Modeling the diverse world of phytoplankton opens up a predictive view of our own. MIT’s Spectrum Magazine spotlight’s the Darwin Project. Continue reading
Category Archives: Uncategorized
Ben A. Ward and Michael J. Follows (2016), Marine Mizotrophy Increases Trophic Transfer Efficiency, Mean Organism Size, and Vertical Carbon Flux, PNAS – early online edition.
Talmy, D., J. Blackford, N. J. Hardman-Mountford, L. Polimene, M.J. Follows, and R.J. Geider (2014) Flexible C : N ratio enhances metabolism of large phytoplankton when resource supply is intermittent. Biogeosciences, 11, 4881-4895, doi: 10.5194/bg-11-4881-2014
For the Good of the Colony
For some microbes, the motto for growth is not so much “every cell for itself,” but rather, “all for one and one for all.”
MIT researchers have found that cells in a bacterial colony grow in a way that benefits the community as a whole. That is, while an individual cell may divide in the presence of plentiful resources to benefit itself, when a cell is a member of a larger colony, it may choose instead to grow in a more cooperative fashion, increasing an entire colony’s chance of survival.
Publication
Kempes, CP et al. (2013) Morphological optimization for access to dual oxidants in biofilms PNAS, 111, 1, 208-213, doi:10.1073/pnas.1315521110)
Publication
Ward, B.A., S. Dutkiewicz, and M.J. Follows (2013), Top-down and bottom-up controls in a global size-structured plankton food-web model, Journal of Plankton Research , 0, 1-17, doi: 10.1093/plankt/fbt097
Publication
Lauderdale, J.M., A.C.N. Garabato, K.I.C. Oliver, M.J. Follows and R.G. Williams(2013), Wind-driven changes in Southern Ocean residual circulation, ocean carbon reservoirs and atmospheric CO2, Climate Dynamics, vol. 41, pp. 2145, doi: 10.1007%2Fs00382-012-1650-3
Publication
Ward, B.A., M. Schartau, A. Oschlies, A.P. Martin, M.J. Follows and T.R. Anderson, TR (2013), When is a biogeochemical model too complex? Objective model reduction and selection for North Atlantic time-series sites Progress in Oceanography, vol. 116, pp. 49, doi:10.1016/j.pocean.2013.06.002
Bicoastal Darwin
For the past several months, Principal Research Scientist Stephanie Dutkiewicz and researcher Oliver Jahn have been consultants for staff at San Francisco’s Exploratorium science museum on the development of a new and exciting interactive exhibit designed to provide a hands-on experience with microscopic sea life.
The Darwin Project goes to the Museum
When San Francisco’s Exploratorium moves into its new building on the waterfront next year, it promises to use technologies in ways never before seen in a museum. One of those experiences will be an interactive ocean, the product of a collaboration between scientists at UC Davis and MIT’s Darwin Project. Read more