• MBL Summer Research Fellows
  Seventeen scientists have received fellowships to conduct research at the MBL this summer.
  
  
• Grass Fellows
  Eleven young scientists have been awarded fellowships by the Grass Foundation to conduct research in neurobiology at the MBL this summer. The program is directed by Catherine Carr, University of Maryland. Gal Haspel, NIH/NINDS, serves as associate director.
  
  
• Science Journalism Fellows
  Eleven science reporters, producers, and editors have been awarded Science Journalism Fellowships at the Marine Biological Laboratory this summer.
  
  
• Albert and Ellen Grass Faculty Awards
  Four investigators have been awarded Grass Faculty Awards at the MBL this summer. The goal of this Program is to take advantage of the collaborative environment of the MBL and bring together neuroscientists at the Assistant or Associate Professor level from different institutions to work together to conduct specific research in neuroscience.
  
  
• Dart Scholars Program in Learning and Memory
  Four scientists have been named Dart Scholars in Learning and Memory this summer. Sponsored by a generous grant from Dart Neuroscience, these awards bring top scientists in the field of learning and memory together to conduct research at the MBL for the summer.

• Stealth Camouflage at Night
  MBL Senior Scientist Roger Hanlon and his colleagues report, for the first time, that giant Australian cuttlefish employ night camouflage to adapt quickly to a variety of microhabitats on temperate rock reefs. The research sheds light on the animal's remarkable visual system and nighttime predator/prey interactions. (Covered by Fox News)
  
  
• There's No Scent Like Home
  New research from MBL Associate Scientist Gabriele Gerlach, MBL Adjunct Senior Scientist and Professor of Biology at Boston University Jelle Atema, and their colleagues shows that many fish species can discriminate odors in ocean currents and that some species use home reef scent to return to the reefs where they were born. (Covered by The New York Times)

• Seas Yield Surprising Catch of Unknown Genes (The Washington Post)
  
  
• Kings of Camouflage (WGBH's NOVA)
  The work of MBL Senior Scientist Roger Hanlon was among research featured in a NOVA special titled "Kings of Camouflage" which premiered on April 3.
  
  
• Cape Cod Life: Several members of the MBL community were profiled in Cape Cod Life magazine's recent "400 Most Intriguing People" issue, including Gary Borisy, Jack Rowe, and Shinya Inoué. Copies of the issue are available on newsstands now.

• The MBL welcomes Lee Niswander (University of Colorado Health Science Center, HHMI) and Nipam Patel (UC Berkeley, HHMI) who will begin their co-directorship of the Embryology course in 2007. The NIH-NICHD recently informed us that they anticipate funding the course for the next five years at a total of $1,102,474. The summary in the review of this application states: "This is a unique summer short course which has been instrumental in shaping the career of developmental biologists for over a hundred years, yet its theme and emphasis has been kept current."
  
  
• Jim Knierim (UT Health Science Center at Houston) and Paul Katz (Georgia State University) have accepted the position as co-directors for the Neural Systems & Behavior course starting in 2008.
  
  
• The MBL will offer a new special topics course Biology of the Inner Ear in August 2007 under the co-directorship of Jeff Corwin (University of Virginia), Janet Cyr (West Virginia University), and Jeff Holt (University of Virginia).
  
  
• April Shiflett will make history next month when she becomes the first graduate of the Brown-MBL Graduate Program in Biological and Environmental Sciences. April defended her thesis “Susceptibility and resistance to human TLF in African trypanosomes” last August and will participate in Brown’s commencement ceremony on May 27.

• The February 2007 and April 2007 issues of the Bulletin are now available. The Bulletin is pleased to announce that the journal’s content - going all the way back to 1902 - is freely available after one year. Members of the MBL Corporation are eligible to receive a complimentary subscription to the journal as part of their membership. Visit the Bulletin’s web site at http://www.biolbull.org/.
  
  
• We are grateful to Olympus (SZX16 Stereo Research Microscope) and Zeiss (Axio Observer, LSM 5 DUO, and PALM MicroBeam) for advertising with us in February and Sutter Instrument (MPC-200 Multi-manipulator system) Zeiss (Axio Observer, LSM 5 DUO, PALM MicroBeam) for advertising with us in April.

• The MBL Associates Gift Shop Reopens for the 2007 Season
  On Wednesday, April 4th, the MBL Associates Gift Shop began its 21st year of operation. Housed in the back of the MBL’s Pierce Visitors Center at 100 Water Street, the shop offers clothing, gifts, toys, books and souvenirs with unique MBL designs. Come see our new offerings, including a kids’ sweatshirt featuring a new illustration by Woods Hole’s own Julie Child. Hours for April and May are Monday through Friday from 10 AM to 3 PM. For more information contact the MBL Gift Shop at 508-289-7230 during business hours.
  
