President Gruss Contributed Column Series: #3 Fostering Creativity through Diversity

Professor Evan Economo and researchers in the Biodiversity and Biocomplexity Unit compared genetic sequences from hundreds species of Pheidole, a group of ants with mysteriously high diversity. They used these sequences to construct a Pheidole evolutionary tree that suggests Pheidole evolved the same way twice, to take over the New World and then the Old World.

Researcher Mary Grossmann identified more than fifty thousand plankton images. This figure shows the diversity of her findings, including diatoms (c), radiolarians (d), copepods (f), isopods (g), shrimp (k), and fish (l).

Zebra finches are used as models for the study of vocalization as their song patterns are well understood by researchers.

Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) images show pinholes in the spiro-MeOTAD when it is first prepared (top) and after air exposure for 24 hours (bottom). The average diameter of the pinholes is about 135 nanometers, with some as large as two microns.

(From left) Dr. Luis Ono, OIST PhD student Zafer Hawash, Professor Yabing Qi and Dr. Michael Lee aim to improve the efficiency and lifetime of perovskite solar cells.