New research shows that when two species of stickleback fish evolved and lost their pelvises and body armor, the changes were caused by different genes in each species. That surprised researchers, who expected the same genes would control the same changes in both related fish. The findings shed new light on how evolution produces diversity in nature, and on the evolution of limb loss.
Researchers at the Huntsman Cancer Institute (HCI) at the University of Utah studied the events leading to colon cancer and found that an unexpected protein serves as the "spark" that triggers formation of colon polyps, the precursors to cancerous tumors.
For 2009 college graduates, the hiring outlook is not rosy. According to an annual survey, employers will hire 22 percent fewer graduates this year. However, the outlook in Utah appears brighter based on this year's recruiting activity at the University of Utah's Career Services Office. The relative strength is helped by a lower than national unemployment rate and the state's diversified economy.
Women who have babies naturally in their 40s or 50s tend to live longer than other women. Now, a new study shows their brothers also live longer, but the brothers' wives do not, suggesting the same genes prolong lifespan and female fertility, and may be more important than social and environmental factors.
Utah and Texas researchers have learned how quiet sounds are magnified by bundles of tiny, hair-like tubes atop "hair cells" in the ear: when the tubes dance back and forth, they act as "flexoelectric motors" that amplify sound mechanically. "We are reporting discovery of a new nanoscale motor in the ear," says Richard Rabbitt, professor and chair of bioengineering at the University of Utah.
Two weeks after rains begin, an elephant family named "the Royals" usually switches to a grass diet to bulk up for pregnancy. But when they wandered off their African reserve, cattle grazed the grass so short that elephants couldn't eat it. The University of Utah study of isotopes in tail hair suggests how climate change and human encroachment may affect endangered elephants.
As the U.S. Southwest grew warmer from 18,700 to 10,000 years ago, juniper trees vanished from what is now the Mojave Desert, robbing packrats of their favorite food. Now, University of Utah biologists have narrowed the hunt for detoxification genes that let the rodents eat toxic creosote bushes that replaced juniper. They have identified 24 candidate genes.
University of Utah scientists devised a new way to find miners trapped by cave-ins. The method involves installing iron plates and sledgehammers at regular intervals inside mines, and sensitive listening devices on the ground overhead.
In humorist Garrison Keillor's fictional hometown of Lake Wobegon, all children are above average. Corporations may want investors to believe the same thing about highly paid CEOs and this effect may explain high CEO pay, according to a new study by two researchers in the University of Utah's David Eccles School of Business.
A free, online archive of bird and animal sounds recorded throughout the western United States has been created at The University of Utah's J.W. Marriott Library. The digital archive available to anyone interested in listening to the natural sounds of this diverse section of the environment.
More than 150 years after tamarisk trees started taking over riverbanks throughout the U.S. Southwest, saltcedar leaf beetles were unleashed to defoliate the invader. Now, University of Utah scientists say their new study shows it is feasible to use satellite data to monitor the extent of the beetle's attack on tamarisk, and whether use of the beetles may backfire with unintended environmental consequences.
Women in strained marriages are more likely to feel depressed and suffer high blood pressure, obesity and other signs of "metabolic syndrome," a group of risk factors for heart disease, stroke and diabetes, University of Utah psychologists found. The same study found men in strained marriages also are more likely to feel depressed, yet do not face an increased risk of metabolic syndrome.
A joint venture between the U and Headwaters Inc. has been created to offer carbon management services to CO2-emitting companies, from carbon storage engineering to risk and liability management. The first project will be to develop and operate a regional CO2 storage site to serve several power plants in central Utah.
One in eight women in the United States will receive a diagnosis of breast cancer in their lifetime, and it is the second leading cause of cancer-related death in women. Now a new test will help physicians determine the best possible treatment for each patient.
University of Utah biologists discovered that young "right whales" learn from their mothers where to eat, raising concern about their ability to find new places to feed if Earth's changing climate disrupts their traditional dining areas.
University of Utah scientists developed a new method that uses a mirror of tiny silver "nanoparticles" so microscopes can reveal the internal structure of nearly opaque biological materials like bone, tumor cells and the iridescent green scales of the "photonic beetle." The method also might be used for detecting fatigue in materials used to build the new generation of aircraft fuselages, tails and wings.
