UF-led Team Receives Keck Grant to Study Fungal Infections Spread by Wildfire Smoke
from UF/IFAS by Samantha Murray GAINESVILLE, Fla. — As wildfire season ramps up and threatens many areas across the U.S., a team of scientists begins a multi-year study to understand how fungi spread by wildfires affect the health of people living downwind. Their research will be the first to investigate this phenomenon. Scientists sample smoke... Read More
Clinicians May Now be Able to Tell COVID-19 From Seasonal Flu With Fast Turnaround Thanks to UF Research
from UF Engineering For those who have made a trip to a doctor or clinic during the oncoming flu season, the most nagging concern is whether their symptoms are indicative of the garden-variety bug that is making the rounds in the workplace or a potential COVID-19 infection. As researchers scramble to treat this virus —... Read More
AI to improve plant breeding at Gulf Coast Research and Education Center
By Brad Buck UF/IFAS BALM, Fla. — Kevin Wang trained as an engineer and gave little thought to agriculture. But then, life took a few turns. Born in Tianjin, China, Wang was raised in an urban area and went to the China Agricultural University in Beijing. He lived in Beijing for seven years. In college,... Read More
Why We Love Wordle, According to Science
from UF News Social psychologist Matt Baldwin wakes up thinking about the yellow and green boxes of Wordle, the free, once-a-day word game that has gained millions of fans since its public launch in October. Unlike most players, though, he understands why our brains crave it. Baldwin, a University of Florida professor, points to several psychological concepts... Read More
UF/IFAS study: Forget the queen, kill the brood to eliminate subterranean termite colonies
By Lourdes Mederos UF/IFAS DAVIE, Fla – Taking an extended look inside a subterranean termite colony is a rare and almost non-existent opportunity unless you raise one. But scientists like Thomas Chouvenc rear colonies from a king and queen, allowing them to produce thousands of eggs that grow to full maturity. In doing so, Chouvenc sheds a... Read More
Dengue’s Dance: Host Immunity Drives Viral Evolution
DeLene Beeland UF EPI New research by a team of University of Florida investigators, and others, provides evidence that host immunity drives evolution of the dengue virus. The work, published Nov. 18 in Science, retrospectively analyzes two decades of dengue virus genetic variation from Thailand, alongside population-level measures of infection and immunity. There are four... Read More