Research News - Science

Researchers in the USU computer science department are developing more human-like intelligence using a Boston Dynamics 'Spot' robot. They hope these algorithms will improve future robots' ability to learn and adapt quickly to their environment and within ...

Plastic has become ubiquitous in modern life and its accumulation as waste in the environment is sounding warning bells for the health of humans and wildlife. In a recent study, Utah State University scientist Janice Brahney cited alarming amounts of micr...

An unprecedented three Utah State University doctoral scholars were selected last spring for highly competitive internships, for summer 2020...

Some 92 to 66 million years ago, as the Age of Dinosaurs waned, giant marine lizards called mosasaurs roamed an ocean that covered North America from Utah to Missouri and Texas...

While planning the 10th annual Hansen Life Sciences Retreat, Lance Seefeldt, head of Utah State University’s Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, envisioned gathering...

Utah State University geosciences graduate students excelled in the Geological Society of America’s 2020 Graduate Student Research Grant competition, with 10 Aggies receiving grants to support thesis and dissertation research...

Five Utah State University College of Science graduate students are among 12 recipients of the USU School of Graduate Studies’ and the Office of Research’s most recent cycle of Graduate Research and Creative Opportunities (GRCO) grants.

Bees and flowers seem inseparable harbingers of spring, but what happens when pollinators emerge later than their sources of nectar and pollen?

Simply put, string theory is a proposed method of explaining everything. Actually, there’s nothing simple about it. String theory is a theoretical framework from physics that describes one-dimensional, vibrating fibrous objects called “strings,” which pro...

Sedimentary rock layers at the bottom of Grand Canyon have long entombed a geologic record of a period of evolutionary frenzy some 540 million years ago known as the “Cambrian Explosion.” During this biologic shift, which marks...

USU Uintah Basin faculty members Benjamin Burger, associate professor of geology, and Lea Ann Jolley, instructor of biology, discover a pig-like animal that lived 47 million years ago.

Traits that form an organism’s appearance, including color, are determined by many different genes and the creature’s environment. “Humans and domestic animals, for example...

Scientists have long debated the idea that global climate changes have forced river erosion rates to increase over the past five million years. New field data gleaned from a multi-institution, collaborative study of North America’s rugged...

Driving across the arid American Southwest, one views miles upon miles of scrubby creosote bushes. Well-adapted to the hot, thirsty landscape, the evergreen shrub

Increasing demand for electrification in rural areas poses challenges, but also creates opportunities for development of decentralized electrification systems. Compared with conventional electrical grids based on large

If you’ve spent any time online, you’ve seen it: Flashy advertisements, fake news or enticing headlines that distract and lure you down Internet paths you wish you hadn’t pursued...

Utah State University biologist Edmund ‘Butch’ Brodie, Jr. and colleagues from São Paulo’s Butantan Institute report the first known evidence of oral venom glands in amphibians. Their research, supported by the Brazilian National Council for Scientific an...

Eleven Utah State University science majors are recipients of College of Science Undergraduate Research Minigrants for the 2020-2021 academic year...

Initiated in 2014, Utah State University’s Native American Summer Mentorship Program was created with the express purpose of bringing scholars together to experience hands-on research...

Utah scientist Lindsay Meyers leads a team of colleagues laboring to refine a syndrome-based, but pathogen-specific, rapid disease-reporting system, installed at hospitals, to get ahead of respiratory scourges that plague individuals and communities with ...

Each semester, Utah State University’s Department of Biology hosts a public poster session, during which undergraduates showcase their research projects, internships and field course experiences...

Science Unwrapped’s March 20 on-campus gathering, featuring USU dairy microbiologist Jeff Broadbent, is canceled. But Broadbent’s presentation, ‘Cheese: Teaming Art + Science to Immortalize Milk.’ will be posted online at a later date.

In the animal kingdom, survival essentially boils down to eat or be eaten. How organisms accomplish the former and avoid the latter reveals a clever array of defense mechanisms. Maybe you can outrun your prey. Perhaps you sport an undetectable disguise. O...

Imagine fleeing untenable conditions in your homeland. While you may feel relief, you’re immediately confronted with uncertainty and frustration, as you learn to navigate a new country, a new language and a new culture...

