Research News

Kathryn Stockton Receives 2013 Rosenblatt Prize

Kathryn Bond Stockton, distinguished professor of English at the University of Utah, was honored at today’s commencement ceremonies with the Rosenblatt Prize for Excellence, the U’s most prestigious award. The $40,000 gift is presented annually to a faculty member who displays excellence in teaching, research and administrative efforts. Read More

LouseBuster Meets Digital Publishing

Faculty at the University of Utah make hundreds of inventions every year – everything from chemical processes and surgical devices to wheelchairs – but only the best researchers and inventors win the annual Distinguished Innovation and Impact Award. The award, now in its third year, is presented to exceptional faculty who have applied their research to serve the public through innovative new products. Read More

Mine Disaster had Hundreds of Aftershocks

A new University of Utah study has identified hundreds of previously unrecognized small aftershocks that happened after Utah’s deadly Crandall Canyon mine collapse in 2007, and they suggest the collapse was as big – and perhaps bigger – than shown in another study by the university in 2008. Read More

Superstorm Sandy Shook the U.S.

When superstorm Sandy turned and took aim at New York City and Long Island last October, ocean waves hitting each other and the shore rattled the seafloor and much of the United States – shaking detected by seismometers across the country, University of Utah researchers found. Read More

Community Gardens May Produce More than Vegetables

People who participate in community gardening have a significantly lower body mass index—as well as lower odds of being overweight or obese—than do their non-gardening neighbors. Researchers at the University of Utah reported these and other findings in the American Journal of Public Health published online today. Read More

Teddy Bears, Mechanical Leeches and Brain Drill Bits

Teddy bears, mechanical leeches, brain drill bits and many more prototypes are not things you would expect to see at a typical student competition. But the annual Bench-2-Bedside competition at the University of Utah is anything but typical. Read More

Legacy of Giving Lives as L. S. Skaggs Pharmacy Institute Opens at University of Utah

A legacy of giving that began nearly 50 years ago came full circle on Friday, April 12, 2013, with the opening of the L. S. Skaggs Pharmacy Institute at the University of Utah. The new building’s cost exceeds $75 million. Read More

PowerPot Turns Heat and Water into Electricity

Power Practical, a student startup that sprung from research at the University of Utah, is selling a portable cook pot that transforms heat and water into a power source. Imagine charging your cellphone or using speakers in the mountains at night far from civilization. That’s what the device, called the PowerPot, can do with just a camp fire and a little water. Read More

Strong Urban Cores Promote Socializing in the City

Long commute times and urban areas that leapfrog over open space make it harder for people to socialize, but cities that are decentralized are even worse, University of Utah researchers say in a study published online today in the Journal of Transport Geography. Read More

Snowflakes Falling on Cameras

University of Utah researchers developed a high-speed camera system that spent the past two winters photographing snowflakes in 3-D as they fell – and they don’t look much like those perfect-but-rare snowflakes often seen in photos. Read More

Census Analysis by University of Utah Researchers Helps Salt Lake City Plan for the Future, and Make Decisions Now

The national census undertaken every 10 years by the federal government is fine for compiling raw data about the numbers of people living in the United States at a given time. But when government entities want to dig deeper into the numbers, they turn to experts capable of breaking down the data into incredible detail. Read More

Kids Launch Marshmallows, Build Towers at the U

The University of Utah’s College of Engineering will host more than 1,500 elementary school students March 25-29 for the college’s annual Elementary Engineering week, designed to spark enthusiasm for engineering at an early age. Read More

Taking Science to Prison

The University of Utah is launching a project to teach prisoners about science and give them job training in recycling, organic gardening, composting and other skills. It is part of a trend toward environmental sustainability in prisons – the subject of a workshop at the university Wednesday, March 20 through Friday, March 22. Read More

Time for the Salt Lake Valley Science Fair

More than 700 students will compete in this year’s Salt Lake Valley Science and Engineering Fair, which will be held March 20-22 at the University of Utah’s Rice-Eccles Stadium tower. Read More

Utah Robots Battle to the Top

More than 1,000 Utah high school students will put robots they designed and built to the test in a regional robotics competition co-sponsored by the University of Utah’s College of Engineering. Read More

Do You Want to Live Forever?

