Thursday, January 04, 2024

Survival of the fittest: Words like 'Sex' and 'fight' are most likely to stand the test of time

New research from the University of Warwick reveals that words like 'sex' endure in our language in a ‘survival of the fittest’ way, similar to natural selection

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF WARWICK

New research from the University of Warwick reveals that words like 'sex' endure in our language in a ‘survival of the fittest’ way, similar to natural selection.

Whilst the recent announcement of Word of the Year explores new words, like ‘rizz’ or ‘situationship’, Professor Thomas Hills’ research delves into why some words survive in our modern linguistic landscape, while others don’t.

The study concludes that words with the strongest lasting power are:

Words acquired earlier in life
Words associated with things people can see or imagine, termed 'concrete' words. For example, cat' is more concrete than 'animal', which is more concrete than 'organism'.
Words that are more arousing, including words like ‘sex’ and ‘fight’

Academics suggest that these findings shed light on how the human brain processes and filters information—a process known as 'cognitive selection.' This becomes crucial in today's world, where various information forms continually compete for our attention.

Thomas Hills, professor of Psychology at the University of Warwick and an author of the study, said:

“Information is a complex organism, constantly evolving as it undergoes cognitive selection within our minds.

“Languages change due to social, cultural, and cognitive influences. Information environments evolve due to war, disease, population changes, and technological innovations. However, the mind remains relatively stable, capable of exerting lasting impacts on language evolution. This cognitive selection influences what, in an information marketplace, will endure.

“Our study finds that properties like early acquisition, concreteness, and arousal give linguistic information a selective advantage.”

The first study involved a story-retelling experiment where more than 12,000 people were asked to retell a collection of thousands of short stories, each on average 200 words long. For the second part of the study, psychologists analysed millions of words of language from fiction and non-fiction books, newspapers, and magazines, over hundreds of years, from 1800 up to 2000.

The research, How cognitive selection affects language change, is published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2220898120

New research from the University of Warwick reveals that words like 'sex' endure in our language in a ‘survival of the fittest’ way, similar to natural selection.

The study concludes that words with the strongest lasting power are:

Words acquired earlier in life
Words associated with things people can see or imagine, termed 'concrete' words. For example, cat' is more concrete than 'animal', which is more concrete than 'organism'.
Words that are more arousing, including words like ‘sex’ and ‘fight’

“Our study finds that properties like early acquisition, concreteness, and arousal give linguistic information a selective advantage.”

The research, How cognitive selection affects language change, is published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2220898120

Older adults with newly diagnosed migraine disorder three times more likely to have motor vehicle crash

Study finds older adult drivers with history of migraines were not at increased risk of motor vehicle crashes, while drivers with new onset of migraines are more than three times as likely to experience a crash

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO ANSCHUTZ MEDICAL CAMPUS

A new study from researchers at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus finds that older adult drivers who are recently diagnosed with migraines are three times as likely to experience a motor vehicle crash. Older adult drivers who reported having ever had migraines in the past were no more likely to have a motor vehicle crash than those without migraines.

Additionally, study results, published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, explored the relationships medications commonly prescribed for migraine management have with increased crash risk.

“Migraine headaches affect more than 7% of U.S. adults over the age of 60,” says Carolyn DiGuiseppi, MPH, PhD, MD, professor with the Colorado School of Public Health and study lead author. “The US population is aging, which means increasing numbers of older adult drivers could see their driving abilities affected by migraine symptoms previously not experienced. These symptoms include sleepiness, decreased concentration, dizziness, debilitating head pain and more.”

Researchers conducted a five-year longitudinal study of more than 2,500 active drivers aged 65-79 in five sites across the United States. Participants were categorized as having previously been diagnosed with migraine symptoms (12.5%), no previous diagnosis but experienced symptoms during the study timeframe (1.3%) or never migraine respondents. Results indicate those with previous diagnosis did not have a different likelihood of having crashes after baseline, while those with new onset migraines were three times as likely to experience a crash within one year of diagnosis. However, previously diagnosed drivers experienced more hard braking events compared to adults who had never experienced a migraine.

Additionally, researchers examined the role medications commonly prescribed for migraines have in motor vehicle events and found that there was no impact on the relationship between migraines and either crashes or driving habits. However, few participants in the study sample were using acute migraine medications.

