Bridging the Gap: How Can Information Access and Exchange Between Conservation Biologists and Field Practitioners be Improved for Better Conservation Outcomes?

It is widely accepted that there is a considerable gap between the science of conservation biology and the design and execution of biodiversity conservation projects in the field and science is failing to inform the practice of conservation. There are many reasons why this implementation gap exists. A high proportion of papers published in scientific journals by conservation biologists are seldom read outside of the academic world and there are few incentives for academics to convert their science into practice. In turn, field practitioners rarely document their field experiences and experiments in a manner that can meaningfully inform conservation scientists. Issues related to access to scientific literature, scientific relevance in multidisciplinary environments, donor expectations and a lack of critical analysis at all levels of conservation theory and practice are factors that exacerbate the divide. The contexts in which conservation biologists and field practitioners operate are also often highly dissimilar, and each has differing professional responsibilities and expectations that compromise the ability to learn from each other's expertise. Building on recent debate in the literature, and using case studies to illustrate the issues that characterize the divide, this paper draws on the authors' experiences of project management as well as academic research. We identify five key issues related to information exchange: access to scientific literature, levels of scientific literacy, lack of interdisciplinarity, questions of relevance and lack of sharing of conservation-related experiences and suggest new ways of working that could assist in bridging the gap between conservation scientists and field practitioners.     

Heterogeneous assemblages of bioethics and science: the “pre-embryo” debate in America

This paper explores the “pre-embryo” debate in America to analyze the relationship between scientific uncertainty and moral decision-making. This paper explores how an ethical debate among bioethicists around the term “pre-embryo” has been transformed into a scientific “fact” debate between developmental biology and embryology. This transformation is driven by the scientism of ethical reasoning that stresses scientific claims to increase the credibility of ethical claims. This paper concludes that the “pre-embryo” debate is not an ethical controversy over a unified science but rather credibility struggles between two heterogeneous assemblages of science and bioethics.     

The Cold War Context of the Golden Jubilee,Or, Why We Think of Mendel as the Father of Genetics

In September 1950, the Genetics Society of America (GSA) dedicated its annual meeting to a "Golden Jubilee of Genetics" that celebrated the 50th anniversary of the rediscovery of Mendel's work. This program, originally intended as a small ceremony attached to the coattails of the American Institute of Biological Sciences (AIBS) meeting, turned into a publicity juggernaut that generated coverage on Mendel and the accomplishments of Western genetics in countless newspapers and radio broadcasts. The Golden Jubilee merits historical attention as both an intriguing instance of scientific commemoration and as an early example of Cold War political theatre. Instead of condemning either Lysenko or Soviet genetics, the Golden Jubilee would celebrate Mendel - and, not coincidentally, the practical achievements in plant and animal breeding his work had made possible. The American geneticists' focus on the achievements of Western genetics as both practical and theoretical, international, and, above all, non-ideological and non-controversial, was fully intended to demonstrate the success of the Western model of science to both the American public and scientists abroad at a key transition point in the Cold War. An implicit part of this article's argument, therefore, is the pervasive impact of the Cold War in unanticipated corners of postwar scientific culture.     

Theory and practice: the impact of Mendelism on agriculture

The purpose of this paper is a reexamination of the success story of how Mendelian genetics gave birth to a revolution in plant and animal breeding which produced the spectacular 20th century agricultural progress and made it possible to feed the exploding population of the Earth. Critics have pointed to the problematic social effect of the agricultural revolution, and they have doubted the importance of the new genetics, especially during the first three or four decades of the 20th century. This paper argues that the criticism has tended to take a narrow instrumental view of science underestimating the guiding role of theory in practical matters. Plant and animal breeding continued to depend mainly on the old 19th century techniques, hybridization, mass selection and individual selection. But they were combined and used in much more efficient ways than before. New theoretical knowledge, general theories as well as particular knowledge about species, strains and individuals, radically improved the planning and execution of breeding work.     

