Spotlight
Dean Steve Kay and Biology Professor Robert Schmidt named 2009 Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science
Dean Steve Kay and Biology Professor Robert Schmidt were among five professors at UC San Diego recently named 2009 Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the nation’s largest scientific organization.In addition to Kay and Schmidt, the other UCSD professors honored were Don Cleveland of medicine, Kimberly Prather of chemistry and biochemistry, and Michael Rosenfeld of medicine. The five UCSD professors were among 531 individuals this year selected by colleagues in their disciplines to be honored by the association for “efforts toward advancing science applications that are deemed scientifically or socially distinguished.”
The new Fellows will be presented with an official certificate and a gold and blue rosette pin (representing science and engineering, respectively) on February 20 at the 2010 AAAS Annual Meeting in San Diego. This year’s AAAS Fellows will be also announced in the December 18 issue of the journal Science.
Events
Biological Sciences Seminar Program
News Clips
- Engineering Water-Efficient Plants (US News & World Report)
- Discovery may change plants' makeup (San Diego Union Tribune)
- A Sapphire Energy Co-Founder Sees Solutions in Algae for Drugs as Well as Biofuels
- Scientists learn how hormones aid plants in drought (San Diego Union-Tribune)
- Scientists Making Crops Drought Tolerant (KPBS)
- Fizzy drinks leave sour taste (Australian Broadcast Corporation News)
- How Tongues Taste the Carbonation in a Fizzy Beverage (NY Times)
News
Newly Identified Enzymes Help Plants Sense and Respond to Elevated Carbon Dioxide and Could Lead to Water-wise Crops
Biologists have identified plant enzymes that may help to engineer plants that take advantage of elevated carbon dioxide to use water more efficiently.
Plants take in the carbon dioxide they need for photosynthesis through microscopic breathing pores in the surface of leaves. But for each molecule of the gas gained, they lose hundreds of water molecules through these same openings. The pores can tighten to save water when CO2 is abundant, but scientists didn’t know how that worked until now.
A team led by Julian Schroeder, professor of biology at the University of California, San Diego, has identified the protein sensors that control the response. Enzymes that react with CO2 cause cells surrounding the opening of the pores to close down they report in the journal Nature Cell Biology online December 13.