News
'Bright Circle’ illuminates role of women in American intellectual tradition
A University of Kansas researcher sketches the lives of "Five Remarkable Women" who founded America’s first homegrown literary, philosophical movement before being overshadowed by the male writers they inspired.
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Tue, 01/07/2025
$2.5M grant will support nature-based study of pathogen resistance in perennial crop systems
A new five-year, $2.5 million grant will support a KU-led project exploring alternative routes to pathogen resistance in a potential perennial oilseed crop, silflower (Silphium integrifolium). The project is funded through the federal program on Ecology and Evolution of Infectious Diseases.
Fri, 12/20/2024
Research points the way to lifesaving antiparasitic drugs while unlocking a scientific mystery
A breakthrough in understanding how a single-cell parasite makes ergosterol (its version of cholesterol) could lead to more effective drugs for human leishmaniasis, a parasitic disease that inflicts about 1 million people and kills about 30,000 people around the world every year.
Mon, 12/16/2024
Anthropologists call for tracking and preservation of human artifacts on Mars
University of Kansas researcher Justin Holcomb argues physical artifacts of human Martian exploration deserve cataloging, preservation and care.
Tue, 12/10/2024
Aerospace engineer Ron Barrett-Gonzalez named National Academy of Inventors Fellow
For the second year in a row, the National Academy of Inventors has added a Jayhawk engineer among its Fellows. Ron Barrett-Gonzalez, professor of aerospace engineering, was named among the 170 academic inventors in the 2024 class.
Tue, 12/10/2024
Research shows feasting fungi could revolutionize carbon-fiber recycling
A specialized fungus developed at the University of Kansas underpins a new method for breaking down and removing the matrix from carbon fiber reinforced polymers.
Mon, 11/18/2024
New idea may crack enigma of the Crab Nebula’s ‘zebra’ pattern
A theoretical astrophysicist from the University of Kansas may have solved a nearly two-decade-old mystery over the origins of an unusual "zebra" pattern seen in high-frequency radio pulses from the Crab Nebula.
Mon, 11/11/2024
Atomically thin memory resistors will optimize semiconductors for neuromorphic computing
A joint project between University of Kansas and University of Houston supported by $1.8 million from the National Science Foundation’s second Future of Semiconductor program (FuSe) will produce atomically tunable memory resistors, dubbed “memristors,” for brain-inspired advanced computing — while training workforce for the nation’s semiconductor industry.
Wed, 10/23/2024
Quantum fluctuations at subnucleon level discovered by KU physicist at Large Hadron Collider
University of Kansas experimental nuclear physicist Daniel Tapia Takaki and his team for the first time report suggestions of gluonic quantum fluctuations at the subnucleon level in heavy nuclei. The findings boost understanding of quantum fields that control interaction of particles at the tiniest scales.
Wed, 10/16/2024
KU astronomer on space probe team that advances to next round of $1B NASA mission selection
Elisabeth Mills is a co-investigator on a proposal for a far-infrared mission that over the next year will receive $5 million to flesh out the plans and prototypes for a new class of astrophysics observatories.
Tue, 10/08/2024
KU researchers build interactive atlas that gathers Kansas wind energy regulations, information for all 105 counties
The Kansas Energy Transition Atlas is a GIS-powered website that gathers wind energy regulations for all of the state's 105 counties and allows users to find information including laws guiding development and the number of turbines and transmission lines in a county. Users can print their own detailed maps.
Tue, 10/08/2024
$1.5M grant will create global macro-network of plant-fungal research
A new project led by the University of Kansas will bring together scientists throughout the world who study the interactions between plants and microscopic fungi. A $1.5 million grant from the National Science Foundation will support the creation of a global transdisciplinary network to address the grand challenges within the realm of plant-fungal interactions.
Wed, 09/25/2024
Research shows Asia — not Africa — played cradle to snake superfamily that includes cobras, mambas and many common pet species
Based on the fossil record, it’s been assumed that elapoid snakes, found worldwide, had their origins in Africa. But the new University of Kansas study appearing in Royal Society Open Science — which depends on broad genetic sampling as well as fossils — points instead to Asian origins for these snakes.
Mon, 09/23/2024
KGS to explore on-farm integration of solar energy, water management
Kansas Geological Survey scientists have been awarded nearly $900,000 in grants to spearhead the development of an innovative technology system that will leverage underused corners of farm fields to generate energy and collect water.
Mon, 09/09/2024
Species of giant fanged frog went unrecognized in Philippines because it was nearly identical to even larger species
Researchers from the University of Kansas have published findings in the journal Ichthyology & Herpetology describing a new species of fanged frog, named Limnonectes cassiopeia, from the Philippine island of Luzon.
Thu, 09/05/2024
Study of mosquito spit could lead to therapies for viruses like West Nile and yellow fever
With a new two-year grant of $250,000 per year from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility, Anita Saraf currently is analyzing samples of noninfectious mosquito saliva in the fight against “arboviruses” — viruses spread by arthropods like mosquitoes.
