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The topic of "teacher professionalism" is one of the most crucial ones in quality education research. It has a potential to generate results that could inform and hence enhance the practice in classrooms. Thus, research in this field needs reliable instruments to measure the professional knowledge of our teachers to be able to generate reliable results for our research problems. Not many instruments have been developed with regard to this topic. At the same time, an adequate validation of the instrument developed is often missing (Schilling & Hill, 2007). Hence, in a bigger project "ProwiN" (German acronym for professional knowledge of science teachers), test instruments for measuring science teachers' pedagogical, pedagogical content and content knowledge (PK, PCK, and CK) were developed for the subjects biology, chemistry and physics. The present study tested the validity of some of these items which were used to measure the pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) of biology teachers. These items focused on measuring teachers' professional knowledge by analyzing 1) teachers' "knowledge about student understanding" (or lack of understanding) of several topics in biology and 2) "knowledge about instructional strategies" like the use of models or experiments. The content validity of these instruments was examined by think-aloud interviews with American and German Biology teachers (N = 11). This study shows a high content validity for these items. Furthermore, this paper demonstrates the scope for adapting the conceptual framework of these items to measure biology teachers' PCK in other countries.

Over the last 25 years, reforms in undergraduate biology education have transformed the way biology is taught at many institutions of higher education. This has been fueled in part by a burgeoning discipline-based education research community, which has advocated for evidence-based instructional practices based on findings from research. This perspective will review some of the changes to undergraduate biology education that have gained or are currently gaining momentum, becoming increasingly common in undergraduate biology classrooms. However, there are still areas in need of improvement. Although more underrepresented minority students are enrolling in and graduating from biology programs than in the past, there is a need to understand the experiences and broaden participation of other underserved groups in biology and ensure biology classroom learning environments are inclusive. Additionally, although understanding biology relies on understanding concepts from the physical sciences and mathematics, students still rarely connect the concepts they learn from other STEM disciplines to biology. Integrating concepts and practices across the STEM disciplines will be critical for biology graduates as they tackle the biological problems of the twenty-first century.

Developmental Psychobiology publishes papers from the disciplines of psychology, biology, neuroscience, and medicine that contribute to an understanding of behavioral development. Research focuses on development in the embryo/fetus, neonate, juvenile, and adult as well as multidisciplinary research that relates behavioral development to anatomy, physiology, biochemistry, genetics, and evolution. The journal represents a broad phylogenetic perspective on behavioral development by including studies on invertebrates, fish, birds, non-human primates, and humans. This paper presents an analysis of empirical articles published since its first issue in 1968. This analysis covers number of authors, sex of first author, evidence of grant support, and participation of investigators from outside the US. Additionally, the analysis includes the topic of research, level of analysis, and subject of experimental study. Over its 32-year history, Developmental Psychobiology has published papers on a wide range of topics representing a broad phylogenetic perspective with a continued focus on behavioral investigation. This analysis revealed trends such as an increase in the number of studies at a physiology/anatomy level, an increase in studies with human subjects, and increases in contributions from investigators outside of the United States as well as women. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Dev Psychobiol 37: 1–4, 2000 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Education in the United States is becoming increasingly standardized, with the standards being initiated at the national level and then trickling down to the state level and finally the local level. Yet, this top-down approach to educational standards carries with it significant limitations, such as loss of local autonomy and restrictions on the creativity of educational software designers. This paper reports findings from a study of the design and use of frog dissection simulations used in middle school and high school biology classes. The paper builds on the existing literatures on science and technology standards in education, using interviews, participant observation, and content analysis guided by grounded theory. The results highlight the ways that top-down educational standards constrain science teachers and software designers. The discussion presents an alternative to the top-down regime of educational standards, namely, a bottom-up approach of standardization from below. Finally, the conclusion argues that local control of educational experiences in the form of standardization from below can improve upon the traditional regime of top-down standards.

Higher education faculty are not held to the same standard of pedagogical preparation as primary and secondary teachers. This perspectives essay points out the difference in pedagogical preparations between higher education faculty and high school teachers. The essay highlights research indicating the importance of pedagogical training, offers suggestions on how to improve higher education teaching practices, and lists valuable teaching and assessment resources. Lastly, the essay encourages higher education faculty to seek pedagogical training and expend the necessary effort to become more effective instructors. (Contains 3 tables.)

