Science & Technology
- The bread loaf-sized Miniature X-Ray Solar Spectrometer, or MinXSS, CubeSat will be deployed from an airlock on the International Space Station (ISS) at 4 a.m. MDT on Monday, May 16, beginning its journey into space where it will study emissions from the sun that can affect ground-based communications systems.
- An octopus tentacle can perform tasks as complex as opening a jar and can continue to function after being severed from its body, thanks to a concentration of neurons in the tentacle itself. Researchers in the <a href="http://correll.cs.colorado.edu/">Correll Lab</a> at CU-Boulder created a robotic hand nearly as dexterous and self-contained, winning the RoboSoft Grand Challenge manipulation competition in Livorno, Italy, April 29-30.
- A 3-D animation created by NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio using data from the MAVEN mission to Mars is the corporate winner of the inaugural Data Stories video contest sponsored by Science magazine for videos that tell stories about data. The video explains how the solar wind is driving particles from the upper atmosphere of Mars into space, which may have caused the planet to dry out and cool over the eons.Â
- Honeybees use their wings to cool down their hives when temperatures rise, but new °µÍø½ûÇø research shows that this intriguing behavior may be linked to both the rate of heating and the size of a honeybee group.
- Six grants totaling $250,000 have been awarded to projects supporting CU-Boulder’s Grand Challenge "Our Space. Our Future." which features two major initiatives – Earth Lab and Integrated Remote and In Situ Sensing Initiative (IRISS) – plus more than a dozen related projects.
- An evolutionary biologist, Professor Andrew Martin has long been involved in genetic studies and conservation efforts on behalf of wildlife in peril, from greenback cutthroat trout and great white sharks to desert pupfish and prairie dogs. But Martin is not just a top-tier scientist. Because of his exceptional abilities and passion to integrate his teaching and research, he has been named one of two CU President’s Teaching Scholars for 2016 by President Bruce Benson.
- Here’s a new recipe that might be good for the planet: Add sunlight to a particular nitrogen molecule and out comes ammonia, the main ingredient of fertilizer used around the world. The eco-friendly method of producing ammonia is described in a new study led by the Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden and involving CU-Boulder.
- A new study led by the European Space Agency and NASA involving the °µÍø½ûÇø indicates NASA's Cassini spacecraft has detected the faint but distinct signature of dust coming from beyond our solar system.
- CU-Boulder and the National Weather Service (NWS) want your help investigating large surface hail accumulations from thunderstorms in Colorado between April and September.
- CU-Boulder researchers are embarking on a multi-year research project to study and address the psychological concerns of cancer survivors, including elevated anxiety.