Tags: Human Nature

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Processing visual information: flicker fusion

Psychology researchers have linked sensory function to congnitive function in an interesting new study: researchers from UGA's Neuropsychology and Memory Assessment Laboratory and Vision Sciences Laboratory collaborated to use a method based on measuring processing speed through sight. Catherine Mewborn, a doctoral candidate in UGA's Franklin College of Arts and Sciences department of psychology, led the study. "We knew that sensory function is…

four people, two with certificates, photo
Convincing Arguments

The communication studies department held its bi-annual public speaking contest on Thursday, November 12. The evening began with the announcement of this year's Olive M. Cone Scholarship winner, Elizabeth Trent. The Cone Scholarship recognizes the outstanding achievement of a Communication Studies major with a tuition scholarship for the spring semester. Then, the main event: The competition was strong with eleven contestants who…

digital portal matrix in blue
Big Data heads South

• Habitat planning, including urban infrastructure, smart cities efforts, transportation, rural-urban infrastructure and wildlife habitat and conservation. Dr. Ramaswamy and his colleagues are already engaged in some vsionary work monitoring algal blooms in the region's ponds and lakes using cloud computing and corwd-sourcing, so his participation in the initiative is a natural fit. More importantly, it engages the university in wider Big Data…

man in lab with gloves
Streipen lab receives $1 million for cryptosporidium research

Fantastic news from one of our best, rewarding the hard work of his team to fight one of the world's most pervasive scourges: Researchers at the University of Georgia have received $1 million from the Wellcome Trust and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to speed the development of new drugs for the treatment of cryptosporidiosis, a major cause of diarrheal disease and mortality in young children around the world. Cryptosporidiosis is…

four male students with trophies
Franklin College Kudos

The Georgia Debate Union won the recent intercollegiate tournament at Vanderbilt University - details on that, along with a few other honors and accomplishments from the month of October: Two teams representing the Georgia Debate Union, which organizes and fields competitive policy debate teams at the University of Georgia, emerged victorious at the 2015 Vanderbilt intercollegiate debate tournament held in Nashville, Tennessee. The tournament…

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Humanities events recap

Similar to how the world was grieving and in shock after 9/11, many of the public records after Lincoln's death presented a nation in mourning, Hodes said, but individual feelings and reactions varied.  And religion professor Derrick Lemons recently hosted the mini-conference "Theologically-Engaged Anthropology:" Along with Lemons, the scholars met Sept. 20-22 in Atlanta to discuss what theology could contribute to cultural…

burying beetle
Beetles and the genetics of parenthood

Most insects do not care for their young. But burying beetles take an extraordinarily active role - preparing food, protecting the brood and even feeding their offspring much in the same way that a bird feeds its hatchlings. New research published in the journal Nature Communications has identified many of the genetic changes that take place in burying beetles as they assume the role of parent: "Parenting is a complex trait, but it's…

child in b/w with trains
How humans become tool users

Dorothy Fragaszy's sustained investigations have made her one of the world's foremost experts on tool use by capuchin monkeys and chimpanzees. A new paper from her research group provides a unique glimpse at how humans develop an ability to use tools in childhood while nonhuman primate remain only occasional tool users: Fragaszy, a psychology professor in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences and director of the Primate Behavior…

man seated with books
CSI Dixie: The History of Medical Science

Throwback Therapies is an interdisciplinary seminar series designed to entertain and enlighten those interested in the origins of modern health sciences. Sounds terrific - our best faculty collaborate to highlight the interwoven nature of various disciplines as they exist and are utilized in the world beyond the university. Dr. Berry is a great scholar with infectious enthusiasm for teaching and history. This should be a fun series. MLC at 2 on…

drawings of a snake on different pieces of paper
Slithering Enhancers

Snakes weren't always legless; they evolved the loss of limbs over 100 million years ago and new research from genetics explains why snakes have held on to this limb circuitry through the ages: "There have been many millions of snake generations since they evolved a legless body, and we would generally expect the DNA associated with limb development to fade away or mutate to do another job, but that doesn't seem to have happened," he said…

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Willson Center Grants and Awards

The deadline for Willson Center Research Fellowship applications is coming up next week, October 6: The Willson Center Research Fellowship supports excellence in arts and humanities research. Applicants must hold doctorate or equivalent scholarly credentials. Tenured and Tenure-track scholars are eligible to apply. Fellowships can be held every five years. The Willson Center Research Fellowships are intended to support…

sign photo - On Air
Noted and Quoted

Franklin College faculty share their expertise in a variety of media every day, in pixels, print and on the air waves. A sampling from the past month: Scientists study how rising seas will reshape the Georgia coast, reports the Associated Press. Clark Alexander, a researcher at UGA’s Skidaway Institute of Oceanography, and colleagues are working on a project to more accurately forecast expected changes from encroaching seawater. Also WABE-FM How…

mosaic of greek god
Americans and narcissistic perceptions

Americans believe we are the most narcissistic people on Earth, and we may be, though not nearly so much as we believe: Americans consistently reported a perception of the typical U.S. citizen as highly narcissistic—even meeting diagnostic criteria for the psychiatric disorder, according to studies conducted by University of Georgia psychologists in collaboration with colleagues from around the world. The reality is that fewer than one in 100…

