News / press
Nov. 2023: I am honoured to take part in the restoration story of McCarty Woods in UF campus. Mariela Pajuelo and her team created and filmed for FL Museum of Natural History; I spoke about my project with the Soltis lab to estimate restoration efforts through changes in the ant fauna in McCarty Woods compared to non-restored similar woods. Link to story
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July 2023: Two manuscripts now submitted to peer-review! I also uploaded the submitted versions to bioRxiv for interested crowd:
1. Saar M, Eyer PA, Magory-Cohen T, Ionescu-Hirsch A, Dor R & Dorchin N. Systematics of harvester ants (Messor) in Israel based on integrated morphological, genetic, and ecological data. Link
2. Subach A, Bega D & Saar M. Seasonality effects and field-estimation of colony size in desert ants. Link
1. Saar M, Eyer PA, Magory-Cohen T, Ionescu-Hirsch A, Dor R & Dorchin N. Systematics of harvester ants (Messor) in Israel based on integrated morphological, genetic, and ecological data. Link
2. Subach A, Bega D & Saar M. Seasonality effects and field-estimation of colony size in desert ants. Link
Sep. 2022: Science Communication Award (Runner-up) by Entomological Society of America - here we go!
-ESA announcement -Interview for ESA's coolest blog Entomology Today! |
Feb. 2022: For the International Day of Women & Girls in Science, the Lucky lab participated in 'Girls do Science' event in Florida Museum! ~500 people and ~150 children enjoyed our live ant colonies, invasive ant species cards, microscope exhibition and insect toys!
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November 2021: "N12" Israeli news website published my article on the little fire ant (error in photos that should be replaced): Link
August 2021: My funding agency BARD, featured me for an interview on my postdoc research in University of Florida. Thank you!
-Interview -Newsletter Summer 2021 |
April 2021: Locust swarms has visited Israel. I interviewed a locust researcher specialist- Prof. Amir Ayali, to find out what's going on. In short, it seems there is nothing to worry about this time.
Here's an article (English): Plague of pests: Lots of locusts swarm Israel's South Here's my story (Hebrew): קצת ארבה / מאיה סער |
Dec. 2020: Thanks for featuring me in the international diversity scholars' section of the Fall 2020 Newsletter by the Biology Department, UF!
Oct. 2020: Our manuscript 'Embryo injections for CRISPR-mediated mutagenesis in the ant Harpegnathos saltator' was accepted to Journal of Visual Experiments! Video now in production.
Oct. 2020: My new popular science article is out (Hebrew)! I wrote on the discovery of the chemical compound that constitutes the aggregation pheromone in locust, it's molecular mechanism for absorption and how to knock out the related gene. This is a promising and exciting progress towards managing locust plagues in the future.
Here's the original article: Guo, Xiaojiao, et al. 4-Vinylanisole is an aggregation pheromone in locusts. Nature 584.7822 (2020) 584-588.
Here's my article: דבר אליי בפרומונים / מאיה סער
Here's the original article: Guo, Xiaojiao, et al. 4-Vinylanisole is an aggregation pheromone in locusts. Nature 584.7822 (2020) 584-588.
Here's my article: דבר אליי בפרומונים / מאיה סער
June 2020: My article on my favorite Facebook group: 'A group where we all pretend to be ants in an ant colony', is out (Hebrew)!
This sensational Facebook group that drew almost 2 million followers, grew even larger during the Covid-19 global pandemic. But do their group activities resemble a real-life ant colony? Read to find out. My article: All hail the queen / Maya Saar |