Life sciences and biotechnology in China

Life science and biotechnology have become a top priority in research and development in many countries as the world marches into the new century. China as a developing country with a 1.3 billion population and booming economy is actively meeting the challenge of a new era in this area of research. Owing to support from the government and the scientific community, and reform to improve the infrastructure, recent years have witnessed a rapid progress in some important fields of life science and biotechnology in China, such as genomics and protein sciences, neuroscience, systematics, super-hybrid rice research, stem cell and cloning technology, gene therapy and drug/vaccine development. The planned expansion and development of innovation in related sectors and the area of bioethics are described and discussed.     

Citizen science in schools: Engaging students in research on urban habitat for pollinators

Citizen science can play an important role in school science education. Citizen science is particularly relevant to addressing current societal environmental sustainability challenges, as it engages the students directly with environmental science and gives students an understanding of the scientific process. In addition, it allows students to observe local representations of global challenges. Here, we report a citizen science programme designed to engage school‐age children in real‐world scientific research. The programme used standardized methods deployed across multiple schools through scientist–school partnerships to engage students with an important conservation problem: habitat for pollinator insects in urban environments. Citizen science programmes such as the programme presented here can be used to enhance scientific literacy and skills. Provided key challenges to maintain data quality are met, this approach is a powerful way to contribute valuable citizen science data for understudied, but ecologically important study systems, particularly in urban environments across broad geographical areas.     

Desolation comes from the sky: Invasive Hymenoptera species as prey of Chilean giant robber flies (Diptera: Asilidae) through field observations and citizen science

Robber flies (Asilidae) are the main predatory fly family feeding on beetles, butterflies, other flies for true flies, and even spiders; however, Hymenoptera is the most common prey. Invasive Hymenoptera species are common in central and southern Chile; however, few predators of these are known. The hunting behavior and prey of Chilean robber fly species are also poorly known. The aim of this study is to provide the first hunting behavior records of five Chilean giant robber fly species on invasive Hymenoptera. In addition, an updated distribution of these species is provided. Records of hunting behavior were based on fieldwork collections and citizen science observations. The historical distribution was compared with citizen science observations using chi-square analyzes. Twelve predation events were recorded. Obelophorus terebratus was the most common predator. Bombus terrestris was the invasive Hymenoptera most preyed upon. Both the extension of occurrence of Lycomya germainii as Obelophorus species showed changes in his distribution. Only O. landbecki shown changes in area of occupancy. Citizen science is playing a key role in the knowledge of biological interactions and distribution of endemic and native Chilean robber fly species.     

Using Amphibians and Reptiles to learn the Process of Science

The National Research Council's document, Inquiry and the National Science Education Standards (2000) describes an elementary science classroom as one that is composed of learners who are engaged in scientific processes. In such a setting, children ask real-world questions and seek real-world solutions. As students pursue their inquiries, they often move away from science textbooks, and they implement mathematical skills, read literature, conduct research in electronic databases, write stories, and so forth in a larger context. What was originally a regular science lesson becomes an opportunity for integration across the curriculum. This article describes an integrated unit on bats and specifically addresses the National Science Education Standards.     

“新农科”背景下菌物科学与工程专业建设与人才培养规划

在新农科建设背景下,菌物科学与工程专业的成立将加快农业结构性改革的进程,也为培养更多菌物学专门人才提供保障。菌物科学与工程专业将以菌物为特色,依托学科(菌物学与菌类作物二级学科)与科研平台(食药用菌教育部工程研究中心),培养能够掌握生物学及菌物生物学的基本理论,并具备菌物种质资源、菌类作物栽培育种及菌类食品和药品加工等理论知识与实践技能的复合型人才。菌物科学与工程专业的建立不但是行业发展及科学研究的需要,也是解决菌物人才培养目前面临的主要问题的关键措施。专业将以"以本为本"、推进四个回归、"以学生为中心"与"立德树人"为人才培养理念,以培养更多服务地方与国家的菌物人才为导向,围绕师资队伍、教学体系、实践教学平台和教学保障体系进行建设。在今后的三五年,菌物科学与工程专业将继续推进"金课"建设等各方面的改革创新,努力建设成为吉林省一流专业,向国家一流专业迈进。建设菌物科学与工程专业既是机遇也是挑战,呼吁更多的菌物工作者加入其中,为专业与学科的建设贡献力量。     

