The Royal Society’s Journal Biology Letters published a new discovery of a cockroach (saltoblattella montistabularis) from South Africa, which has the extraordinary ability to jump, setting it apart from all other existing cockroaches. The animal is able to jump almost 50 times its own length, more than most species of crickets and locusts. The studies were lead by Mike Picker (Zoology Department, University of Cape Town), Jonathan F. Colville (Applied Biodiversity Research, South African National Biodiversity Institute) and Malcom Burrows (Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge). Read more

We would like to compliment Janaína de Godoy Gonçalves for winning a brand new iPad 2™, in a raffle presented by Systems Link International during the Chemical Association of São Paulo (CRQ-IV) event on November 21, 2011. Ms. Gonçalves is a technician at the Laboratory of University of São Paulo- Ribeirão Preto attending the CRQ-IV event in São Paulo, Brazil. The raffle was part of a campaign started by SLI with the colaboration of CRQ-IV, to promote the advantages of being a ACS member.

Congratulations, Janaína! Thank you for participating!

The winner of the Nook SLI gave away during the ASEE event in Vancouver was Peter Washabaugh. He is the Associate Professor of Aerospace Engineering from the College of Engineering of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, MI.
Congratulations Peter! Thanks for participating!

Washington, DC: A small cave salamander, dubbed “the human fish” because of its human-like skin tone, has broken the world’s record for longest-lived amphibian—a discovery, according to researchers, could unravel secrets of elixir of life.

Also called olm and Proteus, the salamander, which can live to over 100, is endangered, but reaches such advanced ages in zoos and protected environments.

Future studies on this amphibian might shed light on what promotes longevity in the animal kingdom.

“Among amphibians the human fish is clearly the most long-lived species,” Discovery News quoted lead author Yann Voituron as saying.

Voituron, a professor at Claude Bernard Lyon University, and his team calculated growth rates, generation times and the lifespan of olms living in a cave at Moulis, Saint-Girons, France.

Since the 1950s, conservationists have established a breeding program there for the threatened salamanders.

In addition to determining the lifespan of the cave salamanders, the researchers found that this species becomes sexually mature at around age 16 and lays, on average, 35 eggs every 12.5 years.

Click HERE to read the entire article…

dnaindia.com 27 July 2010 http://www.dnaindia.com/scitech/report_longest-living-amphibians-salamanders-may-hold-secrets-to-elixir-of-life_1413158

ACM-W awards scholarships to women students for attendance at research conferences. Currently approximately 20 scholarships of up to $500 each are awarded in 6 funding cycles per year. The scholarships are open to women internationally at all levels of study.

Click here for more info…

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