Conference: Symposium for Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology Meeting

Georgia Southern University Research And Service Foundation, Inc, Statesboro GA

Investigators

Abstract

This project will result in the in the organization and presentation of a symposium called "Flash Communication: Fireflies at Fifty", an overdue recognition to the more than fifty years that have passed since the modern era of the study of flash communication began with the initial publications of Dr. John B. Buck on flash communication and synchronous flashing. This symposium will be presented at the January 4-8, 2003 Toronto meeting of the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology. The symposium is sponsored by the SICB Division of Neurobiology and co-presented by the Society's Division of Animal Behavior. Objectives. The objectives of the symposium will be 1) to present new knowledge in flash communication arrived at through diverse approaches (cellular, neuroethological, behavioral ecological); 2) to integrate this new knowledge and to facilitate the emergence of new research directions in flash communication; and 3) to publish the observations and conclusions of the symposium in a journal like American Zoologist. Methods. To facilitate discussion at the meeting, a list-server/chat room will be established using the Georgia Southern WebCT. Participants can "chat" prior to the symposium and after the symposium. Impacts. The primary impact of this project lies in the fact that there has never been a flash communication symposium presented on the national level in American science. It is important to have the symposium now. Many of the older generation of firefly workers have retired or died. This symposium will bring together remaining senior scientists as well as mid-career scientists and beginning scientists for a mutual sharing of old and new ideas. The symposium has the potential for setting the directions of firefly flash communication for the next ten years. A symposium report will be published in American Zoologist, the journal of the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology, or in a university press like Johns Hopkins University Press, where animal subject specific symposia have been published. This will help to advance knowledge as well. Additionally, fireflies are insects that the general public considers "good". Thus, the results of the symposium, when described by the popular press, may be very accessible to the general public. Fireflies have been used in the past to teach the general public about entomology, hypothesis testing, and the process of discovery in science. An additional impact of the symposium lies in the fact that 31% of the participants are women and 27% are at the very beginning of their scientific career. Thus, the demographic structure of the symposium will play a role in increasing the participation of traditionally underrepresented groups in the sciences.