Sustainable Development and Strategic Thinking

From an economic point of view, the industrial economy is efficient to overcome situations of a scarcity of goods. From a technological point of view, the resource efficiency of the manufacturing processes of the industrial economy has been permanently improved during the last 200 years. In addition, cleaner processes have been developed. However, from an ecologic point of view, an increasing world population with increasing consumption has produced a ＂global footprint＂ which approaches the carrying capacity of the planet. A circular economy and its high-value spin-offs-a lake economy and a performance or functional service economy-can fulfil customers＇ needs with considerably less resource consumption, less environmental impairment in production and considerably less end-of-life product waste, especially in situations of affluence, when a considerable stock of physical goods and infrastructures exists. Also, in situations of a scarcity of natural resources, both energy and materials, often characterised by rapidly rising resource prices, the economic actors of a circular economy have a high competitive advantage over the actors of the industrial economy, due to much lower procurement costs for materials and energy. From a social point of view, a circular economy increases the number of skilled jobs in regional enterprises. However, the shift from a linear manufacturing economy to a circular or service economy means a change in economic thinking from flow （throughput） management to stock （asset） management： in a manufacturing economy with largely unsaturated markets, total wealth increases through accumulation as resource throughput （flow） is transformed into a higher stock of goods of better quality （but in a manufacturing economy with largely saturated markets, wealth represented by the stock of goods will no longer increase）; in a circular or service economy, total wealth increases through a smart management of existing physical assets （stock） that are adapted to changes in both technology and customer demand. This second approach not only applies to physical capital but equally to social capital, such as health and education and green GDP. To measure the social wealth of a population, it is not the amount of money spent on schools and hospitals that matters, butif this expenditure has led to a better education of the students, and a better health of the people.     

Protein that makes sense in the Argentine ant

With a protein-based approach, we have identified and cloned the cDNA encoding a chemosensory protein (LhumCSP) in the Argentine ant, Linepithema humile. The open reading frame of the cloned cDNA encoded a signal peptide (20 residues), and a mature protein (pI 4.62) of 106 amino acid residues. The calculated molecular mass (12,453 Da) was in agreement with the molecular mass measured by on-line chromatography-electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (12,448 Da), given the formation of two disulfide bridges. LhumCSP shared sequence similarity with various CSPs, particularly those identified and/or cloned from moth species. Also, LhumCSP showed the hallmark of the chemosensory proteins, i.e., four well conserved cysteine residues. The antennal protein was not detected in non-olfactory tissues (leg and thorax) contrary to a putative pheromone-binding protein isolated from the thorax of the red imported fire ant, Solenopsis invicta. In addition, these findings suggest that, as in Orthopterans and Phasmids, the protein that makes sense in the Argentine ant is not an odorant-binding protein, but rather a chemosensory protein.     

The modern theory of biological evolution: an expanded synthesis

In 1858, two naturalists, Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace, independently proposed natural selection as the basic mechanism responsible for the origin of new phenotypic variants and, ultimately, new species. A large body of evidence for this hypothesis was published in Darwins Origin of Species one year later, the appearance of which provoked other leading scientists like August Weismann to adopt and amplify Darwins perspective. Weismanns neo-Darwinian theory of evolution was further elaborated, most notably in a series of books by Theodosius Dobzhansky, Ernst Mayr, Julian Huxley and others. In this article we first summarize the history of life on Earth and provide recent evidence demonstrating that Darwins dilemma (the apparent missing Precambrian record of life) has been resolved. Next, the historical development and structure of the modern synthesis is described within the context of the following topics: paleobiology and rates of evolution, mass extinctions and species selection, macroevolution and punctuated equilibrium, sexual reproduction and recombination, sexual selection and altruism, endosymbiosis and eukaryotic cell evolution, evolutionary developmental biology, phenotypic plasticity, epigenetic inheritance and molecular evolution, experimental bacterial evolution, and computer simulations (in silico evolution of digital organisms). In addition, we discuss the expansion of the modern synthesis, embracing all branches of scientific disciplines. It is concluded that the basic tenets of the synthetic theory have survived, but in modified form. These sub-theories require continued elaboration, particularly in light of molecular biology, to answer open-ended questions concerning the mechanisms of evolution in all five kingdoms of life.Dedicated to Prof. Dr. Dr. hc mult. Ernst Mayr on the occasion of his 100th birthdayThis revised version was published online in March 2004, with corrections to the caption of Figure 6.     

Non-random nectar unloading interactions between foragers and their receivers in the honeybee hive

Nectar acquisition in the honeybee Apis mellifera is a partitioned task in which foragers gather nectar and bring it to the hive, where nest mates unload via trophallaxis (i.e. mouth-to-mouth transfer) the collected food for further storage. Because forager mates exploit different feeding places simultaneously, this study addresses the question of whether nectar unloading interactions between foragers and hive-bees are established randomly, as it is commonly assumed. Two groups of foragers were trained to exploit a different scented food source for 5 days. We recorded their trophallaxes with hive-mates, marking the latter ones according to the forager group they were unloading. We found non-random probabilities for the occurrence of trophallaxes between experimental foragers and hive-bees, instead, we found that trophallactic interactions were more likely to involve groups of individuals which had formerly interacted orally. We propose that olfactory cues present in the transferred nectar promoted the observed bias, and we discuss this bias in the context of the organization of nectar acquisition: a partitioned task carried out in a decentralized insect society.