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Over 100 million people in rural southern Asia are exposed every day to unsafe levels of arsenic from the well-water they drink. It more than doubles their risks for cancer, causes cardiovascular disease, and inhibits the mental development of children, among other serious effects. In the May 28 issue of the journal Science, researchers from Stanford University, the University of Delaware, and Columbia University review what scientists understand about this groundwater contamination crisis and offer solutions for the region.

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University of Delaware professors Darryl Flaherty and Paul Solano are among the leading thinkers around the globe who have been selected to participate in Salzburg Global Seminar programs this year. The Salzburg Global Seminar is a non-governmental organization that challenges present and future leaders to solve issues of global concern. Attendees meet for intensive, week-long discussions of major international issues at the Schloss Leopoldskron, a rococo palace in Salzburg, Austria, that was the inspiration for a number of settings in the film The Sound of Music.

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Oak Ridge Associated Universities (ORAU), a consortium of 98 Ph.D.-granting universities, has selected Holly Michael, assistant professor of geological sciences in the University of Delaware's College of Earth, Ocean, and Environment, to receive the Ralph E. Powe Junior Faculty Enhancement Award. The award will support Michael's research related to eutrophication -- the nutrient overloading from land runoff, septic systems, and other sources that fuels excessive primary production in aquatic ecosystems.

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In the May 7 edition of Physical Review Letters, a journal of the American Physical Society, an international team led by University of Delaware researchers reports new findings about helium that may lead to more accurate standards for how temperature and pressure are measured.

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After billions of years of twinkling and shining, some stars in the heavens appear to “dance” as they wind down. Maybe not like Elvis or Michael Jackson, but they definitely have a rhythmic beat, and some may even spin like a top. For the next two weeks, the Whole Earth Telescope, an international network of cooperating astronomical observatories led by the University of Delaware, will be continuously monitoring three of these stars to try to figure out what's going on inside their luminous masses of cooling plasma.

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Diversity in some coral populations may significantly influence their response to extreme temperature disturbances — such as those predicted from climate warming. A team demonstrated natural selection acting on the species of algae living within corals may determine survival in extreme temperatures.

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Donald L. Sparks, the University of Delaware's S. Hallock du Pont Chair of Soil and Environmental Chemistry and director of the Delaware Environmental Institute, has won the Geoffrey Marshall Mentoring Award from the Northeastern Association of Graduate Schools.

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Zhihao Zhuang, assistant professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of Delaware, has won the National Science Foundation (NSF) Faculty Early Career Development Award. Zhuang's five-year, $783,000 award will support an integrated research and outreach program focusing on the development of new chemical methods for efficiently bonding ubiquitin, the so-called “kiss of death” protein, to proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA), a key protein in DNA replication and repair, and exploring at the molecular level how cells bypass damaged DNA in a process called translesion synthesis.

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Jealousy really is "blinding," according to a new study by two University of Delaware psychology professors. They found women who were made to feel jealous were so distracted, they could not spot targets in a computer test.

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Offshore wind power resources are abundant but unreliable. A 5-year study of weather patterns demonstrates strategically placed offshore turbines connected by a single power line could provide consistent power.

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Scientists at the University of Delaware have developed a new method for producing proteins critical to research on cancer, Alzheimer's, and other diseases.

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Virginia Lorenz, who recently joined the University of Delaware faculty as an assistant professor of physics and astronomy, is working on one of the hottest areas in physics -- quantum memories. These devices store information in a flash of light and may serve as the basis of future communications networks.

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Amber J. Belcher, a doctoral student in psychology at the University of Delaware, has won the Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The fellowship will support Belcher's research on how couples cope with breast cancer.

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The University of Delaware has been selected by the U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Intelligence and Research, to implement a $308,000 Title VIII grant program that will fund economics and business research by 12 American scholars on the continuing transition of Eastern Europe and Central Asia to a free-market economy.

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What does “fair trade” in the apparel industry really mean? How does fair trade benefit workers in developing countries? And how do we know whether a product is fair trade or not? The University of Delaware's next FIBERcast -- an audio program delivered over the Internet -- will bring together experts to explore these and other questions on Thursday, Feb. 4, from 11-11:45 a.m. Eastern.

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You'd think folks who've had knee replacement surgery -- finally able to walk and exercise without pain -- would lose weight instead of put on pounds, but surprisingly that's not the case, according to a University of Delaware study. Researchers Joseph Zeni and Lynn Snyder-Mackler in the Department of Physical Therapy in UD's College of Health Sciences found that patients typically drop weight in the first few weeks after total knee arthroplasty (TKA), but then the number on the scale starts creeping upward, with an average weight gain of 14 pounds in two years.

