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If Intermediate-Mass Black Holes (IMBHs) are real, astronomers expect to find them in dwarf galaxies and globular clusters. There’s tantalizing evidence that they exist but no conclusive proof. So far, there are only candidates.

The Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) has found 300 additional candidate IMBHs.

Logic says that IMBHs should exist. We know of stellar-mass black holes, and we know of supermassive black holes (SMBHs). Stellar-mass black holes have between five and tens of solar masses, and SMBHs have at least hundreds of thousands of solar masses. Their upper limit is not constrained. Astrophysicists think these black holes are linked in an evolutionary sequence, so it makes sense that there’s an intermediate step between the two. That’s what IMBHs are, and their masses should range from about 100 to 100 thousand solar masses. IMBHs could also be relics of the very first black holes to form in the Universe and the seeds for SMBHs.

The problem is that there are no confirmed instances of them.

Omega Centauri, the brightest globular cluster in the Milky Way, is one of the prime candidates for an IMBH. There’s an ongoing scientific discussion about the cluster and the potential IMBH in its center. Stars in the cluster’s center move faster than other stars, indicating that a large mass is present. Some scientists think it’s an IMBH, while others think it’s a cluster of stellar-mass black holes.

This is Omega Centauri, the largest and brightest globular cluster that we know of in the Milky Way. An international team of astronomers used more than 500 images from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope spanning two decades to detect seven fast-moving stars in the innermost region of Omega Centauri. These stars provide compelling new evidence for the presence of an intermediate-mass black hole. Image Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, M. Häberle (MPIA)

Other evidence for IMBHs comes from a gravitational wave detection in 2019. The wave was generated by two black holes merging. The pair of black holes had masses of 65 and 85 solar masses, and the resulting black hole had 142 solar masses. The other 8 solar masses were radiated away as gravitational waves.

By adding 300 more IMBH candidates to the list, DESI may be nudging us toward a definitive answer about the existence of these elusive black holes.

The 300 new candidates are presented in a paper soon to be published in The Astrophysical Journal. It’s titled “Tripling the Census of Dwarf AGN Candidates Using DESI Early Data” and is available at arxiv.org. The lead author is Ragadeepika Pucha, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Utah.

The 300 candidate IMBHs are the largest collection to date. Until now, there were only 100 to 150 candidates. This is a massive leap in the amount of available data, and future research will no doubt rely on it to make progress on the IMBH issue.

“Our wealth of new candidates will help us delve deeper into these mysteries, enriching our understanding of black holes and their pivotal role in galaxy evolution.”

Ragadeepika Pucha, University of Utah

The new candidates were identified in DESI’s early data release, which contains data from 20% of DESI’s first year of operations. The data included more than just IMBH candidates. DESI also found about 115,000 dwarf galaxies and spectra from about 410,000 galaxies, a huge number.

This mosaic shows a series of images featuring candidate dwarf galaxies hosting an active galactic nucleus, captured with the Subaru Telescope’s Hyper Suprime-Cam. Image Credit: Legacy Surveys/D. Lang (Perimeter Institute)/NAOJ/HSC Collaboration/D. de Martin (NSF NOIRLab) & M. Zamani (NSF NOIRLab)

The data allowed lead author Pucha and her colleagues to explore the relationship between the evolution of dwarf galaxies and black holes.

Despite their extreme masses, black holes are difficult to find. Their presence is inferred from their effect on their environment. In their presence, stars are accelerated to high velocities. Fast-moving stars were one of the clues showing that the Milky Way has an SMBH.

Astronomers are pretty certain that all massive galaxies like ours host an SMBH in their centers, but this certainty fades when it comes to dwarf galaxies. Dwarf galaxies are so small that our instruments struggle to observe them in detail. Unless the black hole is actively feeding.

When a black hole is actively consuming material, it is visible as an active galactic nucleus (AGN.) AGNs are like beacons that alert astronomers to the presence of a black hole.

“When a black hole at the center of a galaxy starts feeding, it unleashes a tremendous amount of energy into its surroundings, transforming into what we call an active galactic nucleus,” lead author Pucha said in a press release. “This dramatic activity serves as a beacon, allowing us to identify hidden black holes in these small galaxies.”

