Supreme Court

Supreme Court justices raise power by ‘signaling’

March 1, 2010

‘Signals’ can transform coalitions in the high court, CU study finds

Signs of wars

Geographies of war and peace

March 1, 2010

A CU professor has spent years studying the aftermath of two war-torn regions: Bosnia and the North Caucasus. He finds geographically varying levels of environmental destruction, forgiveness and repatriation, along with disparate prospects for peace.

Michael Yarus, professor of molecular, cellular and developmental biology at the University of Colorado (Photo credit: Emily Krauter)

Tiny RNA molecule, big implications for origin of life

March 1, 2010

An extremely small RNA molecule created by a University of Colorado team can catalyze a key reaction needed to synthesize proteins, the building blocks of life. The findings could be a substantial step toward understanding “the very origin of Earthly life,” the lead researcher contends. The smallest RNA enzyme ever...

Cartoon of brain

A blue note on antidepressants

March 1, 2010

Study finds that, for many, drugs work no better than placebos, but resulting firestorm may have obscured nuances Newsweek heralded the “depressing news about antidepressants” and suggested that drugs like Prozac are “basically expensive Tic Tacs.” CNN also headlined the “startling news” and suggested that “antidepressants don’t work.” Commentators in...

Steven F. Maier, distinguished professor of psychology and neuroscience at the University of Colorado

Hope for minimizing cognitive decline and pain

March 1, 2010

Why do older people emerge from, say, hip surgery and an infection with impaired cognitive functions? And what if chronic and enhanced pain could be treated with a single injection of gene therapy? On a recent morning, an auditorium full of older adults mused over those questions. Steven F. Maier...

Virginia Anderson

The making of a martyr and a traitor

March 1, 2010

Nathan Hale, the famous American revolutionary, was hanged by the British in 1776 for being a spy and is reputed to have eyed the noose with this stoic comment: “I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country.” Moses Dunbar, a little-known British Loyalist, was...

Destruction in Haiti

Horror in Haiti a harbinger of the future

March 1, 2010

Building boom in ‘death zone’ shows scant regard for danger, CU professor contends Within days of Haiti’s Jan. 12 earthquake, University of Colorado Professor Roger Bilham was among the first seismologists to survey the damage. He saw poorly constructed buildings transformed into deadly pancakes. Here and there, he saw a...

Flatirons

Gifted student, cherished friend far from forgotten

March 1, 2010

Alex McGuiggan had a passion for life, poetry, music, ‘my mountains’ and friends; a new scholarship in his honor aims to keep his memory, and promise, alive

Woman in a suit, and cleaning at home

‘Having it all’ plus ‘doing it all’

March 1, 2010

For many women, high-powered careers provide little respite from home-related work, and CU researchers are helping to explain why

Illustration of the NASA Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment, or GRACE. Image courtesy of NASA.

India’s big gulp raising sea level and concern

Dec. 1, 2009

Illustration of the NASA Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment, or GRACE. Image courtesy of NASA. Northern India’s groundwater is being pumped onto farm fields faster than it can be replenished by monsoons, and the rate of loss is accelerating, a recent study co-authored by a University of Colorado researcher has...

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