Tagged: Academic Minute

In today’s Academic Minute, Dr. Zachary Blount of Michigan State University explains how scientists have observed bacteria evolve new capabilities over thousands of generations.

Zachary Blount is a postdoctoral researcher in the BEACON Center for the Study of Evolution in Action at Michigan State University. Blount is a research associate in the Lenski lab, where evolutionary biologists have observed and recorded changes in E. coli bacteria over more than 50,000 generations.

In today’s Academic Minute, Dr. Michael Sayette of the University of Pittsburgh explains how alcohol influences social interactions between strangers.

Michael Sayette is a professor of psychology at the University of Pittsburgh where his research interests include the psychological theories of alcohol use and abuse, cigarette smoking, drug craving, and social processes in addiction, alcohol and stress. His findings have been published in a number of peer-reviewed journals and he holds a Ph.D. from Rutgers University.

In today’s Academic Minute, Dr. Thomas Emerson of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign explains a microscopic discovery that reveals big things about culture and ritual at one of North America’s largest pre-Columbian settlements.

In today’s Academic Minute, Walter Piper of Chapman University explains why territorial disputes among loons can become a battle to the death.

Walter Piper is a professor of biology at Chapman University in Orange, California. He has studied the territoriality of Common Loons since 1993 in Oneida County, Wisconsin. His Loon Project seeks to understand how young animals acquire a breeding territory and how older, established breeders hold onto their territories for as long as possible. He earned his Ph.D. at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.