Latest University of Hawaii Stories

Rare 1946 Film Footage of U.S. Navy Sinking the Japanese Vessels, Reportedly to Hide Technology from the Soviets, Leads to Wreckage Off the Coast of Hawai'i After 60+ Years Hunt for the Samurai Subs premieres Tuesday, November 17, at 9:00 pm ET/PT WASHINGTON, Nov. 12 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Two World War II Japanese submarines, designed with revolutionary technology to attack the U.S. mainland, have been discovered off the Hawaiian coast of Oahu. They are the I-14, which carried two...

One of the first set of studies to examine what tourists and recreation enthusiasts actually think about coral reef ecosystems suggests they are a rare exception to controversies over human use versus environmental conservation "“ their stunning beauty is so extraordinary that almost everyone wants them protected in perpetuity.That core belief is often strong enough that if it means people have to be kept out, so be it.The analysis, done in Hawaii by researchers from Oregon State University...

Through $20 million, five-year awards, NSF investment in multi-institutional and interdisciplinary projects provides physical, human and cyber infrastructure aimed at improving research competitiveness in six statesFrom biodiversity in the Hawaiian Islands to sustainable development in Maine, six research projects, each representing a state-wide consortium of institutions, have received awards from the National Science Foundation (NSF) for $20 million over five years.The states funded are...

University of Hawaii at Manoa assistant researcher Durrell Kapan recently published a paper, Man Bites Mosquito: Understanding the Contribution of Human Movement to Vector-Borne Disease Dynamics, in PLoS One. Published August 26, the paper highlights how daily commuting patterns in mega-cities may be a critically overlooked factor in understanding the resurgence of mosquito-borne diseases such as dengue fever, infecting 50-100 million people annually."Even a small number of infected...

In the late 1920s, people intentionally introduced birds known as Japanese white-eyes into Hawaiian agricultural lands and gardens for purposes of bug control. Now, that decision has come back to bite us. A recent increase in the numbers of white-eyes that live in old-growth forests is leaving native bird species with too little to eat, according to a report published online on September 17th in Current Biology, a Cell Press publication. The findings show that introduced species can alter...

University of Hawaii (UH) astronomer Dr. Tomotsugu Goto and colleagues have discovered a giant galaxy surrounding the most distant supermassive black hole ever found. The galaxy, so distant that it is seen as it was 12.8 billion years ago, is as large as the Milky Way galaxy and harbors a supermassive black hole that contains at least a billion times as much matter as our Sun. The scientists set out their results in a paper in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society...

Several of the world's oceanic islands are being invaded by nearly 400 outside plant species.Almost half of the species already dominate their new homes, and hundreds more are expected to make progress across the islands in the near future, according to BBC Earth News.These outside plants can wreak havoc in their new environments, where they are viewed as invasive weeds.Botanist Dr Christoph Kueffer of the University of Hawaii in Honolulu and colleagues studied data from 30 island groups in...

University of Hawaii football Coach Greg McMackin has been suspended for making a gay slur about Notre Dame cheerleaders, the Honolulu Star Bulletin said. The slur was made Thursday in Salt Lake City during a press conference at the Western Athletic Conference Football Preview. McMackin was describing a cheer used at last year's Sheraton Hawaii Bowl banquet. McMackin has been suspended for 30 days without pay and has received a voluntary reduction in salary, the newspaper said. I've offended...

A collaborative team led by a University of Hawai'i at Manoa researcher has published the first-ever assessment of snail and slug species that are of potential threat to the nation's agriculture industry and the environment, should they ever be introduced in the U.S.The July 2009 article in the American Malacological Bulletin is authored by snail/slug biologist Robert H. Cowie of the UH Manoa Center for Conservation Research and Training (CCRT) and his team. They evaluated all known snail...

According to research at the University of Hawaii at ManoaA study by five university researchers"”including four from the University of Hawai'i at Mānoa"”concludes that existing shark cage diving enterprises in Hawai'i have a negligible effect on public safety.The paper, "Seasonal cycles and long-term trends in abundance and species composition of sharks associated with cage diving ecotourism activities in Hawai'i," is authored by Carl G. Meyer, Jonathan J. Dale, Yannis P....