The team found 2,500 dwarf galaxies containing an active galactic nucleus, an astonishing number. Like the new IMBH candidates, this is the largest sample ever discovered. The researchers determined that 2% of the dwarf galaxies hosted AGN, a big step up from the 0.5% gleaned from other studies.

“This increase can be primarily attributed to the smaller fibre size of DESI compared to SDSS <Sloan Digital Sky Survey>, which aids with the identification of lower luminosity AGN within the same magnitude and redshift range,” the authors explain in their paper.

This artist’s illustration depicts a dwarf galaxy that hosts an active galactic nucleus — an actively feeding black hole. In the background are many other dwarf galaxies hosting active black holes, as well as a variety of other types of galaxies hosting intermediate-mass black holes. Image Credit: NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/J. da Silva/M. Zamani

Astronomers think that black holes found in dwarf galaxies should be within the intermediate-mass range. However, only 70 of the newly discovered IMBH candidates overlap with dwarf AGN candidates. This is unexpected and raises yet more questions about black holes, how they form, and how they evolve within galaxies.

This scatter plot, adapted from the research, shows the number of candidate dwarf galaxies hosting active galactic nuclei (AGN) from previous surveys compared with the number of new dwarf galaxy AGN candidates discovered by the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI). Image Credit: NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/R. Pucha/J. Pollard

“For example, is there any relationship between the mechanisms of black hole formation and the types of galaxies they inhabit?” Pucha said. “Our wealth of new candidates will help us delve deeper into these mysteries, enriching our understanding of black holes and their pivotal role in galaxy evolution.”

DESI is only getting started. These discoveries were made with only a small portion of data from the instrument’s first year of operation, and there are several more years of operation to come.

“The anticipated increase in the sample of dwarf AGN candidates over the next five years with DESI will accelerate studies of AGN in dwarf galaxies,” the authors write in their research. “The statistical sample of dwarf AGN candidates will be invaluable for addressing several key questions related to galaxy evolution on the smallest scales, including accretion modes in low-mass galaxies and the co-evolution of galaxies and their central BHs,” they conclude.

• Press Release: DESI Uncovers 300 New Intermediate-Mass Black Holes Plus 2500 New Active Black Holes in Dwarf Galaxies
• Research: Tripling the Census of Dwarf AGN Candidates Using DESI Early Data
• Research: Properties and Astrophysical Implications of the 150 M? Binary Black Hole Merger GW190521
• Research: New constraints on the central mass contents of Omega Centauri from combined stellar kinematics and pulsar timing

The post DESI Found 300 Candidate Intermediate Mass Black Holes appeared first on Universe Today.

There are plenty of types of stars out there, but one stands out for being just a little weirder than the others. You might even say it’s strange. According to a paper from researchers at Guangxi University in China, the birth of one might have recently been observed for the very first time.

A strange star is a (so far theoretical) compact star that is so dense it literally breaks down regular parts of atoms (like neutrons) into their constituent quarks. Moreover, even those quarks (the up and down that comprise a neutron) get compressed into an even rarer type of quark called a strange quark – hence the name strange star.

Technically, the “strange” matter that a strange star would be composed of is a combination of up, down, and strange quarks. But, at least in theory, this mix of sub-hadronic particles could even be more stable than a traditional neutron star, which is similar to a strange star but doesn’t have enough gravity to break down the neutrons.

Fraser discusses strange stars.

Strange stars, though they exist in theory, are exceedingly rare. No one has ever proven that one exists. But Xiao Tian and his co-authors think they might have found evidence of one.

Their paper describes a recent gamma-ray burst known as GRB 240529A that they think holds the clues to finding a strange star. Gamma-ray bursts, the gigantic implosions that sometimes result from creating a black hole, could also have other causes – or “central engines,” as they are called in the literature. One such central engine is the creation of a magnetar.

Magnetars are another type of neutron star that is even more extreme. Their magnetic fields could be up to 1,000 times that of a typical neutron star, giving them the largest magnetic fields in the known universe. In them, electrons and protons are forced together to create neutrons, hence the name neutron star.

Fraser discusses magnetars, the type of star that would theoretically collapse into a strange star.

However, they could also collapse upon themselves, as a part of cosmological theory allows for a magnetar to collapse into an even more dense form, which would be something akin to a strange star with the requisite mix of quarks. Doing so would undoubtedly produce a gamma-ray burst, which Dr. Tian and his co-authors believe they found in GRB 240529A.