Goals and hurdles for a successful implementation of genomic selection in breeding programme for selected annual and perennial crops

Genomic Selection is an important topic in quantitative genetics and breeding. Not only does it allow the full use of current molecular genetic technologies, it stimulates also the development of new methods and models. Genomic selection, if fully implemented in commercial farming, should have a major impact on the productivity of various agricultural systems. But suggested approaches need to be applicable in commercial breeding populations. Many of the published research studies focus on methodologies. We conclude from the reviewed publications, that a stronger focus on strategies for the implementation of genomic selection in advanced breeding lines, introduction of new varieties, hybrids or multi-line crosses is needed. Efforts to find solutions for a better prediction and integration of environmental influences need to continue within applied breeding schemes. Goals of the implementation of genomic selection into crop breeding should be carefully defined and crop breeders in the private sector will play a substantial part in the decision-making process. However, the lack of published results from studies within, or in collaboration with, private companies diminishes the knowledge on the status of genomic selection within applied breeding programmes. Studies on the implementation of genomic selection in plant breeding need to evaluate models and methods with an enhanced emphasis on population-specific requirements and production environments. Adaptation of methods to breeding schemes or changes to breeding programmes for a better integration of genomic selection strategies are needed across species. More openness with a continuous exchange will contribute to successes.     

植物园与植物园学

随着全世界植物园数量的增加、功能和转变和我学科的综合,需要发展植物园学,以引导植物园的发展。植物园学主要包括10个方面的内容：1）植物园的性质、任务和功能;2）历史;3）规划设计;4）物种保护,尤其是迁地保护;5）活植物收集圃及其管理;6）引种驯化的理论与实践和新经济植物的发掘;7）植物展出的技术与方法;8）城市生物多样性保护和利用;9）环境教育和旅游;10）维护和管理。生物多样性是植物园的核心。美丽的外貌、科学的内涵和人与自然和谐共外的准则是植物园的基本要素。     

鸡快慢羽性状遗传学基础分析综合实验探索与实践

随着全国“卓越农林人才教育培养计划”的开展,我校动物科学专业设置了“卓越班”,以突出培养学生的系统思维和创新创业能力为目标开展了系列教育教学管理和课程改革。为此,我们以“鸡快、慢羽性状”为实验对象,设计了“鸡快慢羽性状遗传学基础分析”综合实验,突出培养学生用理论知识解决生产实践问题的思维和能力。本文重点介绍了该实验作为动物遗传学实验教学案例的实施过程及效果,首先从鸡的表型观察逐步深入到遗传学基础分析,利用遗传学理论指导鸡快、慢羽品系培育的育种实践。实验内容涉及伴性遗传规律和性别决定机制等遗传学理论知识,同时还涉及基因组DNA提取、基因扩增、酶切及电泳分析等一系列分子遗传学的技术方法。不仅有利于学生综合分析能力和专业技能的掌握,还有助于培养学生对动物科学专业的科研兴趣和创新意识。此综合性实验还展现了用遗传学理论指导动物品种培育实践过程,符合动物科学专业复合应用型人才培养目标的要求,其中的教学理念和方法可推广应用于其他生物学实验教学。     

Der Beitrag der Grünen Gentechnik

Yield increase: the contribution of plant biotechnology Modern plant breeding is facing increasing challenges to meet future needs caused by global climate changes, decreasing reserves of fossil fuels, an increasing world population as well as an aging society. Therefore, besides input traits, breeding aims focus on renewable resources and to ensure production of sufficient high quality food and feed. In particular, the world‐wide rising in energy demand harbors the risk that more and more agricultural land will be used for industrial purposes instead for food production. Therefore, breeding of highly productive crop plants for the production of valuable biological materials is of great importance. To optimize the production of valuable compounds a profound molecular and biochemical knowledge of the underlying metabolic pathways and the availability of technologies for the transfer of these findings into crop plants are needed. Plant biotechnology can be a key technology being important for deciphering molecular relationships as well as being required for the implementation of these findings into breeding programs.     

The democratic side of science-fiction

Suspicion towards technological advances has progressively grown during the xx(th) century. However, in the XXI(st) century, reading the NBIC (nanotechnology, biotechnology, information technology and cognitive science) report of the National Science Foundation, we can note that science has caught up with science fiction. These changes in public mentality on one side and in scientific capacities on the other argue for an evolution of the debate on sciences. The recent example of the national debate on nanotechnology in France has clearly shown that the public is no longer waiting for additional sources of scientific knowledge but rather waiting for the recognition of its authority to participate in the definition of the national R&D priority and associated scientific strategies. This is all the more legitimate that these strategies will have profound impact on the future of our societies and therefore cannot be decided only by scientists. Hence, it is crucial to identify innovative tools promoting debate on sciences and their technological spin-off. Here, we contend that science fiction has major assets that could face this challenge and facilitate the dialogue between sciences and society.     

