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Nashville Earth Day Celebration at Centennial Park
May. 2, 2022—By: Andy Flick, Evolutionary Studies Initiative scientific coordinator The DeSantis DREAM Lab represented the Evolutionary Studies Initiative this past Saturday at the Nashville Earth Day celebration at Centennial Park. The booth was a smashing success by all accounts. Associate professor of Biological Sciences and Earth and Environmental Sciences, Larisa DeSantis and her lab, discussed the...
Medical researchers develop new methodology for molecular mechanisms of disease
Mar. 29, 2022—By Andy Flick, Evolutionary Studies Initiative scientific coordinator Evolutionary Studies Initiative researcher Eric Gamazon and his former postdoctoral researcher, Dan Zhou (now faculty at Zhejiang University), recently published new software and methodology for understanding the molecular basis of disease. They then applied their work to understanding the genetic basis for COVID-19 severity. The study is...
ESI Group Visits Coon Creek Science Center
Mar. 28, 2022—On Saturday, 3/26/22, a handful of members of the Evolutionary Studies Initiative took a field trip to Coon Creek Science Center (CCSC) to dig for fossils. It was a beautiful day where many trainees that have never studied paleontology got to get out and do some field work. Michael Gibson, a faculty at the University...
Graduate student Jacob Steenwyk receives prestigious 2022 Harold M. Weintraub Award
Mar. 23, 2022—Jacob Steenwyk, a sixth-year doctoral student studying biology in the Rokas Lab, is a recipient of the 2022 Harold M. Weintraub Graduate Student Award presented by the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. Jacob Steenwyk He is the second Vanderbilt student ever to have received this honor, which recognizes outstanding achievement in graduate studies in biological...
Vanderbilt astronomers discover exceedingly rare star
Feb. 11, 2022—By: Andy Flick, scientific coordinator, Evolutionary Studies Initiative A team of astronomers have made the discovery of a lifetime that will help answer burning questions on the evolution of stars. The group is led by Evolutionary Studies Initiative member and Stevenson Professor of Physics and Astronomy, Keivan Stassun. Stassun’s team generated a new model that...
Fossil records help us understand the present and predict future ecosystems
Nov. 5, 2021—By Miquéla Thornton Due to a multitude of human-driven impacts, the Earth is experiencing a biodiversity crisis. It has been referred to as the Sixth Mass Extinction, and scientists are examining similar events in the planet’s geological past looking for clues in ancient ecosystems to help us solve present-day issues. Current events have produced dramatic changes in...
Vanderbilt National Fossil Day Event
Oct. 5, 2020—Vanderbilt National Fossil Day Event (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0LLoS5-2WB8) Note: This is a past event. You can watch the event at YouTube. Description: Vanderbilt’s Evolutionary Studies Initiative invites you to attend a virtual webinar. During the webinar, each paleontologists will discuss the fantastic creatures they study and how they became fascinated by fossils. The focus of the webinar...
New research on ‘endowment effect’ points to evolutionary roots of cognitive biases
Jun. 2, 2020—New research from may explain why we sometimes overvalue items we’ve acquired—to an irrational degree—irrespective of their market or sentimental value. This phenomenon is called the endowment effect, and researchers have long puzzled over why it occurs, and why the size of the effect can vary so much across items when it does. It’s important...
New method reveals how differences in the genetic “instruction booklet” between humans and Neanderthals influenced traits
Oct. 8, 2019—When it comes to our differences from Neanderthals, most of what we know comes from comparing fossils. But fossils can only tell us about bones and not whole living organisms. That’s changing thanks to a new paper from graduate student Laura Colbran in the lab of Tony Capra, Associate Professor of Biological Sciences and @EvolutionVU...
Intense look at La Brea Tar Pits explains why we have coyotes, not saber-toothed cats
Aug. 7, 2019—The La Brea Tar Pits are an one-of-a-kind fossil site in Los Angeles. The site contains fossils of predators that tried to eat horses, bison and camels stuck in the tar over the past 50,000 years and themselves became trapped, offering the best opportunity to understand Ice Age animals facing climate change. In the most...