The details of that particular GRB hold the clues. There were three distinct “emission episodes” that represented different phases of the collapse to a magnetar, then to a strange star, and then the spin-down of the strange star. A different spectrum of gamma rays represents each as part of the burst, and each episode was separated by a few hundred seconds of relative calm, which seems like an exceedingly short time considering how massive the objects were collapsing. 

Moreover, in the X-ray spectrum, another part of the light curve could be described as containing “plateaus.” According to the authors, each of these plateaus could represent a stage in the birth of the strange star, with the first representing its cooling and the second representing its “pin down” phase.

According to their calculations, the observed data best matches the theoretical values that would be seen if GRB represented the birth of a strange star. So it seems likely that, for the first time, astronomers have garnered some evidence to support a theory that was initially developed in the 1980s. But, as always, more testing is needed, and other researchers should confirm the authors’ calculations. But if they do, it would be a significant leap forward in experimental astrophysics – and may herald many more strange findings to come.

Learn More:
Tian et al – Signature of strange star as the central engine of GRB 240529A
UT – It Takes Very Special Conditions to Create This Bizarre Stellar Spectacle
UT – SLS Hurricanes, James Webb Fixed, Strange Quark Star
UT – The Mysterious Case of the Resurrected Star

Lead Image:
Illustration of the interior of a neutron star and a strange quark star
Credit – NASA/SAO/CXC/J.Drake et al.

The post Did Astronomers Just Witness the Formation of a “Strange Star”? appeared first on Universe Today.

The Trump administration’s pause on US foreign assistance could lead to an estimated 4.2 million unintended pregnancies and more than 8300 pregnancy-related deaths

Engineers have developed a versatile swimming robot that nimbly navigates cluttered water surfaces. Inspired by marine flatworms, the innovative device offers new possibilities for environmental monitoring and ecological research.

Engineers have developed a versatile swimming robot that nimbly navigates cluttered water surfaces. Inspired by marine flatworms, the innovative device offers new possibilities for environmental monitoring and ecological research.

For decades, scientists have sought ways to counter our dependence on lithium-ion batteries. These traditional, rechargeable batteries energize today's most ubiquitous consumer electronics -- from laptops to cell phones to electric cars. But raw lithium is expensive and is often sourced through fragile geopolitical networks. This month, chemists have announced an exciting alternative that relies on an organic, high-energy cathode material to make sodium-ion batteries, advancing the likelihood that this technology will find commercialization with safe, cheaper, more sustainable components.

Electrons are incredibly fast. Because of their ultrafast motions, directly observing their behavior has been challenging. Now researchers have suggested a new method to make visualizing electron motion a reality.

As far as we can tell, life needs water. Cells can’t perform their functions without it. Some have suggested that other exotic liquids, like liquid methane, could do the job on worlds like Saturn’s moon Titan. That idea is highly speculative, though.

So, it makes sense that NASA is launching a spacecraft dedicated to the search for water.

SPHEREx stands for Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization, and Ices Explorer. It’s scheduled to launch on February 27th. It has a single instrument and one observing mode. Part of its mission is to map the sky in near-infrared and measure the spectra of 450 million galaxies. The results will help scientists understand the expansion of the Universe and the origin and evolution of galaxies.

This image shows a semi-frontal view of the SPHEREx observatory during integration and testing at BAE Systems (Boulder, CO). Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech.

Its other scientific goal is to probe molecular clouds for water ice and other frozen pre-biotic molecules. These ices are frozen onto the surface of dust grains in molecular clouds, and somehow, through a long journey, they become part of planets, where they can form oceans and potentially foster the appearance of life.

Infrared observations show that in cold, dense regions of space in molecular clouds, chemicals critical to life are locked into dust grains. Water is the primary one, of course, but there are other pre-biotic molecules as well: carbon dioxide (CO2), carbon monoxide (CO), methanol (CH3OH), the nitrogen-bearing molecule ammonia (NH3) plus various carbon-nitrogen stretch molecules (XCN), and the important sulphur-bearing molecule, carbonyl sulphide (COS). Carbon-nitrogen stretch molecules are everywhere in organic and biological molecules and play critical roles in biological processes. Carbonyl-sulphide plays a role in the formation of peptides, which are the building blocks of proteins.

