Elk returned to Nebraska in the 1960s after being eliminated from much of the Northern Great Plains in the late 1800s. Since then, elk numbers have expanded, and they now occupy much of western Nebraska.

A team of researchers from the University of Nebraska–Lincoln and the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission began a comprehensive study of elk behavior and population dynamics in 2022. They recently published the first findings from their research in the journal Biological Conservation.

The University of Nebraska–Lincoln’s National Drought Mitigation Center and the United Nations’ Convention to Combat Desertification have released a report outlining the impacts of drought around the world since 2023.

The report found that the last two years represent some of the worst drought effects seen on a global scale.

A University of Nebraska–Lincoln research project aims to transform how autonomous vehicles operate by connecting them to broader networks, making them smarter and more reliable.

Several years ago, Erin Carr’s doctoral adviser Steven Harris handed her bags of soil collected from the soil crust of a cold British Columbian desert. She went to work on it, suspending it in liquid, plating it onto a growth medium and treating it with antibiotics and antifungals. Then, she replated the tiny black dots that emerged.

Those dots turned out to be a novel fungus — Exophiala viscosa, though Carr dubbed it Goopy — that may just be a resource for large-scale, cost-effective production of melanin, with applications in ultraviolet-protective products and advanced materials for aerospace and other industries. 

Tom Elmo Clemente, Eugene W. Price Distinguished Professor of Biotechnology in the Department of Agronomy and Horticulture, retired June 30. Clemente served as a principal investigator and director of the Nebraska’s Plant Transformation Core Research Facility, a state-of the-art facility that provides the expertise for researchers to evaluate genes in both model and crop plant species in a cost-effective fashion.

In a major step toward improving legal support for vulnerable children and families, the University of Nebraska Board of Regents recently approved the launch of the Nebraska Children’s Justice and Legal Advocacy Center, a new initiative focused on addressing the shortage of qualified attorneys in rural communities across the state.