By 2020, according to studies published by the U.S. Bureau of the Census, more than 35 percent of the U.S. population will be age 50 and over—and this age group is expected to double by 2050. A Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health analysis estimates that more than 70 million Americans ages 50 and older currently suffer from at least… Read more
New, high-tech lab enables NAU researchers, students to command Mars Curiosity Rover
There’s a buzz of extraterrestrial activity going on in Room 230 of the Physical Sciences Building at NAU. That’s where Christopher Edwards, assistant professor of physics and astronomy, just opened the new Mars Rover Operations and Analysis Laboratory, where faculty researchers and students will use sophisticated equipment to help command the day-to-day activities of NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity Rover (MSL)… Read more
NAU researcher leads effort to quantify economic value of biodiversity
Wildflowers splashed across a meadow in different sizes, shapes and colors offer more than just beauty. The natural mix of plant species in an ecosystem—its biodiversity—helps it grow faster and cycle nutrients more efficiently. These ecosystem functions also deliver life-sustaining services on which humans rely, such as purifying water and providing food, fuel and oxygen.
Biodiversity is declining around the world… Read more
New NAU research project to improve oral health of Arizona’s preschoolers
According to experts, approximately 23 percent of American children aged 2 to 5 years have caries, or untreated tooth decay. But that number is dramatically higher in Arizona, where 40 percent of preschoolers have tooth decay. Among the more rural, economically disadvantaged Hispanic and Native American populations of Northern Arizona, that number is even higher.
NAU bioinformatician and assistant professor Viacheslav “Slava” Fofanov recently received a $224,000 grant from the Arizona Biomedical… Read more
NAU scientist uses remote sensing technologies to detect groundwater in drought-stricken East Africa
A series of unprecedented droughts in the already impoverished areas of east Africa, chiefly northern Kenya and eastern Ethiopia, have affected millions of people in the region in the past several years, including many refugees from neighboring Somalia.
Although crop failures and resulting food shortages cause severe malnourishment in these populations, the lack of safe drinking water for both… Read more
NAU scientist pioneers novel ways to study endangered baleen whales
Although North Atlantic right whales, humpback whales and bowhead whales–all species of baleen whales–are some of the largest animals on Earth, they are also among the most critically endangered. These whales were hunted nearly to extinction over the last 300 years for their blubber, which was used to produce oil. Fortunately, these species are repopulating, but because they reproduce slowly, their… Read more