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Despite being a stepmother-in-law--a combination of two very negative stereotypes--I have a wonderful son and daughter-in-law. Last July, my daughter-in-law, Laura, sent me an e-mail in which she outlined her [...]

Most of us have to teach about protein structure. We know the drill: primary structure being the linear sequence of amino acids, secondary involving the folding of portions of this [...]

I recently read an essay on biology and art that presents the best case I've ever seen of integrating the two. Most examples of biology and art influencing each other [...]

Australia's history is paradoxical. It has some of the oldest rocks on earth, yet its recorded history is relatively brief, usually measured from the first British colony established at what [...]

Last summer, I decided to finally travel to Australia, and my visit there was framed by encounters with sculptures at its beginning and end. On my first day in Sydney, [...]

In April 2010, the state of Wisconsin declared Lactococcus lactis its official microbe. This makes perfect sense because the bacterium is crucial to cheese making, one of Wisconsin's signature enterprises. [...]

My knowledge of finance is minuscule at best, but I do buy the Wall Street Journal on the weekends for the newspaper's coverage of cultural topics. In a recent WSJ.Magazine, [...]

Science is usually seen as a progressive enterprise, with one discovery leading on to the next and then the next. However, this progress isn't always as smooth as it's sometimes [...]

In my last column, I discussed herbaria and my newfound interest in them (Flannery, 2011). Even though this month's theme is human health, I'm not ready to leave my new [...]

I have become fascinated by herbaria, collections of dried plant specimens. Like many new loves, this one began rather suddenly. Yes, I had known about them for years and had [...]

Sometimes coincidences occur, and last spring, I happened to find two books on language in the same evening: Walking English by David Crystal (2007) and The Tree of Meaning by [...]

We've all taken and taught courses that cover the digestive system. After a while it gets to be old hat: stomach acid, peristalsis, intestinal villi, and so on. That's why [...]

The big Darwin year of 2009 made me realize just how many ways there are to approach Darwin's life, his ideas, and his theory. I've read only a smattering of [...]

I wasn't planning on writing about my trips last summer, because I didn't go on any very science-oriented travels. I went for other reasons: work, family, friends. However, it's hard [...]

Last April 23 was the 40th anniversary of the first Earth Day celebration in 1970. Some attention was paid to a book that was a catalyst for the environmental movement, [...]

It's about time that we stopped being surprised by bacteria. So many articles on these organisms express amazement that bacteria are found where no life was expected to be, or [...]

It's fairly well known that the inspiration for Velcro came from cockleburs caught in the hair of George de Mestral's dog, and that Leonardo da Vinci drew on the bird's [...]

About 10 years ago, my university instituted a new core curriculum. Among the courses created for it was 'Scientific Inquiry.' It's the only required science course in the core, and, [...]

I'm writing this article in January, just as I return to classes after the winter break. It was a wonderful respite, in part because I had time to do some [...]

Lately I've found myself spending quite a bit of time in the 18th century, beginning in 2007 with the tercentenary of Carol Linnaeus's birth (Uddenberg, 2007). Then I read a [...]

There's a tremendous amount of evidence for evolution, but biologists are always looking for more. As with any delving into the past, this isn't easy to do. Time erases evidence. [...]

I am writing this column in late August, so it's difficult to predict what the H1N1 flu situation will be by like the time it is published towards the end [...]

I just got back from a trip to Ireland, the second in six months. Lest you think I fly to the land of my ancestors on a regular basis, I [...]

Since the theme for this month's issue of ABT is biodiversity, a column on pigeons wouldn't seem appropriate. Pigeons are commonplace, if not ubiquitous. They are hardly endangered, nor do [...]

Mirror neurons have received quite a bit of attention since they were discovered in the 1990s. First found in macaques, these are nerve cells which fire both when the animal [...]

From where 1 live, it takes me about an hour and a half to get into Manhattan, so I like to get as much done as I can while I'm [...]

Sometimes it's nice to have a second chance. In 2007, I spent several days in Florence, but never got around to visiting the Zoological Museum. I have to admit to [...]

It is tough to come up with a novel approach to Darwin, especially this year, when Darwin is everywhere. It would be nice if Darwin had been a teacher, then [...]

I am writing this column in Rome. Yes, Rome, Italy. I am here for two weeks as part of St. John's University's Summer Writing Institute for faculty. What an opportunity! [...]

In education today, there is a stress on interdisciplinary studies, on linking fields in order to counteract the specialization and compartmentalization that has gone on for decades. This is a [...]

I am sitting down to write this article in early summer, and lately I've heard more than one person complain about birds waking them up in what my human friends [...]

There are a lot of insects--any way you want to count them. In one of the classics of the entomological literature, Howard Ensign Evans (1984) cites a calculation of 'the [...]

I will admit that this title might be considered on the cute side, but it's too accurate to reject. To me, bacteria are enthralling. As a case in point, they [...]

Georgina Ferry (2007) recently published a biography of Max Perutz in which she chronicles the many difficulties he faced in his over 20-year effort to work out the structure of [...]

I teach a diverse group of students many of whom were either born in foreign countries or have relatives there. When I ask them to describe their experiences with nature [...]

Recently, I was searching for information on Bentley Glass, a distinguished geneticist and a founding member of the Biological Sciences Curriculum Study (BSCS), which celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2007. [...]

The depths of my ignorance continue to amaze me. There are huge swaths of biology about which I know little, but even worse are the fields of economics and political [...]

Biology is often referred to as an observational science almost as a slur, with the implication that biologists simply look at the living world without the strong theoretical and mathematic [...]

I have just turned 60 and have decided to begin an exploration of the plant world. This is really an embarrassing thing to admit: that I've been a biologist for [...]

Many people take their vacations in August, so they have something to look forward to throughout the summer. I, on the other hand, was 'forced' to go to Italy in [...]

I love protein structure, but my students don't find it quite as fascinating as I do--to say the least. However, one thing many of us do agree on is that [...]

Sometimes I have been very lucky in life, as when Cecily Selby arrived to teach at New York University in the mid 1980s, just when I needed her. I was [...]

The publication of species genomes is becoming almost commonplace--almost. In the last few months, the genomes of the honeybee (Wilson, 2006), the black cottonwood tree, a poplar (Stokstad, 2006), and [...]

I get a lot of junk email and quickly delete messages that have odd titles and are from unknown recipients. That's how I almost lost a great message with the [...]

Sometimes teaching biology is tough. Here I'm not just referring to unruly students or annoying administrators, but to the subject itself. It just doesn't stand still. Even something as apparently [...]

Things seem to have gotten rather crazy in the world of genetics. Even the concept of the gene is being questioned. The gene - what could be more solid than [...]

I am not a good traveler in the sense of planning ahead and being well prepared. This has its disadvantages. There can be great attractions right under my nose that [...]

Since I'm not an ecologist, I can hardly tout myself as an expert on sustainability. However, I did want to contribute an appropriate essay for this issue. An article with [...]

Science educators often impress upon their students that science should be taken seriously. However, this approach discourages learning.Teachers need to create a more conducive learning atmosphere for young people. For instance, they can use cartoons in teaching science. Scientific magazines are good sources of cartoons. The cartoons are not only humorous, they also contain the latest trend in science. However, teachers must know the proper timing in presenting the cartoons.