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Fermilab Bison Herd
The Fermilab bison herd was established in 1969 at the U.S. national laboratory in Batavia, Illinois, about west of Chicago, under the leadership of physicist, amateur architect and Wyoming native Robert R. Wilson. The herd grazes an pasture adjacent to the Fermilab prairie, which sits atop the accelerator's underground Main Ring and Tevatron. The herd usually averages around 25 individuals; as of spring 2022, the head count of the herd was 32 individuals. History and ecology A bull and four cows were first brought to the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory as a visual reminder of the idea ''science is a frontier''. In 1971, the Illinois Department of Natural Resources added 21 head. The bison herd added a utopian dimension to a physics lab that was associated in the mind of the general public with the terror of the Bomb. The herd was also explicitly a tourist attraction. The bison were meant to be classic symbol of Americana, familiar from Western-genre stories and f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
United States Department Of Energy National Laboratories
The United States Department of Energy National Laboratories and Technology Centers is a system of facilities and laboratories overseen by the United States Department of Energy (DOE) for scientific and technological research. Sixteen of the seventeen DOE national laboratories are federally funded research and development centers administered, managed, operated and staffed by private-sector organizations under management and operating (M&O) contract with DOE (with the National Energy Technology Laboratory being the exception). History The system of centralized national laboratories grew out of the massive scientific endeavors of World War II, in which new technologies such as radar, the computer, the proximity fuse, and the atomic bomb proved decisive for the Allied victory. Though the United States government had begun seriously investing in scientific research for national security in World War I, it was only in late 1930s and 1940s that monumental amounts of resources ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Prairie Restoration
Prairie restoration is a conservation effort to restore prairie lands that were destroyed due to industrial, agricultural, commercial, or residential development. For example, the U.S. state of Illinois alone once held over of prairie land and now just of that original prairie land is left. Purpose Ecologically, prairie restoration aids in conservation of earth's topsoil, which is often exposed to erosion from wind and rain when prairies are plowed under to make way for new commerce. Conversely, much more of the prairie lands have become the fertile fields on which cereal crops of corn, barley and wheat are grown. Many prairie plants are also highly resistant to drought, temperature extremes, disease, and native insect pests. They are frequently used for xeriscaping projects in arid regions of the American West. A restoration project of prairie lands can be large or small. A backyard prairie restoration will enrich soil, help with erosion and take up extra water in excessi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mitochondrial DNA
Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA or mDNA) is the DNA located in mitochondria, cellular organelles within eukaryotic cells that convert chemical energy from food into a form that cells can use, such as adenosine triphosphate (ATP). Mitochondrial DNA is only a small portion of the DNA in a eukaryotic cell; most of the DNA can be found in the cell nucleus and, in plants and algae, also in plastids such as chloroplasts. Human mitochondrial DNA was the first significant part of the human genome to be sequenced. This sequencing revealed that the human mtDNA includes 16,569 base pairs and encodes 13 proteins. Since animal mtDNA evolves faster than nuclear genetic markers, it represents a mainstay of phylogenetics and evolutionary biology. It also permits an examination of the relatedness of populations, and so has become important in anthropology and biogeography. Origin Nuclear and mitochondrial DNA are thought to be of separate evolutionary origin, with the mtDNA being deri ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Introgression
Introgression, also known as introgressive hybridization, in genetics is the transfer of genetic material from one species into the gene pool of another by the repeated backcrossing of an interspecific hybrid with one of its parent species. Introgression is a long-term process, even when artificial; it may take many hybrid generations before significant backcrossing occurs. This process is distinct from most forms of gene flow in that it occurs between two populations of different species, rather than two populations of the same species. Introgression also differs from simple hybridization. Simple hybridization results in a relatively even mixture; gene and allele frequencies in the first generation will be a uniform mix of two parental species, such as that observed in mules. Introgression, on the other hand, results in a complex, highly variable mixture of genes, and may only involve a minimal percentage of the donor genome. Definition Introgression or introgressive hybridi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
American Bison
The American bison (''Bison bison'') is a species of bison native to North America. Sometimes colloquially referred to as American buffalo or simply buffalo (a different clade of bovine), it is one of two extant species of bison, alongside the European bison. Its historical range, by 9000 BC, is described as the great bison belt, a tract of rich grassland that ran from Alaska to the Gulf of Mexico, east to the Atlantic Seaboard (nearly to the Atlantic tidewater in some areas) as far north as New York, south to Georgia and, according to some sources, further south to Florida, with sightings in North Carolina near Buffalo Ford on the Catawba River as late as 1750. Once roaming in vast herds, the species nearly became extinct by a combination of commercial hunting and slaughter in the 19th century and introduction of bovine diseases from domestic cattle. With a population in excess of 60 million in the late 18th century, the species was culled down to just 541 animals by 18 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Will County, Illinois