“These results have potential implications for the safety of older patients that should be addressed,” says DiGuiseppi. “Patients with a new migraine diagnosis would benefit from talking with their clinicians about driving safety, including being extra careful about other risks, such as distracted driving, alcohol, pain medication and other factors that affect driving.”

This research was sponsored by AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety and was co-authored by Emmy Betz, MD, MPH of the Injury and Violence Prevention Center at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus

JOURNAL

Journal of the American Geriatrics Society

DOI

10.1111/jgs.18719

ARTICLE TITLE

Migraine headaches are associated with motor vehicle crashes and driving habits among older drivers: Prospective cohort study

Seismic and infrasonic signals used to characterize Nord Stream pipeline events

Peer-Reviewed Publication

SEISMOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA

Seismic events that coincided with sudden drops in pressure within the Nord Stream 1 and 2 natural gas pipelines in September 2022 alerted the world to the rupture of pipelines in the western Baltic Sea. The suspected act of sabotage, which reportedly used explosive charges to rupture the pipelines, is still under investigation by multiple countries.

A new study published in The Seismic Record provides further evidence that the Nord Stream seismic signals came from a complex source. The signals lasted longer than would be expected from a single explosive source, the researchers say, and were more like the signals detected from an underwater volcano or a pipeline venting gas.

The initial signals from seismic events detected on 26 September 2022 “may be dominated by energy generated by the rapid venting of high-pressure gas, which means it may be difficult to assess the source size and characteristics of any explosive charges used to rupture the Nord Stream pipelines,” said Ross Heyburn of AWE Blacknest.

The Nord Stream events offer a rare opportunity to study seismic and infrasound signals from the rupture of an underwater gas pipeline, Heyburn and colleagues noted. The researchers had access to data collected by local and regional seismic networks as well as seismic and infrasound data collected by the International Monitoring System (IMS), a global network that detects nuclear and other explosions for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO).

“To the best of our knowledge, this was the first time that the IMS has recorded signals from an underwater event associated with a gas pipeline rupture,” Heyburn said. “The events therefore provided an opportunity to observe the characteristics of signals, such as the long durations, generated by this type of source.”

Natural seismic activity in the region is low, but the research team was able to analyze the Nord Stream signals with the help of seismic data from a few small earthquakes and explosions detonated during a 2019 NATO operation in the region to clear World War II British ground mines.

One of the methods seismologists use to determine whether a seismic event is caused by an explosion or an earthquake is to measure the ratio of P to S waves for the event. Explosions usually have a higher ratio of P to S waves than earthquakes, and the Nord Stream events are very different to nearby earthquakes in this regard, the researchers concluded.

The spectra of seismic signals from underwater explosions sometimes display a series of modulations caused by interference between the primary pulse generated by the explosion and later pulses generated by the changing size of the gas bubble created by the explosion. Heyburn and colleagues did not observe this series of modulations clearly, which suggests a complex source rather than a simple explosion source for the Nord Stream events.

One of the most striking features of the Nord Stream events is its long-lasting seismic and infrasonic signals, the researchers found. These signals decay slowly over thousands of seconds—much longer than would be expected from an impulsive, single explosion event. For instance, the infrasound recorded in Southern Germany from the first Nord Stream event of 26 September lasted about 2000 seconds, while an impulsive event recorded at that distance would normally last no longer than about 600 seconds.

These long-lasting seismic and infrasound signals are likely the result of vibrations caused by high-pressure gas venting rapidly from the pipeline into the water and atmosphere. The lengthy signals are similar to seismic signals caused by roaring flames when pipelines explode on land, Heyburn and colleagues concluded, noting that the duration of the Nord Stream infrasound signals was similar to those detected during venting by underwater volcanoes.

The researchers also compared the magnitude of the first Nord Stream pipeline seismic event to the magnitude of a seismic event on 7 October 2023 caused by the underwater rupture of the Balticconnector gas pipeline connecting Finland and Estonia. The Balticconnector pipeline rupture is thought to have been caused by a ship’s anchor rather than an explosive charge.

The difference in seismic magnitudes between the two events “is consistent with the estimated potential energy ratio of the gas in each of these pipelines,” Heyburn explained, which suggests that seismoacoustic signals from the initial Nord Stream event were dominated by the rapid venting of high-pressure gas.

