Science & Technology

Art, Science and Polar Bears

Anna Tolette — Mon, 10 Nov 2025 18:32:16 +0000

Art, Science and Polar Bears Anna Tolette Mon, 11/10/2025 - 11:32

Julia MacLean

Lianna Nixon is an educator who blends science and art.

As a wildlife photographer and conservation storyteller, the Arctic is Lianna Nixon’s (Class’17; MEdu’21) second home. What began as a college expedition evolved into a career that blends art, science and education. From drifting on sea ice to counting polar bears, her adventures are as fascinating as they are meaningful.

Tell us about some of your Arctic adventures.

I first went to the Arctic in 2017 with Sea Legacy, a nonprofit organization run by two National Geographic photographers. Perhaps my most transformative Arctic photography and film experience was working on the MOSAiC Expedition (the Multidisciplinary Drifting Observatory for the Study of Arctic Climate) while at CU. I was able to create connections about the Arctic climate system we see today, the experiences of scientists and the prowess of intersectional storytelling through visceral art-science narratives. While out on the ice floe, we were also visited by quite a few polar bears!

What are some things you work on now in the Arctic?

Six to eight weeks out of the year, I guide on expeditions out of Svalbard, a Norwegian archipelago, photographing arctic wildlife. It’s not just about posting on Instagram — it’s being able to create conversations and share the beauty, vulnerability and importance of this region. My work is taken further into the scope of science and conservation outreach to be used in citizen science projects that observe wildlife behavior and other communication needs.

What do you want people to take from your storytelling work?

My work focuses on applying new-age media, which includes photography, film, immersive 360-degree film and storytelling. When we humanize and bring different perspectives to abstract, difficult or polarizing topics, which is essentially the premise of climate science.

What motivated you to return to school for an education degree?

I always wanted to be a scientist, but my brain is programmed for art. That’s why I chose education — it’s a fantastic mediary space to bring those two together.

What are you doing when you aren’t in the Arctic?

I mainly do graphic design. My job has had to be very flexible with guiding, because I also hold my own BEAR Expedition a couple of weeks a year in Alaska, which allows people to view brown bears. The flexibility of my job is also due to the work of my husband, Casey VanCampenhout (Class’17), who is an F-15 fighter pilot. We’re stationed here in Vancouver, Washington. I’m also director of Tsé Bii’, a nonprofit which works with the Diné of the Navajo Nation located in Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park to bring sustainable off-grid electrical and water resources to their homes.

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Photo courtesy Lianna Nixon

Lianna Nixon turned her college Arctic expeditions into a career as a wildlife photographer and conservation storyteller.

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Spruce Gulch: Grounds for Discovery

Anna Tolette — Mon, 10 Nov 2025 18:23:57 +0000

Spruce Gulch: Grounds for Discovery Anna Tolette Mon, 11/10/2025 - 11:23

Jess Winterley

It was a hot summer day in the early 1990s when Linda Holubar Sanabria (A&S’67) spied the enemy. Tall and deceptively pretty, bearing its hallmark lavender-colored, black-tipped flowers: the spotted knapweed. This noxious weed had quietly claimed Holubar’s family ranch as its home, and she soon discovered it was taking up residence on at least 50 acres of the sprawling 493-acre property — of which 476 acres are now known as the Spruce Gulch Wildlife and Research Reserve — which Holubar inherited from her family in 1994.

For the next 15 years, Holubar dedicated the quiet of dawn and the cool of dusk to eradicating the invasive plant, which arrived via contaminated batches of grass seed dispersed by the U.S. Forest Service after a 1988 fire. Leaving the knapweed unchecked was not an option for Holubar and her spouse, Sergio Sanabria (A&S’66; Arch’70; MArtHist’75), as they knew this would result in soil erosion, displaced vegetation and overall devastation to the land. So, for thousands of hours, Holubar labored over the acreage.

“At first, I felt very small as I began removing one plant after another from an endless sea of them,” said Holubar. “They ranged from taller than me to tiny seedlings.”

Though she made substantial progress, the effort needed a boost — not from harmful herbicides, which would contaminate the water and land, but from a more creative (and hungry) solution: weevils.

