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 鈥 and by changing how it is grown, we made it better

July 14, 2020

What鈥檚 the big idea? Current industrialized food systems were optimized for a single goal 鈥 growing the maximum amount of food for the least amount of money. But when room and supplies are limited 鈥 like during space travel 鈥 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鈥檚 a new bee killer in town. CU Boulder researchers have found there is growing evidence that another 鈥減andemic,鈥 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鈥檚 love of space medicine

March 31, 2020

鈥業 fell in love with space that day. I didn鈥檛 even know I liked space,鈥 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鈥檚 winners of the Signals in the Soil grants.

A stemless four-nerve daisy growing from a sandstone crevice

Stemless four-nerve daisies have remarkable variation for growth form

Jan. 21, 2020

From the caliche soils of southeastern Colorado to crevices in bare sandstone on the Colorado Plateau, stemless four-nerved daisies show remarkable variation in growth form

Smooth Sumac Berries shown in a valley

Smooth sumac has edible berries and poisonous but medicinal leaves

Jan. 7, 2020

Smooth sumac and fragrant sumac have been shown to be sources of food, medicines, weaving materials and dyes A thicket of smooth sumac retained some of its berries in January, though most of them were gone. Smooth sumac is well known for its brilliant red fall foliage and its deep...

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