There’s a vast amount of water frozen in dust grains in molecular clouds, and scientists think this is where the bulk of the water in the galaxy and even in the Universe resides. These grains are the source of water for Earth’s oceans and for any exoplanets or moons that might harbour oceans.

SPHEREx will examine molecular clouds and try to understand how much water they contain. It will also examine stars in those clouds and the rings of material that form around them, out of which planets form.

Put succinctly, SPHEREx is trying to answer this question: How does ice content evolve from diffuse clouds to dense clouds to planetary disks and then to planets?

This photo by renowned astrophotographer Rogelio Bernal Andreo shows the Orion constellation and the surrounding nebulas of the Orion Molecular Cloud complex. The clouds in the complex hold frozen water and other chemicals critical to life. Image Credit: By Rogelio Bernal Andreo – http://deepskycolors.com/astro/JPEG/RBA_Orion_HeadToToes.jpg, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=20793252

There’s little doubt that ices play an important role in the formation of planetesimals in disks around young stars. Likewise, there’s little doubt that these ices are sources of water and organic molecules, too. But how does it all happen? Ice’s journey from translucent to dense molecular clouds and then to protoplanetary disks is not well understood. Scientists want to know if the ices in the disks are simply inherited from the interstellar medium or if they’re altered in the disks somehow.

The SPHEREx mission hopes to answer this question and others with its infrared absorption spectroscopy.

SPHEREx will generate spectra for between 8 and 9 million sources and should transform our understanding of ices in molecular clouds, young stellar objects, and protoplanetary disks.

In infrared wavelengths, ices have unique spectral signatures. Prior to the JWST, scientists had only about 200 ice absorption spectra available. The JWST is changing that, but it has lots of other important work to do.

The JWST is already advancing our understanding of these ices. Like other infrared observatories, it can see through dust, but it is far more powerful and sensitive. A key to SPHEREx’s design and performance is its ability to be as accurate as the JWST.

The black line is the JWST spectrum of a source seen through a thick molecular cloud of interstellar dust, showing the strong features of the interstellar ice species H2O, CO2, and CO at wavelengths of 3.05, 4.27, and 4.67 microns (McClure et al. 2023, Nature Astronomy, 7, 431). Overlaid in red is a simulated spectrum, taken with SPHEREx’s lower spectral resolving power, of a background source with 100x the JWST brightness in the SPHEREx range that shows the same absorption features as seen by JWST. Note that SPHERE reproduces almost all of the spectral structure apparent in the JWST spectrum. Image Credit: NASA/JPL

There is no shortage of targets for SPHEREx. Some research shows that there are over 8,000 molecular clouds in the Milky Way. Not all of them are great targets for SPHEREx, but many are.

SPHEREx has a catalogue of targets that includes molecular clouds in the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds and several constellations, including Monoceros, home of the Monoceros R2 Molecular Cloud.

The Monoceros R2 Molecular Cloud is one of SPHEREx’s targets. This image shows only a portion of the cloud, which is a large cloud with lots of active star formation. Star formation is particularly active in the location of the bright red nebula just below the center of the image. This image was obtained with the wide-field view of the Mosaic II camera on the Blanco 4-meter telescope at Cerro Tololo Interamerican Observatory on January 11th, 2012. Image Credit: T.A. Rector (University of Alaska Anchorage) and N.S. van der Bliek (NOIRLab/NSF/AURA)

It’s axiomatic that stars and planets have the same compositions as the molecular clouds that fostered them. But the specifics of planet formation are mysterious and the study of the processes has produced some surprises.

In 1998, NASA launched the Submillimeter Wave Astronomy Satellite (SWAS). Similar to SPHEREx, it studied the chemical composition of interstellar clouds and surveyed the galaxy to determine how much water vapour was present in molecular clouds. Surprisingly, it found far less than expected.

“This puzzled us for a while,” said Gary Melnick, a senior astronomer at the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian and a member of the SPHEREx science team. “We eventually realized that SWAS had detected gaseous water in thin layers near the surface of molecular clouds, suggesting that there might be a lot more water inside the clouds, locked up as ice.”

The SWAS team figured out that hydrogen and oxygen atoms were being frozen onto the surfaces of ice grains where they formed water ice. Subsequent research confirmed their suspicions. On the unprotected surfaces of molecular clouds, cosmic radiation can break the H2O molecules apart, but protected inside molecular clouds, the molecules persisted.

