Science and Technology

Today’s tornado warnings rely on radar data and regional spotters. By contrast, the Warn-on-Forecast System synthesizes observational data in real time and runs high-resolution simulations to gauge uncertainties and produce guidance for tornado and severe weather threats well before they form.

A University of Kansas researcher found lightning-stroke density — the number of individual lightning discharges, or “strokes,” per square kilometer — to be about 36% lower than before the 2020 IMO sulfur cap. Findings were published in the peer-reviewed journal Climate and Atmospheric Science.

Six years into a study on the effect of plant pathogens in grasslands, University of Kansas researchers have the data to show that species diversity — a hallmark of native prairies — works as a protective shield: It drives growth and sustains the health of species-diverse ecosystems over time, functioning somewhat like an immune system.

Experimental particle physicists working at the MicroBooNE experiment at Fermilab National Accelerator Laboratory have found evidence against the existence of a “sterile” type of neutrino hypothesized to be responsible for previous experiments’ anomalous results, as detailed in a paper recently published in Nature.

Researchers at the University of Kansas Biodiversity Institute and Natural History Museum recently uncovered a slipup from decades ago: the misidentification of a poison frog specimen from Peru used as a holotype.

Steven Soper was among the 185 academic inventors named to the 2025 Class of NAI Fellows on Dec. 11. Election as an academy fellow is the highest professional distinction awarded solely to academic inventors.

A new paper from the University of Kansas overturns the idea that a “risk gene” carried by millions of people worldwide influences production of Type 1 interferon, a workhorse of the immune system.

On Dec. 4, the Department of Civil, Environmental & Architectural Engineering within the University of Kansas School of Engineering will host experts in the field of asphalt paving engineering for a one-day conference exploring the latest developments in the field.

The Kansas Flood Mapping Dashboard uses stream gauge data from the National Weather Service and the U.S. Geological Survey, among other sources, along with the terrain-based FLDPLN (“Floodplain”) model developed at the University of Kansas. The tool will aid emergency managers across the state as well as the public.

Researchers at the University of Kansas have discovered a human gene, the protein PARP14, plays a role in regulating interferon, part of the body’s innate immune system. Their study, appearing in journal mBio, could guide development of antiviral therapies for several groups of viral infection.