Category Archives: BEACON in the News

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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BEACON artist Adam Brown featured at Synth-ethic: Art and Synthetic Biology Exhibition, Vienna, Austria

Posted on May 20, 2011 by Danielle Whittaker

Adam Brown’s work “Origins of Life: Experiment #1.4″ is now on display at the Synth-ethic: Art and Synthetic Biology exhibition at the BIO:FICTION science, art and film festival in Vienna. From the website: Origins of Life: Experiment #1.4 Could life … Continue reading →

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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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Congratulations to BEACON@NC A&T!

Posted on February 28, 2011 by Danielle Whittaker

BEACON has won the Team Research Award from North Carolina A&T State University’s Division of Research & Economic Development (DORED)! Congratulations to our partners at NC A&T! The BEACON team at North Carolina A&T includes: Marwan Bikdash, Goldie Byrd, Gerry … Continue reading →

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