ODU PROFESSORS' RESEARCH FEATURED IN TUESDAY'S NEW YORK TIMES

The New York Times on Tuesday, May 30, joined the growing list of international media that have published and broadcast stories about a spiny lobster behavior study done by two researchers at Old Dominion University.

"Lobsters Quarantining Lobsters" is the headline of a Science section article in the Times. The article is based on a paper published last week in the prestigious international journal Nature by Mark Butler, ODU professor of biological sciences, and Donald Behringer, ODU postdoctoral student and research associate.

Their findings are the first ever to show that animals in the wild shun neighbors of the same species that have contracted an infectious disease. The authors believe that the avoidance behavior explains why a deadly virus that strikes young Caribbean spiny lobsters has not decimated the species.

Among the dozens of other media outlets to report on the research are the Washington Post and Science magazine's Science NOW Daily News Web page.

Butler and Behringer were assisted in the research and in the preparation of the Nature article by Jeffrey Shields, associate professor at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science.

To view the article "Lobsters Quarantining Lobsters," use the following link: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/30/science/30observ.html.