A Symbiotic Friendship

In 2001, during the thick of her weeding efforts, Holubar learned about a successful experiment at ��ɫ��Ƶ’s Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research (INSTAAR). The project demonstrated that biocontrol insects (in this case, weevils) could greatly reduce densities of an invasive knapweed — similar to the unwelcome foe on Holubar’s land.

Putting her hope in these knapweed-eating weevils, she called the lead scholar of the experiment, ecology and evolutionary biology professor (now emeritus) Tim Seastedt.

“Field ecologists don’t pass up opportunities to leverage a new field site, and Spruce Gulch is special,” said Seastedt. He noted that the innovative insect approach, in addition to preserving good vegetation, could save landowners thousands of dollars in management costs.

Through a combination of hungry weevils and volunteer weeding efforts, the project proved successful over time and demonstrated the effectiveness that non-chemical methods can have on an invasive plant species.

The experiment also opened the door for additional ecology projects on the property — marking the start of what would become a 24-year symbiotic friendship between the university and land, and what would eventually result in a landmark gift.

Volunteers from a co-sponsored U.S. Forest Service event remove invasive spotted knapweed from an upland meadow on the Spruce Gulch Reserve.

Inheriting a Legacy

Holubar’s connection to the wildlife reserve began nearly a century ago, when her maternal grandmother, Irma Freudenberg, purchased part of it in 1927. With the help of her children, Freudenberg established a ranch on the picturesque land that Holubar’s parents, Alice (A&S’33) and LeRoy Holubar (ElEngr’36), later expanded in 1962.

Boulder’s mountainous terrain fostered the family’s passion for the outdoors. Holubar’s parents were pioneers in developing and sourcing climbing and expedition gear through their business, Holubar Mountaineering (which an interim owner later sold to The North Face). LeRoy Holubar, a CU mathematics professor, also helped establish the Rocky Mountain Rescue Group and the first Boulder climbing school.

Upon Freudenberg’s death, Holubar’s parents inherited part of the land and expanded it to what is now the Spruce Gulch Reserve. The site has been sculpted by history — from serving as hunting grounds for Indigenous peoples like the Arapaho, to sustaining mining and logging operations, grazing and agriculture, plus wildfires and floods.

“Having grown up on this land and having it be a part of my family for almost a century, I view it as my heart and soul and want nothing more than to protect it,” said Holubar.

Her love for the reserve and dedication to conservation meant diligently seeking out its next caretaker — a role that, after withstanding weeds and weevils together, ��ɫ��Ƶ was ready to undertake.

Acres for Academics

Primed to steward Holubar’s family legacy of environmentalism into the future, ��ɫ��Ƶ assumed ownership of Spruce Gulch in June of 2025. Holubar’s generous 476-acre land donation was accompanied by endowment funds, as well as a conservation easement with Boulder County.

The site and funds, valued at a combined $10.4 million, are managed by INSTAAR and support studies across the sciences, humanities and fine arts. From biologists to visual artists, the reserve and its endowment will enrich and support studies by academics from many departments, opening new educational possibilities across disciplines.

“Sergio and I wanted to discourage an inevitable disciplinary blindness by opening the site to as many different worldviews as possible,” said Holubar.

For her commitment to conservation and ensuring the protection of the wildlife reserve, Holubar received Boulder County’s 2025 Land Conservation Award. And, for their outstanding community partnership and collaboration on the Spruce Gulch project, Boulder County Parks & Open Space was awarded the Blue Grama Award by the Colorado Open Space Alliance.

A living laboratory, Spruce Gulch features canyons and cliffs intermixed with forest, savanna and prairie meadows. Its abundance of research opportunities has already aided CU faculty and students in producing 29 scholarly publications, plus chapters in six doctoral dissertations, three master’s theses and four undergraduate honors theses.

“The acquisition of Spruce Gulch allows us to pursue essential science relevant to the grasslands and foothills region, where most of us live,” said Seastedt, director of the reserve. “Therein lies the magnitude of this gift.”

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Photos courtesy Tim Seastedt

Ecology and evolutionary biology professor (now emeritus) Tim Seastedt.

Linda Holubar Sanabria gave a $10.4 million donation to ��ɫ��Ƶ, creating a 476-acre wildlife and research reserve.