Modeling the States of Matter in a First-Grade Classroom

ABSTRACT

Scientific modeling along with hands-on inquiry can lead to a deeper understanding of scientific concepts among students in upper elementary grades. Even though scientific modeling involves abstract-thinking processes, can students in younger elementary grades successfully participate in scientific modeling? Scientific modeling, like all other aspects of scientific inquiry, has to be developed. This article clearly outlines how students in a first-grade classroom can develop and use scientific models to explain the properties and behaviors of solids, liquids, and gases in a unit on the states of matter.     

A framework for the practical science necessary to restore sustainable,resilient, and biodiverse ecosystems

Demand for restoration of resilient, self‐sustaining, and biodiverse natural ecosystems as a conservation measure is increasing globally; however, restoration efforts frequently fail to meet standards appropriate for this objective. Achieving these standards requires management underpinned by input from diverse scientific disciplines including ecology, biotechnology, engineering, soil science, ecophysiology, and genetics. Despite increasing restoration research activity, a gap between the immediate needs of restoration practitioners and the outputs of restoration science often limits the effectiveness of restoration programs. Regrettably, studies often fail to identify the practical issues most critical for restoration success. We propose that part of this oversight may result from the absence of a considered statement of the necessary practical restoration science questions. Here we develop a comprehensive framework of the research required to bridge this gap and guide effective restoration. We structure questions in five themes: (1) setting targets and planning for success, (2) sourcing biological material, (3) optimizing establishment, (4) facilitating growth and survival, and (5) restoring resilience, sustainability, and landscape integration. This framework will assist restoration practitioners and scientists to identify knowledge gaps and develop strategic research focused on applied outcomes. The breadth of questions highlights the importance of cross‐discipline collaboration among restoration scientists, and while the program is broad, successful restoration projects have typically invested in many or most of these themes. Achieving restoration ecology's goal of averting biodiversity losses is a vast challenge: investment in appropriate science is urgently needed for ecological restoration to fulfill its potential and meet demand as a conservation tool.     

The Importance of Understanding the Nature of Science for Accepting Evolution

Many students reject evolutionary theory, whether or not they adequately understand basic evolutionary concepts. We explore the hypothesis that accepting evolution is related to understanding the nature of science. In particular, students may be more likely to accept evolution if they understand that a scientific theory is provisional but reliable, that scientists employ diverse methods for testing scientific claims, and that relating data to theory can require inference and interpretation. In a study with university undergraduates, we find that accepting evolution is significantly correlated with understanding the nature of science, even when controlling for the effects of general interest in science and past science education. These results highlight the importance of understanding the nature of science for accepting evolution. We conclude with a discussion of key characteristics of science that challenge a simple portrayal of the scientific method and that we believe should be emphasized in classrooms.     

Linking the experiential,affective and cognitive domains in biology education: a case study – microscopy

A greater emphasis in school curricula on the technology of science would encourage teachers to engage their students more in practical work. This in turn might be expected to improve students’ attitudes towards science and enhance cognitive outcomes. The paper presents findings from a study on first-year university students’ school experience of, attitudes towards, and knowledge of, microscopy. The findings reinforce the general expectations alluded to above. They also draw attention to the importance of the lower secondary science experience – often a suboptimal one owing to a poor resource base – to the formation of student attitudes and cognitive development with respect to science.     

大尺度陆地生态系统科学研究的理论基础及其技术体系之探讨

大尺度的陆地生态系统科学研究是在生物多样性保护、应对全球气候变化、区域生态环境治理及全球社会经济可持续发展的科技需求背景下应运而生的生态学及生态系统科学前沿领域,并在我国的生态文明建设社会实践中快速发展.本文在系统论述大尺度陆地生态系统科学研究的科技使命基础上,重点梳理和探讨了区域及大陆尺度的生态系统科学研究理论基础和...     

