Knox College hosts the 104th annual meeting of the Illinois State Academy of Science on Friday and Saturday, March 30-31. More than 200 college students and faculty from throughout Illinois are expected for conference that will feature displays and talks on science research, and a keynote address and symposium on ecological restoration.

• Knox College students and faculty will display posters on their research from 1:30 p.m. - 4:15 p.m., Friday, on the first floor of Knox College's Umbeck Science and Mathematics Center.

• A symposium "Restoration and Conservation in Illinois," featuring experts on prairie restoration will be held from 4:30 p.m. - 6:30 p.m., in the Francois Classroom, E-117, in the Umbeck Science Mathematics Center. The discussion will be moderated by Stuart Allison, professor of biology and director of Knox's Green Oaks Biological Field Station. Panelists are Roger Anderson of Illinois State University; Angella Moorehouse of the Illinois Department of Natural Resources; Jack Pizzo of Pizzo Associates, an ecological restoration firm; and Jeff Walk, director of science for The Nature Conservancy.

• The keynote address, "Ecological restoration and environmental change: Transforming ecosystems, transforming ourselves," will be given by Knox professor Stuart Allison at 8 p.m., Friday, in the Lincoln Room, Seymour Union on the Knox campus. Allison has directed prairie restoration initiatives at Knox for the past two decades.

Saturday from 8 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., scientists in various fields will give brief presentations on their research. Presentations by Knox College students and faculty will include:

• Diverse microRNAs in dictyostelid social amoebas, by students Ya-Lin Lu, Sara DeMaria, and Devon Blackburn; and professor Matthew Jones-Rhoades, all of Knox College.
• Effects of microclimate on the reproductive biology of Besseya bullii (Plantaginaceae), a rare plant, by student Dana Robinson of Knox College; and Katherine Chi and Brenda Molano-Flores of the Illinois Natural History Survey.
• Transcriptome Analysis of UV-Irradiated Dictyostelium discoideum (Dictyosteliidae) through RNA Sequencing, by student Shaunak Mulani and professor Matthew Jones-Rhoades, both of Knox College.
• In the eye of the beholder: Visual mate choice lateralization in a polymorphic songbird, the Gouldian Finch (Erythrura gouldiae), by professors Jennifer Templeton and James Mountjo, both of Knox College; and Sarah Pryke and Simon Griffith, both of the University of Sydney, Australia.
• Sleep traits in mutation accumulation lines of Drosphila melanogaster, by student Rachel Lyman and professor Matthew Jones-Rhoades, both of Knox College; and Richard Lyman, Susan Harbison, and Trudy Mackay, all of North Carolina State University.
• The paleomicrobiology and geomicrobiology of the Dakhleh Oasis, Egypt with scanning electron microscopy, by student Kathryn Quesnell, and professors Katherine Adelsberger and Linda Dybas, all of Knox College.