This paper attends to challenges for postsecondary science education improvement initiatives, notably understanding and responding to the realities guiding educators' teaching practices. We explored 16 postsecondary biology educators' instructional planning, providing novel insights into why educators select certain strategies over others, including lecturing. Our findings point to an array of factors that educators consider, factors that we believe push against the lecture versus active-learning dichotomy that we hear in some improvement rhetoric. We recommend professional development experiences (including peer evaluations of teaching) wherein educators and other proponents for teaching improvements explicitly explore rationales for teaching, including educators' considerations of the nature of the discipline (content and concepts and skills and processes) and students' needs. Educators with less experience with content were more likely to seek out additional instructional resources during planning, including other educators. Given this, teaching improvement proponents may want to offer professional development activities that sync with periodic and planned teaching assignments that take educators out of their disciplinary knowledge comfort zone. Disciplinary colleagues might serve as exemplars of planning and implementing teaching strategies that both convey foundational content and processes and engage students via evidence-based practices.

The problem of invasive species spread requires timely analysis of the biological dynamics that lead to spatial dispersion. Here, a spatial dynamic model captures the invasive behavior of the recently introduced emerald ash borer (EAB) (Agrilus planipennis) and its impacts on host ash (Fraxinus spp.) trees. Parasite–host system dynamics are extended spatially using the Spatial Modeling Environment. The resulting model can serve as a repository for changing knowledge about EAB biology and behavior. Studies of the rapid EAB infestation in Michigan are used to inform simulations of its spread in DuPage County, Illinois, USA. We use a geographic information system to create heterogeneous host landscapes and to test alternative policy scenarios. We test the effectiveness of three suppression scenarios: the Michigan eradication strategy, firewood quarantines, and ash tree thinning. Simulations demonstrate that EAB spatial spread accelerates with degraded host capacity, with results pointing to firewood quarantines as the most effective solution. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Today, more minority students are entering undergraduate programs than ever before, but they earn only 6% of all science or engineering PhDs awarded in the United States. Many studies suggest that hands-on research activities enhance students' interest in pursuing a research career. In this paper, we present a model for the implementation of laboratory research in the undergraduate teaching laboratory using a culturally relevant approach to engage students. Laboratory modules were implemented in upper-division genetics and cell biology courses using cassava as the central theme. Students were asked to bring cassava samples from their respective towns, which allowed them to compare their field-collected samples against known lineages from agricultural stations at the end of the implementation. Assessment of content and learning perceptions revealed that our novel approach allowed students to learn while engaged in characterizing Puerto Rican cassava. In two semesters, based on the percentage of students who answered correctly in the premodule assessment for content knowledge, there was an overall improvement of 66% and 55% at the end in the genetics course and 24% and 15% in the cell biology course. Our proposed pedagogical model enhances students' professional competitiveness by providing students with valuable research skills as they work on a problem to which they can relate. (Contains 3 figures.)

Students need to reflect on the practice of science to fully understand the nature of science (NOS), which is an important component of scientific literacy. In this paper, the authors describe how to implement an explicit and reflective pedagogy in college science laboratories and share examples from their implementation in a multiple-section introductory biology laboratory. Their experience shows that this technique is not difficult to integrate into current inquiry-based science laboratories and can be successfully implemented by graduate teaching assistants. However, convincing students of the importance of learning about NOS is difficult and may be the most important factor in the effectiveness of this technique. (Contains 1 table.)

"Code status" is a prominent feature of end-of-life discussions in U.S. hospitals. This essay analyzes how the rhetoric of code status articulates the terms of end-of-life decision-making in one hospital's "Patient" Preferences Worksheet. The Worksheet signifies the abandonment of the technological fix as the preferred treatment for moribund patients and the transformation of a previously private moment into a matter of institutional control. Examining the Worksheet's interlocking institutional, technical, and vernacular deathbed rhetoric challenges the dominant bioethical discourse of patient autonomy and suggests a need to supplement this procedurally rational discourse with one of relational integrity. (Contains 1 figure and 112 notes.)

