Research Highlights

A colorful character has become the mascot for a research program studying the impact of climate change on the economically important lobster fisheries of Maine. "Banana," a bright yellow lobster, was caught off the coast of Maine and has found a home at the University of New England in Biddeford.

How did Banana get to be so bright? According to Markus Frederich, a marine scientist at the university, "The coloration of lobsters is caused by several pigment proteins, the main colors being yellow, blue and red. The mixture of these pigments, plus pigments that the lobsters take up through their food, gives the lobster the typical "lobster color." Most likely due to genetic mutations, some of the pigment proteins can be missing leading to a different coloration. In Banana’s case, the yellow color is dominant, overshadowing the blue and red.”

Roughly 1 in 30 million lobsters has the genetic mutation that causes the yellow shell color, and there are many different color varieties, including bright blue, calico (black and orange) and the rarest of all -- white lobsters. The people of Maine have seen them all, as the lobster population and the state are closely intertwined. This is why researchers are studying the impact of warming waters on the lobsters.

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Photos show the hard, rough country some glaciers slide over: rocky domes and bumps in granite, rocky steps and depressions in limestone. The glaciers' beds often dwarf the researchers and their instruments.

During research in places exposed by retreating glaciers in the Swiss Alps (Rhone, Schwarzburg and Tsanfleuron glaciers) and the Canadian Rockies (Castleguard Glacier), four glaciologists used laser and drone technology to precisely measure the glaciers' rocky beds and record their contours.

The scientists then turned their measurements into high-resolution digital models of the glacier beds. They worked with subunits of the models to study how glaciers slide along bedrock bases.

The resulting new glacier "slip law" describes the "relationship between forces exerted by ice and water on the bed, and glacier speed," Iverson said. The slip law could be used by other researchers to better estimate how quickly ice sheets flow into oceans and raise sea levels.

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One of life’s greatest mysteries is the brain’s ability to encode something as complex as human behavior. In an effort to begin to unravel this mystery, neuroscientists often zoom in to record the activities of individual neurons. Sometimes they expand their view to look at a specific region of the brain. But if they zoom out farther, neuroscientists can observe many thousands of neurons across the entire brain firing at once to produce electrical oscillations that somehow translate into behaviors as distinct as a smile and a frown. The complexity is truly daunting.

Rainbo Hultman, University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine, Iowa City, realized years ago that by zooming out and finding a way to map all those emergent signals, she could help to change the study of brain function fundamentally. She also realized doing so offered her an opportunity to chip away at cracking the complicated code of the electrical oscillations that translate into such complex behaviors. To pursue her work in this emerging area of “electrical connectomics,” Hultman recently received a 2020 NIH Director’s New Innovator Award to study the most common human neurological disorder: migraine headaches.

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The big sagebrush is far from your typical tumbleweed. In the dry landscape of the American West, the sun catches the plant’s fine silver hair like light reflecting off a stormy ocean. Growing as tall as your thigh, their lanky limbs seem frozen in a permanently petrified stance.

“They kind of look like tortured little bonsai trees,” says Kathryn Turner, an evolutionary ecologist and assistant professor at Idaho State University. But this delicate bush is an essential native plant for desert wildlife—and it’s under threat.

Eighteen sagebrush species grow throughout North America’s Great Basin, a massive network of watersheds and prairies that spans the arid lands of Nevada, Utah, Idaho, Oregon, and California. Sagebrush growing here creates the largest interconnected habitat in North America, spanning across 175 million acres. This keystone plant supports over 350 species, including the adorable pygmy rabbit and charismatic greater sage-grouse.

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Scientists are certain that dark matter exists. Yet, after more than 50 years of searching, they still have no direct evidence of this mysterious substance.

The University of Delaware's Swati Singh is among a small group of researchers across the dark matter community that have begun to wonder if they are looking for the right type of dark matter. "What if dark matter is much lighter than what traditional particle physics experiments are looking for?" asked Singh.