JOURNAL

The Seismic Record

DOI

10.1785/0320230047

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Observational study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

The 26 September 2022 Nord Stream Events: Insights from Nearby Seismic Events

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

3-Jan-2024

Surprise! – How the brain learns to deal with the unexpected

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF BASEL

For children, the world is full of surprises. Adults, on the other hand, are much more difficult to surprise. And there are complex processes behind this apparently straightforward state of affairs. Researchers at the University of Basel have been using mice to decode how reactions to the unexpected develop in the growing brain.

Babies love playing peekaboo, continuing to react even on the tenth sudden appearance of their partner in the game. Recognizing the unexpected is an important cognitive ability. After all, new can also mean dangerous.

The exact way in which surprises are processed in the brain changes as we grow, however: unusual stimuli are much more quickly categorized as “important” or “uninteresting”, and are significantly less surprising the second and third time they appear. This increased efficiency makes perfect sense: new stimuli may gain our attention, but do not cause an unnecessarily strong reaction that costs us energy. While this may appear trivial at first, so far there has been very little research into this fact in the context of brain development.

Experiments with young mice conducted by Professor Tania Barkat’s research team have now begun to decode how the developing brain processes surprising sounds and what changes as we grow up. The researchers have reported on their findings in the journal Science Advances.

Strange sounds

In their experiments, the researchers used sequences of sounds in which a different tone was heard at irregular intervals in between a series of identical ones. At the same time, they recorded the animals’ brain waves. This process is known as the “oddball paradigm”, and is used by health professionals for purposes such as the diagnosis of schizophrenia.

Using these measurements, the researchers were able to understand how the reaction of different brain regions to the change of tone developed over time in the young mice. This reaction was initially very strong, but decreased as the relevant brain region matured, to a level comparable to that of measurements in adult animals. This development does not take place simultaneously in the various areas of the brain that process sound, however.

A region known as the inferior colliculus, located at the beginning of the path from the auditory nerve to the auditory cortex, was already fully mature in the animals at the age of 20 days, the earliest point in time studied by the team. A second site, the auditory thalamus, only showed an “adult” reaction to the differing tone at the age of 30 days.

Development in the cerebral cortex itself, the “primary auditory cortex”, took even longer, until day 50. “This development of the surprise reaction thus begins in the periphery and ends in the cerebral cortex,” says study leader Tania Barkat. The cerebral cortex therefore matures much later than expected – in human years, this would equate roughly to the early 20s.

No development without experience

The researchers also observed that experiences play a key role in the development of the surprise response in the cerebral cortex. If the mice were reared in a noise-neutral environment, the processing of unexpected sounds in the auditory cortex was significantly delayed.

One possible explanation for this is that the brain – and the cerebral cortex in particular – forms an internal image of the world during growth, which it then compares with external stimuli. Anything that does not correspond to this “worldview” is a surprise, but may also result in an update. “Without experience with sounds, however, the cerebral cortex in these mice is unable to develop such a model of the world,” says neuroscientist Barkat. As a result, the animal is unable to categorize sounds properly into “familiar” and “unexpected”.

JOURNAL

Science Advances

DOI

10.1126/sciadv.adi7624

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Animals

ARTICLE TITLE

Sequential maturation of stimulus-specific adaptation in the mouse lemniscal auditory system

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

3-Jan-2024

Genetic variants underlying male bisexual behavior, risk-taking linked to more children, study shows

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN

ANN ARBOR—Because same-sex sexual behavior does not result in offspring, evolutionary biologists have long wondered how the genes associated with this behavior have persisted in the human genome, and whether they will remain in the future.

A new University of Michigan-led study, scheduled for publication Jan. 3 in the journal Science Advances, suggests that part of the explanation—specifically for male bisexuals—has to do with risk-taking behavior.

The U-M researchers analyzed data from more than 450,000 participants of European ancestry in the United Kingdom's Biobank database of genetic and health information. Participants responded to a questionnaire that included the question, "Would you describe yourself as someone who takes risks?"

The U-M analysis revealed that male heterosexuals who carry the genetic variants associated with bisexual behavior, which are known as BSB-associated alleles, father more children than average. Furthermore, men who describe themselves as risk-takers tend to have more children and are more likely to carry BSB-associated alleles.

These and other observations suggest that male BSB-associated alleles confer reproductive benefits because of the shared genetic variants between male bisexual and risk-taking behaviors.

