Adam Houston, professor of Earth and atmospheric sciences at Nebraska, was interviewed for a July 21 Daily Mail article, inspired by the new movie “Twisters,” on what it’s like to be a storm chaser. The article was among 35-plus national news stories featuring Husker faculty, staff, students, centers and programs in July.
Houston was also featured in a pair of Houston Chronicle articles (1, 2), as well as several local news stories.
John Hibbing, professor emeritus of political science, was interviewed for a July 7 Guardian article on Nebraska’s 2nd Congressional District possibly playing a pivotal role in the 2024 presidential election. He said it’s unlikely the election would come down to the district, but it could be disastrous if it did. “If (former President Donald Trump and his supporters) made a big to-do out of things when it wasn’t close, what [is it] going to look like if it really should come down to just one district?” he said. “I think it would be bad.”
Ars Technica published a July 7 article on the Ashfall Fossil Beds State Historical Park. Michael Voorhies, professor emeritus of Earth and atmospheric sciences, who discovered the fossil site; Rick Otto, Ashfall’s superintendent from 1991 to 2023; and Sandy Mosel, an associate with the University of Nebraska State Museum, were interviewed for the story.
A novel study from the Center for Brain, Biology and Behavior at Nebraska and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign has identified a specific nutrient profile in study participants who performed better cognitively. The profile is correlated with nutrients found in the Mediterranean diet, which research has previously associated with healthy brain aging. The research team was led by Aron Barbey, CB3 director, with Jisheng Wu, a doctoral student at Nebraska, and Christopher Zwilling, research scientist at UIUC. Stories on the study appeared in the Omaha World-Herald, BBC Science Focus, the Independent, Inverse, New Atlas, NBC’s “Today” and 150-plus other media outlets.
The National Strategic Research Institute has received a $24.5 million award from the Defense Health Agency to advance development of an acute radiation syndrome prophylactic. David Berkowitz, chemistry, offered an update on the project on the July 16 episode of Straight Arrow News’ “Weapons and Warfare” program.
New research from the University of Nebraska–Lincoln examined the fossil record going back 66 million years and tracked changes to mammalian ecosystems and species diversity on the North American continent. The study was led by Alex Shupinski, a recent doctoral graduate from Nebraska, and co-authored by Kate Lyons, biological sciences. Phys.org ran a July 17 article on the research. MSN picked up the article.
Kelsy Burke, sociology, was interviewed for a July 24 BBC article titled “How the American war on porn could change the way you use the internet.” She said she believes age verification laws are part of a wider moral battle taking place all over the world. “Protecting children seems like something we can all agree upon,” she said. “But this may not really be about children or even pornography at all. Rather, it’s a way to codify specific moral beliefs about sexuality and gender that may not align with the majority of Americans.”
Scott Gardner, biological sciences, curator of the Manter Laboratory of Parasitology, and Gábor Racz, the lab’s collections manager, were featured in a July 31 Smithsonian Magazine article on efforts by parasitologists to inspire students to enter the field. According to the article, Gardner, Racz and colleagues are sneaking parasites into their college biology curriculums, handing out parasite stuffed animals at museum events and running the world’s first-ever parasite conservation program for a tiny tick.
