Tags: Human Nature


Technology improves logistics - but not learning

The Chronicle of Higher Education reports on a new study authored by a UGA sociology PhD candidate with some interesting findings: the study, “Technological Change and Professional Control in the Professoriate,” includes interviews with more than 40 professors at three universities. It suggests that professors often use such technologies for logistical purposes rather than to improve learning. “There is little or no indication that innovative…


NASA DEVELOP at UGA

Students and faculty in the department of geography have pioneered a terrific new collaboration with NASA set to begin this summer: University of Georgia's department of geography will partner with NASA through DEVELOP, a national student internship program created to enhance training and development in Earth science. The UGA collaboration is only the second housed strictly at a university in the U.S. Initial UGA projects include analyzing the…


lasers detect emerging flu strains

UGA researchers have received significant NIH support for development of new tools to detect virus strains of influenza: researchers are refining a nanotechnology-based method that uses laser light beams to more accurately predict emerging influenza strains-particularly strains with a risk of high mortality. The work will be funded by the National Institutes of Health and will total $1,124,914 over the next four years. Influenza kills thousands…

Pan with colleagues and LED
Scientists unveil new LED material

It often seems as though major developments in energy efficiency or conservation are so elusive that the entire pursuit may appear to be futile. But we are surrounded by smaller steps forward, almost on a daily basis. UGA researchers report today on one small step with major implications: University of Georgia scientists have fabricated what is thought to be the world's first LED that emits warm white light using a single light emitting material…


Discovery about little-studied protein holds promise for drug treatments

More evidence that the front lines of research on life-threatening diseases are right here on the UGA campus and in the Franklin College. Insightful new work from a research group lead by faculty member Natarajan Kannan of the Institute for Bioinformatics and the department of biochemistry and molecular biology: Enter protein kinases. Like specialized traffic signals, this huge class of proteins is critical for many aspects of cell communication…


Exploring early modern Spanish writing

Terrific story in this week's Columns about one of our romance language faculty members, her research and its impact. What is research in language studies? You might be surprised: the average American's knowledge of Spain's imperial expansion probably ranges from a few names of conquistadors to practically nothing. For Elizabeth Wright, an associate professor of Spanish in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences, developing a broader…

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Faculty in the News, December 2012 - January 2013

December was a short month on campus but there was no shortage of news stories featuring the work and expertise of Franklin College faculty. A sampling:   Linguistics professor Bill Kretzschmar was quoted in a Fox News article on Google Books study on how language changes over time. Kretzschmar was also quoted in a Florida Times-Union story about Jacksonville’s disappearing Southern accent.   Professor and senior associate dean Hugh…


Happy New Year

It's still quiet around campus but our offices are open as faculty and staff get ready to welcome the students back next week. Between now and then we'll have much to share about performances, research, exhibitions, awards and distinguished visitors to campus. So... welcome back. Image: UGA photo of the main library facade by Peter Frey.


2012 on the Franklin Chronicles

As the year winds down, I would like to thank everyone for a wonderful 2012 on the Chronicles. We launched the blog right before the new year and brought it into full operation as the year progressed. The Franklin College has wonderful IT professionals, and it is because of them that this idea of a college-specific media site has come to fruition. I am indebted to them, particularly Sean Hendrix and Lauren Blais. My thanks and appreciation for…


Tool-using Orangutans and improving cotton at the genome level

A ScienceNow article in Wired.com features the work of a faculty member from psychology: Primatologist Dorothy Fragaszy of the University of Georgia in Athens says orangutans might have ideas of the sort that Gruber describes, but that’s not the most plausible explanation. Fragaszy cautions that Gruber cites only one study that discusses orangutans developing stick skills in the wild — and she says that work isn’t conclusive about when…


The biofuels equation: public opinion

From time to time we've mentioned the long-term investments at UGA in people and research on the issue of developing renewable energy sources. The university has cultivated a wide range of expertise on the subject that goes back decades. And all of that research on everything from fermentation of sugars in plant lignin to biodiesel and drought resistant strains of switchgrass would not be complete without also looking at public support for…


Scientists to speak at SEC renewable energy symposium

A three-day SEC-sponsored event in February to discuss the future of renewable energy will feature two Franklin researchers with wide experience in our region's quest for renewable fuels: The SEC Symposium theme, “Impact of the Southeast in the World’s Renewable Energy Future,” will explore the spectrum of renewable energy technologies, including bioenergy, solar, wind, wave/flow and nuclear.  ... Researchers from all 14 member schools will…

two people in a lab
Researchers find ancient mechanisms propel modern parasites

Finding cures and new treatments for diseases seems to be a unique eschelon of highly-informed scientific detective work, as this new finding published by Franklin College researchers demonstrates: Long ago, when life on Earth was in its infancy, a group of small single-celled algae propelled themselves through the vast prehistoric ocean by beating whip like tails called flagella. It's a relatively unremarkable tale, except that now, more than…


