The one-year project is assessing how spongy moth defoliation shapes the survival of blacklegged ticks, the main vectors of the pathogens that cause Lyme disease, babesiosis, and anaplasmosis.  “We know from our previous research that if it's very warm and dry, that's really bad for some life stages of ticks,” said Ostfeld. “So if this defoliation by the spongy moths is changing temperature and humidity conditions on the ground, it could influence their survival, and as a consequence, our risk of getting sick from tick-borne disease.” 

Researchers from Princeton and MIT have found a way to intercept underwater messages from the air, overturning long held assumptions about the security of underwater transmissions. The team created a device that uses radar to eavesdrop on underwater acoustic signals by decoding the tiny vibrations those signals create on the water’s surface. The technique could also roughly identify the location of an underwater transmitter. In the paper, the researchers detail the technology and offer ways to guard against the attakcs it enables.

Rosalind Franklin, James Watson and Francis Crick discovered the structure of DNA — that molecular blueprint for life — over 70 years ago. Today, scientists are still uncovering new ways to read it.

In 2010, Jianxin Ma, a professor of agronomy, and his collaborators built the first reference genome for soybeans on the widely studied Williams 82 variety. Thousands of scientists and plant breeders have since used that genome in their own research on the genetic makeup underlying various characteristics, such as seed protein and oil content, plant architecture and productivity, and disease resistance and abiotic stress tolerance in soybeans.

Through the last decade, Ma, who is the Indiana Soybean Alliance Inc. Endowed Chair in Soybean Improvement, has been recognized internationally for his contribution to the soybean genome as well as for his continued research and innovation in the field. His most recent work, published in The Plant Cell, used advancements in genomic research to fill in gaps of the original soybean reference genome.