university of utah

(University of Utah) When a cell's chromosomes lose their ends, the cell usually kills itself to stem the genetic damage.

But University of Utah biologists discovered how those cells can evade suicide and start down the path to cancer.

The new study of fruit flies is the first to show in animals that losing just one telomere -- the end of a chromosome -- can lead to many abnormalities in a cell's chromosomes.

(University of Utah) University of Utah physicists successfully controlled an electrical current using the "spin" within electrons -- a step toward building an organic "spin transistor": A plastic semiconductor switch for future ultrafast computers and electronics.

The study also suggests it will be more difficult than thought to make highly efficient light-emitting diodes using organic materials.

The findings hint such LEDs would convert no more than 25 percent of electricity into light rather than heat.

(University of Utah) New calculations show that the deadly Crandall Canyon mine collapse -- which registered as a magnitude-3.9 earthquake -- began near where miners were excavating coal and quickly grew to a 50-acre cave-in, University of Utah seismologists say in a report on the tragedy.

The University of Utah Seismograph Stations estimated the size of the collapse is about four times larger than was thought shortly after the time of the Aug. 6, 2007, disaster.

(University of Utah) Researchers have been unable to build an ideal "photonic crystal" to manipulate visible light, impeding the dream of ultrafast optical computers.

But now, University of Utah chemists have discovered that nature already has designed photonic crystals with the ideal, diamond-like structure: They are found in the shimmering, iridescent green scales of a beetle from Brazil.

University of Utah engineers took an early step toward building superfast computers that run on far-infrared light instead of electricity: They made waveguides -- the equivalent of wires -- that carried and bent this form of light, also known as terahertz radiation, which is the last unexploited portion of the electromagnetic spectrum.

From the vast universe to subatomic particles, scale influences what we see, know and dream -- not only in science, but also in art, poetry, architecture, economics, music and philosophy.

The influence of scale on how we experience the world will be the focus Feb. 21-23 during the Utah Symposium in Science and Literature at the University of Utah.

The theme this year is "Measuring Scale: A World in a Grain of Sand."