Washington, D.C. (PRWEB) December 01, 2014

Washington, D.C. Dr. Julia Lane, an internationally recognized economist and Institute Fellow at the American Institutes for Research (AIR), has been elected by her peers at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) as a Fellow. The honor recognizes her contributions to innovation, education and scientific leadership.

Lane, an expert in science and innovation policy, joined AIR after directing the Science of Science and Innovation Policy Program at the National Science Foundation (NSF). She led the multi-agency, multi-university Science and Technology for Americas Reinvestment: Measuring the EffecTs of Research on Innovation, Competitiveness and Science (STAR METRICS) program, a partnership between science agencies and research institutions to publicly document the outcomes of science investments.

Election as a Fellow of AAAS, a tradition begun in 1874, is an honor bestowed upon members for meritorious efforts to advance science or its applications.

AAAS, an international organization dedicated to advancing science for the benefit of all, will host an event honoring its Fellows during the groups annual meeting February 14, 2015 in San Jose, Calif.

About AIR Established in 1946, with headquarters in Washington, D.C., the American Institutes for Research (AIR) is a nonpartisan, not-for-profit organization that conducts behavioral and social science research and delivers technical assistance both domestically and internationally in the areas of health, education and workforce productivity. For more information, visit http://www.air.org.

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Julia Lane Elected AAAS Fellow in Recognition of Her Scientific Leadership

Larry Steinbergs latest book is Age of Opportunity: Lessons from the New Science of Adolescence. (rromer/Flickr)

We generally think of adolescence as ending at about age 18. But Larry Steinberg, a professor of psychology at Temple University, says new brain science is starting to reveal why teenagers seem to stay teenage through their mid-twenties.

Steinberg joins Here & Nows Jeremy Hobson to discuss the findings in hislatest book, Age of Opportunity: Lessons from the New Science of Adolescence (excerpt below)

He also explains why the adolescent years are so developmentally crucial, and what parents can do to raise happier and more successful kids.

On adolescence lasting longer

If we look at the average of age of puberty now in the United States, girls are starting puberty around 11 or 12 years old. If you look at when young women are getting married in the United States, the average age is 27 or 28 years old. So were talking about a pretty long span of time and the same time interval lengthwise for boys as for girls. We know that when people go through puberty the sex hormones associated with that affect the brain as well as the rest of the body. We can mark the beginning of adolescence in one way by looking at when thats happening, so that really is determined when someone goes through puberty. On the other hand, we can look at the end of adolescence in terms of when the brain is not maturing so much anymore and that seems to be going on until people are in their mid-20s or so. Roughly speaking, we can look at this period and bracket it as going from age 10 to age 25.

Onhow education should change in light of this

One thing that we should do in school is to focus more on what experts are referring to as non-cognitive skills and that would include things like perseverance, determination and grit. If you think about the challenge about becoming an adult now, you need to be able to stay in school for a very long time. You need to be able to stay in school through the completion of a four year college degree to get a decent-paying job, and that requires that we help young people develop the capacity to delay gratification and to persevere, even at tasks that theyre maybe not so crazy about.

On the opportunityof adolescents malleable brain

One of the main themes of the book is that were discovering that the brain during adolescence is very malleable or very plastic. What that means is that the brain has a heightened capacity to change in response to experience. That cuts both ways: on the one hand it means that the brain is especially susceptible to toxic experiences that can harm it, but on the other hand it means that the brain is also susceptible to positive influences that can promote growth. Thats the kind of opportunity that I think we need to think about in relation to adolescence and its an opportunity I think were squandering.

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The New Science Of Adolescence

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

1-Dec-2014

Contact: Diana Yates diya@illinois.edu 217-333-5802 University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign @illinois_alma

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- The house mouse, stickleback fish and honey bee appear to have little in common, but at the genetic level these creatures respond in strikingly similar ways to danger, researchers report. When any of these animals confronts an intruder, the researchers found, many of the same genes and brain gene networks gear up or down in response.

This discovery, reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, suggests that distantly related organisms share some key genetic mechanisms that help them respond to threats, said University of Illinois cell and developmental biology professor Lisa Stubbs, who led the research with animal biology professor Alison Bell and entomology professor and Institute for Genomic Biology director Gene Robinson. Bell and Stubbs also are IGB faculty.

"We knew that a variety of animals share genes for some common physical traits. Now it appears that different organisms share a 'genetic toolkit' for behavioral traits, as well," Stubbs said.

The team used comparative genomics to look at changes in brain gene expression in the house mouse (Mus musculus), stickleback fish (Gasterosteus aculeatus) and honey bee (Apis mellifera) in response to intrusion by a member the same species.

"One of the striking findings is that elements of the brain gene-expression response to a territorial intrusion were common to all three species, despite vast differences in brain anatomy among the three," Bell said. "This is meaningful because it suggests that molecular similarities run deeper than brain structural similarities."

All three species saw changes in the expression of genes that regulate hormones and neurotransmitters that are known to influence behavior. Other shared responses involved genes that contribute to brain developmental processes; metabolic genes; genes related to muscle contraction and blood supply; and genes associated with the formation of synapses, the growth of neurons and the differentiation of glial brain cells.

"To find common sets of activated genes, in species that evolved their behavioral responses to intruders hundreds of millions of years apart from each other, gives hope that scientists will be able to make use of comparative genomics to better understand how the behaviors of different species relate to each other, and to ourselves," Robinson said.

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Study: Different species share a 'genetic toolkit' for behavioral traits