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Two professors with Northern Arizona University’s Center for Bioengineering Innovation (CBI) and Department of Biological Sciences—environmental physiologist Loren Buck and ecotoxicologist Frank von Hippel—are working on a long-term research project studying the link between the toxic chemicals polluting St. Lawrence Island, Alaska, and the health of the island’s population.

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According to NAU researcher Chris Doughty, these large animals are important not for the quantity of dung they produce, but for their ability to move long distances across landscapes, effectively mixing the nutrients.

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Professors Julie Baldwin and Diane Stearns will lead the project, which focuses on increasing NAU's basic research capacity to address health disparities among the region's underserved populations.

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Soil fungi that help promote drought tolerance in pinyon pine (Pinus edulis), a dominant tree in the Southwest, are passed from mother trees to their offspring, according to research published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

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Ecologist Ted Schuur studies the frozen lands in the Arctic that are thawing as the climate warms, releasing previously captured greenhouse gases into the environment and continuing the cycle.

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The surprising results of a Northern Arizona University astronomer's new study find that there are 3.5 million house-sized meteoroids whose orbits bring them close enough to Earth to pose potential impact hazards—ten times fewer than previously thought.

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Using FEWSion, a new mapping system funded by the National Science Foundation that allows scientists to quickly analyze changing information, a team of researchers were able to see how Hurricane Harvey will impact food and energy production and determine how the water supply aligns and interacts.

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A study lead by Northern Arizona University bioengineer Zach Lerner found that wearing a robotic exoskeleton—a leg brace powered by small motors—could alleviate crouch gait in children with cerebral palsy.

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The ecological footprint of a city spreads far beyond its city limits, resulting in local and total extinction of hundreds of aquatic species in North America. Recent research quantifies the adverse effects while looking ahead to how cities can help.

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Ty Robinson talks about what eclipses demonstrate about the movement of exoplanets and touches on how alien life may fit into this celestial event.

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A new paper published in PLOS Pathogens by a team of researchers comprised of Bruce Hungate and Ben Koch from Northern Arizona University; Lance Price from George Washington University and the Translational Genomics Research Institute; and Gregg Davis and Cindy Liu from George Washington University outlines the critical need for further research into the nature of colonizing opportunistic pathogens, or COPs.

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In a new paper published in Nature, Research Assistant Professor Christopher Schwalm of NAU’s Center for Ecosystem Science and Society (Ecoss) shares the results of a study investigating the impact of more frequent droughts on ecosystem resiliency—and how this phenomenon could endanger the land carbon sink.

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A grant from the National Institute on Drug Abuse is funding an innovative, experiential learning program at Northern Arizona University that has successfully trained dozens of students in specialized research methods in the area of adolescent drug abuse.The program is offered through the University of South Florida’s Institute for Translational Research Education in Adolescent Drug Abuse (ITRE).

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By Kerry Bennett Office of the Vice President for ResearchHigh rates of overweight and obesity—as well as related diseases such as Type 2 diabetes—are serious public health concerns for the Navajo Nation. With more than 300,000 enrolled members in 110 chapters spread across 27,000 square miles in northeastern Arizona, New Mexico and Utah, it is one of the largest American Indian tribes in the U.

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According to a new paper published in the scientific journal mBio, an increase in some types of bacteria living under the foreskin can increase a man’s risk of HIV infection by up to 63 percent.

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The Mountain Tremors is a partnership between Northern Arizona University's Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders and School of Music and the Parkinson's Support Group in Flagstaff.

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Grasshopper mice, rodents known for their remarkably loud call, produce audible vocalizations in the same way that humans speak and wolves howl, according to new research.

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Benjamin Koch and his co-authors treated bacteria the way they would any ecosystem, using genomic "tags" to track bacterial transmission.

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Petra Williams, a professor of physical therapy, is part of a team that uses immersive virtual reality to provide teaching experiences to students in health professions.

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According to a paper published recently in Ecosphere, Drylands are of concern because broad-scale changes in these systems have the potential to affect 36 percent of the world’s human population.

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Forests in Central America are diminishing at alarming rates for reasons you would never suspect.

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Scientists believe that biochar, the partially burned remains of plants, has been used as fertilizer for at least 2,000 years in the Amazon Basin. Since initial studies published several years ago promoted biochar, farmers around the world have been using it as a soil additive to increase fertility and crop yields. But a new study casts doubt on biochar’s efficacy, finding that using it only improves crop growth in the tropics, with no yield benefit at all in the temperate zone.

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Decreases in river flows and frequency of flooding with future climate warming will likely shift vegetation along the Colorado River in Grand Canyon to species with more drought-tolerant traits.

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The Paris Climate Agreement soil carbon sequestration goals are unrealistic, according to scientists from The Netherlands, The United Kingdom and the United States in an opinion piece in the journal Environmental Science and Technology.

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Christopher Edwards, Assistant Professor of Physics and Astronomy at Northern Arizona University, just opened the new Mars Rover Operations and Analysis Laboratory on the NAU campus, where faculty researchers and students will use sophisticated equipment to help command the day-to-day activities of NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity Rover (MSL) currently operating on the surface of Mars.

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A collaboration of scientists, led by Northern Arizona University professor Bruce Hungate, has created a model to measure the dollars saved by having healthy and diverse ecosystems.

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A consortium of NAU researchers are looking into Arizona's dental caries epidemic to find answers into the increased rate of tooth decay in the state.

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The study, led by doctoral student Rachel Rubin, determined bacteria could play a significant role in increasing crop yields in the future, even in times of drought

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Paul Helford, the principal lecturer for creative media and film at Northern Arizona University, is available to discuss the nominations, what they mean for the film world and what nominees are likely to take home the statue.

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Greg Caporaso showed promising research that could lead to a new treatment option for autism spectrum disorder.

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Research professor Kathleen Hunt has found that baleen stores a wide range of hormonal data that can help chart a female whale’s reproductive history–data which she hopes can be used to help repopulate them.

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An article by NAU researcher Ted Schuur discusses how the release of carbon stored in the soil of the thawing Arctic tundra has the potential for speeding up climate change.

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The $335,000 grant will allow scientists with the Merriam-Powell Center for Environmental Research to test the nucleation approach.

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Next generation genomic analysis used to probe the former USSR’s biological weapons program

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The interdisciplinary research project called “FEWSion,” which builds on Ruddell’s work on the National Water-Economy Project, will create and study the first detailed map of the system.

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According to NAU Scientists, and their new study, global warming began in the Arctic and tropical oceans before thermometers were widespread enough to record the early signal.

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Data gathered by the Mars Odyssey spacecraft shows no more than three percent water, the same as or less than the driest deserts on Earth.

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It is easy to study what you can see. Researchers know a lot about how plants work aboveground, but what happens out of sight under the surface may control more than we once thought.

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Plants can grow faster as atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations increase, but only if they have enough nitrogen or partner with fungi that help them get it, according to new research published this week in Science.

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Carbon dioxide emissions from dry and oxygen-rich environments will likely strengthen the climate forcing impact of thawing permafrost on top of methane release from oxygen-poor wetlands in the Arctic, according to a study led by Northern Arizona University assistant research professor Christina Schädel.

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Compared to older people, younger adults experience greater antioxidant benefits from one exercise session.

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NAU’s Dorothy Dunn, assistant professor and doctor of nursing, has been actively researching the intentionality of compassion energy—the converse of compassion fatigue—in order to help nurses balance life and profession.

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Unmanned aerial vehicles, employing innovative engineering technology, will be built at NAU with instructions shared with researchers everywhere.