Now, Singh, Jack Manley and collaborators at the University of Arizona and Haverford College have proposed a new way to look for the particles that might make up dark matter by repurposing existing tabletop sensor technology. The U.S. National Science Foundation-funded team recently reported their approach in a paper published in Physical Review Letters.

The researchers have proposed an experiment using a membrane made of silicon nitride and a fixed beryllium mirror to bounce light between the two surfaces. If the distance between the two materials changes, the researchers would know from the reflected light that dark photons are present because the silicon nitride and beryllium have different material properties.

The Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) awarded a one-year, $100,000 grant to two Delaware IDeA Programs (INBRE and IDeA-CTR), and others for their project entitled, “DRIVE: Developing a Roadmap of IDeAs for Veteran Engagement.

Medical and clinical research is an important aspect of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) programs. Yet, ClincalTrials.gov data show a disparity in veteran patient research engagement between Institutional Development Award (IDeA) states and territories and non-IDeA states and territories. IDeA is a congressionally mandated program that builds research capacity in states that historically have had low levels of National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding. VA medical centers (VAMCs) in IDeA states and territories receive substantially less of the annual VA research funding than VAMCs in non-IDeA states and territories. Together, these facts suggest that if provided ample and proper research resources, VAMC research programs in IDeA states and territories may grow their research capacity and expand the opportunities for veteran patients, caregivers, and clinicians in IDeA states and territories to engage in research as equitable research partners.

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(CNN) A decade ago, as undergraduate women pursuing degrees and futures in science, we were given regular signals that we were outsiders. From applying for research positions only to see that many of the most competitive labs were staffed largely by males to professors simply not engaging with us as they did our male peers, we learned quickly that science is too often unwelcoming to women. Perhaps this is why only three in 10 scientists worldwide are women, according to the UNESCO Institute for Statistics.

This is not only detrimental to women, but also to scientific progress, as it can prevent women with contributions to offer from entering the field. That is why we are calling on scientists, educators and student advisers to start breaking down the barriers facing women in science.

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Arkansas EPSCoR is now planning their second-ever virtual Arkansas Summer Research Institute (ASRI) for the summer of 2021, and is working with new technology partners to provide an even better experience for this year’s attendees.

Details about the 2021 ASRI will be announced in early Spring 2021. Funding has been secured through the National Science Foundation for the program to continue another five years.

Alaska NSF EPSCoR had a very successful Natural History workshop on Friday, May 14, 2021, in conjunction with the Alaska Tourism Industry Association. The 90-minute workshop was aimed at tour guides. Speakers included Rick Thoman on climate, Marian Snively on bears, Eric Klein on glaciers, Brandon Browne on volcanes and Omega Smith on the aurora.

View on YouTube.

Dr. Brenda Konar is the new Principal Investigator and Project Director of Alaska NSF EPSCoR Fire & Ice.

Konar has been involved with the Fire & Ice project since the beginning, as a co-PI and as co-lead of the Coastal Margins component. Within the component, her principal role has been coordinating and leading our intertidal research in Kachemak Bay.

Said Konar, “I’m stepping into the position at an important time, right at the midway point of our five-year project. A lot of the work we’ve done in the last couple of years is starting to pay off in the form of individual discoveries, datasets, and publications. The challenge now is to expand on our progress to reach larger conclusions about changes to Alaska’s boreal fires and coastal margins, ones that utilize and synthesize the many different kinds of data we’re generating. I’m also excited to work on our sustainability plan, so the progress we make in Fire & Ice will continue to benefit Alaska into the future.”

Konar attributes the success of Alaska NSF EPSCoR to former Director Pips Veazey’s strong leadership. “Pips had a long and successful run at Alaska EPSCoR, and we’re all deeply indebted to her for the current solid state of the program. But she didn’t do it alone: part of the secret to her success was building talented and capable Management and Leadership teams. With these folks to help shoulder the load, I have no worries about us continuing our success.”

Read the complete Letter from the Principal Investigator