Tags: Human Nature

glacier with ice melting
NASA Research on Sea Level Rise in Greenland

A NASA Interdisciplinary sciences project by UGA faculty lead by Thomas Mote and including Patricia Yager and Renato Castelao collected data this summer at the top of the world: On Greenland’s ice sheet, a vast icy landscape crisscrossed by turquoise rivers and dotted with melt water lakes, a small cluster of orange camping tents popped up in late July. The camp, home for a week to a team of researchers, sat by a large, fast-flowing river. Just…

painting of children
Targeting Empathy

Researchers in the department of psychology analyzing borderline personality disorder (BPD) have contributed something very interesting in conceptualizing the disorder's connections to empathy: "Our results showed that people with BPD traits had reduced activity in brain regions that support empathy," said the study's lead author Brian Haas, an assistant professor in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences psychology department. "This…

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Changing Students' Lives

A commentary essay in the CHE uses a course on 'philosophical anthropology' as a jump off point to discuss the importance of letting students discover their interests and excitement about learning: When I was an undergraduate at Antioch College in the early ’80s, I took a course in philosophical anthropology. I’m still not entirely sure what "philosophical anthropology" means, but it was the best course I ever had. It did more to prepare me for…

student with professor and microscope
Amazing student Karishma Sriram

Foundation Fellow and undergraduate stem cell researcher Karishma Sriram is making the most of her UGA opportunities: Entering college as a Foundation Fellow, I was immediately immersed in an enriching and creative environment. Through the Fellowship, I have been able to participate in intriguing book discussions, dinner seminars and conversations that helped me shape my understanding of the world around me. Further, the Fellowship afforded me…

logos and emmy statue
Kudos, August 2015

Franklin College faculty, staff, students and alumni continue to distinguish themselves and the university with awards, honors and accolades. Here are a few from the summer: “Destruction Was My Beatrice: Dada and the Unmaking of the Twentieth Century,” is reviewed by The Economist and Los Angeles Times. Author Jed Rasula is the Helen S. Lanier Distinguished Professor and English department head. New York Times also reviews Rasula’s history of…

people, cameras and microphones
Faculty in the media, August 2015

From flooding in Texas and the Confederate Flag to the discovery of an ancient Qu'ran, Franklin College faculty were widely quoted on a wide range of subjects over the summer. A sampling: Millennials: Apathetic or Empathetic? – R&B article quotes Brian Haas, an assistant professor in the Behavioral and Brain Science Program NPR reporter explores John Ross story and the art of the protest – Chattanooga Times Free Press quotes Jace Weaver,…

Gulf of Mexico 3D rendering
Establishing baseline data for the world's oceans

Samantha Joye explains in Science's Perspective section that only through collecting both baseline data and consistent long-term observations after pollution events is it possible to piece together the impacts of environmental disasters like oil spills: one of the biggest challenges in evaluating the environmental impacts of the Macondo blowout was the lack of baseline data—both in the water column and along the seabed, where as much as 15…

woman outside the coliseum
Amazing Student Lindsey Cheek

UGA gymnast and Franklin College triple major Lindsey Cheek sets the bar for "Amazing Student" somewhere out near the Gama Quadrant: I didn’t start college like the normal student. I graduated high school in December and immediately joined the gymnastics team.  When the spring semester began in January I was competing on three events when I should have been a senior in high school. During that season I was named freshman of the week once,…

cilia graphic in color
New techniques for diagnosing respiratory abnormalities

Just last week, UGA hosted a symposium on Research Experiences for Undergraduates, a program that brought promising young researchers to campus for ten weeks this summer to work with and be mentored by some of our best faculty members. The theme of the first day's presentations was computational biology, and if you're curious about research pursuits within that confluence of disciplines, a new study demonstrates what it is quite well: Though it…

man in lab with plants
When thieving weeds attack

An international group of scientists that includes assistant professor of genetics Dave Nelson has discovered how parasitic plants, which steal their nutrients from another living plant, evolved the ability to detect and attack their hosts. Their findings were  published recently in the journal Science: As plant roots grow, they release hormones called strigolactones into the soil. This is a signal that normally helps fungi form a…


Symposium Highlights Undergraduate Research

Later this month, a symposium will highlight the research of 10 undergraduate students from across the country who have been participating in a 10-week Research Experiences for Undergraduates program funded by the National Science Foundation. Boasting from programs as prestigious as MIT and University of California, Berkeley, the students will present their research in nanotechnology and biomedicine Friday, July 31 beginning at 8 a.m. at the…

colorful infographic
Informatics Initiative

You can read about the Information Age on almost any page, on practically any day. More data has been created in the last fifteen years than in all previous human history. What does this mean for science? For research? For scholarship? Quite a byte(!), it turns out. Managing, storing and making this data accessible is a Herculean task that is growing by the day. It is arguably one of the greatest next-challenges of civilization, not to mention…

