Using statistics that describe how an infectious disease spreads, a University of Utah anthropologist analyzed different theories of how people first settled islands of the vast Pacific between 3,500 and 900 years ago. Adrian Bell found the two most likely strategies were to travel mostly against prevailing winds and seek easily seen islands, not necessarily the nearest islands.
The University of Utah Community Solar Program, which launched a year ago on Earth Day, April 22, and closed on Oct. 24, 2014, generated nearly a million dollars in wages for 18 full-time, temporary and seasonal employees, according to a new report. The program also inspired two other Utah communities to offer similar programs.
University of Utah Professor Kirk Jowers elevated the institution's Hinckley Institute of Politics to a new level of prestige on the national stage of higher education. He has resigned to take a position in the private industry. Jason Perry has been appointed to the role of interim director upon Jowers' June 30 departure.
Computer scientists at the University of Utah are developing software to detect so-called algorithmic attacks, an emerging hacking threat that is nearly impossible to find with existing security technology.
Jannah Mather, retiring dean at the University of Utah College of Social Work, was inspired to help others after watching her father —a professional gambler —use some of his winnings to help the downtrodden in the small Indiana town where she was raised.
A new University of Utah study is the first to provide clear insight into contributors to suicide risk among military personnel and veterans who have deployed. The study found that exposure to killing and death while deployed is connected to suicide risk. Previous studies that looked solely at the relationship between deployment and suicide risk without assessing for exposure to killing and death have shown inconsistent results.
Twenty-two students will participate in a counter-terrorism simulation at the University of Utah on April 10. Groups of seven will be presented with a scenario at three times during the day: 7:30 to 11 a.m., noon to 3:30 p.m. and 4:30 to 8 p.m.. The counterterrorism simulation will be streamed live at http://law.utah.edu
As the execution of Joe Hill observes a 100-year anniversary this year, University of Utah law student Adam Pritchard this month has published a new article about the case in the Labor Law Journal. The article, co-authored with attorney Kenneth Lougee, “Joe Hill One Hundred Years Later: The Case for Reliable Hearsay Never Died,” is a historical and legal analysis of hearsay.
Luke Skywalker’s home in “Star Wars” is the desert planet Tatooine, with twin sunsets because it orbits two stars. So far, only uninhabitable gas-giant planets have been identified circling such binary stars, and many researchers believe rocky planets cannot form there. Now, mathematical simulations show that Earthlike, solid planets such as Tatooine likely exist and may be widespread.
Roberta Achtenberg, a 1975 University of Utah College of Law graduate who President Obama appointed to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights in 2011, will be the commencement speaker at the S.J. Quinney College of Law on May 15.
Rob Butters, an assistant professor at the University of Utah College of Social Work who is also director of the Utah Criminal Justice Center, served as an expert witness for the defense team representing a teenager accused of murdering 15-year-old Anne Kasprzak of Utah in 2012. Butters enlisted the help of students in his forensic social worker class to work on the case to give them real-life experience in the field.
By crushing minerals between diamonds, a University of Utah study suggests the existence of an unknown layer inside Earth: part of the lower mantle where the rock gets three times stiffer. The discovery may explain a mystery: why slabs of Earth’s sinking tectonic plates sometimes stall and thicken 930 miles underground.
Utah researchers conducted four studies to gauge the health effects of the hostile-dominant personality style compared with the warm-dominant style. Their findings are bad news for aggressive power-seekers.
University of Utah biologists report how a disposable molecular ruler or tape measure determines the length of needles bacteria use to infect cells. The findings have potential applications for new antibiotics and anticancer drugs and for helping people how to design nanomachines.
In a scant five years of development, hybrid perovskite solar cells have attained power conversion efficiencies that took decades to achieve with the top-performing conventional materials, but scientists have lacked a clear understanding of the precise goings on at the molecular level. New findings by University of Utah physicists help fill that void.
A University of Utah study of nearly 2,000-year-old livestock teeth show that early herders from northern Africa could have traveled past Kenya’s Lake Victoria on their way to southern Africa because the area was grassy – not tsetse fly-infested bushland as previously believed.
The chemical signature of water vapor emitted by combustion sources such as vehicles and furnaces has been found in the smoggy winter inversions that often choke Salt Lake City. The discovery may give researchers a new tool to track down the sources of pollutants and climate-changing carbon dioxide gas.
For wireless communication in the long-sought terahertz range, University of Utah engineers have devised a frequency filter that can be fabricated with an inkjet printer.
U.S. ties with Latin America have never been more critical. The U.S. now recognizes the region as one of its fastest-growing trade partners, a key ally in developing alternative fuels, as well as its largest source of immigrants—both documented and undocumented—and illegal drugs. Furthermore, as Latin America’s global impact steadily increases, the United State’s dominant influence in the region is waning. Latin American countries have not only grown more independent but are also forging closer ties with other global powers including China and India.
In recognition of this complex and changing landscape, the Hinckley Institute of Politics at the University of Utah will present the 17th Annual Rocco C. and Marion S. Siciliano Forum, Considerations on the Status of the American Society. This year’s theme is “The Future of U.S.-Latin American Relations.”
