Tags: Human Nature


Online Course for Summer 2013

The Franklin College and UGA are venturing into online offerings like never before. For summer 2013,  a great selection of courses is available to help students stay on track for graduation even if they are studying abroad, involved in an internship and/or working a summer job. Have a look. Sign up. Stay on track.


Origin of Mankind


Underwater Archeology in Prehistoric Scotland

A crannog is a kind of artificial island, usually found on lakes, rivers and estuaries in Scotland and Ireland, that were used as dwellings over five millenia from the European Neolithic Period. On Wednesday April 24, The Archeological Institute of America, along with the Lamar Dodd School of Art, the classics department and the department of archeology present a lecture on this and other prehistoric mysteries of Scotland. The lecture, at 5:30…


Stickney, 2013 Distinguished Research Professor

One thing we missed in the rundown of the Faculty Awards banquet is the announcement of the 2013 Distinguished Research Professors. Among the three awardees is one of our favorite researchers and teachers from the department of chemistry, John Stickney. Stickney has received worldwide recognition for his contributions to the field of electrochemistry. He singlehandedly invented a method of producing extraordinarily thin semiconductors created…


Amazing student: Paige Pulaski

The 'Amazing student' feature on the UGA homepage is a window onto some of the most accomplished students you will ever hear about. Featured this week is actress and student judge for the Peabody Awards, Paige Pulaski: All of the time that I’ve spent in the theatre department has led me to form intimate relationships with the performance, academic, design, administrative and custodial staff and faculty. There’s something about teaching a form of…


Brazilian Student Association Symposium

Did you know that that first time the seat of an empire was transferred to a colony happened in 1808? It was from Portugal to Rio de Janeiro, under the duress of the Napoloenic wars in Europe. And when Brazil gained its independence in 1822, the first country to recognize it was the very young United States of America and the two countries have been closely linked ever since. This and more I learned at the inaugural Brazilian Student Association…

logo with vitruvian man
Berry and Kretzschmar receive ACLS Fellowships


Starai awarded $1.5m to study Legionnaires' disease

Originally named from an outbreak at an American Legion convention in 1976, Legionellosis or Legionaires' disease is a severe type of pneumonia that affects only a small percentage of the population but can be fatal. UGA researcher Vincent Starai was recently awarded $1,503,565 by the National Institutes of Health to investigate how the bacterium that causes Legionellosis overcome the body’s defenses. Starai is an assistant professor who…


Discovery may create path to fuel from CO2


Lavish Elegance

Undergraduate research is one of those great ideas in academia that UGA has utilized to create something truly special. The Center for Undergraduate Research Opportunites was launched way back in the olden days of 1999 and in less than 15 years has solidified a process by which our undergraduates can pursue research projects and experience in tandem with their degree programs. This year's CURO symposium is in April 1, and the great Fran Teague…


How closely meshed

Very nice feature (and cover photo) of professor emeritus of English at UGA and very dear friend of the blog Coleman Barks in our local alt. weekly, Flagpole.  The article focuses on one of his recent collections of poetry, Hummingbird Sleep. But few contemporary poets have had the impact of Barks' work on the world. He has made the words of love and wisdom from the 13th Sufi mystic Jalal al-Din Rumi accesible to millions of English…

three students seated
Students chosen as mid-term Foundation Fellows

Three Franklin College students have been selected as mid-term recipients of the university's premier undergraduate scholarship:  The Foundation Fellowship offers unique academic, civic engagement and travel opportunities, including rigorous research projects and internship experiences. The 2013 mid-term Foundation Fellows are: 
• Maria Cox of Peachtree City, Ga., who is pursuing bachelor's degrees in mass media arts and English;
 • Allison…


Imaging axonal fibers

Something we almost missed: a terrific interdisciplinary study mapping the cerebral cortex in mammalian brains that sheds new light on its development and organization, was published in the December 2012 issue of Cerebral Cortex. This research brought together UGA faculty from the departments of computer science, cellular biology, psychology and physics and astronomy in the Franklin College; the Faculty of Engineering, the Bioimaging Research…

Knox and Brustad conducting research using computers
Researchers use Facebook to analyze tornado debris

Social media has enabled the tracking and analysis of tornado debris by researchers in the department of geography: After tornadoes touched down in the Southeast on April 27, 2011, many people in the storm's path did the most logical thing they could-they posted images of the aftermath on Facebook. The University of Georgia's John Knox and his student researchers went one step further. They used the social media site to create and analyze a…