Will County is a county in the northeastern part of the state of Illinois. According to the 2020 census, it had a population of 696,355, an increase of 2.8% from 677,560 in 2010, making it Illinois's fourth-most populous county. The county seat is Joliet. Will County is one of the five collar counties of the Chicago- Naperville-Elgin, IL- IN- WI Metropolitan Statistical Area. The portion of Will County around Joliet uses area codes 815 and 779, while 630 and 331 are for far northern Will County and 708 is for central and eastern Will County. History Will County was formed on January 12, 1836, out of Cook and Iroquois Counties. It was named after Conrad Will, a politician and businessman involved in salt production in southern Illinois. Will was a member of the first Illinois Constitutional Convention and a member of the Illinois legislature until his death in 1835. Besides its present area, the county originally included the part of Kankakee County, Illinois, north of the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie
The Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie (MNTP) is a tallgrass prairie reserve and similarly preserved as United States National Grassland operated by the United States Forest Service. The first national tallgrass prairie ever designated in the U.S. and the largest conservation site in the Chicago Wilderness region, it is located on the site of the former Joliet Army Ammunition Plant between the towns of Elwood, Manhattan and Wilmington in northeastern Illinois. Since 2015, it has hosted a conservation herd of American bison to study their interaction with prairie restoration and conservation. Ecology The tallgrass prairie reserve is in the central forest-grasslands transition ecoregion of the temperate grasslands, savannas and shrublands biome. Midewin remains the only federal tallgrass prairie preserve east of the Mississippi River, where surviving areas of that habitat are extremely rare. With the adjacent Des Plaines Fish and Wildlife Area and a number of other state and coun ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lee County, Illinois
Lee County is a county located in the U.S. state of Illinois. According to the 2010 census, it has a population of 36,031. Its county seat is Dixon. The Dixon, IL Micropolitan Statistical Area includes all of Lee County. History The area's first non-native settlers were mostly from the six New England states. The early nineteenth century saw a wave of westward movement from New England, due largely to completion of the Erie Canal and the end of the Black Hawk War. The area that included present-day Lee County was delineated as St. Clair County in 1809. In 1823, a large section of northern St. Clair County was partitioned off as Fulton County. In 1825, the northwestern portion of that county was partitioned off as Putnam County. In 1831, the area was further partitioned into Jo Daviess County. A section of that county was partitioned off in 1836 as Ogle County, and in 1839 the bottom half of Ogle County was split off as Lee County. It is largely understood that the county's ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ogle County, Illinois
Ogle County is a county in the northern part of the U.S. state of Illinois. According to the 2010 United States Census, it had a population of 53,497. Its county seat is Oregon, and its largest city is Rochelle. Ogle County comprises Rochelle, IL Micropolitan Statistical Area, which is also included in the Rockford-Freeport-Rochelle, IL Combined Statistical Area. History Ogle County was formed in 1836 out of Jo Daviess and LaSalle counties, and named in honor of Captain Joseph Ogle, a veteran of the Revolutionary War who settled in Illinois in 1785. Ogle County government was organized in 1837; before that time it remained assigned to Jo Daviess County for legislative, taxation, and judicial matters. In 1839, part of Ogle County was partitioned off to form Lee County. Ogle County was a New England settlement. The founders of Oregon and Rochelle arrived from New England; they were "Yankees", descendants of English Puritans who had settled New England in the 1600s. They ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nachusa Grasslands
The Nachusa Grasslands is a restored tallgrass prairie near Franklin Grove in Lee County and Ogle County, Illinois. It is managed by The Nature Conservancy staff and volunteers. History Most of northern Illinois was tallgrass prairie at the time of statehood in 1818. In the ensuing century, the vast majority of this prairie was plowed up for arable farmland. A Nature Conservancy planning process, aimed at building a restored tallgrass prairie ecosystem in Illinois, commenced in 1985; the first major land acquisition, of , occurred in 1986. More acreage has been added to create the current open space of . Bison reintroduction The Nachusa Grasslands planning process called for running up to 100 American bison (''Bison bison'', also commonly known as "buffalo") on approximately of the preserve. Thirty bison were released on the Nachusa Grasslands in October 2014. The bison were added to the approximately 700 species logged at the prairie. In April 2015, free-range bison c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
DuPage County, Illinois
DuPage County ( ) is a county in the U.S. state of Illinois, and one of the collar counties of the Chicago metropolitan area. As of the 2020 census, the population was 932,877, making it Illinois' second-most populous county. Its county seat is Wheaton. Known for its vast tallgrass prairies, DuPage County has become mostly developed and suburbanized, although some pockets of farmland remain in the county's western and northern parts. Located in the Rust Belt, the area is one of few in the region whose economy quickly became dependent on the headquarters of several large corporations due to its close proximity to Chicago. As steel mills closed in the 1970s and 1980s, several acres that were formerly industrialized areas were converted into business parks to meet the growing tax base. The county has a mixed socioeconomic profile and residents of Hinsdale, Naperville and Oak Brook include some of the wealthiest people in the Midwest. However, other cities in the county such a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ebscohost
EBSCO Information Services, headquartered in Ipswich, Massachusetts, is a division of EBSCO Industries Inc., a private company headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama. EBSCO provides products and services to libraries of very many types around the world. Its products include EBSCONET, a complete e-resource management system, and EBSCO''host'', which supplies a fee-based online research service with 375 full-text databases, a collection of 600,000-plus ebooks, subject indexes, point-of-care medical references, and an array of historical digital archives. In 2010, EBSCO introduced its ''EBSCO Discovery Service'' (EDS) to institutions, which allows searches of a portfolio of journals and magazines. History EBSCO Information Services is a division of EBSCO Industries Inc., a company founded in 1944 by Elton Bryson Stephens Sr. and headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama. "EBSCO" is an acronym for Elton B. Stephens Company. EBSCO Industries has annual sales of about $3 billion. It is one o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
