 |
|
|
BioScience Magazine
BioScience Editorials
Organisms from Molecules to the Environment
From the pages of BioScience magazine, the online version of our editorial column.
(What's this?)
Columns
Global circulation models have long predicted that greenhouse warming would be greatest in polar regions, and abundant data confirm strong...
Although East Coast residents may be little aware of the devastation being caused by the tiny mountain pine beetle, lodgepole...
Deadly food riots in Haiti and Egypt, together with recent price-related unrest in several other countries, are disturbing reminders of...
Even as calls grow for a presidential debate on science and technology—see the Washington Watch column on p. 296—advocates of...
The philosophical tension between researchers who pursue explanations of complex phenomena in terms of small-scale, even molecular, events and those...
Despite repeated court decisions establishing that creationism in all of its guises has no place in public school science classrooms,...
In the mid-1960s, America was awakened by the beeping of Sputnik, launched by the former Soviet Union. The nation was...
As a first-year graduate student in zoology in the 1960s, I faced a three-day written examination that would determine whether...
By the time you read this issue of BioScience, the California Academy of Sciences should have started moving its collections...
Years ago, many of us slogged through exercises involving null hypotheses, postulates that some suspected effect does not exist. We...
The promise of using human embryonic stem cells to create customized tissue to replace that lost to disease has been...
With long-term policymaking apparently gridlocked on even such a vital topic as global warming, it is heartening to learn that...
If a candidate for administrator of NASA disavowed the heliocentric theory of the solar system, the outcry would dispatch his...
In this issue, AIBS introduces a new feature for BioScience: “Teaching Biology,” a series of state-of-the-science, example-rich, well-referenced papers that...
For those who see science as an ever finer parsing of causes and effects, the article in this issue of...
The overview article by R. Edward Grumbine on China’s emergence and global sustainability, which begins on p. 249, is an...
Animal migration fascinated the ancients and continues to fascinate researchers today. An often highly complex, synchronized suite of changes in...
The pace of progress in biological science, as in science generally, is staggering. As a young faculty member in the...
As the Civil War raged—just four months before the battle of Gettysburg—President Abraham Lincoln, recognizing the importance of science in...
For 700 million years, green plants contributed to the formation of soil, oil, natural gas, and coal. As the human...
Two articles in this issue of BioScience have the word “conflict” in their titles. The parallels—and the differences—are instructive. In...
Good news from the conservation front is rare, so the article that starts on p. 723 of this issue of...
Humanity has achieved its present world-dominating status fueled largely by annual crops, principally maize, rice, wheat, and other grains, as...
A word to readers who may be spending the summer under a rock, in a swamp, or in some other...
With luck and considerable pushing by political leaders, efforts to alleviate some of the ecological stresses in the Great Lakes...
Students or postdocs in biology who are thinking of embarking on a career in academia will do themselves a favor...
Insects don't get enough respect. Yes, their depredations of structures and plants of all types, especially crops, are famed and...
Authorities on avian influenza are close to united in believing that a global pandemic of the H5N1 strain of that...
For years the National Science Foundation (NSF) has recognized the importance of communicating research findings to the public. Thus, NSF...
On 2 November 2005, President Bush asked Congress for $7.1 billion to prepare the United States for a global epidemic...
The year 2005 has been a time of accomplishment and self-assessment for AIBS, including an examination of our responsibility for...
Public understanding of science in the United States leaves much to be desired. Scientists frequently put the blame for this...
The fearful truth about the hurricane that wrecked the Gulf Coast in late August is that one of similar intensity...
Biologists of many persuasions are now grappling with the difficult problem of identifying the effects of climate change on species...
Credible answers to the question posed above—which refers to a term of art, not this journal—are varied and becoming more...
President Bush’s vision for the US space program turns out to be no vision at all for many biologists. To...
The release in March of the synthesis report of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MEA), an authoritative, multistakeholder scrutiny of 24...
Editors attending editors’ conferences like to scare each other with (sometimes apocryphal) horror stories. One perennial favorite goes along these...
The Forum article that begins on page 360, "The Effectiveness of the Endangered Species Act: A Quantitative Analysis," by Martin...
Natural scientists by now need no reminding of the already documented effects of global warming on natural habitats and the...
