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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.     

Connecting the Dots between Consumer Protection,Skepticism, and Science

The concept of relevance is an obvious component in the success of classroom science investigations, but it is also one of the tenets behind the numerous media advertisements that bombard our senses on a daily basis. The authors decided to capitalize on the similarities between process-based science and the world of advertising by initiating consumer protection investigations with a side venture into the commercial world of Madison Avenue. Advertisers use many strategies in an attempt to convince consumers to buy their products. By analyzing the strategies used in a sales pitch, one begins to recognize that data can be manipulated, facts can be skewed, and visuals can be controlled to enhance product performance. Such analyses require students to look deeper and seek answers beyond the surface of presented information, superficial declarations, visual discrepancies, and verbal innuendo. In other words, such analysis is all about deciphering claims and evidence, making it analogous to science. The antithesis of this procedure, synthesizing a sales campaign for a real or imagined product, is the application of these process skills. In sum, if students can create a successful advertising campaign by using their data, then they understand the art of data manipulation and may, therefore, become better consumers.     

Limnological perspective of Lake Xolotlán (Managua): The PLALM

A general view of Lake Xolotlán (known also as Lake Managua) and the research carried out during the Project Limnology Applied to Lake Managua (PLALM) are reported here. A summarized account of the results, given in details as seperated papers elsewhere in the same volume, is also presented.     

《菌物学报》三十年回眸与展望

就下列三方面进行论述:首先就《菌物学报》的简史进行了回顾。对《真菌学报》及《Mycosystema》的创刊及其背景进行了简短叙述。当《Mycosystema》已被《Dictionary of the Fungi》第八版作为世界25种菌物科学定期刊物之一列入国际刊物名录后,学会和开放实验室决定将《真菌学报》并入《Mycosystema》;就中文刊名启用《菌物学报》的背景进行了回顾。其次,就菌物多样性及其分类学与演化系统生物学、《菌物学报》所扮演的三大存取系统之一——菌物信息存取系统的重要性进行了论述。再次,对《菌物学报》的过去和现在的历史性贡献予以肯定;对其今后的作用抱有期望。     

A fast GNU method to draw accurate scientific illustrations for taxonomy

Nowadays only digital figures are accepted by the most important journals of taxonomy. These may be produced by scanning conventional drawings, made with high precision technical ink-pens, which normally use capillary cartridge and various line widths. Digital drawing techniques that use vector graphics, have already been described in literature to support scientists in drawing figures and plates for scientific illustrations; these techniques use many different software and hardware devices. The present work gives step-by-step instructions on how to make accurate line drawings with a new procedure that uses bitmap graphics with the GNU Image Manipulation Program (GIMP). This method is noteworthy: it is very accurate, producing detailed lines at the highest resolution; the raster lines appear as realistic ink-made drawings; it is faster than the traditional way of making illustrations; everyone can use this simple technique; this method is completely free as it does not use expensive and licensed software and it can be used with different operating systems. The method has been developed drawing figures of terrestrial isopods and some examples are here given.     

NAS Grid Benchmarks: A Tool for Grid Space Exploration

We present a benchmark suite for computational Grids. It is based on the NAS Parallel Benchmarks (NPB) and is called NAS Grid Benchmark (NGB) in this paper. We present NGB as a data flow graph encapsulating an instance of an NPB code in each graph node, which communicates with other nodes by sending/receiving initialization data. These nodes may be mapped to the same or different Grid machines. Like NPB, NGB specifies several different classes (problem sizes). NGB also specifies the generic Grid services sufficient for running the suite. The implementor has the freedom to choose any Grid environment. We describe a reference implementation in Java, and present some scenarios for using NGB.     

Scientific Discrimination and the Activist Scientist: L.C. Dunn and the Professionalization of Genetics and Human Genetics in the United States

During the 1920s and 1930s geneticist L.C. Dunn of Columbia University cautioned Americans against endorsing eugenic policies and called attention to eugenicists’ less than rigorous practices. Then, from the mid-1940s to early 1950s he attacked scientific racism and Nazi Rassenhygiene by co-authoring Heredity, Race and Society with Theodosius Dobzhansky and collaborating with members of UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization) on their international campaign against racism. Even though shaking the foundations of scientific discrimination was Dunn’s primary concern during the interwar and post-World War II years, his campaigns had ancillary consequences for the discipline. He contributed to the professionalization of genetics during the 1920s and 1930s and sought respectability for human genetics in the 1940s and 1950s. My article aims to elucidate the activist scientist’s role in undermining scientific discrimination by exploring aspects of Dunn’s scientific work and political activism from the 1920s to 1950s. Definitions are provided for scientific discrimination and activist scientist.     

Communicating the consensus on climate change to college biology majors: The importance of preaching to the choir

College and university biology majors who are not climate change deniers may yet be unaware of the degree of scientific consensus on climate change and unprepared to communicate about climate science to others. This study reports on a population of climate change accepting biology majors at a large, private research university in the American northeast. Our students tended to greatly underestimate the degree of scientific consensus around climate change, to be only moderately worried about climate change, and to be unconfident in their ability to communicate about the state of the scientific consensus around climate change. After an introduction to the scholarly literature that substantiates and quantifies the scientific consensus on climate change in the context of a course on biological research literature, our students showed significant increases in their estimates of the consensus on climate change, and their estimates were more accurate. Additionally, they became more worried about climate change as well as more confident in their ability to communicate about the scientific consensus to others. These results are in line with the Gateway Belief Model, which positions perception of scientific agreement on climate change as an important driver of acceptance and motivation toward action.     

Writing Scientific Biography

Much writing on scientific biography focuses on the legitimacy and utility of this genre. In contrast, this essay discusses a variety of genre conventions and imperatives which continue to exert a powerful influence on the selection of biographical subjects, and to control the plot and structure of the ensuing biographies. These imperatives include the following: the plot templates of the Bildungsroman (the realistic novel of individual self-development), the life trajectories of Weberian ideal types, and the functional elements and personae of the folkloric tale of the “hero’s quest.” The essay discusses the nature and application of these genre conventions in some detail, with the conclusion that biography, however useful, exerts a powerfully distorting influence on the image of how most science gets done.