David Rollo, an Indiana University Bloomington biologist and Bloomington city council member, has been invited to Washington, D.C., to participate in a U.S. Department of Commerce forum on energy. The "Clean Energy Economy Forums" panel includes Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke, Secretary of Energy Steven Chu, and Under Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere Jane Lubchenco, among others. The two-hour forum begins at 12:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 22, in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, across the street from the White House.

A virologist and an evolutionary biologist are the latest honorees of Indiana University Bloomington's Joan Wood and James P. Holland lecture series. Mavis Agbandje-McKenna, a professor of biochemistry and molecular biology at the University of Florida School of Medicine, will give a talk, "Structural studies of Adeno-associated viruses towards improved gene delivery applications," at 4 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 21, in Myers Hall room 130. Harmit Singh Malik, an associate member of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and an affiliate assistant professor at the University of Washington School of Medicine, will also lecture. "The high-stakes evolutionary game of 'rock, paper, scissors' between primates and viruses" will begin at 4 p.m. on Monday, Oct. 19, in Whittenberger Auditorium (Indiana Memorial Union).

The Indiana Memorial Union Board and the Secular Alliance of Indiana University will present a lecture by evolutionary biologist, author and atheist Richard Dawkins, titled "The Greatest Show On Earth: The Evidence for Evolution," on Monday, Oct. 12, 7 p.m. at IU Auditorium (1211 East Seventh Street). The event is free and open to the public. No ticket is required, and doors will open at 6 p.m.

The new Department of Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry is the first science department created on the Indiana University Bloomington campus in 33 years, and is the culmination of more than seven years of planning. The IU Trustees recently approved the department. The department is offering M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in biochemistry, but does not award undergraduate degrees. Biochemistry faculty members will teach undergraduate courses, however, for their departmental allies, Biology and Chemistry.

Extra genomes appear, on average, to offer no benefit or disadvantage to plants, but still play a key role in the origin of new species, say scientists from Indiana University Bloomington and three other institutions in this week's Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Plant biologists have long suspected polyploidy -- the heritable acquisition of extra chromosome sets -- was a gateway to speciation. But the consensus was that polyploidy is a minor force, a mere anomaly that accounts for 3 or 4 percent of the world's flowers and ferns.

Indiana University Bloomington is home to the state of Indiana's first "select agent" laboratory for the study of pathogens. Select agent labs are safe and secure, and are rigorously regulated by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. IU Bloomington biologist Melanie Marketon is the first scientist to use the lab.

Evidence buried in the chromosomes of animals and plants strongly suggests only one group -- mammals -- have seen their genomes shrink after the dinosaurs' extinction. What's more, that trend continues today, say Indiana University Bloomington scientists in the first issue of a new journal, Genome Biology and Evolution.

The coevolutionary struggle between a New Zealand snail and its worm parasite makes sex advantageous for the snail, whose females favor asexual reproduction in the absence of parasites, say Indiana University Bloomington and Swiss Federal Institute of Technology biologists in this week's Current Biology. The scientists' report represents direct experimental evidence for the "Red Queen Hypothesis" of sex, which suggests sexual reproduction allows host species to avoid infection by their coevolving parasites by producing genetically variable offspring.

Joseph Pomerening, a cell biologist at Indiana University Bloomington, is a 2009 Pew Scholar in the Biomedical Sciences, the Pew Charitable Trusts announced today (June 16). The honor is accompanied by a four-year, $240,000 award to support research and is reserved for early career scientists.

A $4.15 million, four-year National Institutes of Health grant will enable researchers at the Indiana University School of Medicine to conduct the first health study of teenage boys using cellular telephones. The researchers, led by Dr. Dennis Fortenberry, professor of pediatrics in the Division of Adolescent Medicine, will use text messaging to follow 72 males, ages 14-17 years, for three years. The adolescent males will be provided with cell phones and unlimited, free text messaging as long as they remain enrolled in the study.

Indiana University Bloomington biologist Mike Wade has been selected to receive the American Society of Naturalists' 2009 Sewall Wright Award. Named after the influential population geneticist, the award recognizes a "senior but still active investigator who is making fundamental contributions to ... promoting the conceptual unification the biological sciences," according to the society.

A popular view among evolutionary biologists that fundamental genes do not acquire new functions was challenged this week by a new study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Indiana University Bloomington biologist Armin Moczek and research associate Debra Rose report that two ancient genes were "co-opted" to help build a new trait in beetles -- the fancy antlers that give horned beetles their name.

