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2-D or 3-D? That is the Question

The increased visual realism of 3-D films is believed to offer viewers a more vivid and lifelike experience—more thrilling and intense than 2-D because it more closely approximates real life. However, psychology researchers at the University of Utah, among those who use film clips routinely in the lab to study patients’ emotional conditions, have found that there is no significant difference between the two formats. The results were published recently in PLOS ONE.

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Utah Biologist Wins Turkey’s Top Science Prize

Aug. 27, 2014 – University of Utah biologist Çağan Şekercioğlu, who campaigns to save wetlands in his native Turkey, has won that nation’s highest science prize, which is similar to the U.S. National Medal of Science. Şekercioğlu is among five researchers picked for the top 2014 awards by TUBITAK, the Scientific and Technical Research Council of […]

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8,000-Year-Old Mutation Key to Human Life at High Altitudes

In an environment where others struggle to survive, Tibetans thrive in the thin air on the Tibetan Plateau, with an average elevation of 14,800 feet. A University of Utah led discovery that hinged as much on strides in cultural diplomacy as on scientific advancements, is the first to identify a genetic variation, or mutation, that contributes to the adaptation, and to reveal how it works. The research appears online in the journal Nature Genetics on Aug. 17, 2014.

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3-D Microscope Method to Look inside Brains

A University of Utah team discovered a method for turning a small, $40 needle into a 3-D microscope capable of taking images up to 70 times smaller than the width of a human hair. This new method not only produces high-quality images comparable to expensive microscopes, but may be implanted into the brains of living mice for imaging at the cellular level.

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Kangaroos Win When Aborigines Hunt with Fire

Australia’s Aboriginal Martu people hunt kangaroos and set small grass fires to catch lizards, as they have for at least 2,000 years. A University of Utah researcher found such man-made disruption boosts kangaroo populations – showing how co-evolution helped marsupials and made Aborigines into unintentional conservationists.

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