brumby residence dorm
Hunker Down with Housing

Yes, move-in day is only a few short weeks away, and our friends at University Housing are looking for volunteers to streamline the move-in process for students and their families. University Housing will welcome all new and returning students to Athens on Tuesday, August 11, and Wednesday, August 12, during Hunker Down with Housing. Volunteers from the community, students and all university staff are invited to help welcome approximately 8,000…

people with inflated bounce house
Weather-related accidents and conditions

Great demonstration at the geography building yesterday, and our colleague Jessica Luton shares the story: The UGA Geography building lawn looked more like a setup for a child’s birthday party or a carnival than a research project Thursday afternoon as students gathered around a red and yellow bounce house. The students, who are both undergraduate and graduate students studying atmospheric science, are taking a summer geography class meant to…

immunofluorescence image
To Fight A Parasite

Very big news out of cellular biology and the Striepen lab in the fight against a parasite known as a major cause of suffering throughout the developing world: Researchers at the University of Georgia have developed new tools to study and genetically manipulate cryptosporidium, a microscopic parasite that causes the diarrheal disease cryptosporidiosis. Their discoveries, published in the journal Nature, will ultimately help researchers in…

city scape with graphics
UGA in LA

Our California-based alums, and we have a lot of them, are in the spotlight this week as the university holds alumni events in Los Angeles and San Francisco. Today, it's LA: Alumni, friends and parents are invited to join President Morehead and others including faculty and staff from Franklin at a reception at the Four Seasons in Beverly Hills, details at the link. Should be fun. And the S.F. on Thursday. The Arch stretches across the country,…

social media companies graphic
Social Media and Informal Learning

An interesting new study highlighted on the CHE blog, Wired Campus, expands on the expanding reality of the impacts of social media on informed discussions within and beyond the classroom: In a paper released on Monday, Christine Greenhow, an assistant professor of education at Michigan State University, argues that using informal social-media settings to carry on debates about science can help students refine their argumentative skills,…

man, at stadium
Amazing student: Colton Fowlkes

We talk often (and hear even more) about high school students' involvement in a range of activities beyond the classroom, and how this can make them more attractive applicants in the selective college admissions process. But what about after they are admitted and become university students? Are extra-curricular activites still important? Is having fun while you're making a difference important? Double-major in psychology and biology Colton…

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WUGA TV

The sale of WUGA-TV to Marquee Broadcasting is scheduled to be completed on July 1, and we would be remiss not to note the end of this mini-epoch in university broadcasting. Since 2012, WUGA-TV existed as a local PBS affiliate in Athens, owned by UGA and whatever may have been its initial puropse or the original motivations behind the endeavor, the Franklin College became a significant contributor to the station. It broadcast, in every sense of…

Ocoee scenic byway photo
Buffer Zones Needed

Interesting findings from Warnell School researchers that could have much broader implications (than just the sites mentioned) - natural wilderness areas need the protection of buffer zones: Coveted for their beauty, these wilderness areas draw innumerable outdoor enthusiasts eager for a taste of primitive nature. But University of Georgia researchers say these federally protected nature areas have a problem: Their boundaries have become prime…

UGA North campus with trees
A Welcoming Environment

The speed with which the Confederate flag has fallen below the line of acceptability in a single week is inspiring. That symbol is not just being talked about - it is being taken down. As a part of this swirl of events in motion, predicated on the murderous rampage in Charleston one week ago, how will the conversation to make our campuses more inviting, welcoming and diverse - especially here in the South - continue to progress? Other…

man, with plant center graphic
Pew Scholar in biomedical sciences

Congratulations to Bob Schmitz, assistant professor of genetics, who was recently named a Pew scholar in the biomedical sciences by the Pew Charitable Trusts. Schmitz, an assistant professor of genetics in UGA's Franklin College of Arts and Sciences, joins the ranks of more than 600 outstanding scientists who have been selected as Pew scholars in the 30 years since the program's inception and whose careers have been dedicated to bold scientific…

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On truth

Astute piece in the Chronicle Review about the opportunism of disputing the truth that actually grew out of the academy: It’s not just garden-variety ignorance that periodically appears in public-opinion polls that makes us cringe or laugh. A 2009 survey by the California Academy of Sciences found that only 53 percent of American adults knew how long it takes for Earth to revolve around the sun. Only 59 percent knew that the earliest…

aerial view of spherical nodes
Industrial Espionage: A brief history

History professor Stephen Mihm uses his Bloomberg column to offer a heuristic for those who might get the vapors about recent "unscrupulous dealings in the global economy": before getting into high dudgeon mode, the U.S., and for that matter, almost every Western nation, might wish to remember their own, no-holds-barred campaigns to swipe industrial secrets. In fact, one of the first cases involved the theft of industrial secrets from China. In…

humanities text on purple
National Humanities Alliance

When a university's humanities programs are strong, as they are at UGA, we don't hear much about the threats to instruction and research in its many disciplines. But that humanites strength on our campus comes from a supportive community that fosters collaboration at critical junctures - both physical and in time - that makes innovative faculty and student initiatives a reality. In other words, we recognize the importance of having the Willson…
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