“Media Advisory: International Conference on the Biology of Marine ... - Market Wire” plus 4 more |
- Media Advisory: International Conference on the Biology of Marine ... - Market Wire
- How Biology Influences Our Behavior - New York Times
- Clemson receives $9.3 million grant - Anderson Independent-Mail
- UNL To Receive Federal Grant for Plant Genetic Research - WOWT
- Absent Pheromones Turn Male Flies Into Lusty Lotharios - Science Daily
| Media Advisory: International Conference on the Biology of Marine ... - Market Wire Posted: 15 Oct 2009 06:32 AM PDT QUEBEC CITY, QUEBEC--(Marketwire - Oct. 15, 2009) - The 18th Biennial Conference on the Biology of Marine Mammals of the Society for Marine Mammalogy continues at the Quebec City Conference Centre. The 1500 participants are meeting until tomorrow. Yesterday's sessions focussed on human interactions with marine mammals, such as bycatch in fishing gear, ship collisions, and the marine mammal observation industry. There was also considerable interest in the features of marine mammal communications. Today, there are three important plenary presentations that touch on the need for international collaboration for research projects on species that occupy and migrate over immense distances, the project CALVIN, a successful outreach project concerned with species recovery, and also concerning a new non-invasive technique to obtain reproductive hormone samples from the 'blows' of whales. Other sessions will address exposure to contaminants and their effects on marine mammal health, as well as the effects of noise on marine mammals. Another session will examine different approaches to promote protection and conservation of marine mammal populations. Don't miss the special conference daily bulletins Portrait de baleines (www.portraitdebaleines.net). Several of the main topics covered at the conference are further explored. For more information on the conference visit www.marinemammalscience.org, under Conference. Communiques and special bulletins (also available on www.baleinesendirect.net/index.html) are added in the media section of the conference Website (www.marinemammalscience.org) during the event. To receive this information by email, submit your request to Karina.Laberge@dfo-mpo.gc.ca. This content has passed through fivefilters.org. |
| How Biology Influences Our Behavior - New York Times Posted: 14 Oct 2009 09:50 PM PDT To the Editor: David Brooks's terrific Oct. 13 column, "The Young and the Neuro," addresses the interdisciplinary nature of the research being done today in cognitive neuroscience. Far from being merely the domain of medicine or sociology, it is a new discipline being forged through the fusion of biotechnology, psychology, physiology, and political and social science. In the future, no single scholarly field will flourish without interrelationships with others. That this truth is being recognized is apparent in the Nobel committee's decision to award the prize in economics to Elinor Ostrom, a political scientist at Indiana University. University administrators should be aware that other areas that are usually relegated to "the arts" are also involved in cognitive science, including theater and performance studies, which has been examining how mirror neurons are engaged when audiences watch plays or view films. Mr. Brooks is to be commended for recognizing the value of interdisciplinarity. Let us not forget, especially at a time when university budgets are being drastically cut, that those of us working in the humanities are contributing to "neurohumanism" as well. Linda Charnes The writer is a professor of English and West European studies at Indiana University. • To the Editor: David Brooks heralds the new way that we will be analyzing our behavior, so that we will more fully understand how we react to events and to others. But there is one flaw in Mr. Brooks's conclusion. He declares that the categories "emotion" and "reason" will no longer be relevant. On the contrary, this new "social cognitive neuroscience" will highlight the way our reactions are determined by our emotions rather than our reason. We will finally begin to understand scientifically what psychologists have understood for decades: how most of our actions stem from our emotions rather than our rational thought. Mark Ettinger • To the Editor: For decades, the psychoanalytic community has been helping patients to lead more productive, satisfying lives by searching for the conscious and unconscious motivations behind their actions, attitudes and behaviors. Our work has lately come under attack as being unscientific, but David Brooks describes just how our clinical theories intersect with empirical research and wider social concerns. With the benefit of new technology, young scientists can scan brain processes and demonstrate how the unconscious brain affects behaviors and how human attachments are developed or altered. As psychoanalysts, we struggle to retain credibility in the health care debate, to get reimbursements from insurance companies and to get a seat at the table of political and cultural discourse. We need to rethink the way we define what we do and challenge the perception of the analyst as insular and out of touch. An article like Mr. Brooks's confirms that we are relevant. I hope that the young scientists can help us find a better way to engage. Mindy Utay