"Our results suggest that male BSB-associated alleles are likely reproductively advantageous, which may explain their past persistence and predict their future maintenance," said U-M evolutionary biologist Jianzhi Zhang, the study's senior author.

"These results also suggest that risk-taking behavior is the underlying cause of BSB-associated alleles' promotion of reproduction in heterosexuals. That is, the reproductive advantage of BSB-associated alleles is a byproduct of the reproductive advantage of risk-taking behavior," said Zhang, the Marshall W. Nirenberg Collegiate Professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology.

The first author of the new study is U-M graduate student Siliang Song.

Risk-taking propensity usually describes a tendency to engage in reward-seeking actions despite the possibility of negative consequences. Although the UK Biobank question on risk-taking did not specify the type of risk, it is likely that self-reported risk-taking includes unprotected sex and promiscuity, which could result in more children, Zhang said.

In their analysis of the genetic underpinnings of same-sex sexual behavior, the U-M researchers looked at both bisexual behavior and exclusive same-sex behavior, which they call eSSB.

When they compared the genetic basis of bisexual behavior to the genetic basis of eSSB, they found them to be significantly different. They found that eSSB-associated genetic variants are correlated with fewer children, which is expected to lead to a gradual decline in their frequency over time.

However, the authors stress that their study looks at the genetic underpinnings of same-sex sexual behavior and not the behaviors themselves, which are affected by both genetic and environmental factors.

In fact, the proportion of UK Biobank participants reporting same-sex sexual behavior has been on the rise in recent decades, likely due to growing societal openness toward it, according to the researchers.

In addition, the authors say their new results "predominantly contribute to the diversity, richness, and better understanding of human sexuality. They are not, in any way, intended to suggest or endorse discrimination on the basis of sexual behavior," they wrote.

The new study is a follow-up to one published in May in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences by Song and Zhang. That study also sought to explain the persistence of genetic variants associated with same-sex sexual behavior.

In 2021, Australian biologist Brendan Zietsch and colleagues presented evidence that heterosexuals carrying same-sex-associated alleles have more sexual partners than those not carrying the variants. This could confer a genetic advantage, the authors suggested, because more sexual partners could translate into more children.

In their PNAS study, which also relied on UK Biobank data, Zhang and Song showed that while the mechanism proposed by Zietsch likely worked in pre-modern societies, it is not active today because the widespread use of contraception has decoupled the number of offspring from the number of sexual partners in heterosexuals.

The findings presented in that PNAS paper led Zhang and Song to search for other potential mechanisms for the genetic maintenance of human same-sex behavior. That led to the Science Advances study, which was supported by the U.S. National Institutes of Health.

Study: Genetic variants underlying human bisexual behavior are reproductively advantageous (DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adj6958)

JOURNAL

Science Advances

DOI

10.1126/sciadv.adj6958

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Survey

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Genetic variants underlying human bisexual behavior are reproductively advantageous

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

3-Jan-2024

“Giant” predator worms more than half a billion years old discovered in North Greenland

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF BRISTOL

Fig 1 — IMAGE:
FOSSIL OF *TIMOREBESTIA KOPRII*. THE SCIENTISTS USED A TECHNIQUE CALLED AN ELECTRON MICROPROBE TO MAP THE CARBON IN THE FOSSIL OUT, WHICH REVEALS ANATOMICAL FEATURES WITH IMMENSE CLARITY INCLUDING ITS FIN RAYS AND MUSCLE SYSTEMS.
view more
CREDIT: DR JAKOB VINTHER

Fossils of a new group of animal predators have been located in the Early Cambrian Sirius Passet fossil locality in North Greenland. These large worms may be some of the earliest carnivorous animals to have colonised the water column more than 518 million years ago, revealing a past dynasty of predators that scientists didn’t know existed.

The new fossil animals have been named Timorebestia, meaning ‘terror beasts’ in Latin. Adorned with fins down the sides of their body, a distinct head with long antennae, massive jaw structures inside their mouth and growing to more than 30cm in length, these were some of the largest swimming animals in the Early Cambrian times.

“We have previously known that primitive arthropods were the dominant predators during the Cambrian, such as the bizarre-looking anomalocaridids,” said Dr Jakob Vinther from the University of Bristol’s Schools of Earth Sciences and Biological Sciences, a senior author on the study. “However, Timorebestia is a distant, but close, relative of living arrow worms, or chaetognaths. These are much smaller ocean predators today that feed on tiny zooplankton.

