Royal Astronomical Society

Accepted for publication in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 25 th February 2004

We investigate the effects that starspots have on the light curves of eclipsing binaries and in particular how they may affect the accurate measurement of eclipse timings. Concentrating on systems containing a low-mass main-sequence star and a white dwarf, we find that if starspots exhibit the Wilson depression they can alter the times of primary eclipse ingress and egress by several seconds fo...

The Royal Society

The causes of biological gigantism have received much attention, but only for individual organisms. What selection pressures might favour the evolution of gigantic societies? Here we consider the largest singlequeen insect societies, those of the Old World army ant Dorylus, single colonies of which can have 20 million workers. We propose that colony gigantism in Dorylus arises as a result of an...

Royal Society Congress

'TAHE first of the two annual conversaziones which A are given by the Royal Society in its rooms at Burlington House, took place on Wednesday evening, May 16. There was a large attendance, and throughout the evening interested groups were gathered round the exhibits which were shown in the Officers' Room, the Council Room, the Old Council Room, the Principal Library, the Committee Room, and the...

Royal Society of London

The Royal Society

Identifying the factors that control population dynamics in migratory animals has been constrained by our inability to track individuals throughout the annual cycle. Using stable carbon isotopes, we show that the reproductive success of a long-distance migratory bird is influenced by the quality of habitat located thousands of kilometres away on tropical wintering grounds. For male American red...