Advice to young behavioral and cognitive scientists

Modeled on Medawar's Advice to a Young Scientist [Medawar, P.B., 1979. Advice to a Young Scientist. Basic Books, New York], this article provides advice to behavioral and cognitive scientists. An important guiding principle is that the study of comparative cognition and behavior are natural sciences tasked with explaining nature. The author advises young scientists to begin with a natural phenomenon and then bring it into the laboratory, rather than beginning in the laboratory and hoping for an application in nature. He suggests collaboration as a way to include research outside the scientist's normal competence. He then discusses several guides to good science. These guides include Tinbergen's [Tinbergen, N., 1963. On aims and methods of ethology. Zeitschrift für Tierpsychologie, 20, 410-433. This journal was renamed Ethology in 1986. Also reprinted in Anim. Biol. 55, 297-321, 2005] four "why" questions, Platt's [Platt, J.R., 1964. Strong inference. Science 146, 347-353, (http://weber.ucsd.edu/~jmoore/courses/Platt1964.pdf)] notion of strong inference using multiple alternative hypotheses, and the idea that positive controls help scientists to follow Popper's [Popper, K.R., 1959. The Logic of Scientific Discovery. Basic Books, New York, p. 41] advice about disproving hypotheses. The author also recommends Strunk and White's [Strunk, W., White, E.B., 1979. The Elements of Style, third ed. Macmillan, New York] rules for sound writing, and he provides his personal advice on how to use the anticipation of peer review to improve research and how to decode editors' and reviewers' comments about submitted articles.     

The urgency of building global capacity for biodiversity science

The biodiversity sciences represent the disciplines of whole-organism biology, including systematics, ecology, population biology, behaviour and the fields of comparative biology. The biodiversity sciences are critically important to society because it is knowledge of whole-organisms that is essential for managing and conserving the world's species. Because of an acceleration in environmental degradation and global biodiversity loss in recent decades, the need for the biodiversity sciences has never been more urgent. Yet, biodiversity science is not well supported relative to other fields of science, and thus the need for knowledge about organisms and their environment is far outstripping biologists' ability to provide it. National and international capacity for biodiversity science must therefore be increased substantially. Each nation should establish a national biodiversity research programme coordinated across all government agencies. An international biodiversity research programme should also be established, perhaps with an organizational structure that parallels the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme. Biodiversity scientists must assume a leadership role in educating the public and bringing about policy changes that will enhance our understanding of the world's species and their ecosystems.     

数字透出的信息——生命科学正在蓬勃发展

生命科学和信息科学是近年来发展很快因而备受科学界关注的学科。我们以国际、国内的有关科学论坛、科学会议、科学评论及有关网站的统计数据为基础 ,对生命科学和信息科学进行了初步的比较研究 ,并对生命科学和信息科学的发展趋势进行了简略的探讨。     

Diverging Understandings of Forest Management in Matsutake Science

Diverging Understandings of Forest Management in Matsutake Science. As high-value gourmet mushrooms, the matsutake complex of the genus Tricholoma has been the subject of extensive research. This article reviews two trajectories of matsutake research, showing how distinctive regional nodes may develop within a cosmopolitan modern science. The global center of matsutake research is in Japan, where problems of artificial cultivation and the “orchard-style” enhancement of production under forest conditions stimulate basic research. U.S. Pacific Northwest research forms a contrasting regional node, with a focus on sustainable yields in the context of timber production. Regional differences in research design and results point to the importance of distinctive scientific legacies, in this case formed in relation to divergent histories of forest management. Attention to regional distinctions in the framing of scientific problems is particularly important as scientific frameworks are exported to new places; for example, both Japanese and American forms of matsutake science have been extended to China. 高価なグルメきのこであるマツタケとその近縁種群のTricholoma属は広範囲に渡る科学的研究の対象となってきた。本論では二つの地域特徴的なマツタケ研究の軌跡を概観し、文化的差異を超えて世界的に通用する近代科学においても地域固有の関心に応じて特徴のある知識が結節し発展することを示す。マツタケ研究の世界的な中心地である日本では人工増殖やマツタケを殖やすための「果樹園的」な山林作りへの関心が基礎研究の方向性に刺激を与えてきた。一方日本とは対照的に、米国北西岸州では木材の持続的産出に主眼をおいた山林管理の流れの中で研究が進んできた。こうした研究計画や結果的に得られる知識の違いは、地域ごとに特徴のある科学的遺産 - 本件の場合は森林管理の歴史が多様に枝分かれしていること - に注目することが重要であることを知らせてくれる。近年日本や米国で発展したマツタケ研究の方法や成果が中国での研究にも影響を与えているが、特に新しい研究の場を広げる場合には科学的な関心、問題がどのような枠組で組み立てられるか地域によって多様であることを考慮することが重要である。     

