STORY

Robots can’t outrun animals (yet). A new study explores why

The question may be the 21st century’s version of the fable of the tortoise and the hare: Who would win in a foot race between a robot and an animal? In a new...
STORY

As Voyager 1’s mission draws to a close, one planetary scientist reflects on its legacy

Fran Bagenal is a planetary scientist at the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP) at CU Boulder. She started working on the Voyager mission...
STORY

Geologists explore the hidden history of Colorado’s Spanish Peaks

If you’ve driven the mostly flat stretch of I-25 in Colorado from Pueblo to Trinidad, you’ve seen them: the Spanish Peaks, twin mountains that soar into the...
STORY
Full Triceratops skeleton now calls Boulder home

Full Triceratops skeleton now calls Boulder home

This week, a new horned animal is coming to the CU Boulder campus. No, not a buffalo, but a full-sized skeletal reconstruction of a Triceratops dinosaur. The...
STORY

Does lightning strike on Venus? Maybe not, study suggests

Venus may be a (slightly) gentler place than some scientists give it credit for. In new research, space physicists at CU Boulder have jumped into a...
STORY
What the SCOTUS ruling on affirmative action means for American higher ed

What the SCOTUS ruling on affirmative action means for American higher ed

Kevin Welner, professor in the School of Education at CU Boulder and director of the National Education Policy Center, discusses how the ruling might change...
STORY
Weeks later, potentially harmful chemicals lingered in homes affected by Marshall Fire

Weeks later, potentially harmful chemicals lingered in homes affected by Marshall Fire

Potentially harmful chemicals generated by the Marshall Fire in late 2021 may have lingered inside some Boulder County homes for weeks after the disaster—...
STORY
How 1,000 undergraduates helped solve an enduring mystery about the sun

How 1,000 undergraduates helped solve an enduring mystery about the sun

For a new study, a team of physicists recruited roughly 1,000 undergraduate students at CU Boulder to help answer one of the most enduring questions about the...
STORY

Five burning questions about ChatGPT, answered by humans

This sentence was not written by ChatGPT. Later on in this story, you’ll find a paragraph drafted by the popular artificial intelligence platform (it’s up to...
STORY

New Colorado space instrument part of flagship mission to Europa

In less than a decade, technology developed in Colorado will travel to Jupiter’s moon Europa—a cold moon where a thick crust of ice covering the surface...
STORY

As schools become political battlegrounds, one educator sees room for hope

When Noreen Naseem Rodríguez was 32, she stumbled on a few sentences in a book that changed the course of her work as an educational researcher: In 1587, she...
STORY
‘You ain’t seen nothing yet’: New space telescope gives first glimpses of universe

‘You ain’t seen nothing yet’: New space telescope gives first glimpses of universe

This week, NASA released the first images taken by the James Webb Space Telescope—an instrument that launched in December 2021 and carries the largest mirror...
STORY
Colorado’s quantum revolution

Colorado’s quantum revolution

In the 17th Century, a Dutch merchant named Antony van Leeuwenhoek began experimenting with making new microscope lenses and, in the process, plunged humanity...
STORY

As tensions in Ukraine increase, researcher worries for its people

John O’Loughlin, a professor of geography at CU Boulder who studies Ukrainian geopolitics, sees an international conflict quickly spiraling out of control. “It...
STORY
Coloradans still deeply divided over COVID policies, election legitimacy, survey shows

Coloradans still deeply divided over COVID policies, election legitimacy, survey shows

A new survey of the state of politics in Colorado during 2021 has revealed deep divisions between Democrats and Republicans around a wide range of issues—from...
STORY
Help is a long way away: The challenges of sending humans to Mars

Help is a long way away: The challenges of sending humans to Mars

On July 20, 1969, Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin stepped out a lunar lander onto the surface of the moon. The landscape in front of him, which was made up of...
STORY
Heading back to the moon – this time for good

Heading back to the moon – this time for good

Getting humans back to the moon is one thing. Jack Burns and other CU scientists are asking, "How can we stay?"
STORY
‘Chameleon’ tattoos change color, may help diagnose illness

‘Chameleon’ tattoos change color, may help diagnose illness

When a pair of tourists hiking the Alps stumbled across the frozen remains of the mummy Ötzi in 1991 they also, unknowingly, discovered the oldest known...