Like all of MBL’s summer programs, the Grass Fellowships in neuroscience were deferred last year due to the pandemic. Waiting no more, five of the 10 accepted fellows arrived at MBL last May, eager to carry out their independent research projects on animal systems ranging from ticks to squid to alligators. “The fellows had to
Defying the odds, 13 undergraduates spent their summer at MBL conducting faculty-mentored research, presenting their results to the community on Aug. 17. “Among our peers, MBL was one of the only institutions that was able to bring in students this summer,” said MBL Education Director Linda Hyman, referring to the MBL’s commitment to safely host
By Maria Temming Most butterflies sport colorful, eye-catching wings. But some species flit about using mostly transparent wings. [MBL] researchers have now uncovered the tricks that one of these — the glasswing butterfly (Greta oto) — uses to hide in plain sight. Researchers viewed the wings of these Central American butterflies under the microscope. There
By Evan Lubofsky As a child, Johns Hopkins Assistant Professor Sarah Preheim would spend her summers swimming and boating at her family’s vacation home on Queen Lake in central Massachusetts. “The water back then was nearly pristine,” she says, “so there was no place I would rather be than in the water on a hot
By Anil Oza In a small tent in the middle of Panama’s rainforest, Aaron Pomerantz assembled a makeshift field lab, filled with microscopes, chemical reagents, and delicate lab equipment. At times, it was so hot that Pomerantz, an integrative biologist at the University of California, Berkeley, struggled to keep his own sweat from contaminating his
This research is from the lab of MBL Director Nipam Patel. By Maria Temming Most butterflies sport colorful, eye-catching patterns on their wings. But some species, like the glasswing butterfly, use mostly transparent wings to hide in plain sight. To figure out how these Central American butterflies go incognito, researchers put the wings of glasswing
By PressNews Agency Most butterflies sport colorful, eye-catching patterns on their wings. But some species, like the glasswing butterfly, use mostly transparent wings to hide in plain sight. To figure out how these Central American butterflies go incognito, researchers put the wings of glasswing butterflies (Greta oto) under the microscope. Sparse, spindly scales overlaying a
THun (tuna) fish and dolphins, but also some species of squid, can travel very quickly thanks to their streamlined body. Jellyfish are not among the fastest swimmers. But in terms of energy efficiency, these cnidarians, which have populated the oceans for 500 million years, outperform all other sea creatures. Jellyfish don’t just drift passively with
The MBL’s spring and summer educational season has begun! We are excited to see the campus coming alive again, after months of careful planning. On March 21, the season started when 12 University of Chicago undergraduates arrived for their MBL Spring Quarter. This program builds on the success of the inaugural MBL Autumn Quarter – which
Cell division in bacteria is a fundamental and medically important process, but how it works on the molecular level remains enigmatic. Recently, the MBL Physiology course hosted a collaboration that managed to fit an important piece into the puzzle of bacterial cell division. Led by Physiology faculty Ethan Garner of Harvard University, the group’s results