UBN

Up to 27 seconds of inattention after talking to your car or smart phone

Oct. 22, 2015 – If you think it is okay to talk to your car infotainment system or smartphone while driving or even when stopped at a red light, think again. It takes up to 27 seconds to regain full attention after issuing voice commands, University of Utah researchers found in a pair of new […]


Dead men punching

University of Utah biologists used cadaver arms to punch and slap padded dumbbells in experiments supporting a hotly debated theory that our hands evolved not only for manual dexterity, but also so males could fistfight over females. “The idea that aggressive behavior played a role in the evolution of the human hand is controversial,” says […]


76-million-year-old extinct species of pig-snouted turtle unearthed in Utah

In the 250-million-year evolutionary history of turtles, scientists have seen nothing like the pig nose of a new species of extinct turtle discovered in Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument by a team from the Natural History Museum of Utah. “It’s one of the weirdest turtles that ever lived,” said Joshua Lively, who described the new species […]


Deeper calls, smaller balls

Oct. 22, 2015 – Across the animal kingdom, males hoot and holler to attract females and ward off competing suitors. Now, a new study finds that male howler monkeys with deeper calls have smaller testicles – and vice versa, according to researchers from universities of Utah, Cambridge and Vienna and other institutions. In the cover […]


U researchers create light emitting diodes from food and beverage waste

Most Christmas lights, televisions and flashlights have one thing in common: they’re made with light emitting diodes (LEDs). LEDs are widely used for a variety of applications and have been a popular, more efficient alternative to fluorescent and incandescent bulbs for the past few decades. Two University of Utah researchers have now found a way […]


9,000 miles away, first refugee camp students graduate from new University of Utah College of Social Work program

Gerawork Teferra fled to Kakuma, Kenya, from his native Ethiopia with nothing but desperation. He joined thousands of refugees from neighboring African nations, most who had traveled hundreds of miles to reach the safety of a refugee camp far from violence, religious persecution and starvation in the places they’d once called home. For Teferra, the […]


Transforming a warehouse into a community center

A team of students from the University of Utah School of Architecture, led by Associate Professor Lisa Henry Benham, collaborated with the Utah Tibetan Association to conceptualize the design of the new Tibetan Community Center. Located at 135 W. 2950 South, the 10,000-square-foot building will open Sunday, Oct. 11, and the center will serve as […]


Why Elephants Rarely Get Cancer

Why elephants rarely get cancer is a mystery that has stumped scientists for decades. A study led by researchers at Huntsman Cancer Institute (HCI) at the University of Utah and Arizona State University, and including researchers from the Ringling Bros. Center for Elephant Conservation, may have found the answer. According to the results, published today […]


Natural History Museum of Utah to launch innovative digital program for middle schoolers

This month the Natural History Museum of Utah at the University of Utah will launch a new digital program called Research Quest that will give middle school students across the state of Utah the chance to explore some of the museum’s paleontology collections through in-depth, classroom-based investigations. After two years of prototyping the program with […]


Building a better U

The newly renovated Rio Tinto Kennecott Mechanical Engineering Building at the University of Utah goes well beyond the adage of “what’s old is new again.” The completely remodeled building is not just bigger and newer, it’s also much safer, more energy efficient and the latest example of the U’s efforts to build one of the […]