To help students learn science concepts, Pharmacology Education Partnership (PEP)--a science education program that incorporates relevant topics related to drugs and drug abuse into standard biology and chemistry curricula was developed. The interdisciplinary PEP curriculum provides six modules to teach biology and chemistry principles within the context of pharmacology topics (e.g., drugs of abuse, nerve gas). Teaching modules include catchy names, such as "Acids, Bases, and Cocaine Addicts," "Steroids and Athletes: Genes Work Overtime," and "How Do Drugs Damage Neurons: It's Radical!". To date, PEP has provided professional development for 300 biology and chemistry teachers participating in the studies (and another 100 teachers at ongoing workshops). National field-testing of the curriculum in approximately 16,000 students reveals that the more PEP modules the teachers use, the better their students perform on tests of biology and chemistry concepts. An additional benefit of this approach might also be to students make intelligent decisions about drug use, although this remains to be tested. Substantial gains in achievement may be possible when high school students are taught science using topics that are interesting and relevant to their lives.

More schools in the United States have begun teaching physics to ninth-graders, but there continues to be limited evidence that such a change benefits students. Many arguments in favor of Physics First and the inverted sequence of physics-chemistry-biology are based more on the intellectual logic of the sequence than on measured outcomes. Paul Lulai raised a similar concern in the November 2005 edition of "The Physics Teacher," calling for "non-anecdotal evidence" that such a curricular change leads to various outcomes including "improved scores on standardized tests" and "improved mathematics understanding and achievement." This paper describes a study of a Physics First program at one school that suggests that this change to freshman physics positively impacted students' mathematical performance on standardized tests.

The field of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Informatics (BDEI) brings together computer scientists, biologists, natural resource managers, and others who wish to solve real-world challenges while advancing the underlying ecological, computer, and information sciences. The potential for synergies among these disciplines is high, because our need to understand complex, ecosystem-scale processes requires the solution to many groundbreaking technological problems. Fortunately, we are beginning to see increased support for applied computer science and information technology research in the context of environmental problem-solving. In July, 2001, the National Science Foundation (NSF), in collaboration with the United States Geological Survey (USGS), and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), invited proposals for high-risk, small-scale planning and incubation activities to catalyze innovation and rapid advances in this new research community. The papers included in this special issue are selected, peer-reviewed summaries from principal investigators involved in this first NSF BDEI effort. These papers provide an overview of this emerging area and remind us that computer and information science and engineering play a crucial role in creating the technologies from which advances in the natural sciences evolve. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses, from a mathematician's point of view, the thesis formulated by Israel Gelfand, one of the greatest mathematicians of the 20th century, and one of the pioneers of mathematical biology, about the unreasonable ineffectiveness of mathematics in biology as compared with the obvious success of mathematics in physics. The author discusses the limitations of the mainstream mathematics of today when it is used in biology. He suggests that some emerging directions in mathematics have potential to enhance the role of mathematics in biology., (Copyright © 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

In the rapidly changing circumstances of our increasingly digital world, reading is also becoming an increasingly digital experience: electronic books (e-books) are now outselling print books in the United States and the United Kingdom. Nevertheless, many readers still view e-books as less readable than print books. The present study thus used combined EEG and eyetracking measures in order to test whether reading from digital media requires higher cognitive effort than reading conventional books. Young and elderly adults read short texts on three different reading devices: a paper page, an e-reader and a tablet computer and answered comprehension questions about them while their eye movements and EEG were recorded. The results of a debriefing questionnaire replicated previous findings in that participants overwhelmingly chose the paper page over the two electronic devices as their preferred reading medium. Online measures, by contrast, showed shorter mean fixation durations and lower EEG theta band voltage density – known to covary with memory encoding and retrieval – for the older adults when reading from a tablet computer in comparison to the other two devices. Young adults showed comparable fixation durations and theta activity for all three devices. Comprehension accuracy did not differ across the three media for either group. We argue that these results can be explained in terms of the better text discriminability (higher contrast) produced by the backlit display of the tablet computer. Contrast sensitivity decreases with age and degraded contrast conditions lead to longer reading times, thus supporting the conclusion that older readers may benefit particularly from the enhanced contrast of the tablet. Our findings thus indicate that people's subjective evaluation of digital reading media must be dissociated from the cognitive and neural effort expended in online information processing while reading from such devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Karl Pearson, the founder of mathematical statistics, was the leading statistical researcher from the 1890s up to about 1920. His interests were wide-ranging and so his impact on statistics in the United States was also wide-ranging. Many American researchers came to University College London to study with him. Others studied his work from afar. In the United States, Pearsonian statistics first penetrated the academic landscape in biology. This was soon followed by the fields of economics and psychology. It was not until relatively late in Pearson's career that several American mathematicians took up statistics as a serious research topic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Applies the information extraction (IE) technology to scientific journal papers in molecular biology in the United States. Tasks included in an IE system; Function of the LaSIE system for IE; Support of LaSIE by the General Architecture for Text Engineering software; LaSIE application in two separate bioinformatics research projects.

