PHE’s Mark Stoeckle co-authored the first large-scale study of an important urban wildlife denizen, the American cockroach (Periplaneta americana). This work demonstrates that genetically divergent lineages of American cockroach, likely from different parts of the globe, have emigrated to New York City where they now live together and interbreed–a lot like people!  Co-authors include Chris von Beeren and Daniel Kronauer in the Rockefeller Laboratory  of Insect Social Evolution; Joyce Xia, a Rockefeller Summer Program student; and Griffin Burke, a Bard College undergraduate.  The report appeared on February 6, 2015 in Nature’s open access journal Scientific Reports (link to article). This paper is the culmination of PHE’s National Cockroach Project  which enticed 85 citizen scientists to contribute nearly 300 cockroach specimens from mostly from New York City, but also from 16 other U.S. states and 6 countries. Thanks to all contributors!
News
DNA Barcoding of Nutritional Supplements
Back in 2003, PHE’s Mark Stoeckle and Jesse Ausubel organized a pair of meetings at the Banbury Center with Paul Hebert, Norton Zinder and others on Taxonomy, DNA, and the Barcode of Life supported by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. Mark led the writing of a December 2003 meeting report that envisioned “a world in which any person anywhere anytime can identify any species at little or not cost. That world is technologically upon us. This report addresses the formative stages of an initiative to bring this to society sooner rather than later.” In a breakthrough application of DNA barcoding, reported 3 February in the NY Times, “New York Attorney General Targets Supplements at Major Retailers.”
New York’s lead owes much to the work of George Amato at the American Museum of Natural History, Damon Little at the New York Botanical Garden, and Mark here at Rockefeller. Mark, Damon, and Selena Ahmed together with three terrific NY high school students pioneered use of barcoding for analysis of botanical products in their paper:
. Commercial Teas Highlight Plant DNA Barcode Identification Successes and Obstacles. Nature Scientific Reports 1:42 2011
Census of Marine Microbes’ new evolution paper
Co-authors of the new widely reported PNAS paper “Sulfur-cycling fossil bacteria from the 1.8-Ga Duck Creek Formation provide promising evidence of evolution’s null hypothesis” include our close Chilean collaborators, Victor Gallardo and Carola Espinoza, via their work in the International Census of Marine Microbes of the Census of Marine Life. Bravo to all for a great discovery about evolutionary stasis.
Nature Rebounds
Jesse Ausubel’s 55-minute talk (plus 30 minutes of Q&A), Nature Rebounds, to the Long Now Foundation on 13 January 2015 at the San Francisco Jazz Center is on-line. Thanks to Stewart Brand and Co. for the opportunity to meet with the Bay Area community.
Methane hydrates report from UNEP et al.
The executive summary of the new UNEP report on methane hydrates, Frozen Heat, is now available.  The report includes superb visualizations.
PHE alumna Nadejda Victor and Jesse Ausubel contributed to Chapter one of Volume 2:Â Beaudoin, Y. C., Dallimore, S. R., and Boswell, R. (eds), 2014. Frozen Heat: UNEP Global Outlook on Methane Gas Hydrates. Volume 2. United Nations Environment Programme, GRID-Arendal.
The earlier part of the report is: Beaudoin, Y. C., Waite, W., Boswell, R. and Dallimore, S. R. (eds), 2014. Frozen Heat: UNEP Global Outlook on Methane Gas Hydrates. Volume 1. United Nations Environment Programme, GRID-Arendal.
For both volumes: ISBN: 978-92-807-3319-8
Volumes 1 & 2 should be available online soon.
Ocean Exploration in Caribbean
Oceanography magazine published its Supplement covering the 2013 field season of the Exploration Vessel Nautilus in the Caribbean. Jesse Ausubel participated in the field season and is a co-author of the report on the Impact of Volcanic Eruptions on the Seafloor Around Montserrat, West Indies, pp 36-37 of the issue 27(1), March 2014.
Reality of German Renewables
We admire everything that Vaclav Smil writes, for both his insights and lively style.  This essay, How Green Is Europe?, exemplifies the bracing cold shower one receives from reading Vaclav’s work.
Deep Carbon Observatory midterm scientific report
Deep carbon science is rising. A Press release highlights publication of the Deep Carbon Observatory’s midterm scientific report and participation at the 2014 AGU Fall Meeting, 15-19 December 2014 in San Francisco, USA.  Jesse Ausubel continues to advise the program and marvel at the abundance of methane and hydrogen.
Rockefeller U short course on Science & Diplomacy
For the 3rd year in a row, Jesse Ausubel, Mande Holford and Rod Nichols will offer early career scientists at The Rockefeller University a short course on Science & Diplomacy. 2014 course participants Rupa Ram and Dominic Olinares wrote a generous account of last year’s field trip to Washington DC in the University’s Incubator blog. Jesse’s viewpoint on science & diplomacy is captured in a couple of short essays, “Scientists, War, Diplomacy, Europe” and “The history of studies of scientists’ roles in international conflict resolution” posted serially at https://phe.rockefeller.edu/PAX/ .
Making Nature Useless
On November 5 Iddo Wernick and Jesse Ausubel participated together with colleagues from the Breakthrough Institute in the seminar at Resources for the Future (RFF) in Washington DC titled Making Nature Useless? Global Resource Trends, Innovation, and Implications for Conservation. Iddo presented work on century-long trends in USA resource use, Making Nature Useless: Relative Dematerialization & Absolute Peaks.
We also post Jesse’s brief (3-page) prepared remarks, On Useless Nature, subsequently published in RealClearScience (18 Sept 2015).
Some coverage at
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/can-humans-and-nature-co-exist/
https://reason.com/archives/2014/11/10/making-nature-useless