The water ice and other ices create spectroscopic signatures separate from their liquid counterparts, and SPHEREx is designed to detect them.

It will do more than detect them, though. The spacecraft will also determine how deep inside the clouds the ices form, how their abundance changes with cloud density, and how the abundance changes when a star forms.

SPHEREx will also cooperate with other telescopes, including the JWST, which will perform more powerful follow-up observations when merited.

“If SPHEREx discovers a particularly intriguing location, Webb can study that target with higher spectral resolving power and in wavelengths that SPHEREx cannot detect,” said Melnick. “These two telescopes could form a highly effective partnership.”

SPHEREx will launch on February 27th in a Falcon Heavy rocket from Vandenberg Air Base. It will follow a Sun-Synchronous orbit at about 700 km altitude. In its nominal 25-month mission, SPHEREx will map the entire sky four times.

• Press Release: NASA’s SPHEREx Space Telescope Will Seek Life’s Ingredients
• CalTech SPHEREx Science
• An All-Sky Spectral Survey
• The Astrophysical Journal: The SPHEREx Target List of Ice Sources (SPLICES)
• JPL: The Origin of Water – and Other Pre-biotic Molecules – in Planetary Systems

The post NASA’s SPHEREx Launches Soon and Will Search For Water in Molecular Clouds appeared first on Universe Today.

Researchers have 3D printed bioelectronic scaffolds that have the properties cells need to form new tissue.

Numerous studies have found that exercising outside has a slight edge on boosting both our physical and mental health, even when the conditions outside are less than ideal

Starring Jack Quaid and Sophie Thatcher, this film sets out to deconstruct men's objectification of women, and asks good questions about why we want robots at all. Shame about the logical hole at its centre

A new exhibition at Somerset House in London, SOIL: The World at Our Feet, wants us to rediscover how key soil is to our lives and to the planet’s future

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In Feedback's true crime exclusive, we look into calls for a fresh inquest into the murder of Catherine Eddowes in the 19th century – and discover that a rather crucial part of the puzzle may be missing

Humans learn very differently to machines, thanks to our biased, malleable memory – and that's a good thing, says Charan Ranganath, director of the Dynamic Memory Lab at the University of California, Davis

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Nobody doubts that human activities have dramatically transformed Earth, so why has there been no official recognition of the Anthropocene?

Researchers find large language models process diverse types of data, like different languages, audio inputs, images, etc., similarly to how humans reason about complex problems. Like humans, LLMs integrate data inputs across modalities in a central hub that processes data in an input-type-agnostic fashion.

Six days ago I posted a group letter to the Presidents of three ecology/evolution/systematics societies who had issued a joint statement that many of us found deeply misguided. As I wrote at the time:

The Presidents of three organismal-biology societies, the Society for the Study of Evolution (SSE), the American Society of Naturalists (ASN) and the Society of Systematic Biologists (SSB) sent a declaration addressed to President Trump and all the members of Congress (declaration archived here)  Implicitly claiming that its sentiments were endorsed by the 3500 members of the societies, the declaration also claimed that there is a scientific consensus on the definition of sex, and that is that sex is NOT binary but rather some unspecified but multivariate combination of different traits, a definition that makes sex a continuum or spectrum—and in all species!

I objected to this declaration, and Luana Maroja of Williams College, who agreed with me, drafted a letter that was signed by about two dozen people, many but not all of them members of at least one of the three societies. The point was to show that there is not a biological consensus that sex is a spectrum—indeed, the societies’ letter implied that biologists agree that sex is a spectrum in all species. Nonsense!

Further, the “tri-societies letter” did not involve polling the members of the SSE, the ASN, and the SSB to see if they agreed with the Presidents.  Finally, I am not sure that their letter, addressed to President Trump and “Members of the U.S. Congress,” has actually been sent. Because it may have been changed since the first iteration, I archived it at the link above as soon as it appeared.

When I put up our response, because we were collecting signatures and had not yet asked the signers whether their names could be publicized, it was signed publicly only by Luana and me. Since then, we’ve asked all the signers if they wanted to “go public” with their names.  All but a few agreed, and so I am putting the signed letter below, except for the names of those who objected to going public.