As scientists celebrate 2009 as the bicentennial of Charles Darwin's birth, experts in anthropology, biology, psychology and other fields will gather at the University of Utah Feb. 25-27 to debate how evolution has shaped human aggression and violence, from war to domestic abuse and homicide.
University of Utah scientists identified a worm gene that is essential for damaged nerve cells to regenerate, and showed they could speed nerve regeneration by over-activating the gene "“ a step toward new treatments for nerves injured by trauma or disease.
A University of Utah study indicates the U.S. bankruptcy system has a silver lining: it works. The study found 80 percent of fundamentally sound firms emerge with most of their assets, compared with 37 percent of firms with bad business models. The study suggests Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization may be better for U.S. automakers than a federal bailout.
University of Utah researchers dusted wild deer mice with fluorescent pink, blue, green, yellow and orange talcum powders to show which rodents most often fought or mated with others and thus were most likely to spread deadly hantavirus. The study identified bigger, older mice as the culprits.
An American academic, who also formerly served in the Israel Defense Forces, is in Israel now and is prepared to address issues related to the situation in Gaza from both academic and practical perspectives.
Researchers have discovered two enzymes that, when combined, could be involved in the earliest stages of cancer. Manipulating these enzymes genetically might lead to targeted therapies aimed at slowing or preventing the onset of tumors.
University of Utah researchers have developed an automobile ignition key that prevents teenagers from talking on cell phones or sending text messages while driving. The university has obtained provisional patents and licensed the invention "“ Key2SafeDriving "“ to a private company that hopes to see it on the market within six months at a cost of less than $50 per key plus a monthly service fee.
An imperfect body may have substantial benefits, according to a University of Utah study in the new issue of Current Anthropology. Hormones that make women physically stronger, more competitive and better able to deal with stress also tend to redistribute fat from the hips to the waist. So when women are under pressure to procure resources, they may be less likely to have the classic hourglass figure.
Drivers are far more distracted by talking on a cellular phone than by conversing with a passenger in an automobile, according to a new study by University of Utah psychologists. The study, which used a sophisticated driving simulator, found that when drivers talk on a cell phone, they drift out of their lanes and missed exits more frequently than drivers conversing with a passenger.
Sandcastle worms live in intertidal surf, building sturdy tube-shaped homes from bits of sand and shell and their own natural glue. University of Utah bioengineers have made a synthetic version of this seaworthy superglue, and hope it will be used within several years to repair shattered bones in knees, other joints and the face.
A group of paleontologists visited the northern Arizona wilderness site nicknamed a "dinosaur dance floor" and concluded there were no dinosaur tracks there, only a dense collection of unusual potholes eroded in the sandstone. So the scientist who leads the University of Utah's geology department says she will team up with the skeptics for a follow-up study.
University of Utah scientists created a sensitive prototype device that could test for dozens or even hundreds of diseases simultaneously by acting like a credit card-swipe machine to scan a card loaded with microscopic blood, saliva or urine samples. The prototype works on the same principle that is used to read data on computer hard drives or listen to tunes on portable digital music players.
University of Utah geologists identified an amazing concentration of dinosaur footprints and rare tail-drag marks that they call "a dinosaur dance floor," located in a wilderness on the Arizona-Utah border where there was a sandy desert oasis 190 million years ago.
UofU is kicking off a new institute devoted to nanotechnology and aimed at bringing together the university's and state of Utah's diverse nano science experts to drive research and commercialization. The Nano Institute of Utah will be formally announced at NanoUtah 2008 (10/16-17/2008), the annual conference of nano science researchers, focusing this year on advances in nanomedicine.
The 35th annual gathering of minority scientists, science educators and students will take place in Salt Lake City, Utah for the first time October 9 to 12, 2008. The Society of for Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in Science (SACNAS) national conference will focus on climate change and its broad-reaching impacts on all fields of science.
Univ. of Utah College of Law received a$2.5 million grant from the US Dept. of State to help the Iraqi government establish an independent judiciary. Experts from the law school and outside advisors will provide assistance to judicial and political leaders in Iraq on legislation, constitutional amendments, criminal law and procedures.
Do you want to know the percentage of white women who support Sarah Palin? What about college-educated versus high school-educated white women? Or those who also hunt? University of Utah computer scientists have written software they hope eventually will allow news reporters and citizens to easily, interactively and visually answer such questions when analyzing election results and opinion polls.
