Relocating Endangered Kangaroo Rats
A group of endangered kangaroo rats in San Bernardino County were relocated under a project overseen by Debra Shier, UCLA assistant adjunct professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology.
Are males more promiscuous and females choosier in selecting mates?
Recent research published by Patricia Gowaty, UCLA distinguished professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, debunks a 1948 study of fruit flies that established the notion that males are more promiscuous and females more picky.
Dissonant Music Brings out the Animal in Us
Research by Daniel Blumstein, professor and chair of the department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, and Greg Bryant, UCLA assistant professor of communication studies, has shown that distorted and jarring music tends to excite listeners because it mimics the distress calls of animals.
Multiple Causes of Woolly Mammoth Extinction
A study by Glen MacDonald, director of UCLA’s Institute of the Environment and Sustainability and a professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology (EEB) along with Robert Wayne and Blaire Van Valkenburgh, also EEB professors, found that woolly mammoths succumbed to a lethal combination of climate warming, encroaching humans and habitat change between 4,000 and 10,000 years ago.
UCLA life scientists view biodiversity through a whole new dimension
Van Savage, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Assistant Professor, Samraat Pawar, a post-doctoral scholar in Savage’s group, and their collaborators have demonstrated for the first time that the relationship between animals’ body size and their feeding rate — the overall amount of food they consume per unit of time — is largely determined by the properties of the space in which they search for their food.
People’s Geographic Origins Traceable With New Genetic Method
Ecology and Evolutionary Biology professor John Novembre teamed with researchers from UCLA’s Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science and Tel Aviv University to develop a new genetic method that can pinpoint an individual’s geographic origin, just by sampling your genome.
Paul Terasaki to Receive the UCLA’s Highest Honor, the UCLA Medal
Paul Ichiro Terasaki, a pioneer in organ transplant medicine, will be awarded the UCLA Medal, the university’s highest honor, at the UCLA College of Letters and Science commencement ceremony on June 15.
Hacking Code of Leaf Vein Architecture Solves Mysteries, Allows Predictions of Past Climate
Lawren Sack, professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, along with graduate student Christine Scoffoni, three UCLA undergraduate researchers, and colleagues have discovered new laws that determine the construction of leaf vein systems as leaves grow and evolve. The research, has a range of fundamental implications for global ecology and allows researchers to estimate original leaf sizes from just a fragment of a leaf. W improve scientists’ prediction and interpretation of climate in the deep past from leaf fossils.
‘Rare’ genetic variants are surprisingly common, life scientists report
John Novembre, assistant professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
recently led a large study of human genetic variation, published today in the online version of the journal Science. The study shows that rare genetic variants are not so rare after all and offers insights into human diseases.
How Fructose Affects Learning, Memory
Fernando Gomez-Pinilla, a professor of neurosurgery at the David Geffen School of Medicine, and a professor of Integrative Biology and Physiology, was co-author of a recent study showing that a steady high-fructose diet can slow the brain and hamper memory and learning in rats — and how omega-3 fatty acids can minimize the damage.