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Dr. John Antil, associate professor of marketing at the University of Delaware, has tracked Super Bowl ad trends for 20+ years. He is available for interviews about Super Bowl XLIV commercials: the actual value of being a sponsor, ads as a driver to “new media”, CBS’ price slashing, controversial ads and more.

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A University of Delaware technology that could change the energy world is now on a roll. The University of Delaware has signed the first license for its vehicle-to-grid (V2G) technology with AutoPort, Inc., a major vehicle processing and modification facility in New Castle, Del. Under the terms of the licensing agreement, AutoPort has been granted non-exclusive rights in the area of commercial fleet vehicles.

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For every $100 of taxpayer money spent on refrigerators under the federal appliance rebate program, $6 is entirely lost, say two University of Delaware economists.

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University of Delaware researchers have uncovered a novel means of conquest employed by the common reed, Phragmites australis, which ranks as one of the world's most invasive plants.

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It's summer at the South Pole now, with 24 hours of daylight. And that marks the high season for research, despite extreme temperatures hovering around 40 degrees below zero with the wind chill! James Roth and Chris Elliott, both senior electronics instrument specialists from the University of Delaware, and their international colleagues are working at South Pole Station now, helping to construct the world's largest neutrino telescope, named “IceCube,” over a mile deep in the Antarctic ice sheet. Our UD research team is constructing the telescope's surface array of detectors called “IceTop.”

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Oceans Day, to be held Dec. 14, will highlight the direct link between climate change, ocean health, and human well-being.

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Some atoms don't always follow the rules. Take the beryllium dimer, a seemingly simple molecule made up of two atoms that University of Delaware physicists Krzysztof Szalewicz and Konrad Patkowski and colleague Vladimír Spirko of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic report on in the Dec. 4 edition of the journal Science.

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Imagine serving as a bosun's mate sailing aboard explorer Henry Hudson's vessel, Half Moon. Or being in the shoes of Union private A.J. Hamilton as he guarded Confederate prisoners at Fort Delaware during the Civil War. These are among the intriguing scenarios that brought the past to life for University of Delaware students engaged in history internships over the past several months.

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Two University of Delaware graduate students recently stumbled upon a letter written by President Thomas Jefferson while sifting through thousands of documents and other items donated to the university’s library.

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An international collaboration that includes scientists from the University of Delaware's Bartol Research Institute in the Department of Physics and Astronomy has discovered very-high-energy gamma rays in the Cigar Galaxy (M82), a bright galaxy filled with exploding stars 12 million light years from Earth.

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PAIR Technologies, a start-up company established by University of Delaware researchers and a former DuPont scientist, is preparing to commercialize a high-precision detector -- a planar array infrared spectrograph -- that can identify biological and chemical agents in solids, liquids, and gases, in quantities as small as an atom, and in less than a second.

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Two University of Delaware faculty -- Debra Hess Norris and Joyce Hill Stoner -- are among 60 of the world's leading conservators and cultural heritage and policy professionals, representing 35 countries, who will convene in Salzburg, Austria, from Oct. 28 to Nov. 1, to explore global challenges related to cultural preservation and to develop an action plan for protecting irreplaceable treasures around the world.

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The University of Delaware will host a conference on “The Ethics of Climate Change: Intergenerational Justice and the Global Challenge” Friday and Saturday, Oct. 30-31, at the Clayton Hall Conference Center on the University's Newark campus.

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Plants may not have eyes and ears, but they can recognize their siblings, and researchers at the University of Delaware have discovered how.The ID system lies in the roots and the chemical cues they secrete.

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The University of Delaware, in collaboration with Stroud Water Research Center in Avondale, Pa., has won a $4.3 million grant from the National Science Foundation to establish the Christina River Basin as a “Critical Zone Observatory” for researching questions relating to climate change. The scientists will be working to determine how, and how rapidly, soil erosion and sediment transport through rivers impact the exchange of carbon between the land and the atmosphere, and affect climate.

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A newly signed law makes Delaware the first entity in the world to reward owners of electric cars with vehicle-to-grid (V2G) technology for plugging in.

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The University of Delaware has published a new magazine -- University of Delaware Research -- showcasing the major initiatives, discoveries, inventions, and scholarship of UD faculty and students and the impacts of the University's growing research enterprise.

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University of Delaware researchers have won over $41 million in federal stimulus funds, to date, for leading-edge science, engineering, and technology projects with the potential to create jobs and foster long-term economic growth. The University has received the funds through competitive grants awarded by federal agencies as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), enacted by Congress in February.

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If you're ready for a truly cosmic experience, you won't want to miss the Vernon Public Lecture Series this fall at the University of Delaware. Nationally known speakers will transport audiences on a quest to find new planets on Sept. 26, journey back in time to see how modern astronomy was really invented on Oct. 17, and explore the prospect of “dark energy” and a runaway universe on Nov. 7.

