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Editors: Reporters and photographers are welcome to attend any of the sessions on June 5. The 10:30 a.m. physics presentation will feature explosions and other visual effects. The tour of Henderson Museum beginning at 12:40 p.m. will feature a live owl and an educational talk. More than 300 seventh graders from middle schools throughout Colorado will get a glimpse of campus life and a pitch to go to college at the University of Colorado at Â鶹ӰԺ on Tuesday, June 5, as part of the state's GEAR-UP initiative to get low-income youths into college.

New observations with the Gemini North Telescope in Hawaii indicate three of the youngest massive star clusters yet detected each are swaddled in dust cocoons at least 600 trillion miles across, providing new clues to the evolution of the early universe.

Note to Editors: Contents embargoed until Monday, June 4, at 9 a.m. PDT. The AAS Press Room telephone numbers are (626) 844-6037, -6038 and -6039. The vast majority of wannabe planets in the universe are likely destroyed by cosmic forces long before they have a chance to evolve from dusty disks circling their parent stars, according to University of Colorado at Â鶹ӰԺ researchers.

The University of Colorado at Â鶹ӰԺ has signed a four-year agreement with the Collegiate Licensing Company (CLC) for management of university product licensing. CLC, a premier licensing organization, is the agent responsible for licensed collegiate products at such institutions as the universities of North Carolina, Michigan, Texas and Stanford.

Ever wonder what it would feel like to be sucked into a black hole? Audience members will have the chance to fall into an artificial black hole and participate in other activities at the Saturday, June 16, CU Wizards show "Black Holes." Professor Andrew Hamilton of the astrophysical and planetary sciences department will demonstrate the concepts of black holes in CU-Â鶹ӰԺ's Fiske Planetarium at 9:30 a.m. and again at 11:30 a.m.

Joan Padilla, Attorney General's office, Landa Heys, Center for Study and Prevention of Violence, CU-Â鶹ӰԺ, Christie McElhinney, The Colorado Trust, Denver--Colorado Attorney General Ken Salazar, John R. Moran, Jr., president of The Colorado Trust, and Dr. Delbert Elliott, director of the Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence at CU-Â鶹ӰԺ (Violence Prevention Center), announced efforts to help Colorado schools and communities prevent youth violence. These new efforts are:

The ends often do justify the means -- at least when it comes to political elections. That's the conclusion of a recent study conducted by psychologists at the University of Colorado at Â鶹ӰԺ. In the study, Professors Lyle Bourne and Charles Judd, along with graduate student Noelle LaVoie, found that the public's judgment of a politician's ethical conduct during an election may depend on the subsequent success or failure of his or her policies.

Note to Editors: Hicke will present results of the study on Friday, June 1, at the AGU meeting in Boston. The AGU Press Room telephone number is (617) 954-3138. An analysis of vegetation growth in North America between 1982 and 1998 using satellite observations indicates a significant increase in the rate at which carbon is being taken up by plants, according to a new study.

The myths, astronomical phenomena and constellations of the sky in the Southern Hemisphere will be explored in a live astronomy show at the University of Colorado at Â鶹ӰԺ's Fiske Planetarium on Friday, June 8, at 8 p.m. Deidre Brucker, a CU-Â鶹ӰԺ senior majoring in computer science, and Sanlyn Buxner, a recent CU graduate who now works at Fiske Planetarium, will present "Southern Skies."

Longtime education faculty member Lorrie Shepard has been named dean of the School of Education at the University of Colorado at Â鶹ӰԺ. The appointment is pending approval by the Board of Regents at its budget retreat meeting on May 30 and will be effective June 1 if approved. Shepard will take over the post vacated by Dean William Stanley who resigned in April to accept the education dean position at the University of Redlands in Redlands, Calif.