Fish in an ocean

The pace of environmental change can doom or save coral reefs

Sept. 30, 2020

Increasing fishing too quickly can cause coral reef ecosystems to collapse, new CU Boulder-led research finds.

larva

Scientists identify gene family key to unlocking vertebrate evolution

Sept. 16, 2020

New CU Boulder-led research finds the traits that make vertebrates distinct from invertebrates were made possible by the emergence of a new set of genes 500 million years ago.

Antlion adult

Engineers of the mysterious pit traps

Sept. 16, 2020

They are secretive and cryptic, but you can see them if you know what to look for What causes those conical divots in the soft, dry soil beneath large conifers in the mountains and at the bases of cliffs on the Colorado Plateau? They presented a mystery when I first...

Black swallowtails

Many roles of color patterns in black swallowtail butterflies

Aug. 4, 2020

The colors and patterns of black swallowtails reveal the diversity of evolutionary dynamics acting on the sexes and the various life-history stages

Duckweed

Duckweed is an incredible, radiation-fighting astronaut food – and by changing how it is grown, we made it better

July 14, 2020

What’s the big idea? Current industrialized food systems were optimized for a single goal – growing the maximum amount of food for the least amount of money. But when room and supplies are limited – like during space travel – you need to optimize for a different set of goals...

A bee pollinating a flower

Native bees also facing novel pandemic

July 10, 2020

Move over, murder hornets. There’s a new bee killer in town. CU Boulder researchers have found there is growing evidence that another “pandemic,” as they call it, has been infecting bees around the world for the past two decades and is spreading: a fungal pathogen known as Nosema.

Swallowbird

Resident parasites influence appearance, evolution of barn swallows

June 24, 2020

Researchers at CU Boulder think local parasites are influencing why barn swallows in Europe, the Middle East and Colorado are choosing their mates differently.

Maureen McNamara

Nobel winner sparks senior’s love of space medicine

March 31, 2020

‘I fell in love with space that day. I didn’t even know I liked space,’ student Maureen McNamara notes

Carolina Chickadee

Understanding evolution, one chickadee at a time

March 25, 2020

A CU Boulder researcher has received a $1.75 million NSF grant to study chickadee hybrids

Soil and mountains

New grant crumbles mysteries of the soil

Feb. 27, 2020

Two CU Boulder projects are this year’s winners of the Signals in the Soil grants.

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