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The March 11, 2011 issue of IU Home Pages features a story about a partnership between Indiana University and 11 historically black colleges and universities who have joined with North Carolina A&T State University in an effort to increase the number of African Americans pursuing careers as researchers and scholars in science, technology, engineering and mathematics disciplines.
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Stomata are tiny pores on the underside of leaves that allow plants to exchange gases with the air, including oxygen, carbon dioxide, and water vapor. IU and Dutch researchers have recently learned that as global carbon dioxide levels have risen over the last 100 years, plants in Florida have produced fewer and fewer stomata. That could mean air that is richer in carbon dioxide could result in less water being released into the atmosphere.
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Joan Wood Lecture: The Path Not Well Traveled: From Scientist to Entrepreneur
Wednesday, March 30
4-5 p.m.
Myers Hall 130, IU Bloomington
This year's Joan Wood Lecture honoree is Tracy Lawhon, chief pharmaceutical development officer for Tragara Pharmaceuticals in San Diego County. She is a graduate of IU Bloomington (B.S., microbiology, 1988) and the IU School of Law (J.D., 1994). She will discuss her academic background and career. For more information, e-mail kwyss@indiana.edu.
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Scientist at Work: Seth Young
Most people flee hydrogen sulfide, the notorious molecule that as a gas, smells an awful lot like rotten eggs. Indiana University Bloomington isotope biogeochemist Seth Young does the opposite. Young seeks out hydrogen sulfide (H2S) and the products of its chemical reactions, particularly in extreme environments. "The isotopes of sulfur can tell us a lot about the Earth at various stages of its history," Young says. "We can learn more about the oceans of the past, particularly life in those oceans -- about extinction events and the replacement of one group of species by another -- by studying stable isotopes of elements such as sulfur and carbon."
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As carbon dioxide levels have risen during the last 150 years, the density of pores that allow plants to breathe has dwindled by 34 percent, restricting the amount of water vapor the plants release to the atmosphere, report scientists from Indiana University Bloomington and Utrecht University in the Netherlands in an upcoming issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (now online). In a separate paper, also to be published by PNAS, many of the same scientists describe a model they devised that predicts doubling today's carbon dioxide levels will dramatically reduce the amount of water released by plants.
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Polygamy practiced by some 19th century Mormon men had the curious effect of suppressing the overall offspring numbers of Mormon women in plural marriages, say scientists from Indiana University Bloomington and three other institutions in the March 2011 issue of Evolution and Human Behavior. Simply put, the more sister-wives a Mormon woman had, the fewer children she was likely to produce.
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Indiana University scientists in training presented the fruits of their undergraduate and graduate research projects on March 4 at the 13th Women in Science Program Conference, an annual event that supports women who are considering careers in science, social science or mathematics. Posters were on display in the Indiana Memorial Union's Alumni Hall. Attendance of the conference, which includes a poster and presentation competition, has grown steadily over the years. Last year's WISP conference had 85 student registrants, and a record-setting 100 participants this year.
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Roger Innes, chair of the Indiana University Bloomington Department of Biology, has been elected a fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology. It is a major honor for scientists who study bacteria and viruses. Innes and this year's 77 other electees are invited to attend a special event at the American Society for Microbiology's annual meeting in New Orleans (May 2011). The American Academy of Microbiology is the Society's honorific division.
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Researchers from Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis and Umea University (Sweden) reported in a study published in the February 15, 2011, issue of PLoS Biology that a method by which cells repair breaks in their DNA -- known as Break-induced Replication (BIR) -- is up to 2,800 times more likely to cause genetic mutation than normal cell repair. Accurate transmission of genetic information requires the precise replication of DNA. Errors in DNA replication are common and nature has developed several cellular mechanisms for repairing these mistakes.
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A mathematician in the Indiana University College of Arts and Sciences is being credited with resolving a 65-year-old problem in combinatorial geometry that sought to determine the minimum number of distinct distances between any finite set of points in a plane. The work by IU Department of Mathematics Professor Nets Hawk Katz, with Larry Guth of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, N.J., achieved what many thought was unachievable: Solving Paul Erdos' 1946 Distinct Distances Problem.
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The Feb. 15, 2011, issue of IU Discoveries featured evolutionary biologist John Colbourne, genomics director for the Indiana University Center for Genomics and Bioinformatics. Also included were stories about the completion of the water flea genome by IU scientists, developing new drugs for diabetes and cancer, a project that rewards innovations in sustainability, pinpointing the processes in bacteria that antibiotics affect, and increasing racial diversity among American life scientists.
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Recent and upcoming titles by IU researchers
"Growth defects resulting from inhibiting ERG20 and RAM2 in Candida glabrata," FEMS Microbiology Letters, April 2011, by H. Nakayama, K. Ueno, J. Uno, M. Nagi, K. Tanabe, T. Aoyama, H. Chibana, and M. Bard
"Age and gender differences in risky driving: The roles of positive affect and risk perception," Accident: Analysis and Prevention, May 2011, by N. Rhodes and K. Pivik
"Reactions to self-sampling for ano-rectal sexually transmitted infections among men who have sex with men: a qualitative study," Archives of Sexual Behavior, April 2011, by J.G. Rosenberger, B. Dodge, B. Van Der Pol, M. Reece, D. Herbenick, and J.D. Fortenberry
"Blockade of TNFR1 signaling: A role of oscillatory fluid shear stress in osteoblasts," Journal of Cellular Physiology, April 2011, by H. Wang, S.R. Young, R. Gerard-O'Riley, J.M. Hum, Z. Yang, J.P. Bidwell, and F.M. Pavalko
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The Innovate Indiana blog highlights new research discoveries from IU faculty and researchers, discusses trends in technology transfer and university research, and shows how IU innovation is benefiting the entire state of Indiana.
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