Few of Stephen Jay Gould's accomplishments in evolutionary biology have received more attention than his hierarchical theory of evolution, which postulates a causal discontinuity between micro- and macroevolutionary events. But Gould's hierarchical theory was his second attempt to supply a theoretical framework for macroevolutionary studies-and one he did not inaugurate until the mid-1970s. In this paper, I examine Gould's first attempt: a proposed fusion of theoretical morphology, multivariate biometry and the experimental study of adaptation in fossils. This early "macroevolutionary synthesis" was predicated on the notion that parallelism and convergence dominate the history of higher taxa, and moreover, that they can be explained in terms of adaptation leading to mechanical improvement. In this paper, I explore the origins and contents of Gould's first macroevolutionary synthesis, as well as the reasons for its downfall. In addition, I consider how various developments during the mid-1970s led Gould to identify hierarchy and constraint as the leading themes of macroevolutionary studies-and adaptation as a macroevolutionary red herring.

A list of books submitted to the "Journal of the American Medical Association" is presented, including: "Thieme Atlas of Anatomy: Neck and Internal Organs," by Michael Schuenke, Erik Schulte and Udo Schumacher; "A Personal History of Nuclear Medicine," by Henry N. Wagner Jr.; "The Biology of Cancer," by Robert A. Weinberg; "Crash Course: Immunology," by Robert Novak and James Griffin; "Glaucoma," edited by Franz Grehn and Robert Stamper; "On Call Pediatrics," by James J. Nocton; and many others.

In 1917, the German-American scientist Jacques Loeb (1859-1924) published a short essay, entitled 'Biology and War', that summarized his disagreement with World War I. He was deeply saddened by the break-up of the international scientific community as a consequence of the actions of bellicose politicians. These actions were in direct opposition to his efforts to promote social reform, mechanistic biology and scientific internationalism. The aim of this paper is to examine Loeb's activities aimed at these efforts before, during and after the war. It attempts to explain how Loeb's scientific work was formed, what was special about it and why it was both successful and attacked. Particular emphasis is placed on how Loeb reacted to the War and the subsequent forced disintegration of his international scientific network. Loeb's attempts to integrate his interpretation of biology into post-war Europe's approach to the life sciences is analysed in connection with his social commitment. It is argued that his emigration to the USA, the circumstances of World War I, the reaction of his German colleagues to it and the demolition of the international scientific community changed: (1) Loeb's feelings towards his old home; (2) the direction of his scientific endeavours; and (3) his engagement in science politics. His correspondence with eminent scientists from all over the world serves as a key to Loeb's efforts in the context of the social elements of scientific networks and perceptions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the authors' experience of offering a course for U.S. biology majors on biological explanations of social phenomena. The development of the course is in line with the desire of the author to enhance the critical-thinking skills of the students that would allow them to consider the truth of these explanations.

