Behavioural Ecology: Noise Annoys at Community Level

A new study on the impact of anthropogenic noise on birds takes a behavioural discipline to the level of community ecology: noise can not only harm individual species but also alter species relationships.     

Required Reading: Sociology's Most Influential Books

Required Reading: Sociology's Most Influential Books. Dan Clawson. ed. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1998. 221 pp.     

Prebiotic Chemistry: What We Know,What We Don't

How life on Earth began remains an unexplained scientific problem. This problem is nuanced in its practical details and the way attempted explanations feedback with questions and developments in other areas of science, including astronomy, biology, and planetary science. Prebiotic chemistry attempts to address this issue theoretically, experimentally, and observationally. The ease of formation of bioorganic compounds under plausible prebiotic conditions suggests that these molecules were present in the primitive terrestrial environment. In addition to synthesis in the Earth's primordial atmosphere and oceans, it is likely that the infall of comets, meteorites, and interplanetary dust particles, as well as submarine hydrothermal vent synthesis, may have contributed to prebiotic organic evolution. The primordial organic soup may have been quite complex, but it did not likely include all of the compounds found in modern organisms. Regardless of their origin, organic compounds would need to be concentrated and complexified by environmental mechanisms. While this review is by no means exhaustive, many of the issues central to the state of the art of prebiotic chemistry are reviewed here.     

Show Me Your Menu

This activity discusses a two-day unit on ecology implemented during the summer of 2004 using the project-based science instructional (PBSI) approach. Through collaborative fieldwork, group discussions, presentations, and reflections, students planned, implemented, and reported their own scientific investigations on the environmental health of their local park in the borough of Queens, New York City. Students' questions included a wide range of topics that dealt with plants, animals, soil and water, and the interactions and relationships between these variables. Findings from students' reports and presentations indicated that the pH of the soil and pond water system at the park, as well as the characteristics of terrestrial and aquatic organisms, differ by location. In addition, results of the unit of instruction demonstrated that it is possible to teach students science content and process in a reasonably short period using the PBSI approach.     

Don't Fence Me In

There are many applications of applied psychophysiology. Some are relevant to AAPB's interests, some are not. However, in no case should we exclude them from our purview merely by defining them out of our existence.