Tags: Human Nature

Greenland ice melt
Climatologists note dramatic surface ice melt in Greenland

In widely reported findings, UGA climatologists and NASA independently confirm that during several days this month, nearly the entire ice sheet of Greenland experienced some degree of melting on its surface. On average, about half of the surface of Greenland's ice sheet naturally melts in the summer. The new data—from three different satellites—show that an estimated 97 percent of the ice sheet surface thawed at some point in mid-July. "This is…


Nanoscale researchers develop rapid diagnostic tests

In a series of studies, UGA researchers have developed a single-step method that can detect viruses, bacteria and chemical contaminants: "The results are unambiguous and quickly give you a high degree of specificity," said senior author Yiping Zhao, professor of physics in the UGA Franklin College of Arts and Sciences and director of the university's Nanoscale Science and Engineering Center. Zhao and his co-authors—doctoral students Jing Chen…


UGA exhibit focuses on the Power of Microbes

Students and faculty from the Franklin College and other units staffed UGA's bioenergy exhibit at the second annual USA Science and Engineering Festival, held this spring in Washington, D.C. During the event, [associate professor microbiology Anna]Karls and five graduate students from the microbiology department in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences showed visitors how microbes convert garbage and waste into energy capable of powering…


The expanding universe (of knowledge)

Scientists at the University of Georgia, the University of California, San Diego, UCLA, California State Polytechnic University and the Australia National University have collaborated on a study, published in the journal Nature, suggesting new information on how planets are formed. The study: began with a curious and unexpected finding: Within three years, the cloud of dust circling a young star in the Scorpius-Centaurus stellar nursery simply…


Renowned educator to join chemistry department

 


UGA psychologists focus on Facebook

Social media tools have the perception of keeping us all connected, but we probably shouldn't dismiss the extent to which they are also self-serving, so says a new study: New research from the University of Georgia finds what people may really "like" about social networking are themselves. "Despite the name ‘social networks,' much user activity on networking sites is self-focused," said Brittany Gentile, a UGA doctoral candidate who looked at…


Realizing the Good Life

How far removed are we from connecting a successful life with the ability to enjoy it? It can be a painful question, one that seems like an assault on capitalism. But you would think that capitalism could withstand a vigorous debate on its ultimate purpose. As this essay In Praise of Leisure points out, it's a subject the great economist John Maynard Keynes was willing to contemplate even in 1930. Imagine a world in which most people worked…


UGA Research News

The UGA Office of the Vice President for Research has released the Spring 2012issue of Research magazine with several articles detailing the work of Franklin faculty, including: Harry and Jane Willson Professor in the Humanities Bill Kretzschmar, on his work in language variations and complex systems. Associate professor of psychology Adam Goodie on the nature of pathological gambling. Responding to climate change as a research…


Kannan receives NSF Career award

 

millet stalk
Genetics a key to better biofuels

In the public realm at least, biofuels have been on a bit of a roller coaster ride over the last 12-15 years, as their promise becomes mired in politics and regional agriculture issues. But in research labs across the country and at UGA, scientists have held steady. A newly published genetic sequence and map of foxtail millet, a close relative of switchgrass and an important food crop in Asia, is giving scientists working to increase biofuel…

researchers
$1.5 million for energy research to two UGA chemistry professors

Energy-related research, thankfully, continues to filter into numerous basic-science disciplines. Because it is going to take everything we know and more to make a decisive turn toward renewable fuels: Funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, two University of Georgia researchers will pursue innovative approaches to more efficient methods of energy transmission and storage that involve maneuvering microscopic particles. Tina Salguero and Gary…


Robinson wins Humbolt Award

Franklin Professor and Distinguished Research Professor of Chemistry Gregory H. Robinson is among the awardees of the 2012 Humboldt Research Award. The award, which is presented to up to 100 scientists worldwide annually, is granted in recognition of a researcher's entire achievements to date and is presented to academics whose fundamental discoveries, new theories or insights have had a significant impact on their own discipline and who are…


The fight against Toxoplasmosis

The Center for Tropical and Emerging Global Diseases is a UGA-wide, multi-disciplinary center establshed in 1998 to bring together research, education and service resources in parasitology, immunology, cellular and molecular biology, biochemistry and genetics. The Franklin College has been one its core institutional partners from the beginning, recognizing that facilitating expertise from a wide-range of disciplines is the key to fighting…


