New ideas in the natural sciences

A forensic approach to the study of food webs: Assistant Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Robert Pringle and his team will sequence DNA fragments in fecal samples of free-ranging African savanna animals to study their diets and the symbiotic gut bacteria that aid digestion. The goal is to provide information about interdependencies that may help to harmonize wildlife conservation and livestock production in Africa.

New studies of the Universe's past: Suzanne Staggs, the Henry DeWolf Smyth Professor ofPhysics, and Lyman Page, the James S. McDonnell Distinguished University Professor in Physics, along with colleagues from a dozen institutes around the world are designing a new telescope near Princeton's existing Atacama Cosmology Telescope in northern Chile. The telescope will enable more accurate studies of tiny temperature fluctuations in space that offer a way to study the Big Bang at the origin of the universe.