2021

Kristel Schoonderwoerd

Kristel Schoonderwoerd Awarded Philip Hofer Prize

May 3, 2021

Congratulations to PhD candidate Kristel Schoonderwoerd (Friedman Lab) awarded Harvard Library's Philip Hofer Prize for her essay, "Winter twig keys: Manuals for tracing time".

The Philip Hofer prize is awarded each year to a student or students whose collections of books or works of art best reflect the traditions of breadth, coherence, and imagination exemplified by Philip Hofer, A.B.'21, L.H.D. '67, ...

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Ben Goulet-Scott and Jacob Suissa

Ben Goulet-Scott and Jacob Suissa Awarded ESEB's Outreach Initiative Fund

March 1, 2021

Congratulations to PhD candidates Ben Goulet-Scott (Hopkins Lab) and Jacob Suissa (Friedman Lab) awarded funding through the European Society for Evolutionary Biology's Outreach Initiative Fund for their outreach project, "Let's Botanize"!

The ESEB Outreach Initiative Fund is for projects that promote evolution-related activities that help improve public knowledge about evolution globally. "Let's Botanize"  (@letsbotanize) is an...

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Amaneet Lochab Awarded Harvard GSAS Merit Fellowship

Amaneet Lochab Awarded Harvard GSAS Merit Fellowship

April 21, 2021
Congratulations to PhD candidate Amaneet Lochab (Extavour Lab) awarded the Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Merit Fellowship for her proposal, "Germ cell migration through a developing embryo".
The carbonate chimneys at the Point Dume methane seep off southern California are covered with colorful microbial mats and permeated by methane-eating microbes. Courtesy of the Schmidt Ocean Institute

Microbes in Ocean Play Important Role in Moderating Earth’s Temperature

June 14, 2021

Methane is a strong greenhouse gas that plays a key role in Earth’s climate. Anytime we use natural gas, whether we light up our kitchen stove or barbeque, we are using methane.

Only three sources on Earth produce methane naturally: volcanoes, subsurface water-rock interactions, and microbes. Between these three sources, most is generated by microbes, which have deposited hundreds of gigatons of methane into the deep seafloor. At seafloor methane seeps, it percolates upwards toward the open ocean, and microbial communities consume the majority of this...

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Tree Canopy

New Study Finds Leaf Surface Water Contributes to Total Canopy Water Content

June 7, 2021

Water availability is essential to terrestrial plants, especially tall canopy trees. Satellite observations at microwave frequencies make it possible to assess total canopy water content and plant stress. However, leaf surface water -- water coming from dew, fog and rainfall -- is often overlooked when interpreting changes in canopy water content. An increasing body of evidence, though, indicates that plants might rely more than originally thought on these nonconventional water sources.

In a recent study in ...

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Image of Army Ants from "Nature's Ultimate Social Hunters" by Daniel J.C. Kronauer

How army ants' iconic mass raids evolved

May 25, 2021

Army ants form some of the largest insect societies on the planet. They are quite famous in popular culture, most notably from a terrifying scene in Indiana Jones. But they are also ecologically important. They live in very large colonies and consume large amounts of arthropods. And because they eat so much of the other animals around them, they are nomadic and must keep moving in order to not run out of food. Due to their nomadic nature and mass consumption of food, they have a huge impact on arthropod populations throughout tropical rainforests floors.

Their mass raids are...

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Jacob Suissa

Jacob Suissa Receives 2021 Derek C. Bok Award

May 19, 2021

Congratulations to PhD candidate Jacob Suissa (Friedman Lab) recipient of the 2021 Derek C. Bok Award for Excellence in Graduate Student Teaching of Undergraduates!

 

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