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The Reaches of ��ɫ��Ƶ Research

Anna Tolette — Mon, 10 Nov 2025 18:17:21 +0000

The Reaches of ��ɫ��Ƶ Research Anna Tolette Mon, 11/10/2025 - 11:17

Kelsey Yandura

At its core, research is the disciplined pursuit of a single question: “What if?”

What if measuring space dust could tell us something about our place in the cosmos?

What if we could grow whole human organs from just a few cells?

What if we could transform plastic into fertilizer?

These are the kinds of questions driving work within and among ��ɫ��Ƶ’s 12 research institutes and more than 75 research centers, employing 3,000 researchers, students and staff whose fields span environmental studies to cognitive science. In 2024, their work contributed to more than $742 million in research support, including nearly $500 million in federal funding.

When paired with time, attention, resources and a serious tolerance for failure, these seeds of curiosity can develop into something revolutionary, sometimes well beyond their original vision. And while some of the finer points may be hard to grasp, the reach of this research is not abstract — it can be traced, quite literally, through the layers of our world. It moves inward, reshaping the delicate architecture of the human body. It arcs out into space, collecting data from distant planets. It extends downward, into the soil and water systems that sustain our ecosystem.

To capture even a hint of the scope of research taking place at ��ɫ��Ƶ, we explore three different research projects that showcase a unique dimension of impact, both on campus and beyond.

At A Glance

>>One of 38 U.S. public research institutions in the Association of American Universities

>>5 Nobel Laureates since 1989

>>Only university to send space instruments to every planet in the solar system

>>12 research-based institutes and 75+ centers

>> 3,000+ faculty, researchers, students and staff support the institutes

Journey of New Horizons

>>Past

2006 _ Launch

2015 _ Pluto flyby

2019 _ Arrokoth flyby

2024 _ 60 AU milestone

>>Future

2050 _ Edge of heliosphere

>>The onboard Student Dust Counter is the farthest-operating dust detector in history

Exploring New Horizons <LASP>

When it comes to measuring the reach of research, the vision behind the New Horizons mission has always been far-flung.

Launched in 2006, the New Horizons spacecraft spent nine years hurtling through the darkest reaches of our solar system to capture the first-ever recorded glimpse of Pluto and its moons up close.

“The expectation was that it was going to be a boring chunk of dark ice,” said Mihály Horányi, physics professor and LASP scientist. “But we were in for a big surprise. It’s very active. It has flat regions, mountain regions and floating icebergs...all kinds of unexpected things.”

But for New Horizons, Pluto was just the beginning. The spacecraft pressed deeper into space. In 2019, the Hubble Space Telescope onboard captured what would become the most distant and primitive object yet to be explored by a spacecraft: a reddish, oddly snowman-shaped object called Arrokoth. Nothing like it has been found anywhere else in the solar system.

And it’s still going. As of October 2024, New Horizons passed 60 times as far from the Sun as Earth is — twice as far out as Pluto was in 2015.

But the reach of New Horizons takes on another dimension than just physical distance. Onboard the spacecraft is nestled a device called the Student Dust Counter (SDC), the first NASA science instrument ever designed, built, tested and operated almost entirely by students. Its impact has been both interstellar and interpersonal.

“At the time, the idea was unconventional,” explained Horányi, who has served as the instrument’s principal investigator for more than two decades.

Approval required long rounds of advocacy up and down NASA’s decision-making chain. The condition? Students would be held to the same rigorous standards as the professionals.

From the outset, students at CU rose to the challenge. In 2002, about 20 students (both undergrad and graduate) worked to design, engineer and build every piece of the dust counter, from building to testing to calibration.

When the time came for delivery and testing, the SDC was the first instrument completed and delivered to New Horizons. It underwent the same demanding NASA design reviews as veteran instrument teams.

“Sometimes,” recalled Horányi, “the students performed better than the professionals.”

Today, the spacecraft is over 60 astronomical units from the Sun — more than 5.5 billion miles away — making SDC the farthest-operating dust detector in history. And it is still operated by students.

The measurements have been full of surprises. Dust densities in the outer solar system turned out to be higher than expected, prompting new debates about the structure and extent of the Kuiper Belt, which contains Pluto, other dwarf planets and comets. SDC data now informs studies on whether there’s a “second belt” beyond Pluto, how far the Kuiper Belt extends, and how our solar system’s dust environment compares to those around other stars.