In the News, March

Franklin faculty continue to be quoted widely in the news media. A sampling from March 2013: Research on potential triggers for eating disorders by associate professor Ping Shen featured widely in media including Yahoo! News, Medical News Today, Health Canal and others Research led by assistant professor of chemistry Tina Salguero into a pigment known as Egyptian blue that may have modern applications in telecommunications or security ink…


Microbiology researchers publish discovery on Earth's oldest life forms

This is a big discovery: University of Georgia researchers discovered important genetic clues about the history of microorganisms called archaea and the origins of life itself in the first ever study of its kind. Results of their study shed light on one of Earth's oldest life forms. "Archaea are an ancient form of microorganisms, so everything we can learn about them could help us to answer questions about the origin of life," said William…


Capuchin monkey tool use provides clues

The breadth of research in psychology is not limited to humans but reaches into questions about how all creatures learn about the world: A new study from University of Georgia behavioral scientists reports that bearded capuchin monkeys, Sapajus libidinosus, are skilled at solving problems associated with using tools. The monkeys, like humans, use their bodies to learn about the world, according to a new paper published in the journal PLOS ONE on…


Findings suggest brain pathways to impulsive eating

Very interesting new research from the department of cell biology. The new work has identified the neural pathways in an insect brain tied to eating for pleasure, a discovery that sheds light on mirror impulsive eating pathways in the human brain. "We know when insects are hungry, they eat more, become aggressive and are willing to do more work to get the food," said Ping Shen, a UGA associate professor of cellular biology in the Franklin…


UGA scientists finds new technology in Ancient 'Egyptian blue'

They describe surprise in discovering that the calcium copper silicate in Egyptian blue breaks apart into nanosheets so thin that thousands would fit across the width of a human hair. The sheets produce invisible infrared (IR) radiation similar to the beams that communicate between remote controls and TVs, car door locks, and other telecommunications devices. “Calcium copper silicate provides a route to a new class of nanomaterials that are…


Origins of Biomolecules

The Origins Lecture Series continues this week, with the Origins of Biomolecules by Claiborme Glover of biochemistry and molecular biology: This lecture will explore the physical and chemical origins of biomolecules prior to the origin of life.  We will focus first on the "Bio" (the likely nature of the first living thing); second, on the "Molecules" (the organic compounds of which that first living thing was composed), and third, on the "…


Schaefer receives Chemical Pioneer Award

An outstanding honor will be presented to Henry "Fritz" Schaefer from the American Institute of Chemists: Schaefer, Graham Perdue Professor of Chemistry in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences, will receive the Chemical Pioneer Award at the AIC's annual meeting in April. The award recognizes researchers whose work has had a major influence on advances in chemistry. Past recipients include Nobel laureates Linus Pauling and Glenn T. Seaborg,…


Collaborative research proposals bring together UGA and CDC

Two of the three research proposals selected for funding by the Centers for Disease Control in a recent competition are from Franklin College faculty: Funded by the UGA Research Foundation and the CDC, the awards provide pilot research project funding to promote collaboration in scientific innovation and technology development at the interface of human, veterinary and ecological health, increase quality and output of research, and…


Robots and live theatre

David Saltz, head of the department of theatre and film studies, and assistant professor Anthony Marotta are presenting a paper this weekend at the International Conference in Commedia dell'Arte at the University of Windsor, Ontario. Their paper, A 21st century huminoid robot, becomes a commedia performer, details a project that brings together several UGA units that we've written about previously when it was performed for the public back in…


Refining your research

Along with a couple of dozen colleagues from campus, I was involved in a day-long workshop back in the fall on the subject of communicating research: how to accurately condense descriptions of research for public consumption. It's not inevitable that we always can, but we do try. And now, Columns reports that workshops to assist faculty on this subject will soon be repeated:  A team of UGA faculty and staff is beginning a new program to…

Tan and Mohnen in the lab
New Plant structure may improve biofuel processing

Great new work from Debra Mohnen and Li Tan in the BioEnergy Science Center: When Li Tan approached his colleagues at the University of Georgia with some unusual data he had collected, they initially seemed convinced that his experiment had become contaminated; what he was seeing simply didn’t make any sense. Tan was examining some of the sugars, proteins and polymers that make up plant cell walls, which provide the structural support and…
Subscribe to Human Nature

Support Franklin College

We appreciate your financial support. Your gift is important to us and helps support critical opportunities for students and faculty alike, including lectures, travel support, and any number of educational events that augment the classroom experience. Click here to learn more about giving.

Every dollar given has a direct impact upon our students and faculty.