Category Archives: BEACON in the News

BEACON scientists show how new viruses can evolve and become deadly

Posted on January 26, 2012 by Danielle Whittaker

In the current issue of Science, researchers at Michigan State University demonstrate how a new virus evolves, which sheds light on how easy it can be for diseases to gain dangerous mutations. The scientists showed for the first time how … Continue reading →

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BEACON’s Kalyanmoy Deb wins Cajastur Mamdani Prize for Soft Computing

Posted on December 8, 2011 by Danielle Whittaker

Professor Kalyanmoy Deb has been awarded the Fifth Edition of the Cajastur Mamdani Prize for Soft Computing by the European Centre for Soft Computing, in consideration of his contributions to the development and application of Evolutionary Multi-objective Optimization. (Press release, … Continue reading →

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BEACONites generating more data than we can handle

Posted on December 1, 2011 by Danielle Whittaker

It sounds like a good problem to have, but it is still a very real problem: we are now producing genomic and metagenomic data much faster than we can analyze it. Two of BEACON’s own scientists are quite familiar with … Continue reading →

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TED Talk: Christoph Adami – Finding life we can’t imagine

Posted on October 4, 2011 by Danielle Whittaker

Watch the new TED talk by BEACON’s Chris Adami!

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BEACON’s Elena Litchman and Ben Kerr honored by President Obama

Posted on September 26, 2011 by Danielle Whittaker

BEACON faculty members Elena Litchman (Zoology, MSU) and Benjamin Kerr (Biology, UW) are on the list of recipients of the Presidential Early Career Awards for Scientists and Engineers, announced today by the White House. President Obama today named 94 researchers … Continue reading →

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BEACON research featured on Scientific American blog

Posted on September 19, 2011 by Danielle Whittaker

NESCent‘s Robin Smith was a guest speaker at BEACON’s annual Congress in August. While she was here, Robin learned about all the great interdisciplinary BEACON projects involving Xiaobo Tan’s robotic fish. In landlocked East Lansing, Michigan, you’re unlikely to swim … Continue reading →

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Origins of Life: Experiment art installation at Ars Electronica 2011

Posted on September 15, 2011 by Danielle Whittaker

The art installation “Origins of Life: Experiment #1.6″ by Adam Brown, BEACON’s  artist-in-residence, and Robert Root-Bernstein was featured this month at Ars Electronica 2011 in Austria. This series of experiments is a re-enactment of the famous Urey-Miller experiment which simulated … Continue reading →

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Evolution keeps sex determination flexible

Posted on September 9, 2011 by Danielle Whittaker

There are many old wives’ tales about what determines a baby’s sex, yet it is the tight controls at the gene level which determine an organism’s sex in most species. Researchers at Michigan State University have found that even when … Continue reading →

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NPR Science Friday: Emily Jane McTavish talks about the evolutionary history of Texas longhorns

Posted on July 20, 2011 by Danielle Whittaker

BEACON University of Texas at Austin graduate student Emily Jane McTavish was interviewed on NPR’s Science Friday. Listen here!

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Kay Holekamp blogs about hyenas at the New York Times

Posted on July 13, 2011 by Danielle Whittaker

BEACON PI Kay Holekamp is writing for the New York Times’ Scientist at Work blog this summer about her fieldwork in Kenya. Read her first post here, and click here to keep up with all of her fascinating entries!

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