The writer is a social worker and psychoanalyst in private practice. • To the Editor: David Brooks writes: "The anterior cingulate cortices in American and Chinese brains activate when people see members of their own group endure pain, but they do so at much lower levels when they see members of another group enduring it. These effects may form the basis of prejudice." Aren't these effects simply a result of prejudice? Is the biochemical process the basis of prejudice or is prejudice the basis for a biochemical process taking place? To simply assume that a biochemical correlate of a social activity is its explanation is bad science, even if chemical reactions look less "fuzzy" than the materials of social and cultural life. James Slotta • To the Editor: David Brooks seems to consider it delightful that the social cognitive neuroscientists he saw at a recent academic conference were "young, hip and attractive." But as an un-hip 62-year-old professor in a different field, I wonder whether the "geeks" and "graying professors" whose absence Mr. Brooks seems to celebrate were not there because they would be unwelcome. Such discrimination would be not only immoral but also foolish, since even the old and un-hip just might have something to offer intellectually. Felicia Nimue Ackerman The writer is a professor of philosophy at Brown University. This content has passed through fivefilters.org. |
| Clemson receives $9.3 million grant - Anderson Independent-Mail Posted: 15 Oct 2009 09:24 AM PDT CLEMSON — Clemson University has received a $9.3 million, five-year National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant to establish a Center of Biomedical Research Excellence (COBRE) for Tissue Regeneration, according to the university. Faculty from the Medical University of South Carolina and the University of South Carolina also will collaborate, providing expertise in medicine and developmental biology, a release said. The center is funded by the NIH National Center for Research Resources Institutional Development Award program that seeks to broaden the geographic distribution of NIH funding for biomedical and behavioral research. The program aims to increase the number of NIH-funded biomedical researchers in the nation and to strengthen the biomedical research capacity of individual universities. The goal is to create world-class core facilities and to provide funding and mentoring for early career investigators already in place to make them successful, independent NIH-funded investigators. "This new Clemson COBRE will significantly improve our collaborative efforts in South Carolina to recruit, train and retain researchers with cross-disciplinary skills in the area of regenerative medicine," said Clemson University President James F. Barker. "This recognition from NIH is a great honor for Clemson University and speaks to the rich history and outstanding quality of research from our bioengineering department." According to U.S. Census Bureau projections, the aging baby boomer population will expand the elderly population 75 percent in the next two decades to over 74 million people, creating a tremendous biomedical need. South Carolina already is home to a growing medical-device cluster. "End-stage organ failure and tissue loss create health care costs of nearly $400 billion annually in the United States," said Naren Vyavahare, Hunter Endowed Chair, professor of bioengineering and chief architect of the proposal. Vyavahare also will act as principal investigator and the center's director. "The center's research focus will be on tissue regeneration through cell-biomaterials interactions with the goal of restoring functional tissues." The center will provide mentors for early-career researchers who can work toward independence as NIH-funded investigators. The first group of early-career investigators include Bruce Gao and Ken Webb, associate professors of bioengineering at Clemson; Susan Lessner, assistant professor of cell biology and anatomy at USC; and Anand Ramamurthi, associate professor of bioengineering with the Clemson-MUSC Bioengineering Program and adjunct associate professor of regenerative medicine and cell biology at the Medical University of South Carolina. Chris Przirembel, vice president for research and economic development at Clemson, said NIH's decision to fund a COBRE center shows the university's potential to contribute significantly to the body of knowledge in a critical research field strongly tied to the university's biotechnology and biomedical science emphasis area that combines research expertise with opportunity for economic growth in the state. "It is very gratifying that the National Institutes of Health recognize Clemson's research strength in this important field. Each year, thousands of Americans and even more people worldwide suffer or lose their lives due to organ failure," said Przirembel. "The dedication of professor Vyavahare and his colleagues to alleviate suffering is inspiring to all of us. The potential exists for their discoveries to lead to the development of new products, spurring the creation of a new biomedical-related industry segment to provide additional jobs. The potential positive outcomes of this research are endless." There are no comments yet. This content has passed through fivefilters.org. |