Eudocima spp. adults are moths that feed on ripe or ripening fruit. Occasionally, some species can cause economic losses in commercial crops. In Mexico, this group of lepidopterans has been little studied and the information is limited to capture records in diverse regions of the country. However, in recent years, damage to commercial maradol papaya crops caused by these moths has been detected. The species identified as Eudocima serpentifera and Eudocima apta were found feeding on papaya fruits. Although the two moths can be differentiated by external characteristics, problems have arisen in terms of determining the species. This paper provides comparative descriptions and images of diagnostic traits for precise identification. Moreover, the damage that these species cause is described and illustrated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Biology as an integral part of science learning continues to be maximized by integrating technology into its learning design. The definite manifestation of this integration process is to achieve meaningfulness, activeness, and effectiveness of the learning carried out. The flipped classroom (FC) is gaining popularity as a pedagogical model that uses the important benefits of technology in its learning environment. FC is proven to be an effective teaching mode that empowers students' 21st-century skills, stimulates students' self-learning, and improves academic performance. The potential of the FC is interesting to explore to what extent biology welcomes the FC. The aimed of this systematic literature review is to review and analyze articles published by Scopus indexed journals. We used the keywords "Flipped classroom and biology" in the search menu in the Scopus database and succeeded in finding 72 articles. There were 21 articles that met the criteria for further analysis. The inclusion and exclusion model used is PRISMA. The findings obtained are the trend of FC publications in biology learning over the last ten years. The approaches used in this research include quantitative, mixed method, case study and qualitative. Key words that are often used by writers are student, human, biology. The biology keyword has a branch, namely active learning. There are 9 countries of origin of authors who publish articles. The United States is a country that is active in publishing. Articles published on each continent are not evenly distributed. The dominant articles are published in collaboration with one country and rarely are articles published by one author. We have succeeded in formulating a picture of the existence of the FC in biology learning over the last ten years. These findings can be a consideration or reference for researchers to explore and study more deeply research related to the FC in biology learning based on their respective urgency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The understanding of core concepts and processes of science in solving problems is important to successful learning in biology. We have designed and developed a Web-based, self-directed tutorial program, SOLVEIT, that provides various scaffolds (e.g., prompts, expert models, visual guidance) to help college students enhance their skills and abilities in solving problems in science. An initial version of SOLVEIT was used in this study. This paper details the features of SOLVEIT that are contextualized within the biological domains of evolution and ecology. A qualitative case study was conducted to evaluate the usability of the program. Selected students were recruited from an introductory biology course at a large public university in the south-eastern United States. Data for this study were collected through the SOLVEIT database and semi-structured interviews. The findings of this study demonstrate the potential of the program for improving students' problem solving in biology. Suggestions for the use of SOLVEIT and its further improvement and development are discussed, along with suggestions for future research. This study also provides more general guidance for researchers and practitioners who are interested in the design, development and evaluation of Web-based tutorial programs in science education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers the challenges of bioscience teaching and learning in pre-registration nurse education. Effective learning requires active student participation which is problematic when teaching large groups of students. New technologies, such as the audience response system (ARS), have been introduced to increase student participation and support them in the understanding of complex bioscience concepts. Within one university department, an evaluation was undertaken to identify the perceptions of pre-registration nurse students on the use of ARS in the teaching and learning of bioscience. Our findings concur with others that ARS increases student participation and aids in identifying misconceptions and in correcting them. Students found ARS very useful and wanted ARS to be used in additional modules too. Although ARS did not seem to motivate students to study adequately before attending the relevant sessions, it increased discussion among students and awareness of their level of knowledge compared to their peers. Further research is required to identify the effectiveness of ARS in the teaching and learning of bioscience and its impact on the performance of the students in their final assessments., (Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Is there any genuine difference between organisms and artifacts? Where and how would we identify such a difference? This paper argues the difference involves the character of their individuality. Unlike an organism, an artifact's individuality is (for the most part) determined by the function that the designer selected in the artifact's production rather than the functional interdependence of its parts. In both cases, individuality is a historical property and in both cases the parts may be functionally interdependent to some extent. However, for artifacts, this interdependence is not what makes it the individual that it is. Instead, the interdependence of its parts is in the service of the functions for which the spear was designed. No such additional purpose or function exists for an organism.

