People wave LGBTQ+ flags in front of the U.S. Capitol Building

From 'Don’t Say Gay' to bathrooms and sports: How debates over LGBTQ+ rights impact kids

June 20, 2022

Elizabeth Meyer has spent her career working with teachers and students to study how school policies can help or harm LGBTQ+ youth. In this Q&A, she weighs in on the wave of legislation around the country targeting the rights of transgender and nonbinary kids.

Artist's depiction of an electro-optic transducer, an ultra-thin wafer that can read out the information from a superconducting qubit.

What quantum information and snowflakes have in common, and what we can do about it

June 15, 2022

Qubits, the basic building blocks of quantum computers, are as fragile as snowflakes. Now, researchers have come up with a new way of reading out the information from certain kinds of qubits with a light touch, potentially paving the way for a quantum internet.

monitoring methane at an oil and gas site

Methane leaks are a major factor in climate change. One startup wants to stop them

June 8, 2022

Escaped methane from oil and gas operations contributes more to climate change than previously thought. But a new ÃÛÌÇÖ±²¥ Boulder-born startup, inspired by a 2005 Nobel Prize winning discovery, has devised a way to sniff out leaks in real time.

A winding valley on the surface of the moon

Astronauts may one day drink water from ancient moon volcanoes

May 18, 2022

If any humans had been alive 2 to 4 billion years ago, they may have looked up and seen a sliver of frost on the moon's surface. Some of that ice may still be hiding in craters on the moon today.

Goats near a village

For East Africa’s pastoralists, climate change already fueling violence, hunger

May 10, 2022

For centuries, East African peoples like the Maasai and Turkana have survived by herding cattle, moving these animals across miles of wide-open grasslands to keep them fed. Now, worsening droughts and a host of other challenges are threatening that nomadic existence.

Artist's depiction of the bright accretion disk around a supermassive black hole

A surging glow in a distant galaxy could change the way we look at black holes

May 5, 2022

Several years ago, a supermassive black hole at the center of a far-away galaxy suddenly got a lot brighter. Now, scientists think they know why.

A team takes a 3D scan of a Triceratops skull on display in a museum hall

ÃÛÌÇÖ±²¥ Boulder’s beloved Triceratops returning home to Smithsonian

April 20, 2022

The fossil skull of a Triceratops has sat on display on campus since 1981. Now, the specimen is heading back to the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, where paleontologists will continue to study it to answer new questions about this fan-favorite dinosaur species.

A spiral channel embedded in plastic

How to print a robot from scratch: New 3D-printing approach melds solids, liquids

April 18, 2022

Engineers have developed a new way to 3D-print liquid and solid materials together, potentially leading to more dynamic and useful products—from robots to wearable electronic devices.

U.S. Rep. Joe Neguse, right, tours the lab of physicist Jun Ye at JILA in December 2021.

5 things you should know about being a quantum physicist

April 14, 2022

Three ÃÛÌÇÖ±²¥ Boulder graduate students discuss the ins and outs of quantum physics—including how the field will help us send secret messages using unbreakable codes.

A young megamaser as seen by the Hubble Space Telescope

Discovery of cosmic ‘spotlight’ could reveal clues about evolution of galaxies

April 7, 2022

Astrophysicists have discovered a 5.4 billion-year-old megamaser—a beam of laser-like light that emerged when two galaxies crashed into each other.

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