Ecologists Reveal War Triangle Among Aphids, Wasps and Bacteria

UANews | August 1992

If you were a modern day Gulliver exploring the natural world, you might very well encounter miniscule Lilliputians and giant Brobdingnagians like the ones of make-believe. It should be obvious which are which—gnats and mites, elephants and whales. But nature’s stories can be even more fantastic than those from literature, and with careful scrutiny, your point of view can turn inside-out, making it surprisingly difficult to discern just who is Lilliputian and who is Brobdingnagian. read story

UA Biologist Offers a Solution to the ‘Freeloaders Paradox’

UANews | October 2002

Freeloaders, it seems, show up everywhere in nature, not just at the company picnic. Pine bark beetles, upon discovering a suitable tree to lay their eggs, emit a pheromone to muster thousands more beetles to the find. Most of the beetles that arrive collaborate to infect the tree with fungi that will kill it. A few freeloaders, though, may accept the airborne invitation without participating in the attack, instead lingering to lay their eggs in the tree which the others have invested their energies to prepare. read story