Wed, 09/04/2024
New book ‘Macroevolutionaries’ explores intersection of evolution, art and popular culture
University of Kansas paleontologist Bruce Lieberman co-wrote “Macroevolutionaries,” a collection of natural history essays, with fellow paleontologist Niles Eldredge in the tradition of their late Harvard mentor and famed science popularizer, Stephen Jay Gould.
Thu, 08/29/2024
KU researcher Victor Gonzalez receives two NSF grants to advance research on bees
The National Science Foundation has awarded two grants totaling more than $600,000 to a team led by KU scientists studying bees in North America and plant pollinators in tropical regions.
Thu, 08/29/2024
KU researchers to support sustainable manufacturing through joint Schmidt Sciences/Foundation for Food & Agriculture Research grant
University of Kansas scientists are playing leading roles in a real-life waste-to-treasure story poised to create a more sustainable future for humanity.
Wed, 08/21/2024
University of Kansas awarded $26 million for new Engineering Research Center from National Science Foundation
KU is the lead institution for a new National Science Foundation Gen-4 Engineering Research Center — Environmentally Applied Refrigerant Technology Hub (EARTH) — that will focus on developing sustainable refrigerants to address climate change. EARTH is led by Foundation Distinguished Professor Mark Shiflett in the Department of Chemical & Petroleum Engineering at the KU School of Engineering.
Mon, 07/29/2024
KU paleontologist David Burnham resumes final excavation of the juvenile tyrannosaur
Paleontologists from the University of Kansas are back in Montana this summer for their final excavation of a rare dinosaur fossil: a juvenile tyrannosaur.
Fri, 07/19/2024
Research will establish best ‘managed retreat’ practices for communities faced with climate change disaster
A University of Kansas researcher is leading National Science Foundation-funded work to understand how managed retreat — where communities at risk from floods and fires relocate to safer areas — is approached across geographies, nations and cultures.
Wed, 07/10/2024
Researchers show promising material for solar energy gets its curious boost from entropy
In a study appearing in Advanced Materials, researchers in the lab of Wai-Lun Chan, associate professor of physics & astronomy at KU, have discovered a microscopic mechanism partly explaining the outstanding performance of new carbon-based organic solar cells.
Mon, 07/08/2024
KU Aerospace Engineering launches first CubeSat into orbit
A team of KU engineering students successfully launched a small satellite, called a CubeSat, aboard a NASA-sponsored Firefly Aerospace rocket. The university’s first satellite, known as “KUbeSat-1” reached orbit late in the evening July 3 when it was launched through NASA’s ELaNa 43 mission.
Wed, 06/12/2024
Researchers in US, Ukraine simulate cell activity at ‘breathtaking’ timescales
A partnership between scientists at KU and collaborators in Europe, including war-torn Ukraine, will result in computer models of biological cells likely to hasten health breakthroughs by simulating molecular interactions inside cells with near experimental accuracy at vastly longer timescales than similar efforts.
Fri, 06/07/2024
KU researcher Rafe Brown receives Fulbright Award to the Philippines
Rafe Brown, professor of ecology & evolutionary biology, has received a Fulbright U.S. Scholar Award to travel to the Philippines to study biodiversity. Brown will spend a year in the Philippines conducting fieldwork to sample amphibians and reptiles. The research studies the biodiversity of a rare stretch of pristine tropical forest that extends from a volcanic peak to the sea.
Fri, 05/17/2024
Ancient arachnid from coal forests of America stands out for its spiny legs
A University of Kansas researcher has published a description of a spider with up-armored legs found in an Illinois fossil deposit that's 308 million years old. The ancient critter recently was described in a new paper published in the Journal of Paleontology
Tue, 04/30/2024
Researchers parse oddity of distantly related bats in Solomon Islands that appear identical
A study of body size in leaf-nosed bats of the Solomon Islands that involved evolutionary biologists from the University of Kansas — who collected specimens, conducted genetic analysis and co-wrote research in the journal Evolution — reveals surprising genetic diversity among nearly indistinguishable species on different islands.
Wed, 04/10/2024
Deforestation harms biodiversity of the Amazon’s perfume-loving orchid bees
A survey of orchid bees in the Brazilian Amazon state of Rondônia, carried out in the 1990s, is shedding new light the impact of deforestation on the scent-collecting pollinators, which some view as bellwethers of biodiversity in the neotropics.
Fri, 04/05/2024
KU Engineering professor wins NSF CAREER Award for water resources research
Research conducted by an assistant professor of civil, environmental & architectural engineering at the University of Kansas that examines how humans have and will affect natural water systems was awarded a five-year, $609,000 grant from the National Science Foundation.
Tue, 03/12/2024
Rice paddy snake diversification was driven by geological and environmental factors in Thailand, molecular data suggests
A University of Kansas study of rice paddy snakes in Southeast Asia gives key details to their diversification and natural history, adding molecular evidence that the rise of the Khorat Plateau and subsequent environmental shifts in Thailand may have altered the course of the snakes’ evolution some 2.5 million years ago.