It is 2005, and I find myself leading the new National Evolutionary Synthesis Center (NESCent) in Durham, North Carolina. NESCent...
As we embark on a new year in which science continues to hold the key to success in many major...
Allow us one end-of-year, self-congratulatory paragraph. BioScience has published 1176 pages in 2004, of which about 800 were peer reviewed....
Joel Cracraft
In these early years of the 21st century, scientific discovery and understanding are playing an important and growing role in...
Jeffrey A. Goldman
On 15 September 2004, AIBS—in partnership with a score of scientists, engineers, and educators—entered into a 2-year cooperative agreement with...
Robert E. Gropp
An energized and vocal conservative religious movement has in recent years demonstrated a desire to reshape our nation’s K–12 curricula...
Timothy M. Beardsley
Researchers depressed about the extinction crisis might lift their spirits by volunteering to work on behalf of the Convention on...
Timothy M. Beardsley
During 2003, BioScience invited readers to nominate worthy candidates for a short list of "the most beautiful biology experiments" in...
Warren B. Cohen
The special section beginning on p. 511 of this issue contains six overview articles about remote sensing. The last time...
Timothy M. Beardsley, Editor-in-Chief
West Nile virus began its season early this year, with infected dead birds recorded in April in California. Indications are...
Timothy M. Beardsley, Editor-in-Chief
Relations between many senior scientists and the Bush administration have gone from sad to scary. In February, the Union of...
Timothy M. Beardsley
Government overseers of biotechnology, as well as developers of genetically engineered organisms, should pay careful attention to the exhaustive January...
Richard T. O'Grady
At the start of this year, AIBS took an important new step in fulfillment of its mission to advance research...
As we embark on a new year in which science continues to hold the key to success in many major...
Joel Cracraft
Just how widespread is science literacy in the United States? That this country is the acknowledged leader of scientific research...
Gary S. Hartshorn
A declared policy of the United States is the prevention of future acts of terrorism. Toward this end, the federal...
Richard T. O'Grady
The “open access” model for free online access to scientific journals—wherein the costs of publication are paid for by published...
Craig G. Lorimer
Forest pathologists often use the word decline to refer to a specific disease complex responsible for a gradual deterioration in...
Jake F. Weltzin and David G. Williams
Industrial activity and changes in land use are altering Earths carbon cycle at spatial and temporal scales that are difficult...
Timothy M. Beardsley
In his celebrated 1974 article "Living on a Lifeboat" (BioScience 24: 561568), Garrett Hardin expanded on his earlier essay "The...
Bruce D. Rodan
A day of reckoning approaches in the quest for sustainable management of tropical forests. On 15 November 2003, mahogany (Swietenia...
Timothy M. Beardsley
The distressing and ominous decline of amphibian species worldwide is a matter of urgent concern for anyone who cares about...
Jeffrey A. Goldman
Since last summer, AIBS has been playing a central role in organizing the scientific community's activities related to the National...
Charles T. Driscoll
The accumulation of reactive nitrogen in the environment is a critical problem in our efforts to develop and implement plans...
Timothy M. Beardsley
Attempts to repair nature often involve unnatural techniques. Few are as reliant on technology, however, as the audacious (and well-publicized)...
Timothy M. Beardsley
Rice is humans' most important food crop. Some 400 million metric tons are harvested each year, and the familiar grains...
Gary S. Hartshorn
Like me, you probably joined AIBS some years ago in order to receive BioScience, AIBS's award-winning scientific journal. Although that...
Timothy M. Beardsley
Most scientists are passionate about the values embodied in their work. Biologists are particularly passionate, because many see the preservation...
Timothy M. Beardsley
Biology is complex, yet complex processes are not beyond the reach of understanding. Some of the dimensions of the complexity...
Adrienne Froelich
The subdisciplines of biology represented by AIBS have fallen victim to a case of mistaken identity. As we first reported...
Timothy M. Beardsley
The newly revised AIBS Mission Statement declares that the organization's primary goal is to facilitate communication and interaction both among...
David D. Hart
You may not have noticed yet, but a community group near you is probably involved in the ecological restoration of...
Gene E. Likens
Last December I visited the Galapagos Islands, a place famous for its earlier remoteness and biological distinctiveness. The diary kept...
Richard T. O'Grady
President George W. Bush announced on 9 May 2002 that Gene E. Likens, president of AIBS and director of the...
