Winters in the northern hemisphere are brutal. The harsh conditions drive some species to hibernate; bears reduce their metabolic state to conserve energy until spring. Forests also endure winter by conserving energy; they shut down photosynthesis, the process by which a green pigment called chlorophyll captures sunlight and carbon dioxide (CO2) to produce the chemical […]
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A forest “glow” reveals awakening from hibernation
Aftershocks of 1959 earthquake rocked Yellowstone in 2017-18
On Aug. 17, 1959, back when Dwight D. Eisenhower was president, the U.S. had yet to send a human to space and the nation’s flag sported 49 stars, Yellowstone National Park shook violently for about 30 seconds. The shock was strong enough to drop the ground a full 20 feet in some places. It toppled […]
Children who use asthma tracking app have better disease control and fewer hospital visits
An app that allows parents and doctors to monitor a child’s asthma has a big impact on managing the disease. When families monitored symptoms with eAsthma Tracker and adjusted care accordingly, children had better asthma control and made fewer visits to the emergency department. Using the app also meant that children missed fewer days of […]
Chemical records in teeth confirm elusive Alaska lake seals are one of a kind
[Adapted from a news release by the University of Washington] Hundreds of harbor seals live in Iliamna Lake, the largest body of freshwater in Alaska and one of the most productive systems for sockeye salmon in the Bristol Bay region. Sometime in the distant past, a handful of harbor seals likely migrated from the ocean […]
How Earth’s mantle is like a Jackson Pollock painting
In countless grade-school science textbooks, the Earth’s mantle is a yellow-to-orange gradient, a nebulously defined layer between the crust and the core. To geologists, the mantle is so much more than that. It’s a region that lives somewhere between the cold of the crust and the bright heat of the core. It’s where the ocean […]
Google Street View cars join the U’s air quality team
The first step toward fixing air quality challenges in the Salt Lake Valley is understanding how air pollution levels vary across the city. To that end, U researchers have previously placed air sensors in a van, on light rail trains and on a news helicopter. But to get an even finer view of Salt Lake’s […]
A new view of wintertime air pollution
[This release is adapted from material provided by CIRES and NOAA] The processes that create ozone pollution in the summer can also trigger the formation of wintertime air pollution, according to a new study from researchers at the University of Colorado Boulder and NOAA, in partnership with the University of Utah. The team’s unexpected finding […]
Chemistry chair Cynthia Burrows receives 2019 Rosenblatt Prize
Cynthia Burrows, chair of the department of chemistry at the University of Utah, is the 2019 recipient of the Rosenblatt Prize for Excellence, the U’s highest faculty accolade. The $50,000 cash award is presented annually to a faculty member who transcends ordinary teaching, research and administrative efforts. A group of distinguished faculty members on the […]
University of Utah receives prestigious grant from Lumina Foundation to support degree completion initiatives
The University of Utah has received a $335,000 grant from Lumina Foundation to assess the effectiveness of its newly launched Invest in U program, an income share agreement program aimed at helping students finish their degrees faster. The grant also will allow the U to develop and highlight best practices and innovative models with other […]
Katharine Ku appointed to U Research Foundation Board of Directors
The University of Utah Research Foundation has appointed Katharine Ku to its board of directors. Ku recently retired from Stanford University’s Office of Technology Licensing after serving as executive director for 27 years. A world-renowned expert in technology transfer, she developed nine principles for university technology licensing that have been adopted by tech transfer offices […]