“Our research shows that these ancient ocean ecosystems were fairly complex with a food chain that allowed for several tiers of predators.

“Timorebestia were giants of their day and would have been close to the top of the food chain. That makes it equivalent in importance to some of the top carnivores in modern oceans, such as sharks and seals back in the Cambrian period.”

Inside the fossilised digestive system of Timorebestia, the researchers found remains of a common, swimming arthropod called Isoxys. “We can see these arthropods was a food source many other animals,” said Morten Lunde Nielsen, a former PhD student at Bristol and part of the current study. “They are very common at Sirius Passet and had long protective spines, pointing both forwards and backwards. However, they clearly didn’t completely succeed in avoiding that fate, because Timorebestia munched on them in great quantities.”

Arrow worms are one of the oldest animal fossils from the Cambrian. While arthropods appear in the fossil record about 521 to 529 million years ago, arrow worms can be traced back at least 538 million years back in time. Dr Vinther explained: “Both arrow worms, and the more primitive Timorebestia, were swimming predators. We can therefore surmise that in all likelihood they were the predators that dominated the oceans before arthropods took off. Perhaps they had a dynasty of about 10-15 million years before they got superseded by other, and more successful, groups.”

Luke Parry from Oxford University, who was part of the study, added “Timorebestia is a really significant find for understanding where these jawed predators came from. Today, arrow worms have menacing bristles on the outside of their heads for catching prey, whereas Timorebestia has jaws inside its head. This is what we see in microscopic jaw worms today—organisms that arrow worms shared an ancestor with over half a billion years ago. Timorebestia and other fossils like it provide links between closely related organisms that today look very different.”

“Our discovery firms up how arrow worms evolved,” added Tae Yoon Park from the Korean Polar Research Institute, the other senior author and field expedition leader. “Living arrow worms have a distinct nervous centre on their belly, called a ventral ganglion. It is entirely unique to these animals.

“We have found this preserved in Timorebestia and another fossil called Amiskwia. People have debated whether or not Amiskwia was closely related to arrow worms, as part of their evolutionary stem lineage. The preservation of these unique ventral ganglia gives us a great deal more confidence in this hypothesis.

“We are very excited to have discovered such unique predators in Sirius Passet. Over a series of expeditions to the very remote Sirius Passet in the furthest reaches of North Greenland more than 82,5˚ north, we have collected a great diversity of exciting new organisms. Thanks to the remarkable, exceptional preservation in Sirius Passet we can also reveal exciting anatomical details including their digestive system, muscle anatomy, and nervous systems.

“We have many more exciting findings to share in the coming years that will help show how the earliest animal ecosystems looked like and evolved.” Dr Park concludes.

Paper:

‘A giant stem-group chaetognath’ by Tae-Yoon Park, Jakob Vinther et al in Science Advances.

Fossil of Timorebestia koprii—the largest known specimen, almost 30 cm or 12 inches long.

CREDIT

Dr Jakob Vinther

A reconstruction of the pelagic ecosystem and the organisms fossilised in Sirius Passet, revealing how Timorebestia was one of the largest predators in the water column more than 518 million years ago

CREDIT

Artwork by Bob Nicholls/@BobNichollsArt

JOURNAL

Science Advances

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Observational study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Animals

ARTICLE TITLE

A giant stem-group chaetognath

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

3-Jan-2024

The choreography connecting kelp forests to the beach

Uncovering synchrony’s role in the beach food web

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA - DAVIS

Kelp wrack and marbled godwit — IMAGE:
SHOREBIRDS FORAGE IN KELP WRACK ON A BEACH IN CALIFORNIA.
view more
CREDIT: JENNY DUGAN, UC SANTA BARBARA

The Santa Barbara Channel’s kelp forests and its sandy beaches are intimately connected. Giant kelp, the foundation species of rocky reefs, serves as a major part of the beach food web as fronds of the giant seaweed break away from the forest and are transported to the beach. But the relationship goes deeper.

In a paper published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a team of scientists demonstrated that kelp forests can do more than supply food to tiny, hungry crustaceans living in the sand. They can also influence the dynamics of the sandy beach food web.

