制止生物剽窃的防卫罩及其效果反思

随着现代科技的日趋发达,对基因资源的研究所能带来的巨额利润,引导着一场日趋激烈的基因争夺赛.大量宝贵的基因资源,流向了资金技术力量雄厚的地区,进而利用西方现行的知识产权法律体系对已开发的技术申报专利,这也引发了一系列对基因资源所有者的权益保护和公平补偿的问题.我国以其独特的人文地理优势,保留了大量宝贵的基因资源,是发达国家用以研究所努力争夺的"富矿",因此也面临着保护基因资源、制止生物剽窃的独特的紧迫性.生物多样性公约提出的基因资源保护"三原则",似黑暗中的一屡曙光,赢得了一片赞赏,但在实施中也面临了一系列艰难的挑战.     

分子生物学教学的探索与实践

分子生物学是生命科学基础课程之一,是生物工程专业重要的专业课之一。根据高等教育改革的基本指导思想,结合浙江科技学院办学特色和生物工程专业的特点,对该课程的教学内容、教学方法、考核方法等方面作了探索,并且通过科研促进教学和外聘客座教授现场讲课等方式,对促进本课程的教学做了初步的尝试。从学生评教和问卷调查情况来看,取得了比较好的效果。     

Natural history of the Lined Seedeater Sporophila lineola (Aves: Thraupidae) in southeastern Brazil

The Lined Seedeater (Sporophila lineola) is a migratory species that inhabits a variety of open habitats in South America. We studied the breeding biology and territorial behaviour of a colour-banded population of the species in the Universidade Federal de Viçosa, Campus Florestal (1–19,8808ºS, –44,4136ºW), during two breeding seasons (2014/2015 and 2015/2016), which spans from December to April. We monitored 74 nests of this species. The nest is a low cup supported between a fork. Nests are mainly built with grass stems and rootlets, with spider-web used to hold the material together and to bind the nest to its supporting plant. Females are solely responsible for nest building and incubation, which is synchronic, and also for feeding nestlings to a large extent. Males are responsible for defending the territory, which corresponds to a small portion of the home range restricted to the nest environs, and also feed the nestlings. Mean clutch size is two eggs (78% of nests monitored), with clutches of three (20.3%) and four (1.7%) eggs also observed. Eggs are whitish, covered with dark brown blotches and spots to a variable extent. Mean incubation period, considered as the period between the onset of incubation and hatching of the first egg, is 11 days. Nestling period, considered as the period between hatching of the first egg and fledging of the last young, is 10 days. During the first breeding season, the simple percentage of successful nests was 34.1%, while the Mayfield success was 29.8%, with slightly higher values observed during the second breeding season, with 39.4% and 35.7%, respectively. We recorded, for the first time, three cases of polygamy in the species. We also recorded breeding site fidelity for the first time in the species, with males returning to the same territory owned in a previous breeding season.     

Varieties of noise: Analogical reasoning in synthetic biology

The picture of synthetic biology as a kind of engineering science has largely created the public understanding of this novel field, covering both its promises and risks. In this paper, we will argue that the actual situation is more nuanced and complex. Synthetic biology is a highly interdisciplinary field of research located at the interface of physics, chemistry, biology, and computational science. All of these fields provide concepts, metaphors, mathematical tools, and models, which are typically utilized by synthetic biologists by drawing analogies between the different fields of inquiry. We will study analogical reasoning in synthetic biology through the emergence of the functional meaning of noise, which marks an important shift in how engineering concepts are employed in this field. The notion of noise serves also to highlight the differences between the two branches of synthetic biology: the basic science-oriented branch and the engineering-oriented branch, which differ from each other in the way they draw analogies to various other fields of study. Moreover, we show that fixing the mapping between a source domain and the target domain seems not to be the goal of analogical reasoning in actual scientific practice.     

The Afrotropical thermophilic ant genus Ocymyrmex (Hymenoptera: Formicidae)

The taxonomy and biology of the Afrotropical thermophilic ant genus Ocymyrmex is reviewed and updated. A new key to workers for the 37 recognized species is presented and species-groups within the genus are delimited. Revised genus-level diagnoses for all castes are given and a check-list with known distributions of all species is included. Nine new species are described. The previously known biology of the genus is reviewed in the introduction and fresh biological and ecological information on a number of species is given in the introduction and under the individual species headings.     

What’s so special about model organisms?

This paper aims to identify the key characteristics of model organisms that make them a specific type of model within the contemporary life sciences: in particular, we argue that the term “model organism” does not apply to all organisms used for the purposes of experimental research. We explore the differences between experimental and model organisms in terms of their material and epistemic features, and argue that it is essential to distinguish between their representational scope and representational target. We also examine the characteristics of the communities who use these two types of models, including their research goals, disciplinary affiliations, and preferred practices to show how these have contributed to the conceptualization of a model organism. We conclude that model organisms are a specific subgroup of organisms that have been standardized to fit an integrative and comparative mode of research, and that it must be clearly distinguished from the broader class of experimental organisms. In addition, we argue that model organisms are the key components of a unique and distinctively biological way of doing research using models.     

《细胞生物学》综合实验教学改革

通过对《细胞生物学》综合实验的教学改革,提高生物科学专业学生的科研创新意识。方法:在生物科学专业增设生物技术综合实验课程,以单克隆抗体实验为中心通过综合性、设计性实验培养学生发现问题、思考问题和解决问题的能力,提高了学生对科研的认识。结果:通过教学改革使学生对科研过程有基本的了解,在标书撰写、实验操作、论文写作方面均有提高。实验教学改革提高了学生的动手能力,能培养具有初步科研能力的生物专业人才。     

Japanese white-eyes (Aves: Zosteropidae) as potential pollinators of summer-flowering Taxillus kaempferi (Loranthaceae)

The pollination of summer-flowering plants by birds has rarely been reported in temperate Asia and Europe. However, we recorded the Japanese white-eye Zosterops japonicus (Passeriformes: Zosteropidae) visiting the flowers of the hemiparasitic plant Taxillus kaempferi (Loranthaceae) during mid-summer (July to August) in a temperate forest in central Japan. Field observations showed that Z. japonicus was an almost exclusive flower visitor of T. kaempferi. Specifically, Z. japonicus inserted their bills frequently into the flower tubes of T. kaempferi. The corollas of T. kaempferi were shorter than Z. japonicus bills, suggesting that Z. japonicus is able to obtain floral nectar from T. kaempferi. Close-up pictures of Z. japonicus visiting flowers showed that the upper bill and facial feathers of Z. japonicus came into contact with the reproductive organs of T. kaempferi, leading to the attachment of pollen to these body parts. Thus, Z. japonicus might act as an important pollinator of the summer-flowering plant T. kaempferi.?