Physical activity improves cognitive and mental health in all sorts of ways. Here’s why, and how to reap the benefits. In this New York Times article, Michelle Voss, associate professor of psychological and brain sciences, talks about how exercise protects against neurodegenerative diseases.

NASA has awarded Professor Greg Howes a $525,311 grant to study the plasma physics of magnetic reconnection in turbulent solar wind.

Three College of Liberal Arts and Sciences faculty members recently received awards to support their respective research projects during the next academic year. Jenna Supp-Montgomerie, religious studies and communication studies; Stephanie Miracle, dance; and Jonathan Wilcox, English each received a Developmental Studies Hybridoma Bank (DSHB) Humanities Scholar Award.

NASA's Roman Technology Fellowship will supply $500,000 over two years to support their research in space-based instrumentation.

Iowans’ alcohol consumption—in volume and frequency—is among the highest in the nation and puts residents at greater risk for cancer. The 2024 Cancer in Iowa report notes Iowa has the fourth-highest incidence of alcohol-related cancers in the U.S. and the highest rate in the Midwest.

Stephanie Gantz, assistant professor in the Carver College of Medicine, has been named a 2024 Sloan Research Fellow for her work studying the brain.

A new study led by the University of Iowa has determined that extremely premature infants fed donor milk fare just as well in neurodevelopment as those fed formula. The researchers also found that death rates from a life-threatening disease were halved in infants who were fed donated milk.

A project led by a University of Iowa associate professor will study how self-regulation affects physical activity.

More than 40 years on and after thousands of procedures, Bruce Gantz, MD, vividly remembers how his first patient reacted when she received her cochlear implant in the early 1980s just as these devices were being introduced in the U.S.

University of Iowa biologists have found that a yeast species that can be hazardous to human health can become more resistant when exposed to a prior, mild stress. The researchers also learned this trait does not exist in a close relative, brewer’s or baker’s yeast.

On Dec. 26, 2022, the solar wind disappeared on Mars. In a new study, researchers led by Jasper Halekas at the University of Iowa explain why the ever-present solar wind vanished. Halekas will present the findings for media on Dec. 11 at the American Geophysical Union annual meeting in San Francisco.

A new study from the University of Iowa concludes that wildfires originating in the western United States and Canada have erased air quality gains over the past two decades and caused an increase of premature deaths in fire-prone areas and downwind regions.

Many people encounter chlorine in their daily lives, whether it’s as an ingredient in household bleach or an additive that sanitizes water in swimming pools. Chlorine is also used as an antiseptic, a bleaching agent in the production of paper and cloth, and to kill microorganisms in drinking water. But this familiar chemical is also extremely toxic. And because it’s ubiquitous in many industries across the U.S., it often is released in chemical accidents and spills.

University of Iowa PhD student David Ramotowski is working on how to decrease the effects of harmful chemicals found in soil deposits using Iowa’s most plentiful agricultural product: corn.

University of Iowa professor Gregory Howes has received a grant from NASA to study how particles in space are accelerated to high energy.

University of Iowa researchers have found that the human brain can distinguish between an outcome caused by human error and one in which the person’s decision-making is blameless. The brain takes just one second to separate the outcomes, and in cases involving human error, extra time to catalog the mistake.

A tropical disease, once only seen in returning travelers, is gaining a "firm foothold" in the southern United States, scientists warn. Cutaneous leishmaniasis is a potentially disfiguring skin disease that is being spread by the bites of infected sand flies. There is also growing evidence that a life-threatening form of the disease, called visceral leishmaniasis, could also begin to infect U.S. sand fly populations. Visceral leishmaniasis can affect the internal organs, and results in between 20,000 and 30,000 humans deaths every year and it is also spread by sand flies. The parasite, another species of Leishmania, is thought to be coming into the U.S. in increasing numbers through the importation of dogs from regions where the disease is common, says Christine Petersen, director of the Center for Emerging Infectious Diseases at the University of Iowa.

An associate professor in the UI College of Pharmacy has received a $2.24 million grant to study chemotherapy dosing guidelines in breast cancer treatment.