guarantees in Article 27 “the right freely to participate in the cultural life of the community, to enjoy the arts and to share in scientific advancement and its benefits.”

The same right was reaffirmed by the U.N. General Assembly in Article 15 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in 1966. (more…)

The Right to Vote

By Guest PostOctober 6, 2012Culture, Politicsamerica, american public, bartender, cartogram, christopher uggen, civil war, crime, criminal, criminal history, data, drug offense, electorate, felon disenfranchisement, florida, floridians, former felon, gpa, grad, inmate, jeff manza, kentucky, key battleground, locked out, maine, marker, marriage, minneapolis, minnesota, new york, november, owatonna, policy, policy maker, presidency, right, rob stewart, same sex, sarah shannon, society, states, united states, university, us house, us senate, vermont, virginia, vote, voter id

A lot is up for grabs this November in America—the presidency of the United States, for one. Not to mention a third of U.S. Senate seats, all seats in the U.S. House, and state-level amendments on issues ranging from voter ID to same-sex marriage (Minnesota has both on the ballot).

But almost six million Americans will sit this one out because of something they’ve done. They’re felons—perpetrators, at some point in their lives, of a serious crime. (more…)