Latest Superorganisms Stories

From the kinds that people sneeze at, to the kinds that have prickly seeds that stick to pant legs, there are many different types of plants in grasslands around the world. According to a new analysis of plants in grassland ecosystems around the world, it turns out that most of those plant species are important. Brian Wilsey, associate professor, and Stanley Harpole, assistant professor, both in Iowa State University's Department of Ecology, Evolution and Organismal Biology, are authors...

Money available for exploring problems important to Australian ecosystemsSupport is available from the Australian Centre for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis, a Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network facility, for teams of researchers and managers to explore questions and problems important to Australian ecosystems.There are three ACEAS funding categories:1. Working Groups: consist of no more than 15 scientists and managers who will use workshops as a tool for their successful collaboration,...

BOSTON, April 1, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Thomas H. Kunz, Warren Distinguished Professor and director of Boston University's Center for Ecology and Conservation Biology, and a team of researchers, including Elizabeth Braun de Torrez, graduate student in BU's Department of Biology; Dana M. Bauer, assistant professor in BU's Department of Geography and Environment; Tatyana Lobova, assistant professor in Old Dominion University's Department of Biology; and Theodore H. Fleming, emeritus...

In 1964 biologist William Hamilton introduced Inclusive Fitness Theory to predict and explain phenomena ranging from animal behavior to patterns of gene expression. With its many successes, the theory became a cornerstone for modern biology. In August, 2010, Harvard researchers challenged the theory in the prestigious journal, Nature. Now Nature has published sharp rebuttals from scores of scientists, including Edward Allen Herre and William Wcislo, staff scientists at the Smithsonian...

SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 7, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- PeopleBrowsr, the high tech social analytics and engagement company, is officially opening its new SF Social Media Command Center, located at 474 Bryant Street. PeopleBrowsr will celebrate the grand opening on Monday with tech industry icon Tim O'Reilly present as guest of honor. Social Media expert Brian Solis will also lead some of the industry's greatest minds in a panel discussion titled The Evolution of Listening: From Monitoring to the...

Tendency to cooperate effectively is linked to the number of women in a groupWhen it comes to intelligence, the whole can indeed be greater than the sum of its parts. A new study co-authored by MIT, Carnegie Mellon University, and Union College researchers documents the existence of collective intelligence among groups of people who cooperate well, showing that such intelligence extends beyond the cognitive abilities of the groups' individual members, and that the tendency to cooperate...

TEMPE, Ariz., June 3 /PRNewswire/ -- The University of Advancing Technology (UAT), a leading innovator in education focused on new and emerging technologies, has named Dr. Lynn Margulis, renowned theoretical biologist, author and distinguished University Professor at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, as the 2010 inductee in the Leonardo da Vinci Society for the Study of Thinking. Dr. Margulis' revolutionary work in biology earned her prestige in the field with her theory on the...

Ecosystems are essential for preserving the quality of life of human beings, and society should be aware of this, according to Ms Miren Onaindia, biologist and person responsible for the Forest Ecology and Natural Resources research team at the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU). This group has been investigating the woods and forest of the Autonomous Community of the Basque Country (CAV-EAE) for twenty years now. In recent times they have focused on evaluating the situation of...

Research on why early termite offspring remained home with their parents, instead of leaving to create their own colonies, could provide a missing link to the evolution of sterility among social insectsNatural selection argues for small biological changes that yield greater chances of survival and successful reproduction. Yet, that process does not square well with the evolution of social insects, particularly when their colonies can have over a million non-reproductive members.A new study of...

An academic at the University of Southampton has been awarded funding to predict the effects of climate change on soil behavior.Dr Alex Penn at the Science and Engineering of Natural Systems Group at the University's School of Electronics and Computer Science has been awarded a British Council Darwin Researcher Exchange Grant to carry out research into soil ecosystems in Biosphere 2.Biosphere 2 is a 3.15-acre, 12,700 m2 structure originally built to be a man-made, materially-closed ecological...