Further, I have heard independently from several other prominent biologists who were peeved at the tri-societies letter and/or were writing their own individual letters to the societies.

This is only the first stab at a response, and we intend to collect more signatures and have devised a method for doing so.  So think about it, and we would like signatures only of those people who don’t mind going public. You need not be a member of any of the societies (though it would be a boon), and can add your society affiliation if you wish. And, of course, you must be a biologist or affiliated with biology

In the meantime, I’m putting up what we have just so the letter at this stage of its evolution can have a public URL.  Ponder whether you’d like to join in, and you should hear more by later today or tomorrow.  Do not email me or put in the comments that you want to be included, as we have a much more efficient way.

What is below is just a start. Our letter is below the line:

Dear presidents of the Tri-societies: ASN, SSB and SSE,

We, Tri-society members and/or biologists, are deeply disappointed by your recent letter “Letter to the US President and Congress on the Scientific Understanding of Sex and Gender” issued last Wednesday, Feb 5, 2025, in response to Trump’s executive order “Defending Women From Gender Ideology Extremism And Restoring Biological Truth To The Federal Government”.

While we agree that Trump’s executive orders are misleading, we disagree with your statements about the sex binary and its definition. In animals and plants, binary sex is universally defined by gamete type, even though sexes vary in how they are developmentally determined and phenotypically identified across taxa. Thus, your letter misrepresents the scientific understanding of many members of the Tri-societies.

You state that: “Scientific consensus defines sex in humans as a biological construct that relies on a combination of chromosomes, hormonal balances, and the resulting expression of gonads, external genitalia, and secondary sex characteristics.”

However, we do not see sex as a “construct” and we do not see other mentioned human-specific characteristics, such as “lived experiences” or “[phenotypic] variation along the continuum of male to female”, as having anything to do with the biological definition of sex. While we humans might be unique in having gender identities and certain types of sexual dimorphism, sex applies to us just as it applies to dragonflies, butterflies, or fish – there is no human exceptionalism.   Yes, there are developmental pathologies that cause sterility and there are variations in phenotypic traits related to sexual dimorphism. However, the existence of this variation does not make sex any less binary or more complex, because what defines sex is not a combination of chromosomes or hormonal balances or external genitalia and secondary sex characteristics. The universal biological definition of sex is gamete size.

If you and the signers of this letter do not agree on these points, then the Tri-societies were wrong to speak in our names and claim that there is a scientific consensus without even conducting a survey of society members to see if such a consensus exists. Distorting reality to comply with ideology and using a misleading claim of consensus to give a veneer of scientific authority to your statement does more harm than just misrepresenting our views: it also weakens public trust in science, which has declined rapidly in the last few years. Because of this, scientific societies should stay away from politics as much as possible, except for political issues that directly affect the mission of the society.

Respectfully,

Daniel A. Barbash, Professor, Molecular Biology and Genetics, Cornell University
Alexander T. Baugh, Associate Professor, Department of Biology, Swarthmore College
Kendall Clements, Professor, School of Biological Sciences, University of Auckland
Mark Collard, Chair in Human Evolutionary Studies, Simon Fraser University
Jerry Coyne, Professor Emeritus, Ecology and Evolution, University of Chicago
David Curtis, Honorary Professor, Genetics Institute, University College London UK
Richard Dawkins, Emeritus Professor, University of Oxford
Gilly Denham, SSE member, Williams College
Joan Edwards, Samuel Fessenden Clarke Professor of Biology, Williams College
Brian Gill, retired natural history curator from Auckland Museum, New Zealand
Emma Hilton, Developmental Biology, University of Manchester, U.K.
Carole Kennedy Hooven, Senior Fellow, AEI; Affiliate, Harvard Psychology.
Edward Lee, SSE member, Williams College
Luana S. Maroja, Professor of Biology, Williams College
Gregory C. Mayer, Professor of  Biological Sciences, University of Wisconsin-Parkside
Axel Meyer, Lehrstuhl für Zoologie und Evolutionsbiologie, University of Konstanz
Marcella McClure retired from Montana State University
Nicholas J. Matzke, Senior Lecturer, School of Biological Sciences, University of Auckland
Anthony M. Poole, Professor, School of Biological Sciences, University of Auckland
Philip Ward,  Professor of Entomology,  University of California Davis