Last updated on 01/25/2016
Cocktail party version: In a new paper in eLife UO biochemist Ken Prehoda and co-authors show that a simple mutation was all it took to allow single-celled organisms to evolve into the cooperative assemblies that formed the multi-cellular choanoflagellate slime-molds that you and I are descended from. While one co-author on the paper left UO during the Espy years, and another the year after, Prehoda is optimistic about the future with President Schill.
In another example of the increasing competence of new VP for Communications Kyle Henley’s office and their ability to promote UO’s research side, UO science writer Jim Barlow posted a write-up on “Around the O” here. The NYT and WaPo picked it up and then the Register Guard’s Diane Dietz followed up with more here. Her story has already spread to the SF Chronicle, etc.
And to think we didn’t have to pay Dietz or those 160over90 branders $3M for the publicity:
Of course evolution has a harder time getting genetically unrelated multi-celled organisms to cooperate with each other, as Dietz’s article also explains:
When eLife published the article, the list of authors was in the wrong order, meaning The New York Times interviewed Thornton at Chicago rather than contacting Prehoda — in whose lab the bulk of the work was undertaken, Prehoda said.
Thornton tweeted that it was an oversight, that he didn’t notice the order of the authors when he proofread the article before publication.
Prehoda doesn’t buy it, saying that’s not the kind of mistake a scientist makes because it’s too important. eLife since has corrected the order of authorship.
Thornton left UO during the bad Espy years:
The university is working to fill the job vacated by Thornton and that of biochemistry professor Andy Berglund, who recently left for the University of Florida.
In 2014, Prehoda was part of a team that proposed hiring three promising young researchers to form a “cluster of excellence” called Life at Nanoscale, but nothing so far has come of the effort. “It’s ready to go anytime. All we need is authorization for funding,” he said.
The university is in the hunt to hire three researchers for another cluster, called Genome Function, which was approved and funded by the university.
Prehoda, who directs the UO’s Institute of Molecular Biology, said he’s hopeful that the hiring will accelerate, especially since bringing on new faculty is a priority of the UO’s new president, Michael Schill.
“I get a really good vibe from President Schill,” he said. “The faculty, so far, is extremely pleased.”
The creationists, on the other hand, still have the same issues as did the “unctuous, oleaginous, saponaceous” Bishop Wilberforce:
Prehoda’s research argues that the change from single cell to multi-cell was much more easily accomplished than many scientists have thought previously.
By contrast, the so-called intelligent design theory put forth by believers who say a divine entity created humans is based on the idea that organisms are so complex that they couldn’t arise from the random, step-by-step process of evolution. As a result, Prehoda now finds his email box stuffed with missives from unhappy anti-evolutionists.
The writers’ general message is: “You say we come from cells and monkeys, but we come from God,” Prehoda said.
“the Espy years” ?
No clue who or what that is or was.
Lucky you: https://uomatters.com/2014/02/blonigen-committee-posts-rige-review.html
Important correction: Berglund didn’t leave during “the bad Espy years”. He left more than a year later and his departure had nothing to do with Espy. In fact, Berglund worked closely and effectively under Espy as her AD and there is no reason to suggest she had anything to do with his leaving. You should correct this.
Thanks, will do.
No problem, as long as we are all in agreement that the Espy years were bad…