  
• Afternoon of Marine Science Fun - April 10th
  The MBL Associates offered another popular science event for children on the afternoon of Tuesday, April 10th, which was a half-day for the Falmouth public schools. During this “Afternoon of Marine Science Fun,” children from ages 3 to 7 visited the Woods Hole Aquarium while kids from ages 8 to 11 toured the MBL’s Marine Resources Center and shared in a presentation about cephalopods (squid, octopus, cuttlefish) by Senior MBL Scientist Roger Hanlon. After these tours the children returned to the MBL Club on Water Street for arts and crafts, science experiments, and refreshments, thanks to the assistance of The Periwinkle Montessori School and The Children’s School of Science.

• The American Academy of Arts and Sciences announced the election of 203 new Fellows and 24 new Foreign Honorary Members. Those elected include Jerry M. Melillo, MBL Senior Scientist and Co-Director of The Ecosystems Center. MBL Whitman investigator Avram Hershko was also named a Foreign Honorary Member.
  
  
• Mitchell L. Sogin, MBL Senior Scientist and Director of the Josephine Bay Paul Center for Comparative Molecular Biology and Evolution has been selected to receive the American Society for Microbiology's USFCC/J. Roger Porter Award.
  
  
• MBL Corporation Member Osamu Shimomura was among six artists and scholars who received the 2007 Asahi Prize, which is awarded by the Japanese newspaper Asahi Shimbun “for achievement in scholarship or the arts that has made a contribution to culture or society.” Dr. Shimomura was recognized for his discovery of green fluorescent protein (GFP).
  
  
• Cathy Norton’s nomination to the Literature Selection Technical Review Committee of the National Library of Medicine has been approved by NIH Director Dr. Elias A. Zerhouni. Her term begins in June of 2007 and ends in June 2011. This committee meets in Washington D.C. three times a year and recommends new journals for inclusion in the National Library of Medicine’s database for indexing and abstracting. Cathy is Director of the MBLWHOI Library and an MBL Corporation member.
  
  
• MBL Senior Scientists and BioCurrents Research Center director Peter J. S. Smith has been appointed an Honorary Professor in the School of Electronic Engineering, University of Wales, Bangor.
  
  
• A member of the MBL Corporation and Board of Trustees, Gerald Weissmann will serve as chairman of the new Prix Galien USA Committee. The Prix Galien, considered the most prestigious international biomedical industry research award, is expanding its reach to the U.S. with this new award.
  
  
• Adjunct Scientist Maureen Conte was elected to the Fleet Improvement Committee, UNOLS (the University-National Oceanographic Laboratory System). The FIC is currently working on the Fleet Improvement Plan, which provides recommendations concerning the future size and configuration of the U.S. oceanographic research fleet. She was also awarded the American Geophysical Union’s (AGU) “Editor’s Citation for Excellence in Refereeing,” for service to the Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans.
  
  
• Conte’s summer Research Experience for Undergraduate (REU) student, Jasmine Crumey of Albany State University received the "Outstanding Student Paper" award by AGU’s Biogeosciences Division for her oral presentation about her REU research results at the December AGU meeting in San Francisco.

• Rowe Laboratory (formerly known as Whitman) is progressing nicely. The project started at the top and has been moving towards the first floor. While there is still a considerable amount of work to be completed, the project is on schedule to have the Certificate of Occupancy in hand in May. MBL staff members have been preparing for the move back into Rowe and have been setting sea water tables in various labs as they are requested. Equipment information is being collected and entered into the MBL Preventative Maintenance Program as training schedules are being prepared. When completed, this will be the most up-to-date lab building owned by the MBL. View our progress…(view Quicktime slide show).
  
  
• Renovations to four Devils Lane cottages have been completed as well as a number of significant repairs to some Memorial Lane cottages.

The MBL has received a number of new gifts and peer-reviewed federal grants since LabNotes was last published... More >>>

MBL researchers have published many papers on a wide variety of topics since LabNotes was last published... More >>>

• 6/22 to 8/17: 2007 Friday Evening Lecture Series —Speaker abstracts and biographies are being posted as they become available
  
  
• 6/24: MBL Associates Brunch
  
  
• 7/11: Whitman Society Reception, J. Erik Jonsson Center of the National Academy of Sciences (by invitation)
  
  
• 7/21: 2007 Chamber Music Concert featuring The Biava Quartet
  
  
• 7/26: Annual Bioethics Lecture - Title TBD - Arthur Allen, Author of Vaccine: The Controversial Story of Medicine's Greatest Lifesaver
  
  
• 8/3: MBL Corporation Meeting and Dedication of The Rowe Laboratory (formerly Whitman)
  
  
• 8/16 to 8/18: Colloquium on the Biology of Aging, sponsored by the Ellison Medical Foundation and the Marine Biological Laboratory