News Headlines

A new study by a team of Cassini mission scientists led by the University of Colorado Boulder have found that microscopic grains of rock detected near Saturn imply hydrothermal activity is taking place within the moon Enceladus.

During a famous roulette game in a Monte Carlo casino in 1913, black came up 26 times in a row. After about 15 repetitions, the players began betting heavily on red, likely believing that such a long streak just couldn’t continue. The gambler’s fallacy—the idea that past events, a streak of black in roulette, for example, can impact the likelihood of a future random event, whether black or red will come up after the next spin—has long been thought to illustrate human irrationality.

No one really knows how the High Plains got so high. About 70 million years ago, eastern Colorado, southeastern Wyoming, western Kansas and western Nebraska were near sea level. Since then, the region has risen about 2 kilometers, leading to some head scratching at geology conferences.

The eastern coastline of Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula, a mecca for tourists, may have been walloped by a tsunami between 1,500 and 900 years ago, says a new study involving Mexico’s Centro Ecological Akumal (CEA) and the University of Colorado Boulder.

Inspired by the past and building toward the future, a new outreach program at the University of Colorado is tapping educators to promote discussion of teaching and learning in schools and communities across the state. Receiving the honor of being named the inaugural Timmerhaus Teaching Ambassador is Noah Finkelstein, Ph.D., President’s Teaching Scholar and professor of physics at the University of Colorado Boulder.

The University of Colorado Boulder will serve as the Science Operations Center for a NASA mission launching this month to better understand the physical processes of geomagnetic storms, solar flares and other energetic phenomena throughout the universe. The $1.1 billion Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) mission will be comprised of four identical, octagonal spacecraft flying in a pyramid formation, each carrying 25 instruments.

The University of Colorado Boulder will serve as the Science Operations Center for a NASA mission launching this month to better understand the physical processes of geomagnetic storms, solar flares and other energetic phenomena throughout the universe.

Two students and two faculty members from the University of Colorado community have been named recipients of the 2015 Thomas Jefferson Award, among the highest honors given at CU, the state’s largest institution of higher education.

University Libraries at the University of Colorado Boulder is hosting an exhibit and multiple events to honor the 100th anniversary of Rocky Mountain National Park. The Jerry Crail Johnson Earth Sciences & Map Library is featuring a new exhibit, “Expressions of Rocky Mountain National Park: A Centennial Celebration,” featuring a selection of art, maps, and companion writings and objects showcasing the park’s natural wonders and 100-year history. It will be on display through Aug. 13.

Oil and gas operations in the United States produce about 21 billion barrels of wastewater per year. The saltiness of the water and the organic contaminants it contains have traditionally made treatment difficult and expensive. Engineers at the University of Colorado Boulder have invented a simpler process that can simultaneously remove both salts and organic contaminants from the wastewater, all while producing additional energy.