Seminars - Spring 2008
Wednesday, February 13, 4:00pm
BoDine 110
"Structurally sticky: biophysics of gecko adhesion"
Nick Gravish, Lewis & Clark College
Hosted by Kellar Autumn
Light refreshments served.
Wednesday, February 20, 4:00pm
BoDine 110
"Nitrogen fixation and oxygen toxicity in plants"
Dr. David Dalton, Reed College
Hosted by Peter Kennedy
Light refreshments served.
Thursday, March 6, 4:00pm
BoDine 110
"Undergraduate Research Opens Genomics Curriculum"
Dr. Malcolm Campbell, Davidson College
Hosted by Gary Reiness
Light refreshments served.
Dr. Campbell will present some of the recent research from his students in the areas of DNA microarrays and synthetic biology. The most recent work has focused on building computers out of E. coli and plasmids.
Friday, March 14, 4:00pm
BoDine 110
"Algal natural products mediate multiple ecological interactions on coral reefs"
Dr. Valerie Paul, Head Scientist, Smithsonian Marine Station at Ft Pierce, Florida
Hosted by Ken Clifton
Light refreshments served.
Valerie J. Paul received her B.A. from the University of California, San Diego in 1979 with majors in Biology and Studies in Chemical Ecology and her Ph.D. in Marine Biology in 1985 from Scripps Institution of Oceanography. She was on the faculty of the University of Guam Marine Laboratory from 1993-2002 before moving to her present position as the Head Scientist of the Smithsonian's Ft Pierce Marine Station. Among many notable accomplishments, Dr Paul was elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1996 and was elected and served as chairperson of the Marine Natural Products Gordon Research Conference in 2000 (vice-chair in 1998). She is the author or co-author of over 140 research papers and review articles. Her research interests include marine chemical ecology, marine plant-herbivore interactions, coral reef ecology, and marine natural products.
News - Fall 2007
OPB Oregon Field Guide
Spider Woman at Work
Watch as Oregon Field Guide visits Dr. Greta Binford's research lab and joins her for a spider hunt in the Andrews Experimental Forest.
News - Archive
The New Yorker
Spider Woman: Hunting Venemous Species in the Basements of LA
Dr. Greta Binford's life and work are profiled in the March 5, 2007 issue of The New Yorker magazine.
On Point/NPR
Greta Binford: Spider Woman
Listen online to Dr. Binford's hour-long interview with Tom Ashbrook in which she discusses her work with spiders.
NW Science & Technology
Maestro Of The Venomous Violin
A profile of Dr. Binford and her work with brown recluse spiders.
Discovery Channel
A Study In Venom
Dr. Binford discusses her research in this segment on Discovery Channel Canada's "Daily Planet" series (video clip).
New York Times
Grip Minus Grime: Consider The Gecko
"We showed that you can dip a gecko's feet in some of the nastiest dirt ever, and after five steps the dirt just falls off," said Dr. Kellar Autumn, a biologist at Lewis & Clark College. "Our mathematical models suggest that this may be a consequence of their structure, rather than some special chemical." The study, being published today in the Proceeddings of the National Academy of Sciences, was led by Dr. Autumn and a colleague, Wendy Hansen.
Newsweek
Nature's Design Workshop
[The] Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is funding development of a robot that can climb vertical surfaces, using the same principle that geckos use to walk up walls and saunter upside down across ceilings. "Imagine a Mars rover that's not limited to flat terrain," says biologist Kellar Autumn of Lewis & Clark College, who is working with DARPA.
Newsweek
Under The Microscope
"While aspiring scientists once pinned their hopes on powerhouse research universities such as the University of California, Berkeley, or the University of Michigan, these days they do just as well—if not better—at small liberal-arts schools like Lewis & Clark in Portland, Ore." Read more about student-faculty Biology research opportunities at Lewis & Clark College.
Discover
The Bite of the Hobo Spider
Read about Dr. Greta Binford's research into the evolution of hobo spider venom.
Lewis and Clark College Chronicle
A (Clean) Grip on Geckos
Duct tape that never loses its stick. Bandages that come off without sticky residue or an 'ouch.' Gecko feet may hold the key to the development of synthetic self-cleaning adhesives, according to Kellar Autumn, associate professor of biology.
Lewis and Clark College Chronicle
Spiders: An Evolutionary Detective’s Best Friend
The array of test tubes and glass vials lining the shelves of a small, temperature-controlled chamber in the Biology-Psychology building hold hundreds of the world’s most reviled yet ecologically vital organisms: spiders. Most are no bigger than the spiders you might find in your home. But for Greta Binford, assistant professor of biology, these tiny creatures hold clues to a big mystery: How does evolution spawn new traits and shape the world’s vast biological diversity?
Lewis and Clark College Chronicle
Travels in Evolutionary Biology
Last summer in Costa Rica, while many tourists were stretching their legs on white-sand beaches, Melissa Bodner ’04 and Kate Baldwin ’05 were in search of eight-legged creatures. The two research assistants, who accompanied Lewis & Clark Assistant Professor of Biology Greta Binford, rose early to poke sticks into cliff-top crevasses or comb through leaves on the muddy forest floor. They were trying to locate three varieties of spiders: Sicarius and Loxosceles in the arid sands, and Drymusa in the leaf litter of the rainforest. The team’s goal was to bring the spiders stateside to study their feeding habits, venom content, and genetic code for clues to their evolution.
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