Category: Experts

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“New” Family Tree for Neotropical Knifefishes

A great deal goes into not only finding a new fish species, but in confirming that it is, in fact, unknown to science and then placing it on the “tree of life”. The scientific names and classifications of fishes – and all living things – are based on specimens that are collected in the field and preserved in natural history collections like the Academy of Natural Sciences here in Philadelphia. Published literature creates a verifiable chain of custody that ties taxonomic names to their authors, dates, usage and museum specimens.

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Q+A: A New COVID Variant is Spreading Across the United States. Should We Be Concerned?

A new COVID “variant under monitoring” by the World Health Organization known as BA.3.2 is circulating across the United States. Here to sort out the latest on the new variant, including whether we should be concerned about its ability to evade immunity from previous vaccination and/or previous SARS-CoV-2 infection, is Sonia Navas-Martin, PhD, a professor of microbiology and immunology in Drexel’s College of Medicine.