And while the science is groundbreaking, Horányi is just as proud of the human impact.

More than 30 students have served as SDC team members since its inception. Many went on to prestigious graduate programs and major research institutions. Others have followed entirely different paths, including one electrical engineer who became a Buddhist priest.

“They all did something important,” Horányi said. “Something bigger than getting an A in a class.”

The current lead, Alex Doner (Physics’26), will soon hand the reins to Blair Schultz (Physics’28), who will guide the mission’s next phase. The instrument will likely operate into the early 2050s, potentially detecting the edge of the Sun’s influence — the heliosphere — and the transition to true interstellar space.

Engineering Organoids <BioFrontiers Institute>

Meanwhile, across campus at CU’s BioFrontiers Institute, scientists are working to explore and traverse the limits of a different kind of landscape: the inner workings of the human body. The questions they’re asking sound like science fiction, but have immediate and vital application — what if we could reliably make miniature, lab-grown versions of human organs? The results could change the medical world as we know it, offering new ways to test drugs, study disease and someday possibly replace failing organs.

“There’s been a lot of excitement in the past few years about being able to take a patient’s stem cells and grow them into a miniature version of one of its tissues or organs,” said Kristi Anseth (PhDChemEngr’94), a ��ɫ��Ƶ professor of chemical and biological engineering who is leading the organoid research. “Making complex mimics of organs would open doors for screening new types of drugs or trying to better understand the evolution of diseases, like cancer.”

One of the trickiest parts of growing organoids is their three-dimensional shape — they tend to grow unpredictably.

“It is a stochastic, or random, process,” said Anseth. “We were talking to clinicians and biologists who were growing these organoids, but each looked a little different, and these differences can lead to different behavior or function.”

This “snowflake problem” has been a major roadblock against some of the most exciting possibilities of organoid research — transplants, for example, wouldn’t work if the organ couldn’t be reliably grown to fit the patient.

Anseth’s team, in collaboration with stem cell biologist professor Peter Dempsey at the Anschutz Medical Campus, set out to make this random process into a predictable one, designing biomaterials — specifically, highly tunable hydrogels — that serve as scaffolds for these cells to grow in three dimensions.

“Being engineers, we thought, ‘Well, it’s going to be really important for the usefulness of these [organs] to make them the same way.’”

They started with the human intestine, where these hydrogel scaffolds successfully helped guide organoid growth into precise, reproducible sizes and shapes. That consistency means researchers can run large-scale, apples-to-apples experiments in a way that’s reliable enough for both science and medicine.

“We’re taking something that’s been unpredictable and making it precise, scalable and useful,” said Anseth. “You could use it to screen for new ways to deliver drugs. Wouldn’t it be great if you could take more drugs orally? Or get diagnosed at an earlier age?”

And while the team has made exciting progress, the crux of this work is still on the horizon. The ultimate goal of creating full-size replacement organs from organoids is likely years away.

“Now, we’re thinking of all the ‘what if’s,’” said Anseth. “It’s time to start solving the more complicated problems.”

For now, Anseth’s “mini-intestines” are helping illuminate a path toward more efficient drug testing and more accurate disease models. But she sees this as just the beginning.

“We already have ways to repair cartilage, to heal bones faster — things that didn’t exist a decade ago,” she says. “Now, the next direction is targeting complex diseases that happen in our hearts, our brains, our livers. That’s the promise of organoids...We’ll find interventions that can both improve and save lives.”

It’s time to start solving the more complicated problems.
Kristi Anseth, ��ɫ��Ƶ professor of chemical and biological engineering, who received the National Academy of Engineering’s 2025 Simon Ramo Founders Award.

Organoids

Miniature versions of human organs grown from stem cells in labs

>>Goal

Improve and save lives by targeting complex diseases in vital organs

>>Uses

Drug testing, disease modeling, regenerative medicine

>>Challenges

Inconsistency in shape, behavior and function

The Plastics Problem

>> Part of nearly every aspect of modern life

>> 400M+ tons produced globally each year

>> About 11M tons end up in lakes, rivers and streams annually

>> Microplastics found in human tissue, oceans and soil

>> Most compostable plastics require industrial facilities

Plastics to Fertilizer <ATLAS Institute>

At CU’s interdisciplinary ATLAS Institute, researcher and assistant professor Carson Bruns is proving that the insights gleaned from the tiniest of molecules can change the very ground beneath our feet.

