Latest University of Colorado Stories

Large changes in the sun's energy output may drive unexpectedly dramatic fluctuations in Earth's outer atmosphere.Results of a study published August 26th link a recent, temporary shrinking of a high atmospheric layer with a sharp drop in the sun's ultraviolet radiation levels.The research, led by scientists at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder, Colo., and the University of Colorado at Boulder (CU), indicates that the sun's magnetic cycle, which produces differing...

A new study of the High Arctic climate roughly 50 million years ago led by the University of Colorado at Boulder helps to explain how ancient alligators and giant tortoises were able to thrive on Ellesmere Island well above the Arctic Circle, even as they endured six months of darkness each year.The new study, which looked at temperatures during the early Eocene period 52 to 53 million years ago, also has implications for the impacts of future climate change as Arctic temperatures continue to...

A thick blanket of yellow haze hovering over Houston as a result of chemical pollution produced by manufacturing petroleum products may be getting a little bit thinner, according to a new study.But the new findings -- which have implications for petrochemical-producing cities around the world -- come with a catch, says a team of scientists from the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, or CIRES, a joint institute of the University of Colorado at Boulder and the...

An international science team involving the University of Colorado at Boulder that is working on the North Greenland Eemian Ice Drilling project hit bedrock July 27 after two summers of work, drilling down more than 1.5 miles in an effort to help assess the risks of abrupt future climate change on Earth.Led by Denmark and the United States, the team recovered ice from the Eemian interglacial period from about 115,000 to 130,000 years ago, a time when temperatures were 3.6 to 5.4 degrees...

Greenhouse gases are playing a role in changes, say scientistsNewly detected rising sea levels in parts of the Indian Ocean, including the coastlines of the Bay of Bengal, the Arabian Sea, Sri Lanka, Sumatra and Java, appear to be at least partly a result of human-induced increases of atmospheric greenhouse gases, says a study led by the University of Colorado at Boulder.The study, which combined sea surface measurements going back to the 1960s and satellite observations, indicates...

Scientists at JILA, working with Italian theorists, have discovered another notable similarity between ultracold atomic gases and high-temperature superconductors, suggesting there may be a relatively simple shared explanation for equivalent behaviors of the two very different systems.Described in Nature Physics,* the new research lends more support to the idea that JILA studies of superfluidity (flow with zero friction) in atomic gases may help scientists understand far more complicated...

AURORA, Colo., July 8 /PRNewswire/ -- Western States Biopharmaceuticals, Inc. (WSBI), a privately-held biotechnology company focusing on the development of novel therapies to treat inflammatory disease, and the University of Colorado announced today that they have entered into a licensing agreement for approaches to inhibiting newly discovered T cell Cytokine Inducing Surface Molecules, or TCISM(TM) autoimmune disease drug discovery targets. WSBI's Chief Scientific Officer and a discoverer...

A new study shows the Arctic climate system may be more sensitive to greenhouse warming than previously thought, and that current levels of Earth's atmospheric carbon dioxide may be high enough to bring about significant, irreversible shifts in Arctic ecosystems.Led by the University of Colorado at Boulder, the international study indicated that while the mean annual temperature on Ellesmere Island in the High Arctic during the Pliocene Epoch 2.6 to 5.3 million years ago was about 34 degrees...

To the untrained eye, University of Colorado at Boulder Research Associate Craig Lee's recent discovery of a 10,000-year-old wooden hunting weapon might look like a small branch that blew off a tree in a windstorm.Nothing could be further from the truth, according to Lee, a research associate with CU-Boulder's Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research who found the atlatl dart, a spear-like hunting weapon, melting out of an ice patch high in the Rocky Mountains close to Yellowstone National...

Findings have potential health implications as infants grow and developA new study indicates different delivery methods of newborn babies has a big effect on the types of microbial communities they harbor as they emerge into the world, findings with potential implications for the heath of infants as they grow and develop.The study, led by the University of Puerto Rico and involving the University of Colorado at Boulder and two Venezuelan institutes, showed that babies delivered vaginally had...