A biological framework for understanding farmers’ plant breeding

We present a framework for understanding farmer plant breeding (including both choice of varieties and populations and plant selection) in terms of the basic biological model of scientific plant breeding, focusing on three key components of that model: 1) genetic variation, 2) environmental variation and variation of genotype-by-environment interaction, and 3) plant selection. For each of these concepts we suggest questions for research on farmers’plant breeding (farmers’ knowledge, practice, and crop varieties and growing environments). A sample of recent research shows a range of explicit and implicit answers to these questions which are often contradictory, suggesting that generalizations based on experience with specific varieties, environments or farmers may not be valid. They also suggest that farmers’ practice reflects an understanding of their crop varieties and populations that is in many ways fundamentally similar to that of plant breeders; yet, is also different, in part because the details of their experiences are different. Further research based on this framework should be valuable for participatory or collaborative plant breeding that is currently being proposed to reunite farmer and scientific plant breeding.     

纳米载体介导的植物遗传转化研究现状和前景

高效遗传转化技术是植物重要性状功能基因鉴定的前提和转基因育种的基础.随着纳米生物技术的发展,以纳米载体介导的植物转基因技术已显示出巨大的应用潜力.综述了国内外应用于植物纳米载体的类型、与外源基因的结合方式以及传输细胞的原理,重点阐述了影响纳米基因载体性能与转化效率的重要因素,以及纳米载体介导外源基因转化植物细胞的方法,...     

Ghost marketing: pharmaceutical companies and ghostwritten journal articles

The use of ghostwriters by industry is subject to increasing public attention and scrutiny. This article addresses the practice and ethics of scientific ghostwriting. We focus on the type of ghostwriting that involves a pharmaceutical company hiring a medical education and communications company to write a paper favorable of their product, who then hires a well-known academic to publish it under his or her name without disclosing the paper's true origins. We argue that this practice is harmful both to the public and to the institutions of science and that it is not justified by an analogy to accepted scientific authorship practices. Finally, we consider ways to discourage the practice.     

The US Department of Energy Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center: Midwestern Biomass as a Resource for Renewable Fuels

The Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center is one of three Bioenergy Research Centers establish by the US Department of Energy and the only one based at an academic institution. The Center’s mission is to perform basic and applied science to enable economically and environmentally sustainable production of liquid fuels derived from biomass. The research is focused on converting plant biomass into soluble sugars and the sugars into fuels. A large group focused on sustainability informs and guides the applied research to ensure that new technology will provide the required environmental benefits.     

The science of plant morphology: definition, history, and role in modern biology

As a scientific discipline, plant morphology is 211 yr old, originated by Goethe in 1790. It is a discipline that has largely been Germanic in practice. Because it took its origins from the study of the natural history of plants and the United States is principally an engineering society, the discipline of plant morphology in its pure form has never been widely practiced in this country. What has been labeled "plant morphology" in the United States has served largely as a handmaiden for systematics, using morphological characteristics to carve up diversity into its systematic subunits. Because the heart of plant morphology as a science is a focus on the convergences rather than the homologies in a phylogenetic sense, the German tradition of plant morphology is a unifying science that focuses on fundamental themes that transcend systematic boundaries. This paper traces the history of the science of plant morphology through the lineage of its principal practitioners: Goethe, Hofmeister, von Goebel, and Troll. It also evaluates the principles of plant morphology by applying them to the phyletically diverse Pteridophytes, showing that contemporary members of that group exhibit levels of shoot organization comparable to that of seed plants and discusses the implications of these findings.     

基于RNAi技术的转基因植物研究进展

RNA干扰（RNA interference,RNAi）是指由双链RNA（double-stranded RNA,dsRNA）诱发同源mRNA高效特异性降解的现象,在真核生物中普遍存在且进化保守。RNAi技术作为21世纪初的重大科学成就,目前被广泛应用于疾病防治、基因功能研究、植物改良育种等领域。RNAi技术常与转基因技术结合用于植物改良育种,通过不同的载体设计或作用途径来研发满足生产需要的农业生物技术产品。为了明确现阶段基于RNAi技术的转基因植物育种技术进展,综述了RNAi现象的发现和作用机制、转基因载体设计、小RNA（small RNA,sRNA）的递送方式等方面的研究进展,并阐述了基于RNAi技术的转基因植物的研究实例和商业化情况,以期为相关研究提供参考,从而发挥RNAi技术的最大应用价值,使之服务于新时代的农业发展。     

