Owen Brian Toon, a professor of atmospheric and oceanic sciences at the University of Colorado. Photo by Noah Larsen.

Childhood questions became lifelong quests

Oct. 1, 2011

Dinosaurs’ demise, Martian environment and Earth’s climate fascinated Brian Toon as a kid, captivated him as a scientist, and propelled him to a wide-ranging research career marked by a common theme: tiny airborne particles Since he was a kid, Owen Brian Toon has puzzled over “weird problems”: What killed the...

Gerard Dillehay, a CU student, suffered a traumatic brain injury in a bicycle accident. He has received support from the Colorado Traumatic Brain Injury Trust Fund, a fund that CU Associate Professor Theresa Hernandez was instrumental in creating. Photo by Noah Larsen.

‘It’s like a second life’

March 1, 2011

CU student one of thousands helped by state Traumatic Brain Injury Trust Fund that enterprising CU neuroscientist helped set up.

Beth Osnes, CU associate professor of theatre and dance, hugs Zinet, an Ethiopian woman. Their lives weave a human tapestry through a new movie, "Mother: Caring Our Way Out of the Population Dilemma."

Mothers help women brake population growth

March 1, 2011

Beth Osnes, CU associate professor of theatre and dance, hugs Zinet, an Ethiopian woman. Their lives weave a human tapestry through a new movie, "Mother: Caring Our Way Out of the Population Dilemma." Two large families, two distant worlds, two women who break tradition. Thereby hangs a tale. Beth Osnes...

Reb Zalman founded the Jewish Renewal movement in the 1960s.

Jewish Renewal archives find home at CU

March 1, 2011

Rabbi Zalman Schacter-Shalomi was born in Poland, grew up in Austria, fled Nazi oppression in Europe, was ordained in Chabad Lubavitch Hasidism in America, and launched a new hybrid of Judaism for the world. Reb Zalman, as he is commonly known, founded the Jewish Renewal movement in the 1960s. Described...

Masculine male

Fertile women want macho-looking men

Dec. 1, 2010

Effect is more pronounced among women partnered with less-masculine-looking men, researchers find; male intelligence shows no such effect When their romantic partners are not quintessentially masculine, women in their fertile phase are more likely to fantasize about masculine-looking men than are women paired with George Clooney types. But women with...

Jennifer Peterson, assistant professor of film studies, examines the return of landscape to film in the era after World War II.

Cinema’s triumphant return to the wild

Dec. 1, 2010

As film’s silent era came to a close, it took with it location-based shooting and, thus, wilderness landscapes. The new sound-recording equipment was too cumbersome and delicate to travel outside the controlled confines of a studio. It wasn’t until after World War II that wilderness landscapes and location-based shooting began...

In 2006, after testing positive for HIV and seeing her CD4 count drop to 159 (from a normal level of about 1,000), Penina Petro started on the road to better health with the help of the medications she received from Sekotoure Hospital, Tanzania, under Global HIV/AIDS Program funding. In 2001-02, CU Professor Keith Maskus helped launch a similar program while serving as lead economist in the Development Research Group at the World Bank. Photo by U.S. Health Resources and Services Adminitration.

Patently beneficial protections, worldwide

Dec. 1, 2010

While stronger intellectual-property laws help economies in rich and poor nations, access to medicine is another issue; CU economist has done groundbreaking work in both areas In 2006, after testing positive for HIV and seeing her CD4 count drop to 159 (from a normal level of about 1,000), Penina Petro...

Girl in bed staring at alarm clock

Calorie-wise, sleepless nights resemble long walks

Dec. 1, 2010

CU study is the first to quantify energy expenditure during sleep and wakeful periods In the first-ever quantification of energy expended by humans during sleep, a University of Colorado team has found that the metabolic cost of an adult missing one night of sleep is the equivalent of walking slightly...

Shelley Copley, a CU professor of molecular, cellular and developmental biology. Photo by Noah Larsen

Evolving a microbe to clean up PCP pollution

Dec. 1, 2010

Few bacteria would choose the hazardous man-made chemical pentachlorophenol (or PCP) from the menu of microbial delights. But one “bug” is giving it a shot. It’s the best-described of only a handful of bacteria known to break down the pollutant. One problem though: it’s not particularly good at its job,...

Vernon Minor, a professor emeritus of art and art history at the University of Colorado

The joy of leading ‘art-history Outward Bound’

Oct. 1, 2010

Emeritus professor was ‘interdisciplinary’ before it was cool In academic circles, the term “interdisciplinary” may be jargon, but it is also one measure of scholarly excellence. “Interdisciplinary” studies strive to make sense of the world through the lenses of disparate fields—say, astronomy, philosophy and art history. Vernon Minor was championing...

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