University of Utah

ScholarPeer’s latest research news and reporting from University of Utah. University of Utah is a public research university with major strengths in medicine, genetics, biomedical engineering, neuroscience, computing, geoscience, and energy research. Its researchers investigate areas including cancer, precision medicine, cardiovascular disease, artificial intelligence, climate and Earth systems, materials science, and population health, combining fundamental and translational research to advance knowledge and improve health, technology, and environmental resilience.

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Artist’s conception of early star formation. The first stars may have formed as early as 100 million years after the big bang, when dense clouds of hydrogen and helium collapsed under their own gravitational pull. Once the pressure and temperature were high enough, hydrogen atoms began to fuse together, releasing energy in the form of light. CREDIT NASA, STScI/A. Schaller

Giant Stars Starved of Metals Seem to Run Out of Puff

Ultraviolet spectra of 29 massive O-type stars in six nearby dwarf galaxies show winds weakening as metals thin out, and hint at a sharper drop in the most metal-poor, with consequences for how astronomers read Webb’s earliest galaxies.

Detailed photo of a brown beetle crawling on textured tree bark, highlighting natural textures.

Satellite Glow Revealed Forest Stress Before Beetles Killed Trees

A faint photosynthetic signal separated stressed forests from matched controls before widespread tree death was visible, but drought and coarse satellite pixels still prevent the method from predicting where mortality will occur.