Need Someone to Offer Commentary on @ SCOTUS Opinion on Spider-Man Today? Try @Uutah & @sjquinney's Amelia Rinehart
University of Utah
A remarkably detailed picture of the climate and ecology during the Triassic Period explains why dinosaurs failed to establish dominance near the equator for 30 million years.
Physicists plan a $6.4 million expansion of the $25 million Telescope Array observatory in Utah so they can zero in on a “hotspot” that seems to be a source of the most powerful particles in the universe: ultrahigh-energy cosmic rays.
Partnering with Mehran University of Engineering and Technology, the University of Utah is working to contribute to water security in Pakistan through the U.S. - Pakistan Center for Advanced Studies in Water. The five-year USAID project will help secure the availability of clean water.
At times during the past 10,000 years, cottontails and hares reproduced like rabbits and their numbers surged when the El Niño weather pattern drenched the Pacific Coast with rain, according to a University of Utah analysis of 3,463 bunny bones.
University of Utah law professor Jeff Schwartz is scheduled to publish new research in Harvard Business Law Review related to regulations intended to decrease the practice of mining minerals from war-torn areas of Congo. Schwartz's ongoing research will examine new data submitted to the SEC on June 1.
School disciplinary actions handed down to students at Utah public schools disproportionately impact American Indian children over all other ethnicities enrolled in the state’s public education system, new research from the University of Utah S.J. Quinney College of Law Public Policy Clinic reveals. Researcher and law student Vanessa Walsh found that although American Indian students comprise the smallest student demographic in Utah, they have the largest percentage of students referred to law enforcement and arrested at school. The rates for disciplinary actions taken against American Indian students are much higher than for white students. Studies show that suspension and expulsion rates are closely correlated with dropout and delinquency rates, and have tremendous economic costs. Referrals to law enforcement and arrests at school are the harshest forms of school disciplinary action and expose students directly to the juvenile justice system. Such students often become part of the “
Utah engineers have developed an ultracompact beamsplitter — the smallest on record — for dividing light waves into two separate channels of information. The device brings researchers closer to producing silicon photonic chips that compute and shuttle data with light instead of electrons.
Salmon carry a strontium chemical signature in their “ear bones” that lets scientists identify specific streams where the fish hatched and lived before they were caught at sea. The new tool may help pinpoint critical habitats for fish threatened by climate change, industrial development and overfishing.
Robert W. Gehl, assistant professor of communication at the University of Utah, is scouring the Internet for what he calls "alternative social media" sites and services built as a critical response to corporate social media. He is cataloging what he finds in the Social Media Alternatives Project (S-MAP).
Citizen scientists tracking backyard bird feeders helped scientists pinpoint the climate forces that likely set the stage for boreal bird irruptions in which vast numbers of northern birds migrate far south of their usual winter range. The discovery could make it possible to predict the events more than a year in advance.
Karen Kramer, an associate professor of anthropology, published a study in the Journal of Human Evolution titled, “When Mothers Need Others: Life History Transitions Associated with the Evolution of Cooperative Breeding.” Her research examines how mothers underwent a remarkable transition from the past – when they had one dependent offspring at a time, ended support of their young at weaning and received no help from others – to the present, when mothers often have multiple kids who help rear other children.
Marie Sarita Gaytán, an assistant professor of sociology and gender studies at the University of Utah, noticed the distilled spirit’s rise in popularity. She turned what has become a pop culture phenomenon into a research project, which culminated into a study published recently in the Journal of Consumer Culture, “The transformation of tequila: From hangover to highbrow.” Her study examines how tequila —once considered a lowbrow drink swilled in in Mexico —has turned into the drink of choice for high society. Gaytán analyzed novels, magazines, newspapers and even song lyrics to examine the broader meaning of tequila in society to find that its evolution has been influenced by historical, political and economic circumstances. Gaytán also recently published a book, “¡Tequila! Distilling the Spirit of Mexico,” that builds on her research.
The University of Utah’s Energy & Geoscience Institute is one of five research groups selected to study new techniques for developing geothermal energy in places where it’s not currently feasible.
University of Utah seismologists discovered and made images of a reservoir of hot, partly molten rock 12 to 28 miles beneath the Yellowstone supervolcano, and it is 4.4 times larger than the shallower, long-known magma chamber. The hot rock in the newly discovered, deeper magma reservoir would fill the 1,000-cubic-mile Grand Canyon 11.2 times.
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
Study in the American Journal of Epidemiology found increased risk of suicide associated with short-term air pollution exposure
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.