At Bruns’ Laboratory for Emergent Nanomaterials, the building blocks get the spotlight. By examining and structuring materials at very small scales, the team designs what he calls “molecular machinery” — new materials that, when scaled up, have the potential to display novel properties and functions.

Currently, thanks to a Research & Innovation Seed Grant, the team is applying these methods to one of the most controversial materials of our time: plastics.

From grocery bags to medical packaging, petroleum-based plastics are woven into nearly every aspect of modern life. But their convenience comes at a staggering cost.

“I believe we’re in a plastics crisis,” said Bruns. “We need to shift to a new paradigm, and the more people working on solutions, the better.”

Bruns explained that microplastics show up everywhere, even in human tissue. Plus, most plastics, even the “greener” compostable ones, are carbon-based — which means that, upon breaking down, they release carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Most also require specialized, high-temperature industrial composting facilities to break down properly. In Boulder, these shortcomings prompted the city’s main composting partner, A1 Organics, to stop accepting biodegradable plastics altogether.

“Our aim is to create plastics that can safely biodegrade — eliminating the microplastics problem — but without heavy CO2 emissions,” said Bruns.

True to nanoengineering form, the team is rethinking the entire process, starting with source materials.

“We’re looking at agricultural waste as a raw material source,” said Bruns. By using runoff from vegetable washing or ash from burned plant matter, these new and improved plastics would biodegrade into elements like nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium and sulfur that already have value in the soil, releasing minimal carbon dioxide. The solution is cost-efficient, to boot.

“We know how to make high-performance plastics, but they’re too expensive to scale,” said Bruns. “Our goal is to make eco-friendly plastics that are as strong, tough and flexible as petroleum plastics.”

This research is still in its early stages, and collaboration has been key. To test biodegradability and soil impact, Bruns partnered with ecology professor Merritt R. Turetsky, director of arctic security. This cross-disciplinary work — melding nanotechnology, materials science and environmental biology — has already yielded promising early results.

“I’m excited about the collaboration,” said Bruns. “I think this problem requires many perspectives. Nobody can solve it alone, so working together across fields is really energizing.”

The team’s goal for the 18-month grant period is to develop at least one material that not only holds up in everyday use, but also demonstrably fertilizes soil. If successful, the applications could range from packaging films and plastic bags to plates, utensils and even foams that mimic Styrofoam.

In the long term, Bruns envisions a circular system: after use, the plastic could enter a specialized recycling stream for processing into fertilizer — or, ideally, degrade naturally in a backyard compost heap. Either way, it would close the loop between creation and decomposition, consumption and renewal.

“It’s about finding a better ending for these materials,” he said. “If we can make something useful in life and beneficial in death, that’s a win for both people and the planet.”

Our Shared Future

“My little part today, or this week or this month, is part of a bigger picture,” said Andrew Poppe (Phys’06; PhD’11) a research scientist at the Space Sciences Laboratory at the University of California Berkeley who worked on the Student Dust Counter as both an undergraduate and graduate student.

“Do we want to be the type of society that just wakes up in the morning, goes to work, does the work, comes home, has dinner and repeats? Or do we want to be the type of society that is naturally curious about the world around us, whether that is the smallest things you put under a microscope or the biggest things that you can see through a telescope?”

These research projects are just a glimpse into the scope and scale of innovation taking place around campus. Individually, each has its own trajectory of impact. Together, they create a mosaic of possibilities for our shared future.

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Illustrations by John Provencher

CU researchers across space science, bioengineering and nanomaterials are turning “what if” questions into transformative discoveries.

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The Science Behind a Sub-Four-Minute Mile

Anna Tolette — Mon, 10 Nov 2025 18:12:17 +0000

The Science Behind a Sub-Four-Minute Mile Anna Tolette Mon, 11/10/2025 - 11:12

Julia MacLean

Professional runner Faith Kipyegon in her attempt to break the four-minute mile earlier this year.

