In many science, technology, engineering, and mathematics disciplines, women are outperformed by men in test scores, jeopardizing their success in science-oriented courses and careers. The current study tested the effectiveness of a psychological intervention, called values affirmation, in reducing the gender achievement gap in a college-level introductory physics class. In this randomized double-blind study, 399 students either wrote about their most important values or not, twice at the beginning of the 15-week course. Values affirmation reduced the male-female performance and learning difference substantially and elevated women's modal grades from the C to B range. Benefits were strongest for women who tended to endorse the stereotype that men do better than women in physics. A brief psychological intervention may be a promising way to address the gender gap in science performance and learning.

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IIII!_ IIII1_ IIII1_ IIII1_ IIII1_INTEI{ME[_IATE ENERGY SEMILEPT()NIC PROIBES ()F THE HADRONIC NEUTRAL CURRENT' The Continuous Electron Beam Accelerator Facility Theory Group Preprint Series M. J MusolP, '1'. W. I)onnelly l', J. l)ubach', .% .I I',_lh),'k 't, S. Kowalski", and E. J l},'i._(J-Additional copies are available from the authors. _ (;enter for Theoretical I'hysics, Lal)oratory fc_rNuclear Sci_mc_' and I)ei,artlJJent of Physics, Ma.ssachusctts Institute of 'l_chnoiogy, (_.ai,lbridgc, M_L_achusetl.s 02139 USA; i)epartment of I>hysics, Ohl i)omimon IJniversity, Norfi,lk, Virginia 23529 USA and CEBAF Tlieory (,ruui), MS-1211, 12000 Jclh_rs(,n Ave., N,-wi,ort News, Virginia 23606 USA? The Southeastern Universities Research Association (SURA) operates the Continuous Electron Beam Accelerator Facility for the United States b (]enter for Theoretical I'hysics, I,aboratory for Nuclear S(:ieitct' and i)el)artmcnt Department of Energy under contract l)E-AC05-84ER40150 of l)hysics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, ('.and)ridge, Ma._achusetts 02139 lISA. ' i)epartment of Physics and Astronolny,

Patterns in food-web structure have frequently been examined in static food webs, but few studies have attempted to delineate patterns that materialize in food webs under nonequilibrium conditions. Here, using one of nature's classical nonequilibrium systems as the food-web database, we test the major assumptions of recent advances in food-web theory. We show that a complex web of interactions between insect herbivores and their natural enemies displays significant architectural flexibility over a large fluctuation in the natural abundance of the major herbivore, the spruce budworm ( Choristoneura fumiferana ). Importantly, this flexibility operates precisely in the manner predicted by recent foraging-based food-web theories: higher-order mobile generalists respond rapidly in time and space by converging on areas of increasing prey abundance. This “birdfeeder effect” operates such that increasing budworm densities correspond to a cascade of increasing diversity and food-web complexity. Thus, by integrating foraging theory with food-web ecology and analyzing a long-term, natural data set coupled with manipulative field experiments, we are able to show that food-web structure varies in a predictable manner. Furthermore, both recent food-web theory and longstanding foraging theory suggest that this very same food-web flexibility ought to be a potent stabilizing mechanism. Interestingly, we find that this food-web flexibility tends to be greater in heterogeneous than in homogeneous forest plots. Because our results provide a plausible mechanism for boreal forest effects on populations of forest insect pests, they have implications for forest and pest management practices.