2015年中国植物科学若干领域重要研究进展

2015年中国植物科学研究处于飞速发展的态势, 主要表现在中国植物生命科学家在国际顶级学术刊物发表文章的数量呈现出明显的优势。中国科学家在植物学诸多领域取得了骄人的成果, 如高等植物PSI与捕光天线的超分子复合物晶体结构的解析、水稻感知和耐受寒害机制、乙烯信号转导分子机制研究等。2015年中国生命科学领域十大进展中, 植物科学领域有两项成果入选。值得一提的是, 中国本土科学家因青蒿素的发现与抗疟疾药物新疗法的开创首次获得自然科学领域的诺贝尔奖, 标志着中国植物化学和中药学对人类健康事业的巨大贡献受到国际高度关注, 也标志着中国科学家围绕国家重大需求开展科学技术问题研究模式的有效性和影响力。中国植物科学从跟踪、并行, 逐渐迈入领跑学科发展的方阵。该文对2015年中国本土植物科学若干领域取得的重要研究成果进行了概括性评述, 旨在全面追踪当前中国植物科学领域发展的最新前沿和热点事件, 并与国内读者分享我国科学家所取得的杰出成就。     

European plant science: a field of opportunities

Plants have a pivotal role in eco- and agricultural systems.Genomics is driving a rapid expansion of our understanding ofhow genes, individually and in networks, determine plant function.Technological developments in breeding and genomics are providingstrategies to translate this knowledge into crop improvement.The possibilities range from improvement of existing crops andthe systematic use of natural diversity through to the domesticationof completely new species. As examples of possible goals, itis discussed how profiling of composition will integrate plantbreeding and agronomic practice with emerging knowledge aboutnutrition and health, how improved and novel crops will contributeto the creation of new bio-based economies revolving aroundplant products, and how advances in our knowledge about plant–environmentand plant–pathogen interactions will provide novel strategiesto stabilize agricultural yield in a fluctuating environmentand contribute to integrated approaches in which modern agricultureis carried out in concert with the environment. In addition,knowledge generated by plant science will be needed to monitor,understand, and cope with climate change and its impact on agricultureand ecosystems. Realization of these goals will require closeinteractions with related disciplines including agronomy andecology. Further, it will be important to continue and deepenopen support for research in the developing world. Key words: Agronomic practice, biodiversity, domestication, ecosystems, environment, genomics, novel crops, plant breeding, plant products, yield     

The concept of specificity and the Italian contribution to the discovery of the malaria transmission cycle

At the dawn of the 20th century, the change in the scientific, political and cultural attitudes towards malaria was the result of the discovery of the theoretical simplicity of the malaria transmission cycle and of the possibility to interrupt it, by avoiding the contacts between people and mosquitoes. The 'mosquito hypothesis', suggested already in the 1880s, had to be included into a coherent scientific theory, in which a fundamental part was played by the concept of specificity. The paper analyses the Italian contribution to this scientific change and the epistemological aspects of the debate between Ronald Ross and Battista Grassi about their respective role in the discovery of the human malaria transmission cycle. This debate has been often interpreted in sociological or psychological terms. However, behind the dispute there is a different definition of what is a scientific explanation in biological sciences and in particular in parasitology. This point is made clear by the analysis of four different theoretical problems implied in the discovery of the transmission cycle: the concept of specificity, the comparative method in parasitology, the specificity of the life-cycle of parasites and vectors, and the role of the analogical reasoning in science and medicine.     

The historical development of vaccine technology: exploring the relationship between science and technology

This paper examines the feasibility of using historical case studies to contextualise the learning of the nature of science and technology in a biology lesson. Through exploring the historical development of vaccine technology, students were expected to understand the complexity of the relationships between technology and science beyond the simplistic portrayal of technology as ‘applied science’. Instructional scaffolding in the form of Socratic Dialogue and self-reflection was used to engage students in thinking about the difference in the nature of science and technology and their mutual interactions. This was followed by students’ reflections on the insights they have gained from the lesson as a means to evaluate and reconstruct their own understanding if necessary. The educational implications of the findings are discussed to explore how technology could be further integrated into the school science curriculum to enhance scientific and technological literacy.     

医院科研管理与创新对转化医学实施的推动作用

转化医学是近年来国际医学界推崇的一个重要医学理念,正日益成为生命科学和医学研究关注的热点。转化医学已不仅强 调临床医学与基础医学的结合,而且涉及多个学科之间的融会贯通。因此,医院科研管理的支持和重视程度转化医学实施的主要 动力,而科研项目的创新性、可行性是决定转化医学研究立项的关键。我院自2010 年成立转化医学研究中心以来,已将多项成果 成功转化并应用于临床实践,为生命科学研究领域中人类健康计划的发展提供了借鉴。本文结合我院实际,分析科研管理对转化 医学成果实施的促进作用,为医疗机构的科研管理人员提供参考。