David Toews found that eastern (shown here) and western winter wrens are reproductively isolated where they appear together, and are therefore distinct species. Photo:

Tony Farrell's lab is investigating how cardiac performance limits the ability of salmon to tolerate high temperatures. Photo: M. Casselman

A Collared Lemming (Dicrostonyx groenlandicus) on an arctic island.
Photo: Alistair Blachford

The extracellular matrix covers the entire nervous system and is necessary to ensure the survival of the glial cells that wrap, insulate and protect the nerves. Photo: Vanessa Auld

This photo is the first record of an Old World Swallowtail (Papilio machaon) on Herschel Island, Yukon. Photo: Alistair Blachford

Darren Irwin's lab is investigating migratory connectivity in populations of Wilson's warbler. Photo: David Toews

A scanning electron micrograph of two pulsating gregarines copulating within the coelomic space of a bamboo worm. Brian Leander's lab studies these enigmatic parasites, which inhabit the extracellular cavities of marine invertebrates. Photo: B. Leander

For their graduate research Mervin Hastings and T. Todd Jones went to Tortola, British Virgin Islands and collected leatherback hatchlings as they emerged from the sand about 65 days after the female deposited the eggs in the dunes. Photo: M.H.

Rosie Redfield used candy to make a stop-motion movie of DNA uptake by a Haemophilus influenzae bacterium. Photo: R. Redfield

Endocytosis of the transmembrane protein Gliotactin (red) is mediated by tyrosine kinase signaling (green) and is necessary to control epithelia cell survival and permeability barrier function. Photo: Vanessa Auld

Seen near Kluane Lake, Yukon, on the BIOL 409 field course taught by Mark Vellend and Darren Irwin. Photo: M.V.

Pisaster ochraceus is the original keystone predator, and controls biodiversity on rocky shores. The Harley lab studies how the impacts of this sea star may change with climate change. Photo: Chris Harley

Long-tailed Jaeger on Herschel Island, Yukon, site of an International Polar Year project. Photo: Alistair Blachford

Goldbogen and Pyenson measure the largest bones on earth -- 7m long mandibles from an Antarctic blue whale. Photo: Shadwick lab

Caribou on Herschel Island in the arctic ocean, site of an International Polar Year project. Photo: Alistair Blachford

Red sea urchins (Strongylocentrotus franciscanus) at low tide. Graduate student Sarah Nienhuis is studying how ocean acidification will affect the growth and feeding rates of these animals. Photo: Chris Harley

Nicholas Pyenson inspects vertebrae of a fossilized whale. Photo: Shadwick Lab

Photo: W.K. Milsom

The flight lab investigates aerodynamics, sensory-motor integration, and the evolution of these features. Much work focuses on BC hummingbirds, including Anna's (shown here) and on diverse assemblages of tropical hummingbirds in Central and South America. Photo: Benny Goller

The brain of a fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster, stained to visualize a set of approximately 50 neurons. Among the visualized neurons is a pair that controls a specific component of feeding behaviour. Photo: M. Gordon

Whelk laying egg capsules, for study of biopolymers. Photo: Shadwick Lab

Sockeye salmon (Oncorhynchus nerka) school together in Scotch Creek, BC. Tony Farrell's lab is investigating how cardiac performance limits the ability of salmon to tolerate high temperatures. Photo: M. Casselman

A live imaging of all three cell types found at the neuromuscular junction allows us to visualize changes to synapses over development (glia: green; muscle SSR: blue: neurons: red). Photo: Vanessa Auld

A fully armoured male marine stickleback in breeding condition. The Schluter lab studies evolution of marine into freshwater forms in B.C.'s coastal lakes. Photo: Rowan Barrett


Sally Otto has been elected to the National Academy of Sciences. That is a great big nod to the magnitude of her accomplishments.

Postdoctoral Fellowship at the U.B.C. Biodiversity Research Centre. More info

A part-time Research Associate position in Michael Gordon's lab. More info

Jane Roskams and Rosie Redfield have articles in UBC Reports about brain injuries and massively open online courses.

Jobs
Michael Whitlock has been elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences! Among its Fellows are more than 250 Nobel Prize laureates and 60 Pulitzer Prize winners.

Greg Crutsinger has received one of two awards given by the Peter Wall institute for the Visiting Scholar Abroad program -- to do research at Mpala Research Centre in Kenya.

Doug Altshuler and colleagues have been awarded a Research Grant from the Human Frontier Science Program to study the "Visual control of flight modes and transitions in birds". These grants support high risk, cutting edge research for teams of international collaborators.

Congratulations to Mary O'Connor who has been selected as a 2013 Alfred Sloan Research Fellow.

One of The Best Scientific Figures of 2012 (the last one) is from a study in Proceedings B of the super-powers of bar-headed geese. Two of the authors are Bill Milsom and (grad alumnus) Graham Scott.

Postdoc alumnus Nicholas Pyenson, grad alumnus Jeremy Goldbogen, prof Bob Shadwick and colleagues made Discover magazine's top 100 science stories of 2012 with their discovery of a new sense organ in rorqual whales.

The Economist has a review of Dr. Tony Sinclair's latest book: Serengeti Story: Life and Science in the World's Greatest Wildlife Region.

Michael Gordon and colleagues have shown that fruit flies learn to avoid junk food. in The Journal of Neuroscience, 17 Oct 2012. More

Delmore, Fox and Irwin put little backpacks on some Swainson's thrushes containing light-level geolocators, and found that members of the same species can follow completely different migration routes. in Proceedings B, 26 Sep 2012. More

John Ford suggests that these be called "Bigg's Killer Whales". More
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