aquatic communities

Expert on ‘dark side of biology’ gets high honor

Oct. 29, 2020

Pieter T.J. Johnson, new college professor of distinction, focuses on ‘profound threats’ of species invasion and emerging diseases.

Apple trees

Prof strives to blunt climate and biodiversity crises

Oct. 28, 2020

Katharine Suding, college professor of distinction, says science teaching can connect with students when it includes the ‘spark of exploration and the excitement of the unknown.'

Common ringlet spots

The common ringlet's lessons on species boundaries

Oct. 28, 2020

A minimum of 21 subspecies have been described, usually geographically separated but sometimes with geographic ranges sharing a border Butterflies flitted among flowers beside South Boulder Creek, in Boulder's greenbelt near the town of Marshall. Common ringlets, Coenonympha tullia , had caught my attention, and I was stalking one, trying...

Prickly Poppy Paid

Prickly poppies attract pollinators while deterring herbivores

Oct. 13, 2020

Prickly poppies are distinguished from other species in the genus Argemone by the lack of spines on the upper sides of leaves Prickly poppies, Argemone polyanthemos , were abundant and in full bloom along the Degge Trail in the greenbelt north Boulder. I enjoyed examining the blooms to see the...

Fish in an ocean

The pace of environmental change can doom or save coral reefs

Sept. 30, 2020

Increasing fishing too quickly can cause coral reef ecosystems to collapse, new CU Boulder-led research finds.

larva

Scientists identify gene family key to unlocking vertebrate evolution

Sept. 16, 2020

New CU Boulder-led research finds the traits that make vertebrates distinct from invertebrates were made possible by the emergence of a new set of genes 500 million years ago.

Antlion adult

Engineers of the mysterious pit traps

Sept. 16, 2020

They are secretive and cryptic, but you can see them if you know what to look for What causes those conical divots in the soft, dry soil beneath large conifers in the mountains and at the bases of cliffs on the Colorado Plateau? They presented a mystery when I first...

Black swallowtails

Many roles of color patterns in black swallowtail butterflies

Aug. 4, 2020

The colors and patterns of black swallowtails reveal the diversity of evolutionary dynamics acting on the sexes and the various life-history stages

Duckweed

Duckweed is an incredible, radiation-fighting astronaut food – and by changing how it is grown, we made it better

July 14, 2020

What’s the big idea? Current industrialized food systems were optimized for a single goal – growing the maximum amount of food for the least amount of money. But when room and supplies are limited – like during space travel – you need to optimize for a different set of goals...

A bee pollinating a flower

Native bees also facing novel pandemic

July 10, 2020

Move over, murder hornets. There’s a new bee killer in town. CU Boulder researchers have found there is growing evidence that another “pandemic,” as they call it, has been infecting bees around the world for the past two decades and is spreading: a fungal pathogen known as Nosema.

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