Undergrad researcher Anna Figgins to present genomics research to legislators on Utah’s Capitol Hill Feb. 18.

Undergraduate Research Fellow and Honors Student Rachel Sagers is among Aggies presenting study findings to legislators on Utah’s Capitol Hill Feb. 18.

In 1960, as the Cold War heated up, the U.S. Army launched “Project Iceworm,” a top secret effort to build a network of mobile nuclear launch sites under the Greenland Ice Sheet. Hampered by brutal blizzards and unstable ice conditions, the project, locat...

It’s easier to understand data, when you can see it. “People are very visual,” says Utah State University data scientist Kevin Moon. “For scientists, having the ability to examine the structure of a complex dataset allows them to explore ideas and genera...

When you consider a model of a physical theory, how do you know it accurately encompasses all it’s trying to explain? One way, says Utah State University mathematical physicist Michael Schultz, is to tie the theory to math, put it through a series of math...

Once considered relatively rare, dengue fever is popping up throughout the globe, including the United States. The mosquito-borne virus is having a particularly active year, which some public health officials attribute, at least partially, to a warming cl...

“When you talk only with researchers in your field, it can become a bit of an echo chamber,” says Utah State University neuroscientist Max McDermott. The first-time presenter at USU’s interdisciplinary Hansen Life Sciences Retreat says questions he receiv...

Cutting-edge Utah State University research is featured Saturday morning, Sept. 28, in “Spider Thread,” the premiere episode of Season 6 of the CBS TV program “The Henry Ford’s Innovation Nation.” The broadcast airs at 8:30 a.m. Mountain on Salt Lake City...

As part of a research project, Utah State University physics major Matthew Hogan sits in a lab and watches plants grow. And it’s a far-from-boring exercise, he says. “It’s a new learning experience every day,” says the Undergraduate Research...

Utah State University Undergraduate Research Fellow Olivia Brock loves solving jigsaw and logic puzzles, as well as the congeneric grace and physics of bowling and ice skating. She loves reading and writing. And she loves the art and science of airplanes,...

From fridge to microwave to table, preparing a daily meal may not seem like much of a challenge. But back up and dissect that process – molecule by molecule – from air to soil to table, and you’ll uncover one of the most vexing puzzles known to humankind....

As a pianist, Utah State University undergraduate researcher Christian Lange knows that listening to a music is best, when it’s in a quiet setting. A silent atmosphere, where the listener can experience every lyrical nuance, every pause, every richly orna...

Utah State University ecologist Bonnie Waring heads one of seven projects chosen nationally by competitive peer review for a U.S. Department of Energy Terrestrial Ecological Sciences grant. Waring receives a two-year, $295,967 award to fund her project.

Spider silk is an engineer’s dream material. Lightweight, strong, elastic and biocompatible, it’s an ideal building block for a myriad of applications, including medical implants, body armor and vehicle components. But trying to farm spiders...

Utah State University chemist Jeffrey Perala-Dewey is concerned about particulate pollution blowing across Utah’s Wasatch Front, including dust from...

Tianbiao 'Leo' Liu, assistant professor in USU’s Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, is a 2019 recipient of the National Science Foundation’s Faculty Early Career Development ‘CAREER’ Award.

Firearms constructed with 3D-printed parts aren’t suited for the long haul. After firing a few rounds, barrels warp, break and they’re ready for disposal. And that’s what provides advantages to criminals. Crafted from plastic...

Emerging CRISPR (pronounced “crisper”) technology is “all over the news,” says Utah State University Undergraduate Research Fellow Matt Armbrust. “Many think of it as a tool for editing DNA and correctly see its potential for curing diseases,” he says. “...

Declines in native bee populations are widely reported, but can existing data really analyze these trends? In the Jan. 17, 2019, online edition of PLOS One, Utah State University and USDA researchers report findings about pollinator biodiversity in Califo...

Makenzie Breitenbach, a biology undergraduate student at Utah State University (USU) Uintah Basin, was awarded the Undergraduate Research and Creative Opportunity (URCO) grant to perform research on local emissions and air quality. She is working with the...

The state of Utah’s nickname is “The Beehive State,” and the moniker couldn’t be more apt, say Utah State University scientists. One out of every four bee species in the United States is found In Utah and the arid...

