Illustration of people walking down the street, all connected to the internet

How access to ChatGPT-style tech is about to change our world

March 3, 2023

New technologies are often surrounded by hopeful messages that they will alleviate poverty and bring about positive social change. History shows these assumptions are often misplaced. Three experts discuss in The Conversation podcast.

Hisham Ali

Building a one-of-a-kind plasma wind tunnel to advance hypersonics

March 1, 2023

Hisham Ali is pushing the limits of plasma physics and hypersonics in his lab on campus to advance a nationally important area of science and engineering: magnetohydrodynamics.

Brian DeDecker

New ‘magic beans’ produce ingredients for cancer treatments, vaccines and more

March 1, 2023

Tens of thousands of sharks are killed each year to harvest a key ingredient for vaccines, while old growth trees are slashed to obtain chemotherapy ingredients. Soybean farmer-turned molecular biologist Brian DeDecker has a better idea.

Microscope view of many small worms swimming in a well of liquid

New ‘gym-on-a-chip’ for worms may lead to new Parkinson’s treatments

Feb. 28, 2023

The Acoustic Gym, designed by a team of biologists and engineers at CU Boulder, is about the size of a quarter and uses sound waves to generate small whirlpools—the perfect place for tiny worms to get in their laps.

Elephant bird egg

Ancient eggshells unlock discovery of extinct elephant bird lineage

Feb. 28, 2023

1,200 years ago on the isolated island of Madagascar, giant flightless elephant birds roamed the landscape. Research using ancient eggshell fragments reveals new clues about their genetic diversity.

students wearing masks while playing brass and wind instruments

Majority of students masked up amid early COVID days

Feb. 24, 2023

A study finds that those on the CU Boulder and Colorado State University campuses showed high levels of mask use and positive attitudes about masks during pandemic.

Bathroom scale and tape measurer

Excess weight, obesity more deadly than previously believed

Feb. 23, 2023

New CU Boulder research finds that overweight populations have a 22% higher mortality risk than those of healthy weight, while obese populations have as much as double the risk. The study found that about 1 in 6 adult deaths in the U.S. are related to excess weight or obesity.

Marina Nieto-Caballero assesses the infectious potential of airborne murine coronavirus using computer aided microscopy

Tend to get sick when the air is dry? NewÌýresearch helps explain why

Feb. 23, 2023

CU Boulder researchers have found that airborne coronavirus remains infectious for twice as long in drier air—in part because saliva serves as a protective barrier around the virus, especially at low humidity levels.

James Wilson and Rodger Kram carry a log from their heads using tumplines with the Boulder Foothills in the background

Scientists may have solved a Chaco Canyon mystery by hauling logs with their heads

Feb. 22, 2023

Roughly 1,000 years ago, ancient peoples carried more than 200,000 heavy timbers entirely on foot to a site in the modern-day Four Corners region called Chaco Canyon. CU Boulder researchers think they know how such a feat of human endurance may have been possible.

Artist's depiction of James Webb Space Telescope

Webb telescope spots super old, massive galaxies that shouldn’t exist

Feb. 22, 2023

In a new study, CU Boulder astrophysicist Erica Nelson and her colleagues spotted six "fuzzy dots" of light in images from the James Webb Space Telescope. The candidate galaxies may have existed just 500 to 700 million years after the Big Bang and contain almost as many stars as the Milky Way.

Pages