University of Utah researchers have found that the structure of an insulin molecule produced by predatory cone snails may be an improvement over current fast-acting therapeutic insulin. The finding suggests that the cone snail insulin, produced by the snails to stun their prey, could begin working in as few as five minutes, compared with 15 […]

University of Utah ecologist Nalini Nadkarni is no fashion mogul. But she is a scientist actively engaged in public outreach, working to bring the wonder and curiosity of the natural world to people, even those who may have no interest in natural history museums, nature documentaries or natural history magazines. Those people probably care about […]

University of Utah anthropologists counted the number of carbon-dated artifacts at archaeological sites and concluded that a population boom and scarce food explain why people in eastern North America domesticated plants for the first time on the continent about 5,000 years ago. “Domesticated plants and animals are part of our everyday lives, so much so […]

Engineers from the University of Utah and the University of Minnesota have discovered that interfacing two particular oxide-based materials makes them highly conductive, a boon for future electronics that could result in much more power-efficient laptops, electric cars and home appliances that also don’t need cumbersome power supplies. Their findings were published this month in […]

For the last 10 weeks, University of Utah student Georgie Corkery has investigated sustainable urban farming options for Salt Lake, and she will present her work at a symposium Wednesday, July 27, at the University of Utah Guest House, 110 S. Fort Douglas Boulevard, 9 a.m.-3 p.m. Corkery is among 18 undergraduate students from universities […]

Unfortunately, loss of plant and animal habitat leads to local species extinctions and a loss of diversity from ecosystems. Fortunately, not all of the extinctions occur at once. Conservation actions may still be able to save threatened species, according to William Newmark, a vertebrate zoologist at the Natural History Museum of Utah at the University […]

How much water does your lawn really need?  A University of Utah study re-evaluated lawn watering recommendations by measuring water use by lawns in Los Angeles. The standard model of turfgrass water needs, they found, lacked precision in some common urban southern California conditions, like the Santa Ana winds, or in the shade. “The current […]

Each year, U graduate students from the University of Utah College of Architecture + Planning design and build an architectural project to benefit the Navajo Nation in the southern Utah Tribal area. Known as DesignBuildBLUFF, the program immerses students in hands on cross-cultural experiences. “We work in partnership with the Navajo community of San Juan County […]

University of Utah biologists working in Turkey discovered two surprising facts about a group of 16 brown bears: First, six of the bears seasonally migrated between feeding and breeding sites, the first known brown bears to do so. Second, and more sobering, the other 10 bears stayed in one spot all year long: the city […]

University of Utah materials science and engineering associate professor Mike Scarpulla wants to shed light on semiconductors — literally. Scarpulla and senior scientist Kirstin Alberi of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colorado, have developed a theory that adding light during the manufacturing of semiconductors — the materials that make up the essential parts […]