Science & Technology

The Arctic sea ice cover appears to have reached its minimum extent for the year, the third-lowest recorded since satellites began measuring sea ice extent in 1979, according to the University of Colorado at Boulder's National Snow and Ice Data Center.

A team from the University of Colorado at Boulder has been awarded $6.7 million from NASA to design, develop and test instruments for the fastest space probe ever built, one that will orbit 22 times closer to the sun than Earth and well inside the orbit of Mercury to better understand how the sun ticks.

The University of Colorado at Boulder's Renewable and Sustainable Energy Institute, or RASEI -- a joint venture with the U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory -- will partner with Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A. Inc. in a field study of household experiences and the technical impacts of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, or PHVs, in a "smart grid" environment.

A new University of Colorado at Boulder study sheds light on the brain mechanisms that allow us to make choices and ultimately could be helpful in improving treatments for the millions of people who suffer from the effects of anxiety disorders.

Professor Thomas Veblen of the geography department can address the ecological effects of wildfires in Colorado; climate change and wildfires; fires and bark beetles; and wildfires. He can be reached at 303-492-8528 or Thomas.Veblen@colorado.edu . E-mail is the best way contact him. Jane Bock, retired professor of ecology and evolutionary biology, can address western wildfire ecology. She can be reached at 970-593-0343 or 303-579-9739, or by e-mail at Jane.Bock@colorado.edu .

Observations made with NASA's newly refurbished Hubble Space Telescope of a nearby supernova are allowing astronomers to measure the velocity and composition of "star guts" being ejected into space following the explosion, according to a new study led by the University of Colorado at Boulder.

Faculty at the University of Colorado at Boulder, Montana State University, the University of Idaho and collaborators at the U.S. Forest Service received a $3.85 million grant to study fire and climate change in sensitive forests in the United States, Australia and New Zealand.

A multidisciplinary team of University of Colorado faculty has been awarded $1.97 million by the National Science Foundation to develop a "living wall" system based on biomimicry, or the imitation of nature, to slash energy use in buildings.

University of Colorado at Boulder undergraduates, who have been helping to control five NASA satellites from campus, participated in the unusual decommissioning of a functioning satellite with a failed science payload in recent days, bringing the craft into Earth re-entry to burn up yesterday.

Large changes in the sun's energy output may drive unexpectedly dramatic fluctuations in Earth's outer atmosphere, new research indicates. A study published today links a recent, temporary shrinking of a high atmospheric layer with a sharp drop in the sun's ultraviolet radiation levels.