“The amount of kelp on the reef changes through time in a way where the peaks and low points in abundance across several kelp forests are matched together,” said lead author Jonathan Walter, a senior researcher at the University of California, Davis, and its Center for Watershed Sciences. “That’s what we refer to as synchrony. It is related to the ability of systems to persist in the face of changing environmental conditions. A little asynchrony allows systems to be resistant to fluctuations and therefore more stable.”

The study uncovers the role of synchrony in the beach food web, with broader implications as the climate shifts in ways that might change how linked ecosystems perform their functions.

Revealing synchrony’s role in these ecosystems fills a key knowledge gap in our understanding of the connection of reef and beach.

“The kelp forest and the beach are both highly dynamic ecosystems,” said co-author Jenny Dugan, a coastal marine ecologist at UC Santa Barbara. "How the dynamics of those two ecosystems interact and behave is the key question here, especially with the beach system so dependent on the kelp forest.”

In sync

Though a natural and ubiquitous phenomenon, synchrony and its implications are not yet fully understood.

The research team sought to understand whether and how kelp wrack (detritus) could affect the beach ecosystem’s dynamics. For instance, how might species respond to the changing environment, and how resilient is the beach ecosystem to disturbances?

To address these questions, the study used long-term data from UCSB’s Santa Barbara Coastal Long Term Ecological Research site, which is supported by the National Science Foundation. The team’s model was built on a time series of wind, wave, wrack, and beach-width data at five sandy beaches over 11 years.

It revealed patterns of synchrony — where the abundance of kelp wrack on beaches could be explained by kelp abundance in the forest, wave action, and beach width fluctuating together. At the longest timescales, kelp forest biomass and beach width were the biggest drivers of kelp wrack on the beaches.

Beach melodies

“We found time lags in this synchrony that were important,” Dugan said. “It wasn’t as simple as everything changing at the same time — it was like separate songs or melodies that came together in different ways. This made the patterns more complex, which is why it required the type of analyses we used.”

Importantly, the researchers found this synchrony crossed from ocean to shore. The abundance of predatory shorebirds, like sandpipers and plovers, lagged behind the deposition of wrack on beaches.

“Once on the beach, kelp wrack feeds a highly productive community of small invertebrates — crustaceans and insects — that are in turn a favorite food of shorebirds,” Dugan explained. The cross-system synchrony is particularly notable because the beach ecosystem relies so heavily on kelp subsidies, she added.

Dynamic nature

“The dynamic nature of kelp forests, in terms of their high productivity and turnover, is unique for ecosystems structured around foundation species,” said co-author and coastal ecologist Kyle Emery, a researcher in the UCSB Marine Science Institute. “It allows us to observe change many times over compared to other foundation species and gives us the ability to observe many different system states, processes and functions. This enabled us to more rapidly analyze these questions of cross-ecosystem synchrony.”

The study was funded by the Santa Barbara Coastal Long Term Ecological Research, National Science Foundation, McDonnell Foundation and Humboldt Foundation.

JOURNAL

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

DOI

10.1073/pnas.2310052120

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Meta-analysis

ARTICLE TITLE

Spatial synchrony cascades across ecosystem boundaries and up food webs via resource subsidies

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

2-Jan-2024

OUTSOURCING

US Department of Energy issues request for proposals for contractor to manage and operate Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory

Grant and Award Announcement

DOE/US DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY

Today, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced the issuance of a Request for Proposals (RFPs) for the competitive selection of a management and operating contractor for Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (FNAL).

FNAL is a single-purpose laboratory that leads the nation in the construction and operation of world-leading accelerator and detector facilities and in the development of the underlying technology for particle physics research. Its mission is centered on delivering breakthrough science and technology in the area of high energy particle physics.

The RFP includes a maximum annual performance fee of $5.56 million. DOE expects to award the contract before the current agreement with Fermi Research Alliance, LLC expires on December 31, 2024, allowing for an anticipated three-month transition. DOE expects the selected contractor to assume full responsibility for the operation of FNAL on January 1, 2025.

Interested parties have until March 4, 2024, to submit proposals. DOE will host a virtual pre-proposal conference on January 11, 2024 to discuss the salient elements of the RFP. DOE will also host a site tour for those interested on January 18, 2024. Registration information for both of these events is available on the competition website.

DOE’s Office of Science is responsible for the stewardship of FNAL. The Office of Science is the largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, visit the Office of Science’s website.

The RFP is available on the FNAL competition website.