Michael Lynch, an evolutionary biologist at Indiana University Bloomington, has been elected a fellow of the National Academy of Sciences, the academy announced today from its 146th annual meeting in Washington, D.C. Fellowship in the NAS is considered by some to be the highest honor afforded in American science. According to the academy, election recognizes "distinguished achievements in original research," as well as scholarly prowess.

The National Institutes of Health has approved a $1.2 million, four-year grant that will allow Indiana University Bloomington scientists to continue their study of Huntington's disease. The project, led by IU Bloomington structural biologist Joel Ybe, has focused on the interaction of two proteins, HIP1 (Huntingtin-interacting protein 1) and HIPPI (HIP1-protein interactor), whose association is believed to trigger the death of nervous system cells.

More than 75 scientists, students and university administrators celebrated the opening of the Indiana University Research and Teaching Preserve's new Field Laboratory, an ecology and environmental sciences research station and classroom facility on the Bloomington campus. The field lab dedication was timed to coincide with Earth Day, April 22.

Two College of Arts and Sciences undergraduates at Indiana University Bloomington are 2009 Goldwater Scholars. Ellen Weinzapfel and Kaleb Naegeli, juniors double majoring in biology and neuroscience, will receive one-year scholarships that cover the cost of tuition, fees, books, and room and board up to a maximum of $7,500.

A project led by an Indiana University Bloomington plant biology team has been awarded an $8 million, four-year National Science Foundation grant to study the genetics and genomics of economically important and evolutionarily interesting plant species. "Comparative Genomics of Phenotypic Variation in the Compositae" will investigate the largest family of flowering plants, which includes sunflowers, safflowers, lettuce -- and even daisies and dandelions.

Maria Schumacher, associate professor of biochemistry and molecular biology at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, is a 2009 Joan Wood Lecturer. Schumacher will deliver the talk, "Structural mechanisms of multidrug resistance and multidrug tolerance," on Wednesday, March 25, at 4 p.m. in Myers Hall 130 on the Bloomington campus. A reception for Schumacher will follow. The event is free and open to the public.

Indiana University Bloomington biologist Mike Wade and University of Texas Arlington biologist Jeff Demuth will receive $2 million to study speciation of the grain pest Tribolium castaneum, or red flour beetle. The National Institutes of Health grant promises $328,535 in direct costs for the first year of the four-year grant period. The project will investigate why individuals of the species from different parts of the world often do not produce evolutionarily fit, flour-chomping offspring.

Students considering a career in health care can learn about more than careers as "doctor" and "nurse" at Indiana University Bloomington's Health Programs Fair on March 4 (Wednesday). The fair, scheduled from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the Indiana Memorial Union Alumni Hall, will feature more than 100 health care representatives on hand to meet with students and answer questions about educational and career opportunities.

Indiana University Bloomington biologists Carl Bauer and Malcolm Winkler and IU School of Medicine infectious disease specialist Stanley Spinola are new fellows of the American Academy of Microbiology, the professional society announced yesterday. Bauer, Winkler and Spinola will receive certificates marking the honor, and are invited to attend a special luncheon at the American Society of Microbiology annual meeting in Philadelphia.

Four Indiana University Bloomington researchers are presenting at this year's annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Chicago. Descriptions of their talks as well as contact information are provided.

Bacterial decay was once viewed as fossilization's mortal enemy, but new research suggests bacterial biofilms may have actually helped preserve the fossil record's most vulnerable stuff -- animal embryos and soft tissues. A team of 13 scientists led by Indiana University Bloomington biologists Rudolf and Elizabeth Raff found that the invasion of dying embryo cells by bacteria -- and the subsequent formation of densely packed bacterial biofilms inside the embryo cells -- can completely replace embryo cell structure, generating a faithful replica of the embryo.

Indiana University scientists, students and administrators gather today to celebrate the construction of the 6,000-square-foot Research and Teaching Preserve Field Laboratory, the university's newest science building.

The ostentatious, sometimes bizarre qualities that improve a creature's chances of finding a mate may also drive the reproductive separation of populations and the evolution of new species, say two Indiana University Bloomington biologists. In the September 2008 issue of Evolution (now online), Armin Moczek and Harald Parzer examine males from four geographically separated populations of the horned beetle species Onthophagus taurus. The beetles have diverged significantly in the size of the male copulatory organ, and natural selection operating on the other end of the animal -- horns atop the beetles' heads -- seems to be driving it.