Improving safety of AI research for engineering biology
Hazards posed by using data-centric methods to engineer biology have been identified by experts at the University of Bristol with the aim of making future research safer.
Hazards posed by using data-centric methods to engineer biology have been identified by experts at the University of Bristol with the aim of making future research safer.
Biotechnology
Jul 8, 2024
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A small team of biologists from Freie Universität Berlin and the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology, both in Germany, has calculated the degree of risk faced by wild fruit flies by capturing more than 10,000 of them ...
A study published in the journal BioScience sheds light on the importance of gray wolves in the western United States. Led by William Ripple, a scientist at Oregon State University and the Conservation Biology Institute, ...
Plants & Animals
Jun 19, 2024
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Scientists have created a research framework to incorporate ecological theory—mathematical models and concepts to understand interactions and dynamics of ecosystems—into ecosystem management and planning to more effectively ...
Ecology
Jun 18, 2024
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Using genome reconstruction, scientists unveiled a once "invisible" fish parasite present in many marine fish world-wide that belongs to the apicomplexans, one of the most important groups of parasites at a clinical level. ...
Ecology
Jun 17, 2024
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During Japan's 1960–90 population boom, new towns sprouted up across the nation. These new towns were quiet residential neighborhoods of suburban areas, many of which are now shrinking in terms of inhabitants. They have ...
Social Sciences
Jun 11, 2024
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The South China Karst, the world's most concentrated karst area, has reduced rocky desertification through extensive conservation and restoration over the past two decades, making it a global "greening" hotspot. However, ...
Earth Sciences
Jun 7, 2024
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Land degradation is a huge issue across the continent of Africa. One of its biggest drivers is biological invasions. This is when invasive species (species that aren't naturally found in the area) arrive and produce large ...
Environment
Jun 4, 2024
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Plants and the animals that eat them have evolved together in fascinating ways, creating a dynamic interplay of survival strategies. Many plants have developed physical and chemical defenses to fend off herbivores. A well-known ...
Plants & Animals
May 30, 2024
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Urbanization in Africa is accelerating quickly, showing no signs of slowing down. An international team of researchers addresses critical gaps in our understanding of how this urbanization affects local food and ecological ...
Environment
May 30, 2024
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Ecology (from Greek: οἶκος, "house"; -λογία, "study of") is the scientific study of the relations that living organisms have with respect to each other and their natural environment. Variables of interest to ecologists include the composition, distribution, amount (biomass), number, and changing states of organisms within and among ecosystems. Ecosystems are hierarchical systems that are organized into a graded series of regularly interacting and semi-independent parts (e.g., species) that aggregate into higher orders of complex integrated wholes (e.g., communities). Ecosystems are sustained by the biodiversity within them. Biodiversity is the full-scale of life and its processes, including genes, species and ecosystems forming lineages that integrate into a complex and regenerative spatial arrangement of types, forms, and interactions. Ecosystems create biophysical feedback mechanisms between living (biotic) and nonliving (abiotic) components of the planet. These feedback loops regulate and sustain local communities, continental climate systems, and global biogeochemical cycles.
Ecology is a sub-discipline of biology, the study of life. The word "ecology" ("Ökologie") was coined in 1866 by the German scientist Ernst Haeckel (1834–1919). Ancient philosophers of Greece, including Hippocrates and Aristotle, were among the earliest to record notes and observations on the natural history of plants and animals. Modern ecology branched out of natural history and matured into a more rigorous science in the late 19th century. Charles Darwin's evolutionary treatise including the concept of adaptation, as it was introduced in 1859, is a pivotal cornerstone in modern ecological theory. Ecology is not synonymous with environment, environmentalism, natural history or environmental science. It is closely related to physiology, evolutionary biology, genetics and ethology. An understanding of how biodiversity affects ecological function is an important focus area in ecological studies. Ecologists seek to explain:
Ecology is a human science as well. There are many practical applications of ecology in conservation biology, wetland management, natural resource management (agriculture, forestry, fisheries), city planning (urban ecology), community health, economics, basic and applied science and human social interaction (human ecology). Ecosystems sustain every life-supporting function on the planet, including climate regulation, water filtration, soil formation (pedogenesis), food, fibers, medicines, erosion control, and many other natural features of scientific, historical or spiritual value.
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