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A chemical reaction can occur in the blink of an eye. Thanks to a new analytical method employed by researchers at the University of Delaware, scientists can now pinpoint, at the millisecond level, what happens as harmful environmental contaminants such as arsenic begin to react with soil and water under various conditions.

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Plants that live in the soil don't live alone -- a mere teaspoon of soil teems with an estimated billion microscopic organisms. Yet comparatively little is known about which of these tiny organisms interact with plants or how they may affect plant performance and crop yields. University of Delaware researchers are working to 'root out' the answer through a novel project on rice.

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A comprehensive look at zero tolerance policies in schools finds their harmful effects may outweigh the benefits. An education policy brief created by University of Delaware researchers brings together best and worst practices in zero tolerance.

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The U.S. Department of State has selected the University of Delaware to host the National Security Language Initiative for Youth (NSLI-Y) Summer Institute in Shanghai, China. The highly competitive program, designed to increase cultural awareness and cultivate future diplomats, will immerse 24 academically talented high-school students from across the United States in the language and culture of China through an intensive program in China's megacity from June 18 to July 30.

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Not using your computer at the moment? You can now donate your computer's idle time to cutting-edge biomedical research aimed at finding a cure for HIV, Parkinson's, arthritis, and breast cancer. Through the University of Delaware's "Docking@Home" project, which is supported by the National Science Foundation, more than 6,000 volunteers worldwide are donating their computer's idle time to perform scientific calculations that will aid in creating new and improved medicines to thwart major diseases.

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What does it mean for a clothing or footwear company to be environmentally sustainable? What specific policies can apparel retailers and brands implement, and how does pursuing environmental sustainability impact a company's bottom line? These and other questions will be explored during the University of Delaware's next FIBERcast, set for Friday, June 19, at 2 p.m. Eastern. Register now at this Web site (http://www.ocm.udel.edu/fmi/xsl/fiber/preregister.xsl) for the live, audio program.

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Researchers at the University of Delaware have discovered a new reason why the tall, tasseled reed Phragmites australis is one of the most invasive plants in the United States. The UD research team found that Phragmites delivers a one-two chemical knock-out punch to snuff out its victims, and the poison becomes even more toxic in the presence of the sun's ultraviolet rays.

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Elder abuse has devastating consequences, yet is rarely recognized as a national social issue. A 15-second elder abuse information piece, featuring actor William Mapother of TV's "Lost", now airing in movie theaters nationwide, is poised to raise awareness. This is the first time a single, uniform message on elder abuse will be released nationally.

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Timothy McKinnon would cross an ocean, wade through a jungle, and climb a mountain to save an endangered language. In fact, that's what the University of Delaware doctoral student is doing on Sumatra, the largest island in Indonesia. McKinnon, the recent recipient of a prestigious Fulbright Student Award, is working to document the Malay dialect known as Kerinci ("cur-in-chee"), which is spoken near the foot of Mount Kerinci, an active volcano that is the highest peak in Sumatra.

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University of Delaware researchers in Sweden have launched a giant balloon taller than a football field that is now flying at the edge of space to collect data on cosmic rays -- the most super-charged particles in the universe.

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The Whole Earth Telescope (WET), a worldwide network of observatories coordinated by the University of Delaware, is synchronizing its lenses to provide round-the-clock coverage of a cooling star. As the star dims in the twilight of its life, scientists hope it will shed light on the workings of our own planet and other mysteries of the galaxy.

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Thomas L. Friedman, internationally acclaimed author and foreign affairs columnist for The New York Times, will speak at the University of Delaware's 160th Commencement exercises, scheduled at 9 a.m., Saturday, May 30, in Delaware Stadium on the Newark campus.

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Monkey communication expert Robert Seyfarth kicked off the University of Delaware's Year of Darwin celebration, with a true story, documented in 1961, about a female baboon that herded goats in an African village. In 15 years of research on baboons in Botswana, Seyfarth and Dorothy Cheney, his research partner and spouse, determined that baboons are able to put together the discrete elements of identity, kinship, and rank. Moreover, when under stress, their social networks become even more important.

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Is it a backpack or a cocoon? A worm or a cyborg's arm? The biggest compliment you could give to Jennifer Dillner's sculptural fabric art would be to spend an extended period of time looking at it, questioning it and pondering the possibilities, the master of fine arts degree candidate at the University of Delaware says. Dillner's work definitely is attracting attention, selected for two international juried competitions and also showing regionally.

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Daniel Oristian, a recent master's graduate of the University of Delaware in biological sciences, has won the Northeastern Association of Graduate Schools' Master's Thesis Award for his research which identified a potential new pathway involved in bone and connective tissue regrowth.