News

Mary Caswell Stoddard appears in a new David Attenborough documentary titled "The Egg: Life's Perfect Invention"
April 29, 2019

The egg is perhaps nature’s most perfect life support system. These remarkable structures nurture new life; protecting it from the outside world at the same time as allowing it to breathe. They are strong enough to withstand the full weight of an incubating parent and weak enough for a hatchling to break free. But how is an egg made? Why are…

Saki Takahashi named Schmidt Science Fellow for study of complex human diseases
April 11, 2019

Eric and Wendy Schmidt announced that Saki Takahashi, a 2019 graduate alumna, is one of 20 new Schmidt Science Fellows — a program of Schmidt Futures, in partnership with the Rhodes Trust. Takahashi works to understand the spread of infectious diseases. She completed a Ph.D. this year with Jessica Metcalf, an assistant professor of EEB and…

Jonathan Levine named permanent fellow of ESA
April 11, 2019

Levine, a professor of ecology and evolutionary biology (EEB), was recognized by Ecological Society of America (the world’s largest professional organization of ecologists) “for research that fundamentally advances understanding of biological invasions and species coexistence, often by deploying creative, highly controlled experimental units…

Ecologists find a ‘landscape of fearlessness’ in a war-torn savannah
March 11, 2019

A team of ecologists including Princeton's Rob Pringle, Corina Tarnita, Justine Atkins and Arjun Potter took advantage of a rare opportunity to study what happens to an ecosystem when large carnivores are wiped out (in this case through past civil war). Using a series of experiments in Mozambique's Gorongosa National Park, the ecologists…

Tokita receives Graduate Student Policy Award from Ecological Society of America
Feb. 25, 2019

Chris Tokita, an EEB graduate student who works with associate professor Corina Tarnita, is partially funded by a fellowship from the National Science Foundation. Tokita and Tarnita work to create computational models for how social groups — including ants and humans — develop properties like division of labor and social networks.

Red wolf DNA found in mysterious Texas canines
Dec. 26, 2018

Though red wolves were declared extinct in the wild by 1980, a team of biologists has found their DNA in a group of canines living on Galveston Island off the coast of Texas. “This is a remarkable finding, as red wolves were declared extinct in this region over 35 years ago and remain critically endangered,” said Elizabeth Heppenheimer, a…

What happens if we take laboratory mice outside?
Dec. 13, 2018

Associate professor Andrea Graham and graduate student Jackie Leung drafted a kid-friendly version of their research on mice in Biomedical Science Journal for Kids.  The bodies of humans and mice have a lot in common. So scientists often use mice (Mus musculus) as a model organism (or stand-in) to mimic human diseases and…

Bridgett vonHoldt solves long-standing finch beak mystery
Nov. 20, 2018
Black-bellied seedcrackers (Pyrenestes ostrinus) can have large or small beaks on birds of the same size, a trait that had mystified researchers for years. Princeton biologist vonHoldt found that the two morphs differ in a 300,000-base-pair chunk of DNA, apparently inherited as a unit, which includes a well-known growth-factor gene.

Pacala chairs national committee calling for immediate push for CO2-removal technology
Nov. 5, 2018

The escalating effects of climate change now demand a substantial research initiative to develop and launch “negative emissions technologies” (NETs) that remove and sequester carbon dioxide directly from the air, according to a recent report by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine. Stephen Pacala, Princeton’s Frederick D…

Prospective graduate students get a peek inside Princeton Ph.D. programs
Oct. 26, 2018

Students interested in graduate studies at Princeton University convened on campus Oct. 4-7 for three programs designed to give them an intimate look at the University’s Ph.D. programs. The Prospective Ph.D. Preview (P3) Fall Institute,…