In 1917, the German-American scientist Jacques Loeb (1859-1924) published a short essay, entitled 'Biology and War', that summarized his disagreement with World War I. He was deeply saddened by the break-up of the international scientific community as a consequence of the actions of bellicose politicians. These actions were in direct opposition to his efforts to promote social reform, mechanistic biology and scientific internationalism. The aim of this paper is to examine Loeb's activities aimed at these efforts before, during and after the war. It attempts to explain how Loeb's scientific work was formed, what was special about it and why it was both successful and attacked. Particular emphasis is placed on how Loeb reacted to the War and the subsequent forced disintegration of his international scientific network. Loeb's attempts to integrate his interpretation of biology into post-war Europe's approach to the life sciences is analysed in connection with his social commitment. It is argued that his emigration to the USA, the circumstances of World War I, the reaction of his German colleagues to it and the demolition of the international scientific community changed: (1) Loeb's feelings towards his old home; (2) the direction of his scientific endeavours; and (3) his engagement in science politics. His correspondence with eminent scientists from all over the world serves as a key to Loeb's efforts in the context of the social elements of scientific networks and perceptions.

To understand evolutionary theory, students must be able to understand and use evolutionary trees and their underlying concepts. Active, hands-on curricula relevant to macroevolution can be challenging to implement across large college-level classes where textbook learning is the norm. We evaluated two approaches to helping students learn macroevolutionary topics. Treatment 1 is a laboratory for the software program EvoBeaker designed to teach students about evolutionary trees. We tested Treatment 1 among nine college-level biology classes and administered pre/posttests to assess learning gains. We then sought to determine whether the learning gains from Treatment 1 were comparable to those derived from an alternate hands-on treatment, specifically the combination of a prerecorded lecture on DVD and paper-based activity based on Goldsmith's Great Clade Race (Treatment 2). Comparisons of pre- and posttests among participants using either Treatment 1 or 2 show large learning gains on some misconceptions and skills beyond knowledge gained from reading standard textbook entries. Both treatments performed equivalently in overall learning gains, though both had areas where they performed better or worse. Furthermore, gains among students who used Treatment 1 representing a wide range of universities suggest that outcomes are potentially applicable to a variety of "real-world" biology classes.

The German-born American scientist Jacques Loeb (1859-1924) was one of the most important promoters of experimental biology around 1900. He was best known for his physico-chemical explanations of psychological processes and his biotechnological approach to artificial parthenogenesis. At the start of the First World War, Loeb was deeply troubled by the deterioration of the international scientific community and the growing alienation of his German and American colleagues. The aim of this paper is to examine Jacques Loeb's activities aimed at advancing scientific internationalism before, during, and after the war. Loeb, for example, tried to negotiate the publication of German authors in American journals during the war, at a time when this was categorically rejected by publishers. Immediately after the war, he tried to create a specific system aimed at disseminating scientific literature and funding selected European colleagues, in order to overcome what he considered reactionary and hegemonic forces within German scientific institutions. His correspondence with eminent scientists from all over the world (amongst them Albert Einstein, Richard Goldschmidt, Otto Meyerhof, Otto Warburg, Paul Ehrlich, Wolfgang Ostwald, Wilhelm Roux, and Ross Harrison) will serve as a source for the analysis. Special emphasis will be placed on the question how Jacques Loeb integrated epistemology, his particular world view, and his social commitment into the workings of his own life and how he tried to extend his scientific goal of controlling biological systems to the sphere of international science.

This paper discusses the scientific rationale behind the e-Science project, Integrative Biology, which is developing mathematical modelling tools, HPC-enabled simulations and an underpinning Grid infrastructure to provide an integrative approach to the modelling of complex biological systems. The project is focusing on two key applications to validate the approach: the modelling of heart disease and cancer, which together are responsible for over 60% of deaths in the United Kingdom. This paper provides an overview of the project, describes the initial prototype architecture and discusses the long-term scientific aims.

