The research will use controlled experiments to test the impact of new technologies on consumer attitudes, shopping behavior and store performance. We need a fast and reliable means of determining which innovations will be successful and unsuccessful, and to identify the most promising applications for specific product categories, customer segments and shopping situations. IU biologists have unraveled the ancient evolutionary history of photosynthesis, the process on which all life on Earth depends for food and oxygen. The origin of this crucial process in green plants is a longstanding problem, and there has been no clear evidence to support any of the theories proposed to explain it. In a paper in the Sept. 8 issue of the journal Science , a team of biologists led by Carl E. Bauer, Clyde Culbertson Professor of Biology at IU, reported the results of their study.
Scientists agree that photosynthesis originated in bacteria.
What was not clear is which species of bacteria contains the most ancient system for it and how photosynthesis in green plants evolved from photosynthesis in bacteria. These results reverse the conventional thinking on the evolution of photosynthetic bacteria, in which purple bacteria were considered one of the last bacterial species to evolve, not one of the first. The study produced several other unconventional results as well. The work of Bauer's group demonstrates that scientists must study the evolution of individual metabolic processes such as photosynthesis rather than the evolution of entire bacterial organisms. Comparing the National Health and Safety Performance standards with Indiana's existing child care regulations, analysts found that approximately 40 percent of national health and safety standards were not addressed by Indiana regulations concerning child care centers.