For three years, anthropologist Alan Rogers has attempted to solve an evolutionary puzzle. His research untangles millions of years of human evolution by analyzing DNA strands from ancient human species known as hominins. Like many evolutionary geneticists, Rogers compares hominin genomes looking for genetic patterns such as mutations and shared genes. He develops statistical methods […]

Scientists from around the world have assessed the planet’s 78 mountain glacier–based water systems and, for the first time, ranked them in order of their importance to adjacent lowland communities, as well as their vulnerability to future environmental and socioeconomic changes. These systems, known as mountain water towers, store and transport water via glaciers, snow […]

“What are you?” It’s a loaded question, and for people with multiple racial ancestries, it can be a body blow to that person’s sense of identity and inclusion. According to new research from University of Utah psychologists Jasmine Norman and Jacqueline Chen, questions such as “What are you?” and other experiences of discrimination are related […]

New research shows that a specific mind-body therapy, Mindfulness-Oriented Recovery Enhancement (MORE), increases the brain’s response to natural, healthy rewards while also decreasing the brain’s response to opioid-related cues. The study, published Wednesday in the journal Science Advances, examined data from four experiments involving 135 adults who took opioids daily for chronic pain. The study […]

The University of Utah’s Department of Philosophy has established a new interdisciplinary philosophy of science major, which launched Fall Semester 2019. The undergraduate major provides students with a technical grounding in a scientific discipline of their choice, core knowledge in ethical, analytical and logical reasoning and highly developed verbal and writing skills. The major is […]

Homes are the front lines of military suicide prevention as nearly two-thirds of suicides occur at home using a firearm—nearly always a personal firearm. Because suicide risk decreases if a firearm is safely stored locked and unloaded researchers, led by Craig Bryan of the National Center for Veterans Studies at the University of Utah, surveyed military personnel […]

The Federal Bureau of Investigation is responsible for tracking hate crimes across the country, but the data are notoriously unreliable. Low reporting from victims to police and inconsistent reporting from police to federal authorities have created a massive gap in how we understand hate in America.  Researchers from the University of Utah want to fill that […]

Have you ever been running on a sidewalk making pretty good time, then hit a hill and slowed way down? If so, you’ve experienced how slope affects travel rates. For most of us, understanding how slope steepness impacts our speed is a matter of fitness. For others, such as wildland firefighters retreating from the fire […]

Note: An open house at NEXUS is scheduled for April 2, 2019, from 12:15-1:50 p.m. at Gardner Commons, Room 2950. A panel will discuss the interdisciplinary work taking place at the U, with tours of the space afterward. A new interdisciplinary research center at the University of Utah will bring together researchers in pursuit of […]

The W. M. Keck Foundation has awarded $250,000 to the University of Utah to establish a new undergraduate minor in dark sky studies, the first of its kind in the United States. Dark sky studies is an emerging field that explores the impacts of artificial light at night and the loss of our night skies […]