This paper compares and contrasts three groups that conducted biological research at Yale University during overlapping periods between 1910 and 1970. Yale University proved important as a site for this research. The leaders of these groups were Ross Granville Harrison, Grace E. Pickford, and G. Evelyn Hutchinson, and their members included both graduate students and more experienced scientists. All produced innovative research, including the opening of new subfields in embryology, endocrinology and ecology respectively, over a long period of time. Harrison's is shown to have been a classic research school; Pickford's and Hutchinson's were not. Pickford's group was successful in spite of her lack of department or institutional position or power. Hutchinson and his graduate and post-graduate students were extremely productive but in diverse areas of ecology. His group did not have one focused area of research or use one set of research tools. The paper concludes that new models for research groups are needed, especially for those, like Hutchinson's, that included much field research.

This paper clarifies the chronology surrounding the population geneticist Theodosius Dobzhansky's 1937 book, Genetics and the Origin of Species. Most historians assume (a) Dobzhansky's book began as a series of 'Jesup lectures,' sponsored by the Department of Zoology at Columbia University in 1936, and (b) before these lectures were given, Dobzhansky knew he would produce a volume for the Columbia Biological Series (CBS). Archival evidence forces a rejection of both assumptions. Dobzhansky's 1936 Columbia lectures were not Jesup lectures. The book he intended to write from his lectures began as a stand-alone text in evolutionary genetics; the CBS had been defunct since 1910. In May 1937 - seven months after Dobzhansky's Columbia lectures - Leslie Dunn lobbied Columbia University to revive the CBS and the Jesup lecture series. He then quietly back dated, naming Dobzhansky a Jesup lecturer and co-opting his book manuscript as the first volume in the revived CBS. A detailed chronology of this 1936-1937 period is provided. This relocates the CBS and Jesup revivals within the narrow context of zoology at Columbia University. These helped Dunn and colleagues define cutting edges and define themselves as managers and promoters of those edges.

Some of the most important problems facing the United States and China, indeed facing our entire planet, require approaches that are fundamentally multidisciplinary in nature. Many of those require skills in computer science (CS), basic understanding of another discipline, and the ability to apply the skills in one discipline to the problems of another. Modern training in computer science needs to prepare students to work in other disciplines or to work on multidisciplinary problems. What do we do to prepare them for a multidisciplinary world when there are already too many things we want to teach them about computer science? This paper describes successful examples of multidisciplinary education at the interface between CS and the biological sciences, as well as other examples involving CS and security, CS and sustainability, and CS and the social and economic sciences. It then discusses general principles for multidisciplinary education of computer scientists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the role of genetic ability in generating the strong positive intergenerational earnings correlation observed in the USA. We compare the intergenerational wage and earnings elasticities of adopted children with these of non-adopted children. Because adopted children’s genetic ability does not depend on that of their adoptive parents, the differences between these two samples reveal the importance of genetic ability in transmitting earnings ability across generations. We find that the earnings correlation between fathers and children would be halved if their biological link was removed. Our results suggest that inheritable ability plays a very important role in passing parents’ earnings ability on to their children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scholars have differed on the question of why Mendel's work was neglected between 1865 and 1900, and the (by contrast) relatively rapid acceptance of Mendelism in many countries after 1900. This paper focuses on two factors that have not been well explored in the debate. The first is that Mendelism fit perfectly into the atomistic philosophy associated with mechanistic materialism in western science, and thus was strongly promoted by a younger group of biologists around 1900 to raise the prestige of biology to the rigorous level of the physical sciences. The second factor was that Mendelian theory, with its experimental and predictive qualities, fit well into the new demands for industrialization of agriculture both to feed a growing urban population and to provide an arena for capital expansion. This paper proposes that the early promotion of Mendelian research, by both private and public funds, owed as much to economic and social as to biological causes.

This paper offers highlights from the 100 (plus) years of the Botanical Society of America (BSA) and draws extensively on the archives of the BSA. In addition to examining the founding of the society and the attempt to "professionalize" botany in late 19th century America, the paper also explores the complex relations between the BSA and a number of related societies in the United States, the Society's struggle to create a coherent identity for itself, the place of botany as a whole in the context of the burgeoning biological sciences in the 20th century, and the changing role of the BSA in an international context. The paper assesses both the achievements and the challenges facing the BSA. It closes by offering some historical reflections on the status of "botany" as a science and the historical significance of terms like "plant biology" and "plant science." [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]