The 10 day conference, which starts on Feb.23, will consist of 16 events including art exhibits and a documentary screening. The
University of Utah scientists captured enough data on crucial steps in a chemical reaction to accurately predict the structures of the most efficient catalysts, those that would speed the process with the least amount of unwanted byproducts. The new approach could help chemists design catalysts that are not just incrementally better, but entirely new.
The Policy Innovation Lab at the David Eccles School of Business' Sorenson Global Impact Investing Center is aiming to help three to five governments in the Western United States tackle such issues with an innovative funding source called Pay for Success (PFS).
University of Utah alum David Schwendiman to speak on reconstruction efforts in Afghanistan and his new post as chief prosecutor of the European Union's Special Investigative Task Force on Kosovo.
The transfer of 31 million acres of land managed by the federal government to Utah would hinder public land management reforms and harm the state, according to a newly released analysis by researchers at the Wallace Stegner Center for Land, Resources and Environment at the University of Utah’s S.J. Quinney College of Law.
The conservation value of growing coffee under trees instead of on open farms is well known, but hasn’t been studied much in Africa. So a University of Utah-led research team studied birds in the Ethiopian home of Arabica coffee and found that “shade coffee” farms are good for birds, but some species do best in forest.
University of Utah administration contributed to publication costs in order to extend the outcomes of the research to communities, and to provide information that increases a better understanding and acceptance of the different ethnic groups in the state.
Some cone snails add insulin to the venom cocktail they use to catch fish, University of Utah biologists have discovered. Adding the hormone to the mix of venom toxins may have enabled predatory cone snails to disable entire schools of swimming fish with hypoglycemic shock. The snail insulin could prove useful as a tool to probe the systems the human body uses to control blood sugar and energy metabolism.
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor will speak at the University of Utah Jan. 28. Justice Sotomayor’s visit highlights the MUSE Project’s (My U Student Experience) theme year on justice, for which her recent book ‘My Beloved World’ is the centerpiece text.
The sexual stereotype, in line with evolutionary theory, is that women want commitment and men want lots of flings. But a study of the Makushi people in Guyana shows the truth is more complex, with men more likely to seek long-term relationships when women are in short supply.
A new web-based action video game uncovers the forces behind the air pollution that plagues the Salt Lake Valley during the winter months. University of Utah developers say the goal is to help students think critically about the science and politics of air quality along the Wasatch Front.
A familiar face at the University of Utah’s David Eccles School of Business is expected to become the newest member of the Federal Reserve’s Board of Governors.
Allan R. Landon, an adjunct professor at the David Eccles School of Business who has taught courses since 2011, was nominated by President Barack Obama on Tuesday to fill an open position of governor on the seven-member board.
If confirmed by the Senate, Landon will fill one of two vacancies on the board, which oversees the Federal Reserve System and plays a significant role in formulating U.S. monetary policy.
When University of Utah biologists fed mice sugar in doses proportional to what many people eat, the fructose-glucose mixture found in high-fructose corn syrup was more toxic than sucrose or table sugar, reducing both the reproduction and lifespan of female rodents.
Three products created by U students will be featured at the 2015 International CES, the world’s largest and best-known technology trade show scheduled for Jan. 6 - 9 in Las Vegas. The U’s notable showing at CES reflects its expanding place in developing industry-leading electronics technologies, and its dedication to developing inventions with practical applications.
The rate at which carbon emissions warmed Earth’s climate almost 56 million years ago resembles modern, human-caused global warming much more than previously believed, but involved two pulses of carbon to the atmosphere, University of Utah researchers and their colleagues found.
The organismal performance assay detects subtle toxic effects by subjecting mice to a relentless, Darwinian competition for food, shelter and mates. If there is a defect in any physiological system, it is more likely to stand out if test animals have to compete for resources.
University of Utah researchers ran biochemical analysis and computer simulations of a livestock virus to discover a likely and exotic mechanism to explain the replication of related viruses such as Ebola, measles and rabies. The mechanism may be a possible target for new treatments within a decade.
A pair of University of Utah students has launched a line of uniquely designed pants — dubbed Sakpants — through a university-sponsored entrepreneurship program and completing a crowdsource funding campaign to raise capital for their business endeavor.
University of Utah professor Eric Garland developed Mindfulness-Oriented Recovery-Enhancement to change the face of intervention and treatment for drug abusers.
The transfer of 31.2 million acres of land managed by the federal government to Utah would create a major shift in the economic structure of the state.
University of Utah engineers have developed a polarizing filter that allows in more light, leading the way for mobile device displays that last much longer on a single battery charge and cameras that can shoot in dim light.
When a viral infection spread through five genetically identical mice in a row, the virus replicated faster and became more virulent or severe. But when the infection spread one-by-one through five genetically diverse mice, the virus had trouble adapting and became less virulent. The University of Utah study suggests that increased genetic diversity should be promoted in livestock and in captive-bred endangered species so as to limit their risk of getting deadly infections.
Biologists long assumed that one-way air flow was a special adaptation in birds driven by the intense energy demands of flight. But now University of Utah scientists have shown that bird-like breathing also developed in green iguanas – reptiles not known for high-capacity aerobic fitness. The finding bolsters the case that unidirectional bird-like flow evolved long before the first birds.