| UNL To Receive Federal Grant for Plant Genetic Research - WOWT Posted: 15 Oct 2009 09:31 AM PDT UNL is will be getting one of fifteen grants for research on plant genomics, genetics and breeding. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced more than $7 million in grants for research on the biology of plant processes and traits which can be used to breed crops with enhanced value and resilience to climate stress. The research will increase understanding of plant biology from the genome to the field, and provide a foundation for the development of plant varieties with increased yield, reduced production cost, and enhanced quality and nutritional value. The grant to UNL will be for $282,000. "At a time when disruptive climate change threatens production of some of the world's staple foods, some of the biggest gains we can make in ending world hunger will involve development of stress-resistant crops," said Vilsack. "Drought-tolerant, heat-tolerant, and saline-resistant crops will not only offer tremendous improvements for farmers around the world, but also position American farmers competitively in the world market." These grants are awarded by USDA's National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA), previously the Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service, under the new Agriculture and Food Research Initiative program to provide funding for fundamental and applied research, extension and education to address food and agricultural sciences. This content has passed through fivefilters.org. |
| Absent Pheromones Turn Male Flies Into Lusty Lotharios - Science Daily Posted: 15 Oct 2009 04:59 AM PDT ScienceDaily (Oct. 15, 2009) — When Professor Joel Levine's team genetically tweaked fruit flies so that they didn't produce certain pheromones, they triggered a sexual tsunami in their University of Toronto Mississauga laboratory. In fact, they produced bugs so irresistible that normal male fruit flies attempted to mate with pheromone-free males and even females from a different species-generally a no-no in the fruit fly dating scene. The study, published in the Oct. 15 issue of Nature, points to a link between sex, species recognition and a specific chemical mechanism, and is part of Levine's larger research into the genetic basis of social behaviour. "This is important not only from the point of view of understanding social dynamics, but it's also fundamental biology, because these pheromones provide recognition cues that facilitate reproductive behaviour," says Levine, an assistant professor of biology. "Lacking these chemical signals (pheromones) eliminated barriers to mating. It turned out that males of other species were attracted to females who didn't have these signals, so that seemed to eliminate the species barrier." In this study, they focused on recognition-how individual Drosophila melanogaster (fruit flies) know what their species is and what their sex is. While previous studies had suggested that pheromones played an important role, Levine's team decided to genetically eliminate a certain class of these chemicals, called cuticular hydrocarbon pheromones, to determine their particular effect. The researchers found that female flies bred without the hydrocarbons were melanogaster Marilyn Monroes to normal males. But the effect didn't stop there-males lacking the hydrocarbons were also sexually irresistible. In fact, females lacking the hydrocarbons were so sexy that males of other Drosophila species courted them. When the researchers treated females bred without the hydrocarbons with a female aphrodisiac, it restored the barrier preventing sex between species, suggesting that a single compound can provide species identity. "That means the same chemical signals and genes are underlying not only social behaviour in groups, like courtship and mating, but also behaviour between species." Levine stresses that while pheromones are part of the human mating dance, the cues for attraction are far more complex in our species. "Although I am no expert on human pheromones, there is evidence that men and women may discriminate odours from the same sex or other sexes differently, and there's even some evidence that how an individual discriminates those odours may reflect their gender preference," he says. "We may rely more on the visual system, and we may have a more complex way of assessing other individuals and classifying them and determining how we're going to relate to them than a fly does. "But what we're looking at is a spectrum across biology of a tendency to understand how others relate to ourselves. It's clearly an issue that humans are caught up in-it's in our art, like Madame Butterfly and it's in our newspapers, in terms of sports issues like the recent controversy about the sexual identify of the South African runner Caster Semenya." The study was funded by grants from the Swiss National Science Foundation, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and Canada Research Chair grants awarded to Levine. Journal reference:
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