Latest Donal Manahan Stories

2010-03-20 10:57:47

In physical, as in financial growth, it's not what you make but what you keep that counts, USC marine biologists believe. Their study of genes associated with growth in oysters suggests that slow-growing animals waste energy in two ways: by making too much of some protein building blocks and then by having to dispose of the excess. Donal Manahan, director of the USC Wrigley Institute for Environmental Studies and the study's senior author, calls the inefficient process "metabolic taxation."...

2010-01-19 12:14:01

After storms delay arrival, young polar scientists land at McMurdo and get ready to go in the field. But first some basics: learning to sleep six feet under and stepping around fearless penguins. What land mass a) holds 70 percent of the world's fresh water, but almost no animal life, b) was settled only about a hundred years ago and c) hosts exactly one prestigious summer workshop for young biologists? The answer is a place where "summer" means very brief forays above freezing temperatures:...

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