Adrienne J. Froelich
As the new director of public policy for AIBS, I wanted to take this opportunity to discuss one of the...
Matthew H. Greenstone
The world is warming up. In fact, last year was the second warmest on record, continuing a decade-long trend of...
J. W. Bennett, B. D. Faison
The 21st century began with acts of unprecedented terrorism. The fatalities associated with the malign distribution of anthrax-laced letters, like...
Richard T. O'Grady
In early December 2001, the science community learned that the Office of Management and Budget was proposing to transfer approximately...
Gene E. Likens
If you are like me, you may wonder, what does AIBS really do? Although I have been a long-term member...
Judith S. Weis
Creationists have been busy this year on several fronts. They have pursued their goal of introducing creationism into science courses...
MATTHEW H. GREENSTONE
The human population exceeds 6 billion souls, and counting. Each of us expects a sustaining share of food and fiber,...
DONALD F. BOESCH
The restoration of the Chesapeake Bay is one of the world's most ambitious efforts to rehabilitate and manage a large...
John Aber
Editorial Reaching Scientific Consensus and Informing Public Policy Earth system science is an intellectually exhilarating, interdisciplinary field coming of age...
Judith S. Weis
In May, I spent several days in Washington, DC, working on science funding issues in my capacity as AIBS president....
Matthew H. Greenstone
Four billion years of adaptation to Earths physical environment, and to its increasingly complex biotic environment, have produced the stunning...
Edward J. Rykiel J
One great intellectual strength of humans is the ability to imagine impossible things. We have used this ability to gain...
Richard T. O'Grady, M. Patricia Morse
In March AIBS released a review of textbooks and accompanying instructional materials that are currently used in year-long courses in...
Matthew H. Greenstone
My arrival as science editor on March 1, 2001, was the last step in a six-month process that has seen...
Mark Bekoff
Few scientists and religious scholars have seriously pondered how science and religion can be reconciled. But times are changing. Not...
Richard T. O'Grady
AIBS is better positioned than ever before to provide its growing membership with services befitting an umbrella organization that was...
Judith S. Weis
In the 1960s and 1970s, it seemed that the world accepted evolution as a fact, as uncontroversial as the existence...
ALAN COVICH
We are living in challenging and exciting times, when biological scientists, social scientists, and others are breaking away from their...
DAVID PIMENTAL, DONALD L. SPARKS
More than 99% of food worldwide comes from the soil ecosystem. Rapid erosion of soil is reducing food productionand causing...
JANICE MOORE
The mother of a dead baby baboon can spend days, even weeks, in behavior patterns resembling grief. The mother's appetite...
Congressman Vernon J. Ehlers
In 1997, under the auspices of the US House of Representatives’ Science Committee, and at the request of Speaker Newt...
Marc Bekoff
"Back off, man, Im a scientist. Ive been haunted by this bumper sticker for many years. Im a scientist. I...
Blaire V. Mossman
In 1955, the National Science Foundation paid for 12 biology editors to come to Washington, DC, to discuss matters of...
Robert E. Gropp
Consider the following: With an unemployment rate of nearly 70%, people with severe disabilities are the largest unemployed population in...
David Pimentel, Marcia Pimentel
If the current rate of growth is sustained, the world’s population will double, from 6 billion to 12 billion, in...
Richard B. Norgaard
Modern economics started out strongly rooted in the natural sciences. During the eighteenth century, a group of French economists called...
Judith S. Weis, a professor of biological sciences at Rutgers University, has been voted president elect of AIBS for 2000...
Richard T. OGrady
Science is a communal activity: scientists seek to disseminate the results of their work to the community; scientific journals peer...
Judith S. Weis
Scientists often express concern that the scientific viewpoint is underrepresented in public policy decisions. One approach to bringing scientific expertise...
Alan P. Covich
As the new millennium begins, there has never been a year that provided more opportunity for AIBS to achieve its...
Gregory J. Anderson
The National Science Foundation marks its 50th anniversary next year, and AIBS holds its 50th annual meeting this year. On...
Rebecca Chasan
With this issue of BioScience, we inaugurate a fresh new look for the journal. The content is largely unchanged, but...
Gregory J. Anderson
The title is an aphorism that many of us object to, but it may well be an appropriate aspiration for...
|
|