Four people in front of the Rusk center
Kudos, September 2015

Great work and career accomplishments by Franklin College faculty and alumni were celebrated widely in September. Here are just a few: Four UGA faculty members, including professor of genetics Jessica Kissinger and Franklin College associate dean Kecia Thomas were selected as the university's 2015-2016 SEC Academic Leadership Development Program Fellows. Created by the Southeastern Conference in 2008, the fellowship program seeks to identify,…

woman next to building with columns
Amazing student Leighton Rowell: potential for happiness

What we mean when we talk about the university experience being about more than training for a career or simply finding a job is given perfect voice in the words of Amazing Student Leighton Rowell: As an intern for the local newspaper during my senior year of high school, I wrote an op-ed about my search for the perfect college. “My number one criterion is potential for happiness,” I wrote. Four years later and a senior once more, I couldn’t be…

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Informatics Institute takes shape

On the heels of news from over the summer on the UGA informatics initiative, proposals and new positions have been approved at the university level that moves UGA a few more steps in that direction: [UGA] is building upon its established strengths in the interdisciplinary field of informatics by creating the Georgia Informatics Institute for Research and Education. Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost Pamela Whitten has charged…

glacier with ice melting
NASA Research on Sea Level Rise in Greenland

A NASA Interdisciplinary sciences project by UGA faculty lead by Thomas Mote and including Patricia Yager and Renato Castelao collected data this summer at the top of the world: On Greenland’s ice sheet, a vast icy landscape crisscrossed by turquoise rivers and dotted with melt water lakes, a small cluster of orange camping tents popped up in late July. The camp, home for a week to a team of researchers, sat by a large, fast-flowing river. Just…

painting of children
Targeting Empathy

Researchers in the department of psychology analyzing borderline personality disorder (BPD) have contributed something very interesting in conceptualizing the disorder's connections to empathy: "Our results showed that people with BPD traits had reduced activity in brain regions that support empathy," said the study's lead author Brian Haas, an assistant professor in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences psychology department. "This…

hand illustration
Changing Students' Lives

A commentary essay in the CHE uses a course on 'philosophical anthropology' as a jump off point to discuss the importance of letting students discover their interests and excitement about learning: When I was an undergraduate at Antioch College in the early ’80s, I took a course in philosophical anthropology. I’m still not entirely sure what "philosophical anthropology" means, but it was the best course I ever had. It did more to prepare me for…

student with professor and microscope
Amazing student Karishma Sriram

Foundation Fellow and undergraduate stem cell researcher Karishma Sriram is making the most of her UGA opportunities: Entering college as a Foundation Fellow, I was immediately immersed in an enriching and creative environment. Through the Fellowship, I have been able to participate in intriguing book discussions, dinner seminars and conversations that helped me shape my understanding of the world around me. Further, the Fellowship afforded me…

logos and emmy statue
Kudos, August 2015

Franklin College faculty, staff, students and alumni continue to distinguish themselves and the university with awards, honors and accolades. Here are a few from the summer: “Destruction Was My Beatrice: Dada and the Unmaking of the Twentieth Century,” is reviewed by The Economist and Los Angeles Times. Author Jed Rasula is the Helen S. Lanier Distinguished Professor and English department head. New York Times also reviews Rasula’s history of…

people, cameras and microphones
Faculty in the media, August 2015

From flooding in Texas and the Confederate Flag to the discovery of an ancient Qu'ran, Franklin College faculty were widely quoted on a wide range of subjects over the summer. A sampling: Millennials: Apathetic or Empathetic? – R&B article quotes Brian Haas, an assistant professor in the Behavioral and Brain Science Program NPR reporter explores John Ross story and the art of the protest – Chattanooga Times Free Press quotes Jace Weaver,…

Gulf of Mexico 3D rendering
Establishing baseline data for the world's oceans

Samantha Joye explains in Science's Perspective section that only through collecting both baseline data and consistent long-term observations after pollution events is it possible to piece together the impacts of environmental disasters like oil spills: one of the biggest challenges in evaluating the environmental impacts of the Macondo blowout was the lack of baseline data—both in the water column and along the seabed, where as much as 15…

woman outside the coliseum
Amazing Student Lindsey Cheek

UGA gymnast and Franklin College triple major Lindsey Cheek sets the bar for "Amazing Student" somewhere out near the Gama Quadrant: I didn’t start college like the normal student. I graduated high school in December and immediately joined the gymnastics team.  When the spring semester began in January I was competing on three events when I should have been a senior in high school. During that season I was named freshman of the week once,…

cilia graphic in color
New techniques for diagnosing respiratory abnormalities

Just last week, UGA hosted a symposium on Research Experiences for Undergraduates, a program that brought promising young researchers to campus for ten weeks this summer to work with and be mentored by some of our best faculty members. The theme of the first day's presentations was computational biology, and if you're curious about research pursuits within that confluence of disciplines, a new study demonstrates what it is quite well: Though it…
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