Brian Maffly

‘Rock glaciers’ abound in the West’s mountains, holding vast amounts of ice. New research from @utah.edu calculates how much. @uofu-science.bsky.social attheu.utah.edu/research/uta...

How wildfire smoke delivers spikes in nitrogen, phosphorus and other nutrients into ecosystems. @utah.edu -led research examines an overlooked ecological consequence of fire. attheu.utah.edu/facultystaff...

Beneath Utah’s #GreatSaltLake lies a record of earthquakes dating back thousands of years. New research by #USGS found evidence of four major quakes—magnitude 6.9 to 7.3—along Wasatch Fault, occurring over past 11,000 years. #Seismology @uussquake.bsky.social doi.org/10.1130/B385...

Study led by @utah.edu engineers points ways to adjust data center operations to reduce pressure on Western grid—and costs by up to $590 million a year. attheu.utah.edu/science-tech...

These proposed Office of Management and Budget regulations would render the federal research grant review process opaque

By reanalyzing archived seismic data, @utah.edu seismologists have confirmed 10 quakes beneath northeast Utah and southwest Wyoming since 1979 at depths below Earth’s crust in the mantle. @uussquake.bsky.social @uofu-science.bsky.social

To better understand long-term suicide trends, @utah.edu researchers analyzed federal mortality data going back to 1900. Their study shows suicide follow decades-long cycles shaped by social forces, not just individual psychology. attheu.utah.edu/health-medic...

What could happen if Iran launches retaliatory strikes on Persian Gulf’s vital desalination plants? @utah.edu historian @mchrislow.bsky.social offers this great analysis. theconversation.com/persian-gulf...

#GreatSaltLake biome is getting more crowded with @utah.edu’s discovery of new nematode species, one of which was just named, D. wo’aabi, for the Shoshone word for worm. Worm discoverer @drjuliejung.bsky.social talks about it on @npr.org www.npr.org/2025/12/16/n... @uofubiology.bsky.social

Documentary, The Memory of Darkness, Light, and Ice, details how @utahstate.bsky.social geoscientist Tammy Rittenour helped reveal climate secrets locked in Greenland’s ice sheet. Her Luminescence Lab dated old ice cores, pinpointing time when Greenland was ice free. www.usu.edu/today/story/...

Inequities in park access along racial and ethnic lines abounds in the US, despited the many benefits public green space provides people, new @utah.edu study finds. Time to overhaul funding models to improve access for underserved communities. attheu.utah.edu/facultystaff...

Seismology meets botany: Here’s what ambient vibrations reveal about dynamic properties and structure of towering saguaro cacti. @utah.edu attheu.utah.edu/research/sei...

Curated by ancient rodents and hardened with their pee: What pack rat middens reveal about Range Creek’s past. Geographers look to pollen grains and macrofossils preserved in poop piles to reconstruct Utah canyon's paleoecology. attheu.utah.edu/feature/the-... @utah.edu

Private timberlands managed for industrial logging are more prone to severe burning in wildfires than national forests. LiDAR-based study led by @utah.edu shows why. @wilkescenter.bsky.social attheu.utah.edu/facultystaff... 2018 imagery mapped forest structure in Sierra before region burned

Utah’s #BonnevilleSaltFlats have shrunk by 75% since 1925. @utah.edu geologists Brenda Bowen and Mark Radwin use remote satellite, aerial imagery to analyze loss of halite crusts sciencedirect.com/science/arti... At current decline rate, 185-358 acres a year, they could be gone by 2072

Sediment records from #GreatSaltLake show post-Mormon settlement irrigation and the 1959 railroad causeway triggered environmental shifts unseen in 2,000 years. @utah.edu attheu.utah.edu/research/the...

Transdisciplinary study from #UniversityofUtah concludes unborn children are at higher risk of intellectual disabilities from their mothers’, even grandmothers’ exposure to air pollution while pregnant. attheu.utah.edu/facultystaff... @utah.edu

After 13 years of pouring money down this rathole, the state of Utah still pays people to indiscriminately kill coyotes, despite reams of evidence that this cruel policy does little to control this resilient predator, not to mention flagrant fraud on the part of some bounty collectors.

AI chatbots can be an asset in mental health treatment. But things get risky when they try to do work that requires a license for humans.

Thanks to federal funding and curious scientists, the U.S. has long driven life-saving discoveries in genetics. That legacy is in serious jeopardy under proposed cuts to NSF and NIH. Retired @utah.edu biomedical researchers explain what's at stake in @sltrib.com op-ed

@utah.edu campus is Utah’s official arboretum with 11,600 trees spanning 300 species, from Walter Cottam’s legendary gambel oak hybrids to majestic Japanese zelkova in Cottam’s Gulch. Read the university magazine cover story by Lisa Anderson. @redbuttegarden magazine.utah.edu/issues/summe...

‘Jar of bones’ recovered from Utah’s public lands and held for 20 years in the collections of @nhmu.bsky.social found to be those of a Cretaceous lizard previously unknown to science. Study by @utah.edu gives it a name: Bolg amondol, relative of modern Gila monster. attheu.utah.edu/facultystaff...

@utah.edu medical ethicists are revealing untold story of Black inmate used in malaria experiments at #Stateville Penitentiary and how it led to discoveries that help prevent adverse drug reactions today. attheu.utah.edu/health-medic...

