Latest University of Tennessee Stories

KNOXVILLE and OAK RIDGE, Tenn., Oct. 2 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Governor Phil Bredesen's announcement of a $62.5 million economic stimulus grant for solar research further solidifies Tennessee's position ranking as a top-tier green energy state. The federal grant for the "Volunteer State Solar Initiative" will be split roughly evenly between two major projects, both of them with a strong University of Tennessee (UT) connection. About half of the funds will be used to build a solar power...

Mercury pollution is a persistent problem in the environment. Human activity has lead to increasingly large accumulations of the toxic chemical, especially in waterways, where fish and shellfish tend to act as sponges for the heavy metal.It's that persistent and toxic nature that has flummoxed scientists for years in the quest to find ways to mitigate the dangers posed by the buildup of mercury in its most toxic form, methylmercury.A new discovery by scientists at the University of Tennessee,...

Veterinarians from the Wildlife Conservation Society's Bronx Zoo and the University of Tennessee have found a solution to the challenge of providing effective pain relief to some of their most difficult patients: big cats.The answer: A surgically implanted, capsule-sized pump that provides continuous pain relief while the animal recovers from surgery, according to a new study appearing in the August edition of the American Journal of Veterinary Research.The paper features the results of...

KNOXVILLE, Tenn., July 28 /PRNewswire/ -- After more than a year of intense planning, The University of Tennessee has partnered with AstroTurf(R), the iconic synthetic grass brand, to create the Center for Safer Athletic Fields, which will compare natural grass playing surfaces to synthetic surfaces. With the goal of improving athletic performance and reducing injuries, this initiative will provide the most comprehensive, on-going comparison of synthetic surfaces to natural grass. Located...

 Scientists at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) have published new findings about a cause of a condition at the root of genetic disorders such as Down Syndrome, pregnancy loss and infertility.Called aneuploidy, the condition is an abnormal number of chromosomes, and the research team found that if a mother's egg cell has a mutation in just one copy of a gene, called Bub1, then she is less likely to have offspring that survive to...

Scientists have a better understanding of what causes an abnormal number of chromosomes in offspring, a condition called aneuploidy that encompasses the most common genetic disorders in humans, such as Down syndrome, and is a leading cause of pregnancy loss.To pinpoint what goes awry in these cases, researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the University of Tennessee, Knoxville studied mice. They found that if a mother's egg cell has a mutation...

KNOXVILLE, Tenn., July 10 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Three 21st century, high-tech industrial parks position the Knoxville-Oak Ridge Innovation Valley as a world center of green energy research and development and commercialization of new technologies. High tech roots go deep in the five-county Innovation Valley. The region is home to the Tennessee Valley Authority and the collaboration of the University of Tennessee (UT) and Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), the Department of Energy's...

A Florida couple said their pet dog Smokey is 23-years-old, two years older than the dog that was previously thought to hold the title of world's oldest dog. Joe Slatton, 78, and his wife Mary, 76, of St. Petersburg, said they were not impressed when NBC's Today show featured a 21-year-old dachshund dubbed the oldest living dog, because their Shih Tzu, Smokey, is two years that dog's senior, the St. Petersburg Times reported Tuesday. My wife told me about the show, Slatton said. Of course...

University of Tennessee men's basketball Coach Bruce Pearl received a renegotiated six-year contract Friday after reports said Memphis might want to hire him. Interim President Jan Simek and Athletic Director Mike Hamilton made the announcement, saying details will be released later. I truly love my job and I want it to be clear that I'm not interested in any other job, Pearl said on Tennessee's Web site. I'm 100 percent committed to this school, this program and our student-athletes....

OAK RIDGE, Tenn., March 17 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Two far-reaching projects announced in recent days further bolster the Knoxville-Oak Ridge Innovation Valley's claim as a world-class center of research, entrepreneurial activities and high tech jobs. Work begins this week on the 188-acre Cherokee Farms high tech park on the University of Tennessee Knoxville campus. The first building planned for the park, the Joint Institute for Materials Science, is one of several cooperative ventures...