SOLS News Archive 2008

Honeybee researcher to investigate longevity and aging with support from Norway
Gro Amdam, associate professor in the School of Life Sciences at Arizona State University, has been awarded two grants totaling the U.S. equivalent of about $1.4 million from the Norwegian Research Council to investigate biochemical factors and social life history properties that can influence aging and longevity in honeybees. Amdam also is with the Department of Chemistry, Biotechnology and Food Science at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences in Norway.
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Biosensing nanodevice to revolutionize health screenings
One day soon a biosensing nanodevice developed by Arizona State University researcher Wayne Frasch may eliminate long lines at airport security checkpoints and revolutionize health screenings for diseases like anthrax, cancer and antibiotic resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA).
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Solving an avian scourge could also provide benefits to human health
The old adage ‘a bird in hand is worth two in the bush’ may very well apply to a new vaccine project underway in the lab of ASU School of Life Sciences Professor Roy Curtiss, director of the Center for Infectious Diseases and Vaccinology at the Biodesign Institute.
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Mini worlds may simulate climate change, extraterrestrial and ancient earth’s atmospheres
“Global climate change” – words on the lips of senators, students, housewives and school children. The “new’ phenomenon is featured in headlines and theater marquees and accepted by the scientific community. However, change in Earth’s atmosphere is not new.
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Scientists show that streams are critical to preservation of oceanic coastal zones
The plight of the world’s oceans is dire, according to recent studies, through insults from human-derived activities depopulating and damaging reefs, altering coastlines, and creating pollutants, such as nitrogen runoff from terrestrial watersheds.
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Species explorers ask: What’s on your planet?
Taxonomy, the science responsible for species exploration and classification, has been largely ignored in recent decades – a disregard that ASU’s new International Institute for Species Exploration is out to change.
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2008 recipient of the King Faisal Prize to speak
An internationally renowned behavioral biologist, Wehner holds a professorship in neurobiology with the University of Zurich, where he is the also the director of the Institute of Zoology. His research examines insect behavior and associated underlying neural systems related to sophisticated navigational tasks, including the complex visual mechanisms underlying skylight (polarized light) navigation, path integration and piloting by visual landmarks in ants, bees, crickets.
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SOLS Takes a Hike: See Papago Park with ASU Experts
Under a wide, azure sky, the red rock Papago Buttes rise prominently over Papago Park in Phoenix and provide a bird’s eye view of and window of discovery on the park’s 1,200 acres.
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Researchers Visualize Complex Pigment Mixtures in Living Cells
In a technical advance that could allow researchers to watch cells as they act during the process of photosynthesis, scientists have developed a method that extends the power of fluorescence–mediated bio-imaging to see discrete pigments inside live cells of bacteria.
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Symposium on Idiopathic & Congenital Scoliosis: Genetics & Current Approaches
March 15, 2008, Saturday. 12:30 pm – 5:30 pm MST. Building 2, 600 East Van Buren Street. Phoenix, Arizona, USA. Available as Live Streaming Media. Please Register for Information
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Liberal Arts and Sciences places emphasis on health career advising
A health career advising group is being established in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences to better serve the growing number of undergraduate students at ASU who are interested in medical and health professions.
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ASU bioethicist says mental illness is subject to biological and sociocultural factors
Biology is crucial to understanding psychosis, "but there is more to psychosis than mere biology," says Jason Robert, an Arizona State University bioethicist and philosopher of science.
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Adapting Local Ecosystems Can Soften Impact
"Think globally, act locally" makes for a nice bumper sticker – but is it an effective policy for coping with global climate change? Can local actions make a difference in a process principally driven by worldwide trends?
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Managing Uncertainty Important in Ecological Balance, ASU Researcher Says
BOSTON – The balance of nature looms prominently in the public mind these days. Climate change, genetically modified plants and animals, and globally declining fish stocks are but a few of the issues that remind us that ours is a fragile world. Or is it?
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Oceanic maps show human impacts gone global
February 24, 2008–The ocean has inspired men and women, who looked out over its wide vistas to the horizon and dreamed (or schemed). Its depths have provided food, inspired empires, and belched forth a wealth of resources and opportunities.
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Urban ecology: taking measure of the coming megacity’s footprint
TEMPE, Ariz. – If you are reading this, chances are that you live in a city – one, perhaps, on its way to becoming a megacity with a population that exceeds 10 million or more. If not, you and most of the world’s population soon will be, according to global population demographics projections.
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Whirligig beetle gets rock ‘n’ roll legendary name
An unusual new species of whirligig beetle from India is being named Orectochilus orbisonorum in honor of the late rock ‘n’ roll legend Roy Orbison and his widow Barbara. Arizona State University entomologist Quentin Wheeler announced the description and discovery of the beetle species Jan. 25 during a Roy Orbison Tribute Concert, part of a weekend of tribute events hosted by ASU’s Center for Film, Media and Popular Culture and the Tempe Center for the Arts.
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Iridescence workshop promotes nature’s nanotechnology
The phrase “sex sells” takes on special significance when scientists and students gather. While nature’s showiest subjects step out to promote reproductive success and survival with bright colors, flash and iridescence in feathers, scales, petals and wings, biologists, physicists, behaviorists and materials scientists will delve into what’s behind all the bling at a workshop on “Iridescence” to be held Feb. 6-9 at Arizona State University in Tempe, Ariz.
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Arizona State Professor Is Appointed to NRC Licensing Board
Kenneth Mossman, an Arizona State University College of Liberal Arts & Sciences professor of health physics and an international expert in radiation health and safety, has been named to the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board Panel (ASLBP) of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The panel is an independent, trial level adjudicatory body of the NRC.
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February 12, 2008 – 199th Birthday of Charles Darwin
The 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin’s birth is February 12, 2009 and the count-down continues this year. This February 12th at noon, the School of Life Sciences and the Natural History Collections will sponsor a birthday tea.
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February 07, 2008 – Researchers decode genetics of rare photosynthetic bacterium
A bacterium that harvests far-red light by making a rare form of chlorophyll (chlorophyll d) has revealed its genetic secrets, according to a team of researchers who recently sequenced the bacteria’s genome.
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Project Focuses On Production Of Hydrogen From Bacteria And Sunlight
If we wanted to create the ideal environmentally friendly energy source, it would be a fuel that is easy and economical to produce, and one that does not pollute our air when burned.
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