When a cell's chromosomes lose their ends, the cell usually kills itself to stem the genetic damage. But University of Utah biologists discovered how those cells can evade suicide and start down the path to cancer. The study of fruit flies is the first to show in animals that losing just one telomere "“ the end of a chromosome "“ can lead to many abnormalities in a cell's chromosomes.
It's time to turn attention to counting the votes, says University of Utah elections expert Thad Hall: in another close Presidential race, will the election process again make the headlines?
University of Utah engineers devised a new way to slice thin wafers of the chemical element germanium for use in the most efficient type of solar power cells. They say the new method should lower the cost of such cells by reducing the waste and breakage of the brittle semiconductor.
University of Utah physicists successfully controlled an electrical current using the "spin" within electrons "“ a step toward building an organic "spin transistor": a plastic semiconductor switch for future ultrafast computers. The study also suggests it will be more difficult than thought to make highly efficient light-emitting diodes (LEDs) using organic materials.
Prof. Guiora, a counterterrorism expert, argues that today's military court decision convicting Salim Hamdan merits discussing alternative forums to try individuals suspected of terrorism.
A University of Utah study is shedding light on an important, unsolved physics problem: the relationship between chaos theory "“ which is based on 300-year-old Newtonian physics "“ and the modern theory of quantum mechanics. The study demonstrated a fundamental new property "“ what appears to be chaotic behavior in a quantum system "“ in the magnetic spins within the nuclei of frozen xenon atoms.
The age of your neighborhood may influence your risk of obesity, according to a new study from the University of Utah. The study, to be published in the September issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, found that residents were at less risk of being obese or overweight if they lived in older, more walkable neighborhoods.
Certain songbirds can contract their vocal muscles 100 times faster than humans can blink an eye "“ placing the birds with a handful of animals that have evolved superfast muscles, University of Utah researchers found.
University of Utah law professor Amos Guiora to testify before a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on "Improving Detainee Policy: Handling Terrorism Detainees within the American Justice System." The hearing begins June 4 at 10:00 a.m. EDT in room 226 of the Senate Dirksen Office Building in Washington, D.C.
New calculations show that Utah's deadly Crandall Canyon mine collapse "“ which registered as a magnitude-3.9 earthquake "“ began near where miners were excavating coal and quickly grew to a 50-acre cave-in, University of Utah seismologists say in a report. They estimated the size of the collapse is about four times larger than was thought shortly after the time of the Aug. 6, 2007, disaster.
Until 1992, when California's magnitude-7.3 Landers earthquake set off small jolts as far away as Yellowstone National Park, scientists did not believe large earthquakes sparked smaller tremors at distant locations. Now, a definitive study shows large earthquakes routinely trigger smaller jolts worldwide, including on the opposite side of the planet and in areas not prone to quakes.
Researchers have been unable to build an ideal "photonic crystal" to manipulate visible light, impeding the dream of ultrafast optical computers. But now, University of Utah chemists have discovered that nature already has designed photonic crystals with the ideal, diamond-like structure: They are found in the shimmering, iridescent green scales of a beetle from Brazil.
A new study from the University of Utah shows that women in academia have fewer children compared to other professional women -- primarily because it takes longer to achieve the job security of tenure -- and concludes that gender equality in the "ivory tower" has come at a cost. Female faculty are 41 percent less likely to have babies than female physicians.
University of Utah engineers took an early step toward building superfast computers that run on far-infrared light instead of electricity: They made waveguides -- the equivalent of wires -- that carried and bent this form of light, also known as terahertz radiation, which is the last unexploited portion of the electromagnetic spectrum.
Cancellations of flights on U.S. airlines due to safety checks mandated by the FAA has sparked debate over how to best solve the problems of aircraft wiring in aging jets. University of Utah engineering professor Cynthia Furse is available to provide commentary. She is nationally recognized for developing onboard automatic testing of aircraft wiring to prevent in-flight fires and loss of control signals.
Recent mass flight cancellations due to aircraft safety checks have sparked debate over how to solve problems with wiring in aging jets. Electrical engineer Cynthia Furse, of the University of Utah College of Engineering, developed a method of testing aircraft wiring and is available to comment on the current situation.
The accuracy of computer models that predict climate change has been the subject of debate. A new University of Utah study shows that current climate models are quite accurate and can be valuable tools for those seeking solutions on reversing global warming trends. Most of these models project a global warming trend that amounts to about 7 degrees Fahrenheit over the next 100 years.
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