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An international team including Â鶹ӰԺ researchers has found the first direct evidence for a new particle that likely is the long sought-after Higgs boson, believed to endow the universe with mass.

A new study led by the Â鶹ӰԺ indicates air pollution in the form of nitrogen compounds emanating from power plants, automobiles and agriculture is changing the alpine vegetation in Rocky Mountain National Park.

The Colorado economy continues to grow at a modest pace in 2012, positioning the state among the healthier in growth nationally, according to economist Richard Wobbekind of the Â鶹ӰԺ’s Leeds School of Business. Midway through the year, Colorado’s job growth rate is up to about 1.6 percent -- a gain of about 35,000 jobs in 2012 if the pace holds steady.

An international research team involving the Â鶹ӰԺ announced this morning it has found the first direct evidence for a new particle that likely is the long sought-after Higgs boson, believed to endow the universe with mass.

Several hundred people are expected to gather on the Â鶹ӰԺ campus July 12-13 to celebrate the 50 th anniversary of JILA, a joint institute of CU-Â鶹ӰԺ and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) known around the world for its discoveries in atomic, molecular and optical physics. In addition, the president-elect of the American Physical Society will be on hand to officially announce JILA’s designation as an historic physics site.

Across our campus - and throughout the university – editors, programmers and project managers have spent untold hours retooling the electronic infrastructure, policies, and editorial strategy to present a new face of electronic communications for the Â鶹ӰԺ. The result is a suite of three new electronic communication systems for telling the stories of our community and promoting the life of the university in engaging ways.

Five Â鶹ӰԺ engineering students recently returned from Haiti where they introduced a green energy vocational training program, paving the way for a new era of distributed power in the poverty-stricken, earthquake-damaged nation.

Colorado business leaders are less optimistic going into the third quarter than last quarter, according to the most recent quarterly Leeds Business Confidence Index, or LBCI, released today by the Â鶹ӰԺ’s Leeds School of Business. The LBCI’s reading slid from 62.2 in the second quarter to 53.6 in the third, but remained higher than the 10-year average for the index and above the critical neutral mark of 50. A reading greater than 50 indicates positive expectations, while one lower than 50 indicates negative expectations.

Wildfire and Drought Experts at CU-Â鶹ӰԺ Wildfire John Daily, professor of mechanical engineering and director of the Joint Center for Combustion and Environmental Research, can offer insight into wildfire behavior – how fires start and end, how they spread, and the effects of weather and fuel types. He can be reached by cell phone at 303-775-9576 or john.daily@colorado.edu .

City of Â鶹ӰԺ news release Â鶹ӰԺ city officials today announced that the annual Ralphie’s Independence Day Blast is canceled due to extremely dry conditions in and around Â鶹ӰԺ. The fireworks show had been scheduled for Folsom Field on Wednesday, July 4.