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AUGUST 8, 2005 -- Resurrection ecology, a new field pioneered by Professor W. Charles Kerfoot (Biological Sciences), is featured in Friday's Wall Street Journal (Aug. 5, 2005). The story, "Very Old Eggs Reveal a Fast, Changing Path through Evolution," is authored by WSJ science writer Sharon Begley. She reviews his work recovering water flea eggs from Portage Lake that date back 300 years and then hatching them in an incubator. "That's 3,000 generations, equivalent to 120,000 years of evolution for humans," Kerfoot says in the article. Kerfoot's work helps validate the Red Queen Hypothesis, which states that organisms must evolve just to hold on to their place in the ecosystem. For more about resurrection ecology and the Red Queen, visit http://www.admin.mtu.edu/urel/news/media_relations/376/ |