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2019-20 Biology News Stories

Heather Kenny places a band on a bluebird
In a quiet world, research on noise and nesting bluebirds

Heather Kenny, a biology master’s student at William & Mary, has spent the past two years studying the parenting behavior of bluebirds. Specifically, she is working to understand how human-made noise influences nesting and productivity.

EdoReps students carrying items on freshman move-in day
W&M announces 2020 spring Green Fee projects

The William & Mary Committee on Sustainability has announced the spring 2020 Green Fee awards, which will be awarded to seven campus projects.

The USNS Comfort
W&M alumnus on a mission of Comfort

Having completed a month-long mission of helping New York City hospitals that were overwhelmed by the coronavirus pandemic, the USNS Comfort has sailed back to Virginia with about 600 doctors, nurses and other crew members, including Dr. A. Scott Morris ’10, a lieutenant in the Navy’s Medical Corps and an alumnus of William & Mary.

A great blue heron stands near a pond
Social distancing in birds

One of many things that the COVID-19 pandemic will be remembered for is the introduction of the term “social distancing” to the global lexicon. For bird behaviorists, the term and its variants have been in use for over a century.

Cellular image of circles and swirls
Immune-system cells of fish are ingesting plastic…and then dying

The research lab of Patty Zwollo, an immunologist and professor of biology at William & Mary, has discovered that just as whales swallow plastic thinking it’s food, some cellular components of the immune system in fish “swallow” bits of microplastic that they mistake for invading pathogens.

A series of planting pots containing Mars-like soil
How scientifically accurate is 'The Martian'? Ask W&M’s budding astrobotanists

Jon Kay, a visiting assistant professor of geology at William & Mary, is using the hypothetical situation Matt Damon’s character finds himself in — being stranded on Mars and forced to grow his own food — as a real research question for students in his new COLL 150 class Science and Science Fiction.

A MERS coronavirus shows its namesake crown-like structure under the microscope.
A coronavirus Q&A with a virologist

Kurt Williamson is a virologist, an associate professor in William & Mary’s Department of Biology who specializes in the study of viruses. He offers some scientific context for the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak.

Molly Mitchell
VIMS scientist wins national Early Career Leadership Award

Molly Mitchell of William & Mary’s Virginia Institute of Marine Science has earned an Early Career Leadership Award from the US CLIVAR Program for her efforts to develop and share sea-level forecasts and other planning tools with coastal risk managers and emergency responders in Virginia and the mid-Atlantic region.

A student spoons soil samples taken around campus
William & Mary’s freshman phage lab goes viral for the 12th straight year

A new lab of select William & Mary freshmen takes on the study of bacteriophages each fall. It’s a program supported by the Science Education Alliance of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute called the Phage Hunters Advancing Genomic and Evolutionary Science (SEA-PHAGES) project.

Headshot of Lizabeth Allison, Chancellor Professor of Biology at William & Mary
Allison wins Ruth Kirschstein Diversity in Science Award

Lizabeth Allison, Chancellor Professor of Biology at William & Mary, has been awarded the Ruth Kirschstein Diversity in Science Award by the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.

Gail smiles at the camera from an archaeological dig site
Gail Williams Wertz ’66, M.A. ’19 digs into new career

Gail is currently a full-time graduate student in anthropology and archaeology at William & Mary, returning to her alma mater after an almost 50-year career in biomedical research.

A photo from June of 2018 shows the Newton Trees growing outside Small Hall doing well, even producing apples.
Sad news: The Newton Trees are gone

William & Mary’s Isaac Newton apple trees no longer stand outside Small Hall. The trees likely succumbed to a bacterial disease known as fire blight.