LED lighting doesn't just save electricity, it can also prevent bird collisions with buildings, which kills millions a year. Researchers with @utahstate.bsky.social figure out how shining ultraviolet light on glass makes windows appear solid. www.npr.org/2025/05/26/n...

Our energy future? Cue Fred Flintstone @washingtonpost.com

Climate change is not just disrupting songbirds’ breeding and migration schedules. The timing of their fall molt is occurring earlier every year, according to bird banding research from @utah.edu @sekercioglu.bsky.social @uofubiology.bsky.social attheu.utah.edu/research/as-...

“It’s like they have a superpower.” Genetic analysis of all-women extreme divers finds changes linked to blood pressure, cold tolerance. Secrets of the Haenyeo divers ⬇️🤿

Spring runoff is older than you think: Research by #UofU hydrologists finds water flowing out of Western ranges is, on average, more than 5 years old, demonstrating that runoff has a prolonged underground journey.

We're partnering with @xprize.org to revolutionize healthy aging. The $101-million, 7-year global competition will leverage our Utah Data Coordinating Center to validate the science of competing XPRIZE teams, who are working toward a goal of extending "health spans."

University Police find answers in 1973 missing student cold case: “We never stopped hoping for answers about Doug’s disappearance. We are relieved to finally have some answers. After 52 years, this result, while sad, is nothing short of a miracle.” 📰 attheu.utah.edu/safety/unive...

Utah needs more herpetologists like Geoff Smith. Here's the latest news from IguanaThon

This guy is onto what could be an awesome board game!

Singularism involves a “tea ceremony” with hallucinogenic mushrooms that allow participants to “have these overwhelming, powerful mastery experiences.” Provo sees it as a covert way of selling drugs.

You won’t regret reading this delightful story by @sean-greene.bsky.social.

Researchers from @uuhsresearch.bsky.social and other institutions have developed the most comprehensive atlas of genetic change through generations. It shows parts of the human genome change much faster than we thought, providing insight into human disease & evolution.

UPDATE: At least 10 international students attending Utah colleges and universities on recently revoked student visas saw their status reinstated Friday — but The Tribune has learned that one student already left the U.S. about a week ago.

Faster melts, drier futures. Dust storms darken the snowpack, speed up melt and make runoff predictions harder, according to @utah.edu research. Hydrologists use 23 years of satellite data to reveal how much sooner Colorado Plateau snow melts. attheu.utah.edu/facultystaff...

Woodrats are basically desert superheroes, able to eat toxic plants and survive rattlesnake bites. But @utah.edu researchers find their venom resistance drops when it’s cool. @uofubiology.bsky.social attheu.utah.edu/research/woo... #ScienceNews #VenomResistance #Ecology

Some people use Vibroseis trucks to find oil and gas. @utah.edu researchers use them to characterize underground volcanic features, like the #Yellowstone magma reservoir. New research bring this potentially explosive feature into sharp focus. attheu.utah.edu/science-tech...

The 230-million-year-old crocodylian lineage survived two mass extinctions. Researchers from @utah.edu find clues to their resilience in fossilized teeth. @nhmu.bsky.social #paleontology attheu.utah.edu/facultystaff...

Hear how the teeth of the late @hoglezoo.bsky.social elephant named Misha is helping @utah.edu scientists reconstruct ancient wildlife migrations. Geologist Thure Cerling talks to KCPW's Cool Science Radio about strontium #isotope research www.kpcw.org/show/cool-sc...

What did people eat 15,000 years ago? @utah.edu anthropologists recover starch residues in ancient grinding stones, revealing long-lost food traditions. Bedrock metates hold new clues about #AncientDiets @nhmu.bsky.social attheu.utah.edu/research/sto...

U of Utah historian Peter Roady has an interesting perspective on how the definition of national security has narrowed since FDR's New Deal. Listen to him discuss his new book on the Burn Bag podcast @utah.edu burnbag.buzzsprout.com/1225250/epis...

Misha lived her whole life in zoos, but this elephant’s teeth are now helping @utah.edu scientists reconstruct wildlife migrations attheu.utah.edu/facultystaff... @kpodkovyroff.bsky.social

Most folks do not understand how far in advance the planning and logistics of NIH grants take. We prepare for months or years for these submissions for one of 3 cycles per year. This study section cancellation delays grants by at least 6 months when study sections are cancelled.

Spray tons of hydrogen peroxide into the atmosphere from a network of 600-meter towers to remove methane, a major driver of climate change. What could go wrong? Plenty, according to new research from @utah.edu. @amayhew.bsky.social attheu.utah.edu/research/tec...

It took but a few minutes for #cat to find a new perch on the new piece of furniture and #dog is accusing me of special treatment

Desert woodrats survive on a toxic diet of creosote. @universityofutah.bsky.social researchers uncover clues how the rodent rapidly evolved tolerance for the poisonous plant as it proliferated across the Southwest after the last Ice Age. attheu.utah.edu/facultystaff...

If you want to reduce coyote numbers, shooting them is the last thing you should do. New trap-camera research from @universityofutah.bsky.social shows coyote populations are often highest in places where they are hunted. attheu.utah.edu/research/coy...