Christie Allen
University Communications Writer
More from this author
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A megafire induced over a century’s worth of erosion near Utah Lake — but there’s more to the story, say BYU scientists
In burned watersheds where the wildfire had consumed stabilizing vegetation and leaf litter, the rain had caused massive erosion. There was a 2,000-fold increase in sediment flux compared to unburned areas, creating a plume of ash and soil moving into Utah Lake that was visible from space.
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Can you tell the difference between an authentic Mesoamerican artifact and a forgery? This BYU student can.
Move over, Indiana Jones. In her undergraduate work authenticating the Mesoamerican greenstone collection at BYU’s Museum of Peoples and Cultures, anthropology student Chloe Burkey developed an eagle eye for the microscopic details that distinguish authentic artifacts from forged ones.
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Praising middle school students improves on-task behavior by up to 70%, BYU study finds
The study found that when middle school teachers praised students at least as often as they reprimanded them, class-wide on-task behavior improved by 60–70%. Students at high risk for emotional and behavioral disorders were also more likely to be on task, and their classroom marks went up by a full letter grade, compared to high-risk students in classrooms where teachers rarely offered praise.
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BYU biologists travel the world to chart over 6,300 dragonfly species
A team of BYU biologists has been tracking dragonflies around the world, from Vietnam to the islands of Vanuatu. Their goal is to piece together the first-ever phylogenic tree of all 6,300 known species and their ancestors.
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Curious about Utah’s frontier women? Browse BYU’s new database of women’s newspaper ads
A single bottle of tonic to cure diabetes, cancer, ulcers and dizziness. Raisins and currants for Christmas mince meat pies. Midwifery courses taught by a certified female doctor, $30 a term. A souvenir stone from the Hill Cumorah, “guaranteed genuine,” mailed from New York for 25 cents.
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Want to influence your local government? Vote in off-cycle elections
As places like Utah, Arizona, Michigan, and Maryland gear up to hold local elections this summer and fall, history predicts that they will see an average of 29–37% fewer voters than they would were their elections held “on cycle,” in tandem with state and federal elections.
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BYU nursing professor helping revolutionize DNA evidence collection in sexual assault cases
For the past 10 years, BYU nursing professor and certified sexual assault examiner Julie Valentine has helped put Utah at the forefront of making touch DNA evidence collection a standard practice in groping cases.
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BYU engineering, theatre arts students team up to create animatronic cougar
Thanks to the combined efforts of two BYU engineering capstone teams and a group of theatre and media arts students, the beloved mascot Cosmo is getting an animatronic counterpart in the theatre department.
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Simple text message reminders may significantly boost COVID-19 vaccination rates
A recent mega-study co-authored by a BYU professor showed that sending patients text message reminders to get a flu shot at their routine appointments increased vaccination rates by up to 11%, enough to make a significant impact in national immunity.
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