Jan. 12, 2016 – University of Utah chemist Peter J. Stang shook hands with Chinese President Xi Jinping after Stang and six other foreign scientists were honored with China’s 2015 International Science and Technology Cooperation Award. “I said ‘thank you’ to him in Chinese and he smiled,” says Stang, recalling the Jan. 8 award ceremony […]

Mathematical simulations at the University of Utah show parasitic flies may spell extinction for Darwin’s finches in the Galapagos Islands, but that pest-control efforts might save the birds that helped inspire the theory of evolution. The new study “shows that the fly has the potential to drive populations of the most common species of Darwin’s […]

  Dec. 17, 2015 – A University of Utah-led study identified a long-sought “hybrid inviability gene” responsible for dead or infertile offspring when two species of fruit flies mate with each other. The discovery sheds light on the genetic and molecular process leading to formation of new species, and may provide clues to how cancer […]

A new study by a team of scientists from Argentina, Brazil, California and the Natural History Museum of Utah at the University of Utah has determined that the time elapsed between the emergence of early dinosaur relatives and the origin of the first dinosaurs is much shorter than previously believed. The discovery not only places […]

University of Utah chemists devised a new way to detect chemical damage to DNA that sometimes leads to genetic mutations responsible for many diseases, including various cancers and neurological disorders. “We are one step closer to understanding the underlying chemistry that leads to genetic diseases,” says Cynthia Burrows, distinguished professor and chair of chemistry at […]

From the National Science Foundation Oceanographers, marine biologists and geologists are the scientists most commonly associated with studying changes in sea ice. But these days, it just might be a mathematician drilling ice cores in the Antarctic. With 17 trips to the Arctic and Antarctic under his belt, Ken Golden of the University of Utah […]

Anyone who’s taken a picture of birthday candles being blown out or a selfie during a romantic candlelit dinner knows how disappointing it is when the photo comes out dark and grainy. But University of Utah Electrical and Computer Engineering professor Rajesh Menon has developed a new camera color filter that lets in three times […]

University of Utah scientists deciphered maternal genetic material from two babies buried together at an Alaskan campsite 11,500 years ago. They found the infants had different mothers and were the northernmost known kin to two lineages of Native Americans found farther south throughout North and South America. By showing that both genetic lineages lived so […]

The animal brain is so complex, it would take a supercomputer and vast amounts of data to create a detailed 3-D model of the billions of neurons that power it. But computer scientists and a professor of ophthalmology at the University of Utah have developed software that maps out a monkey’s brain and more easily […]

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 […]