Tag: University of Florida

How ‘Sentinel Gardens’ Help Spot Dangerous Bugs Abroad

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The wriggling larva would one day metamorphose into the red coffee-borer moth, an invasive species that damages many plants. It hasn’t yet infested the United States — but here it was, on a cloudy morning in early 2023, burrowing into the trunk of an American oak tree. Fortunately, that particular oak tree was growing in China, in what scientists call a “sentinel garden.” These gardens, scattered around the world, are plots of foreign trees that researchers closely monitor to figure out what local bugs and diseases can damage them. The…

Florida Law Chills Chinese Student Recruitment

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The panic among faculty at the University of Florida began this month once word started to spread: Do not make offers yet to graduate students from seven “countries of concern.” Among the seven was China, the largest source of international students at Florida, a major research university, particularly in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics. The guidance stemmed from a new law that Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, a Republican, and state lawmakers said was designed to prevent the Chinese Communist Party from having influence at the state’s…