NSF renews coastal research grant

The UGA Marine Institute on Sapelo Island was founded in 1953 and has been at the center of ecological research on salt-marsh coastal ecoystems ever since. That work, lead by our department of marine sciences, continues apace with the renewal of an important NSF grant: A consortium of universities headed by the University of Georgia will continue ecological field research on the marshes and estuaries of the Georgia coast following the renewal of…


Dave Brubeck at UGA

The Red & Black had a nice rembrance of jazz great Dave Brubeck, who died wednesday at the age of 91. The article recalls that Brubeck was a guest artist in residence at the Hugh Hodgson School of Music in Feb. 2008. We are lucky to have shared our campus and opened our stages and classrooms to this visionary pianist and composer. The UGA students who can say they learned from and performed alongside Brubeck will carry something all their…


ARCS Foundation funds global health research abroad for doctoral students

The Atlanta Chapter of the ARCS - Achievement Rewards for College Students - Foundation awarded $70,000 to nine doctoral students in the biomedical and health sciences at the University of Georgia, one of whom received a special $10,000 grant to study global health research abroad: The ARCS Foundation was founded in Los Angeles in 1958 and is dedicated to helping meet the country's needs for scientists and engineers by providing…


Commedia Robotica


UGA Research magazine

The fall 2012 issue of the ugaresearch magazine is out, and available online. It features some great stories on Franklin College faculty, including geography professor Steven Holloway and whole section devoted to the Civil War, with a focus on books by history facuty members Stephen Berry, John Inscoe and a forthcoming work by Kathleen Clark. Great work all around.

rick tarleton in his lab
New diagnostic test for Chagas disease

Chagas disease is a tropical parasitic disease commonly transmitted to humans and other mammals by an insect vector, but it can also be spread through blood transfusions and food contaminated with parasites. It's a horrible scourge that, though eminently treatable, is believed to infect more than 8 million people in Mexico, Central America and South America, most of whom do not know they are infected. But now, researchers in UGA's Center for…

human brain with colored plot points.
NSF Career Award for Liu

National Science Foundation Career Awards are a bit of misnomer, in that they are titled as though the awards are given at a career pinnacle recognize achievement. In fact, they are early career awards to support, and widen, a promising scope of inquiry by a young researcher. Tianming Liu, assistant professor of computer science in the Franklin College, was presented with just such an award after he demonstrated a new way to map the human brain…


Study reveals new gene, key to anemia

Professor of microbiology and biochemistry & molecular biology Harry Dailey is an author on a newly published study that reveals a new gene discovery in the quest to better understand human anemias: Scientists at the University of Georgia, Harvard Medical School and the University of Utah have discovered a new gene that regulates heme synthesis in red blood cell formation. Heme is the deep-red, iron-containing component of hemoglobin, the…


Study reveals new gene, key to anemia

Professor of microbiology and biochemistry & molecular biology Harry Dailey is an author of a newly published study that reveals a new gene discovery in the quest to better understand human anemias: Scientists at the University of Georgia, Harvard Medical School and the University of Utah have discovered a new gene that regulates heme synthesis in red blood cell formation. Heme is the deep-red, iron-containing component of hemoglobin, the…


New psychology paper identifies keys to self-control

Franklin College professor of psychology Leonard Martin tested student's capacity for self-control using some simple tools, and the fascinating results are part of a newly published study: participants performed what is known as the Stroop task where they were asked to identify the color of various words flashed on a screen, which spell out the names of other colors. The Stroop task's goal is to turn off the student's tendency to read the words…


$4.1 million from NIH to UGA researchers

More terrific news from Franklin College scientists in the CCRC: Ovarian and pancreatic cancers are among the most deadly, not because they are impossible to cure, but because they are difficult to find. There are no screening tests that can reliably detect their presence in early stages, and most diagnoses are made after the disease has already spread to lymph nodes and vital organs. But University of Georgia cancer researchers Karen Abbott and…


Franklin scientists continue to unravel stem cell mysteries

New changes in molecular structures on the surface of stem cells, recently discovered by UGA researchers, may play a critical role in the specialization process of embryonic growth: Their study, published recently in the Journal of Biological Chemistry, demonstrated how the genetic expression of specific enzymes resulted in significant changes to the complex chains of sugar molecules that densely coat the outside of cells. Known as glycans,…
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