The History of Neurochemistry as Revealed by the Journal of Neurochemistry

Abstract: Analyses of samples of articles in the Journal of Neurochemistry between 1956 (the year of its foundation) and 1990 were used to obtain numerical indices of the history of neurochemistry. Data suggest that the acceleration of neurochemical research did not merely reflect the increase of biochemical research in general and that it involved progressive decreases and increases of interest in major constituents and transmitters, respectively, as indicated by both numbers and citations of papers. Papers on all classes of transmitters increased steadily and in the order of amines > amino acids, acetylcholine > peptides. Within the field of brain metabolism, papers on energy metabolism decreased markedly. Use of techniques other than those of biochemistry/neurochemistry altered strikingly with decreases of histological, electrophysiological, and pharmacological methods and increases of chemical, immunological, and tissue culture methods. Citations by neuroscience core journals between 1975 and 1988 suggest that the relative prominence of neurochemistry within neuroscience has remained constant. Analyses indicate that the influence of the U.S.A. relative to that of other regions has remained fairly steady between 1956 and 1990, but that number of papers from the U.K. has declined, whereas the influences of Western Europe and other areas appear to have recently increased substantially. Sociological changes have been the virtual disappearance of single-author papers, an increase of multiauthorship (>3), and a recent striking increase of assertive sentence titles.     

A practical guide to interpreting and generating bottom-up proteomics data visualizations

Mass-spectrometry based bottom-up proteomics is the main method to analyze proteomes comprehensively and the rapid evolution of instrumentation and data analysis has made the technology widely available. Data visualization is an integral part of the analysis process and it is crucial for the communication of results. This is a major challenge due to the immense complexity of MS data. In this review, we provide an overview of commonly used visualizations, starting with raw data of traditional and novel MS technologies, then basic peptide and protein level analyses, and finally visualization of highly complex datasets and networks. We specifically provide guidance on how to critically interpret and discuss the multitude of different proteomics data visualizations. Furthermore, we highlight Python-based libraries and other open science tools that can be applied for independent and transparent generation of customized visualizations. To further encourage programmatic data visualization, we provide the Python code used to generate all data figures in this review on GitHub ( https://github.com/MannLabs/ProteomicsVisualization ).     

Microscopic visualization of virus removal by dedicated filters used in biopharmaceutical processing: Impact of membrane structure and localization of captured virus particles

Virus filtration with nanometer size exclusion membranes (“nanofiltration”) is effective for removing infectious agents from biopharmaceuticals. While the virus removal capability of virus removal filters is typically evaluated based on calculation of logarithmic reduction value (LRV) of virus infectivity, knowledge of the exact mechanism(s) of virus retention remains limited. Here, human parvovirus B19 (B19V), a small virus (18–26 nm), was spiked into therapeutic plasma protein solutions and filtered through Planova™ 15N and 20N filters in scaled-down manufacturing processes. Observation of the gross structure of the Planova hollow fiber membranes by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) revealed Planova filter microporous membranes to have a rough inner, a dense middle and a rough outer layer. Of these three layers, the dense middle layer was clearly identified as the most functionally critical for effective capture of B19V. Planova filtration of protein solution containing B19V resulted in a distribution peak in the dense middle layer with an LRV >4, demonstrating effectiveness of the filtration step. This is the first report to simultaneously analyze the gross structure of a virus removal filter and visualize virus entrapment during a filtration process conducted under actual manufacturing conditions. The methodologies developed in this study demonstrate that the virus removal capability of the filtration process can be linked to the gross physical filter structure, contributing to better understanding of virus trapping mechanisms and helping the development of more reliable and robust virus filtration processes in the manufacture of biologicals.