Members of USU Chemistry and Biochemistry's Liu Lab report advances in sustainable battery design in the journal 'Joule.’ Their research is supported by a USTAR University Technology Acceleration Grant.

As wildfires continue to rage across the American West and the resulting smoky haze obscures mountain views outside his office window, Utah State University scientist Will Pearse ponders

That pointy thing sticking out of a bee or wasp? It’s technically known as a “sting,” even though most of us call it a “stinger.” Technicalities aside, Utah State University entomologist Emily Sadler reports

About four years ago, Utah State University chemist Lisa Berreau posed a question to USU colleague and toxicologist Abby Benninghoff...

In the lab of Utah State University biochemist Sean Johnson, undergraduate Scott Adair discovered making mistakes, and developing the tenacity to keep trying, is a critical part of research...

Conservation biologists recognize a sobering reality. “We’re losing species left, right and center,” says Utah State University scientist Will Pearse. “We call it the ‘Noah’s Ark Problem,’ and we have to pick species to save...

Back in 1905, the Colorado River, swollen with heavy rainfall and snowmelt, surged into a dry lake bed along California’s San Andreas Fault and formed the Salton Sea. The flood waters...

Envisioning a device the U.S. Navy is developing with Utah State University synthetic spider silk conjures images you’d expect in a James Bond thriller. Think strong, stretchy fibers wrapping relentlessly around a boat propeller and effectively...

Though mostly rooted in the ground, plants have a number of innovative ways to disperse their seeds and get on with the business of propagation. They drop seeds or release them to the wind. Or they fling seeds with a dramatic mechanical detonation...

Research conducted by Utah State University’s Bingham Research Center led to a marginal, rather than moderate, ozone nonattainment designation for the Uintah Basin by the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA). Marginal is the lowest and least...

Freeways choked with traffic, supermarkets laden with fertilizer-grown stock from distance fields and virtually everything we touch derived from petroleum-based plastics. It’s hard to imagine life beyond our fossil-fueled world. Black gold has brought......

Utah State University geologist Alexis Ault is one of two inaugural recipients of the Charles and Nancy Naeser Prize in Thermochronology awarded by the International Standing Committee for Thermochronology. The newly established...

Visceral leishmaniasis, a deadly parasitic disease also known as “Kala-azar,” “Black Fever” and “Dumdum Fever,” is transmitted to humans by sandflies.

New research findings posted March 7, 2018, by Utah State University geologist Benjamin Burger on the EarthArXiv Preprints website, are generating worldwide media interest about what caused the Earth’s deadliest mass extinction...

Utah State University chemists’ efforts to develop alternative battery technology solutions are advancing and recent findings are highlighted in a renowned, international chemistry journal.

According to the CDC’s National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey, more than 1 in 3 women, and more than 1 in 4 men, in the United States experience rape, physical violence or stalking by an intimate partner in their lifetime.

Caecilians are serpent-like creatures, but they’re not snakes or giant worms. The limbless amphibians, related to frogs and salamanders, favor tropical climates of Africa, Asia and the Americas. Most live in burrows of their own making; some are...

More than 460,000 student-athletes compete in 24 different sports at National Collegiate Athletic Association member institutions each year. Many of these athletes will suffer concussions, which can be particularly worrisome because of possible long-term ...

Mention emerging CRISPR (pronounced “crisper”) technology and many people think of “designer babies.” “When people hear ‘CRISPR,’ they think of a tool for editing DNA,” says Utah State University biochemist Ryan Jackson. “It’s actually

Utah State University scholar Mikayla Austin remembers how it felt to return to college after a few years absence. “I felt a bit intimidated,” says the self-described non-traditional student, who resumed studies at USU’s Brigham City campus, after her e

The split-second into a stumble and fall is filled with shocking terror, with a blink of time to react. The instant dread is warranted, as accidental tumbles send millions of Americans to emergency rooms each year. The problem is especially serious for th...

Modern chemical ingredients known as “adjuvants” make cosmetics, cleaning solutions and paints, as well as pesticides, glide on with ease in cost-effective application. But one type of these, potent organosilicone surfactants, may spell trouble for...