The economy may slow to a crawl in 2009, but science won't stop. We asked a panel of experts what surprises the coming year may hold.
Animals: Genetically Tracking Wildlife
Rapidly evolving DNA-sequencing techniques are increasingly being applied to animals, which could lead to smarter wildlife management.
New technologies allow scientists to spot changes in wildlife gene frequency quickly and affordably, said Timothy Beardsley, editor in chief of BioScience magazine, published by the American Institute of Biological Sciences.
By monitoring these genetic variants season to season, researchers can see how populations of animals move and reproduce within changing habitats.
"You can see where the physical borders and boundaries are that animals can't get by," Beardsley said.
"We can see the effects of evolutionary changes and changes in the landscape due to fragmentation and climate change—that gives us a much clearer look at wildlife populations," he added.
Tracking gene flow, for example, could reveal whether adjacent amphibian populations are intermingling as a large, healthy ecosystem—or whether they are blocked by a road at a critical point.
Archaeology: Undersea Adventures and Pre-Columbian Mingling
Eric Powell, a senior editor at Archaeology magazine, says some of 2009's most exciting digs will be undersea.
"There is a lot of good work on everything from Bronze Age shipwrecks in the Aegean to Paleolithic archaeology," he said.
"People are starting to think of underwater archaeology as focused not just on nautical history, but on the prehistoric landscape that existed when glaciers had water tied up and sea levels were much lower," he said.
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