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Steven Hayward has been appointed the first Visiting Scholar in Conservative Thought and Policy, the Â鶹ӰԺ announced today. Hayward, Thomas W. Smith Distinguished Fellow at the Ashbrook Center at Ashland University in Ohio, will begin his one-year appointment in the fall.

Sleeping just five hours a night over a workweek and having unlimited access to food caused participants in a new study led by the Â鶹ӰԺ to gain nearly two pounds of weight. The study, performed in collaboration with the CU Anschutz Medical Campus, suggests that sufficient sleep could help battle the obesity epidemic.

BioFrontiers Chief Scientific Officer Leslie Leinwand, has been studying the motor protein, myosin, for 25 years. This important protein is responsible for making muscles contract, including one vital muscle: your heart. Leinwand recently won a $45,837 grant from the Children’s Cardiomyopathy Foundation (CCF) to study the differences in the myosin mutations in adult and pediatric populations. She also plans to look at the effects of a small molecule drug on the pediatric versions of the protein in a test tube. This small molecule drug has promise for treating adults with heart failure.

People assigned to positions of power tend to dehumanize those in less powerful positions even when the roles are randomly assigned, according to a new study by the Â鶹ӰԺ. The study found that participants given more powerful roles in two experiments attributed fewer uniquely human traits — characteristics that distinguish people from other animals — to their peers who were given less powerful roles.

Interdisciplinary discovery doesn’t always happen in the lab. Sometimes it integrates technology and musicians in an ensemble setting to provide live interaction, as in the case of the Â鶹ӰԺ Laptop Orchestra (BLOrk). After computer science doctoral student Charles Dietrich and Associate Professor John Gunther of the College of Music met at a campus STEM poster presentation in the fall of 2012, the encounter led to new artistic collaboration through the College of Music’s BLOrk ensemble.

Jeannie and Jack Thompson have made an unprecedented commitment to the Jazz Studies program at the Â鶹ӰԺ -- building $1.6 million in combined gifts to trigger a new $2 million program endowment. To honor and recognize this transformational gift, the program will be renamed the Thompson Jazz Studies Program, as announced at yesterday’s annual Spring Swing big band concert. It is CU-Â鶹ӰԺ’s first named program.

At first, Kisori Thomas had a difficult time acclimating to the campus climate at CU-Â鶹ӰԺ. Initially, other than her coursework, she wasn’t active outside the classroom. Realizing she wanted a more well-rounded education, experience and personal growth, she took a big step outside her comfort zone and began looking for student leadership and multicultural organizations to join. This also included studying abroad in Chicoutimi, Canada, for a five-week French intensive program.

A team led by the Â鶹ӰԺ looking for clues about why Earth did not warm as much as scientists expected between 2000 and 2010 now thinks the culprits are hiding in plain sight -- dozens of volcanoes spewing sulfur dioxide.

With the flip of a switch, a pair of instruments designed and built by the Â鶹ӰԺ and flying onboard twin NASA space probes have forced the revision of a 50-year-old theory about the structure of the radiation belts that wrap around the Earth just a few thousand miles above our heads.

Early next month, researchers from the Â鶹ӰԺ will begin the painstaking process of interviewing hundreds of undergraduates in an effort to understand why the rates of students switching out of science, technology, engineering and math majors has remained troublingly high over the last couple of decades despite widespread efforts to address the problem.