Monthly Archives: March 2011

Predicting Plasmid Promiscuity Could Help Fight Antibiotic Resistance

Posted on March 28, 2011 by Danielle Whittaker

A recent paper by BEACON researcher Eva Top and colleagues in the Journal of Bacteriology was highlighted as one of the five “Journal Highlights” in the December 2010 issue of Microbe magazine, the news magazine of the American Society for … Continue reading →

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Inclusive fitness theory and eusociality

Posted on March 24, 2011 by Danielle Whittaker

Tom Getty and 136 colleagues have published a Brief Communication Arising in Nature that clarifies the role of inclusive fitness theory in guiding our understanding of the evolution of social behavior (Abbot, P. et al. 2011).  Most biologists think that … Continue reading →

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Selection for Evolvability

Posted on March 22, 2011 by Danielle Whittaker

In a new Science paper, BEACON faculty Jeff Barrick, Rich Lenski and their co-authors show that greater evolutionary potential can sometimes overcome a short-term fitness disadvantage.  Taking advantage of the ‘frozen fossil record’ from a long-term evolution experiment with bacteria, … Continue reading →

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Larger hyenas have more cubs

Posted on March 16, 2011 by Danielle Whittaker

A new paper in Proceedings B by BEACON graduate student Eli Swanson, and faculty members Ian Dworkin and Kay Holekamp uses a new method of measuring body size to show that larger female spotted hyenas have higher lifetime reproductive success. … Continue reading →

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Evolution Park

Posted on March 10, 2011 by Danielle Whittaker

BEACON scientists Philip McKinley, Xiaobo Tan, and Janette Boughman have been awarded an NSF grant to construct Evolution Park, an evolutionary robotics testbed! The Evolution Park provides an experimental testbed for applying evolutionary computation to the development and control of … Continue reading →

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