News

Maris Wright's summer at the Florida Aquarium was an experience that she will never be able to forget. As one of the first interns for the Marine Operations department at the aquarium, she was excited to see what they had planned for me throughout the summer and to really get her feet wet.

Elena Litchman is leading a three-year, $993,000 project funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) Division of Environmental Biology (DEB) in collaboration with faculty at the University of Texas at Austin (UT). The project aims to investigate and to predict intraspecific trait variation in phytoplankton. 

An inside look into why students should spend a summer at KBS.

Developing cutting-edge statistical tools that can handle these massive new datasets is a piece of the research puzzle, and new research by Gideon Bradburd and colleagues has just added a new tool for the modern genomic toolbox. 

In summer 2018, Zoology major Chelsea Bandy spent a month in Thailand and Australia helping animals and learning hands-on what it’s like to be a veterinarian through the Loop Abroad Program.

With the help of a graduate student, Lauren designed a research study to be conducted in the Pantanal region of Brazil, but she lacked the funds to finance the project. Determined to capture wildlife on camera traps and use this data to define a sustainability plan, she applied for numerous scholarships. She was awarded Integrative Biology's Dr. Marvin Hensley Endowed Scholarship to make her dream a reality.

At the August MSU Board of Trustee meeting, Ingo Braasch explained what fish can tell us about our evolution, development, and diseases.

Science is often a series of failures that teach us how to succeed. After a first field season riddled with messes, graduate student Sean Griffin is making a beeline toward his research on pollinators in his second year of field work.

Sarah Evans is a co-author of a new study which suggests that fog can transfer microbes into new environments.

Elena Litchman and Christopher Klausmeier are the recipients of a two year, $360,000 NASA Astrobiology/Exobiology grant to fund research on modeling the evolutionary origin of diverse microbial metabolisms.

Deforestation remains the biggest threat to animals that call the rain forest “home.” However, even measured, sensible development projects can have unforeseen effects because there’s no model to follow. Now, thanks to new research published in Ecological Applications, there’s a guide to help land-use development and efforts to conserve amphibians, which are rapidly declining worldwide.

Scientists, including Nick Haddad, are working to save several species of butterflies from the brink of extinction. 

Scientists have found that the evolutionary trick some fish use to make brief electrical discharges could provide new insights on treatments for diseases such as epilepsy. 

Patrick “Pat” Muzzall retired in May 2018. He is a respected parasitologist, working primarily with the parasites of fish and amphibians. Pat was heavily involved in undergraduate education, primarily teaching general biology and parasitology.

What can help boost Michigan’s economy? American kestrels. In a recent study, the Lindell Lab shows that America’s smallest raptor can boost Michigan’s – and other fruit-growing states’ – bottom lines.

The new book, Hyena Scientist, is a new addition to the “Scientist in the Field” series by author Sy Montgomery and photographer Nic Bishop that debunks myths about hyenas, while featuring the pioneering research of Kay Holekamp.

To showcase the latest in student-led research at Michigan State University, two scholars, including alumna Clara Lepard, presented their academic endeavors at the Board of Trustees meeting on April 13.

Doctoral student, Allison Young, will spend nine months in India as a Fulbright Scholar investigating some of the most vastly understudied and critically important species for the pollination of both agricultural and wild plants—tropical honey bees.