Three University of Utah faculty members will speak during The Leonardo museum’s Friday, March 22 Leonardo after Hours program on immortality, “Do You Want to Live Forever?” Read More

Mysteries of the Subconscious Unveiled

The Natural History Museum of Utah will present best-selling author and neuroscientist David Eagleman on Thursday, March 21 at 7:00 p.m. at the University of Utah’s Kingsbury Hall. As keynote speaker for the lecture series, “Nature of Things 2013: The Science of Being Human,” Eagleman will explore how behaviors we think are generated by our conscious minds are driven by rival systems in our subconscious brains. Read More

Utah Graduate School Programs Make Big Gains in U.S. News Rankings

The David Eccles School of Business at the University of Utah made the biggest jump among the university’s graduate programs in this year’s edition of “America’s Best Grad Schools 2014,” published by U.S. News & World Report, moving up an impressive 23 spots from the year before. Read More

Snack Time for Hungry Black Holes

Just about every galaxy in the universe, including our Milky Way, is thought to house a giant black hole in its center, perhaps a million or more times as massive as the sun. How did these giant black holes get so big? Read More

Vets’ PTSD Affects Mental and Physical Health of Partners

A study from the University of Utah sheds new light on the health risks faced not only by military veterans with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), but by their partners as well. Results of the study will be presented later this month at the annual meeting of the American Psychosomatic Society. Read More

Better Living through Mindfulness

A new study from the University of Utah shows that individuals who describe themselves as being more mindful have more stable emotions and perceive themselves to have better control over their mood and behavior throughout the day. Higher mindful people also describe less cognitive and physiological activation before bedtime, suggesting that greater emotional stability during the day might even translate into better sleep. The study results will be presented later this month at the annual meeting of the American Psychosomatic Society. Read More

Want to Touch a Brain?

Members of the public can touch a human brain or move a ball with their thoughts during Brain Awareness Day on Saturday, March 16 at the Leonardo museum – a free event presented by University of Utah neuroscientists and the museum. Read More

McMurrin Lecture: How Darwin and Lincoln Shaped the Modern World

Author and cultural essayist Adam Gopnik will give this year’s McMurrin Professorship Lecture based on his book “Angels and Ages: A Short Book about Darwin, Lincoln and Modern Life,” presented by the Honors College at the University of Utah. Read More

Hope in Stopping Melanoma from Spreading

Researchers have identified a critical protein role in the metastasis of melanoma, the most serious form of skin cancer. Inhibition of the protein known as adenosine diphosphate ribosylation factor 6 (ARF6) reduces the spread of melanoma to the lungs in mice, according to a study published in the March 5 issue of Science Signaling online, suggesting that targeting ARF6 may be an effective approach to preventing melanoma metastasis. Read More

Natural History Museum of Utah Presents Lecture Series on the Science of Being Human

What makes us human? Three well-respected scientists will provide their perspectives on that profound question as part of the Natural History Museum of Utah’s lecture series “Nature of Things 2013: The Science of Being Human.” The lectures, scheduled March through April, will reveal the latest scientific research on what is unique to humanity, how humans came to be and humanity’s commonalities with other animals. Read More

Lake-Effect Snow Sometimes Needs Mountains

University of Utah researchers ran computer simulations to show that the snow-producing “lake effect” isn’t always enough to cause heavy snowfall, but that mountains or other surrounding topography sometimes are necessary too. Read More

Engineers Show Feasibility of Superfast Materials

University of Utah engineers demonstrated it is feasible to build the first organic materials that conduct electricity on their edges, but act as an insulator inside. These materials – called organic topological insulators – could shuttle information at the speed of light in quantum computers and other high-speed electronic devices. Read More

Genetically Engineered Mouse Opens Better Understanding of Rare, Aggressive Cancer

Geneticists led by University of Utah Nobel Prize Laureate Mario R. Capecchi, Ph.D., have engineered mice that develop clear cell sarcoma (CCS), a significant step in better understanding how this rare and deadly soft tissue cancer arises. The mouse model also can potentially speed the development of drugs to target genes that must be activated for the cancer to form. Read More

The Deep Roots of Catastrophe

A University of Utah seismologist analyzed seismic waves that bombarded Earth’s core, and believes he got a look at the earliest roots of Earth’s most cataclysmic kind of volcanic eruption. But don’t worry. He says it won’t happen for perhaps 200 million years. Read More

Mutant Gene Gives Pigeons Fancy Hairdos

University of Utah researchers decoded the genetic blueprint of the rock pigeon, unlocking secrets about pigeons’ Middle East origins, feral pigeons’ kinship with escaped racing birds, and how mutations give pigeons traits like a fancy feather hairdo known as a head crest. Read More