Psychology researchers focus on consequences of binge drinking

It's a perennial issue on college campuses nationwide, one with heavy effects on the health and saefty of students: Binge drinking. A doctoral candidate from psychology has published findings that suggest patterns of binge drinking establish the environment for dangerous situations. The study, recently published in the journal Violence and Victims, found that first-year female college students who drank four or more alcoholic drinks in one day…


Franklin alum Mitcham named Georgia's Poet Laureate

UGA alumnus Judson C. Mitcham (AB '69, MS '71) was named by Governor Nathan Deal as the new poet laureate of Georgia. Mitcham succeeds David Bottoms in the post. A former adjunct professor of creative writing at UGA, Mitcham was very active on campus as a Man of Letters during his time in Athens and has many connections to Franklin College. A recipient of numerous awards and honors, Mitcham currently teaches creative writing at Mercer…

Photo of Fossil Brachiopods
Predicting risks of extinction

Brachiopods are marine shell fish that have hard "valves" (shells) on the upper and lower surfaces. The Ordovician is a geologic period and system, the second of six of the Paleozoic Era, and covers the time between 488.3±1.7 to 443.7±1.5 million years ago. Both are crucial to understanding a new study from Franklin scientists: A team of scientists analyzed more than 46,000 fossils from 52 sites and…


NSF Graduate Fellowships

Ten UGA students and alums received graduate fellowships from the National Science Foundation to conduct research during their master's and doctoral studies, including four from Franklin College: Christopher Abin, of Miami, Fla., is pursuing a doctorate in microbiology at the University of Georgia. As a Florida International University undergraduate student, Abin made the dean’s list every semester and received a National Institutes of Health…


New study links hypoxia to cancer growth

A research team led by Ying Xu, Regents-Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar and professor of bioinformatics and computational biology in the Franklin College, has published some compeeling new findings on the growth of cancer cells: Low oxygen levels in cells may be a primary cause of uncontrollable tumor growth in some cancers, according to a new University of Georgia study. The authors' findings run counter to widely accepted…


UGA Engineering

Congratulations to our engineering colleagues around campus, which means faculty in many Franklin College departments including chemistry, physics and astronomy, mathematics, computer science, biology and microbiology, marine sciences, genetics, geography, art and anthropology, as well as numerous interdisciplinary research centers created thereof. This list alone explains why it was important for UGA to put together a formal engineering…


Photo of the Day

View of Moscow at sunrise from the top of the Peter the Great monument, from a photo gallery on Der Speigel. Kids in Moscow are taking to climbing up onto some of its highest building, statues and construction sites, and are appropriately adored by the Russian media as "roofers." A law student, the young man who took the photo said that he discovered 'roofing' after doctors told him he could not play sports because of a weak heart. One of his…


Crime and... Mathematics

The Cantrell Lecture Series in the department of mathematics brings UCLA professor and director of Applied Mathematics Andrea Bertozzi to campus on Wednesday April 25 for an interesting lecture: The Mathematics of Crime There is an extensive applied mathematics literature developed for problems in the biological and physical sciences. Our understanding of social science problems from a mathematical standpoint is less developed, but also presents…


Origins of the Arts

Can we understand art better without reducing the magic it can work on us? That is not the theme of this article by E. O. Wilson, though it would seem to be one implication of the schema he describes:  RICH AND SEEMINGLY BOUNDLESS as the creative arts seem to be, each is filtered through the narrow biological channels of human cognition. Our sensory world, what we can learn unaided about reality external to our bodies, is pitifully…


Witty and Brilliant

  Image: "Head of a Bull," 1942, Musée Picasso, Paris Update: the Musée Picasso does not, in fact, re-open until summer 2013. So, if you're in the City this summer, I would suggest Beaubourg, or the Musée D'Orsay.


Postmodern design, transformations of craft

The impact of high style on the hand-made elements of craft is an ongoing, if contentious, phenomenon. The Lamar Dodd School of Art hosts a lecture by a curator from the Victoria and Albert Museum, who will talk about the recent V & A exhibition exploring this topic. Glenn Adamson, Deputy Head of Research and Head of Graduate Studies at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, will present a lecture at the Lamar Dodd School of Art at 5:30…


Best Undergraduate Teachers

In the nation, that is. And among the three from UGA are two from Franklin College, according to the Princeton Review and RateMyProfessors.com: John Knox, an associate professor of geography; Audrey Haynes, an associate professor of political science; and Charles Kutal, a chemistry professor and associate dean of the UGA Franklin College of Arts and Sciences, are listed among The Best 300 Professors, which was released April 3. ...  …
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