Emiliania huxleyi

Shell-shocked: Ocean acidification likely hampers tiny shell builders in Southern Ocean

March 25, 2015

A University of Colorado Boulder study shows a ubiquitous type of phytoplankton -- tiny organisms that are the base of the marine food web – appears to be suffering from the effects of ocean acidification caused by climate change.

Study: Western forests decimated by pine beetles not more likely to burn

March 23, 2015

Western U.S. forests killed by the mountain pine beetle epidemic are no more at risk to burn than healthy Western forests, according to new findings by the University of Colorado Boulder that fly in the face of both public perception and policy.

Majority of forested land carved up by human development, says new study involving CU-Boulder

March 20, 2015

Seventy percent of forested lands remaining in the world are within a half mile of the forest edge, where encroaching urban, suburban or agricultural influences can cause any number of harmful effects, according to a new study involving CU-Boulder scientists.

Research on small cellular changes may lead to big cancer solutions

March 20, 2015

Among cancers, scientists have spent their entire research careers looking for cellular similarities that may lead to a single cure for many cancers –– the rare chance to have a single answer to a multifaceted problem. In 1997, scientists discovered a gene that they believed was the key to cellular immortality. Telomerase Reverse Transcriptase, or TERT, is a catalytic piece of telomerase, and while cellular immortality sounds like a good idea, it is actually how cancerous tumors grow and proliferate in cancer patients. In a recent paper published in Science, Tom Cech, director of the BioFrontiers Institute , worked with collaborators at CU's Anschutz Medical Campus to study mutations in bladder cancer that may lead to better treatments for many types of cancers.

CU-Boulder study: Beetles beat out extinction

March 18, 2015

Today’s rich variety of beetles may be due to an historically low extinction rate rather than a high rate of new species emerging, according to a new study. These findings were revealed by combing through the fossil record.

NASA spacecraft detects aurora and mysterious dust cloud around Mars

March 18, 2015

NASA’s Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) spacecraft has observed two unexpected phenomena in the Martian atmosphere: an unexplained high-altitude dust cloud and aurora that reaches deep into the Martian atmosphere.

Limerick as the University Fool with Harvard President in 1983

CU-Boulder’s Patty Limerick to review nearly 40 years as University Fool on April 1

March 17, 2015

University of Colorado Professor Patty Limerick will review nearly four decades of service as University Fool and reflect on the value of humor on April Fools’ Day.

Eleven CU-Boulder faculty members honored with NSF CAREER Awards

March 16, 2015

Eleven University of Colorado Boulder researchers, including an unprecedented number of engineers, have received the National Science Foundation’s prestigious Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Awards.

Enceladus

New study shows Saturn moon's ocean may have hydrothermal activity

March 11, 2015

A new study by a team of Cassini mission scientists led by the University of Colorado Boulder have found that microscopic grains of rock detected near Saturn imply hydrothermal activity is taking place within the moon Enceladus.

CU-Boulder brain model learns to think like a gambler

March 9, 2015

During a famous roulette game in a Monte Carlo casino in 1913, black came up 26 times in a row. After about 15 repetitions, the players began betting heavily on red, likely believing that such a long streak just couldn’t continue. The gambler’s fallacy—the idea that past events, a streak of black in roulette, for example, can impact the likelihood of a future random event, whether black or red will come up after the next spin—has long been thought to illustrate human irrationality.

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