In June 2025, during a Nike-sponsored event, world champion and Kenyan middle- and long-distance runner Faith Kipyegon attempted to become the first woman to break the four-minute mile barrier. She finished just over the goal with a time of 4:06.42.

But a ��ɫ��Ƶ lab calculated that it is possible to break the four-minute barrier. CU physiologist Rodger Kram, who focuses on biomechanics involved with human locomotion, was part of the team that helped Kenyan long-distance runner Eliud Kipchoge historically break the two-hour marathon in 2019. While Kram was not directly involved in the Kipyegon attempt, his lab published a study earlier this year that found a champion runner like Kipyegon could clock a time of 3:59.37 under ideal conditions. Strategies include coordinated pacing and drafting, which involves a runner following closely behind pacers to reduce air resistance.

Kram and his team, Edson Soares da Silva, Wouter Hoogkamer and Shalaya Kipp (IntPhys’14; MS’17), also calculated that rotating pacers — runners who set a steady speed to help others reach a goaltime and block the wind — could have provided an elite racer with just enough of an edge to dip under the barrier.

Nike’s execution this year took a different approach.

“They used 13 pacers in a very unusual formation,” said Kram. “Our model involved only two pacers at a time.”

Still, Kram believes the four-minute mile barrier will fall.

“I still think it’s possible, with two teams of female pacers who trade out halfway,” he said.

Royal Society Open Science published Kram’s study in February 2025.

What’s next for Kram? “We’re cooking up some outrageous next experiments,” he said. “But they’re top secret for now.”

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Photo by Christophe Ena/The Associated Press

��ɫ��Ƶ researchers calculated that a female runner like Faith Kipyegon could break the four-minute mile with optimized pacing and drafting strategies, suggesting the historic barrier is within reach.

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The Age of AI Ghosts

Anna Tolette — Mon, 10 Nov 2025 18:04:41 +0000

The Age of AI Ghosts Anna Tolette Mon, 11/10/2025 - 11:04

Lisa Marshall

People can experience a digital afterlife with a loved one.

Each day, AI plays a greater role in our lives. Soon, it could also transform the way we interact with the dead.

“Today, you might interact with a Facebook memorial page for grandpa after he dies. But what would it feel like to actually sit down with grandpa by the fire and have a conversation with him?” asked ��ɫ��Ƶ information science professor Jed Brubaker.

In a spring 2025 research paper, Brubaker predicts a future in which individuals routinely create custom “AI agents” to interact with the living after they’re gone. And he and his students have already begun beta testing their own “AI ghosts” to gauge how people feel about them.

Rudimentary versions have been around for years, he noted. After musician Lou Reed died in 2013, his life partner created a text-based chatbot (trained with Reed’s writings, songs and interviews) that she still, reportedly, converses with. And, in 2019, a grieving mother famously used a virtual reality set-up to play with an AI version of her young daughter, who had died years earlier.

Startups like Re;memory and HereAfter AI already help the living create posthumous digital versions of themselves, using pre-recorded video and audio clips.

But Brubaker is most intrigued by what’s coming in the next innovation wave: Powered by tech features that enable autonomous next-gen bots to understand language, remember and make decisions, forthcoming “AI ghosts” could do far more than regurgitate old stories.

For instance, they could have a live conversation about current events, write a new poem or help their kids manage their estate. But along with promise comes peril.

Can interacting with an AI ghost become unhealthy? How can one be sure no one will make a ghost out of them, against their will? When and how should a generative ghost die?

Brubaker doesn’t have the answers yet, but he hopes his research will get tech companies and policymakers thinking.

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Illustration by Hokyoung Kim

Researchers are exploring the potential for “AI ghosts,” digital versions of the deceased that can hold conversations and even make decisions.

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How a Fish Proved a Mathematical Breakthrough

Anna Tolette — Mon, 07 Jul 2025 20:06:33 +0000

How a Fish Proved a Mathematical Breakthrough Anna Tolette Mon, 07/07/2025 - 14:06

Alison Van Houton

On a March day in 2023, Ben Alessio, then a research assistant at ��ɫ��Ƶ, was wandering around the Birch Aquarium in La Jolla, California, when he clocked a surprising sight: a male ornate boxfish undulating in the water, tessellating with violet and tangerine hexagons. It was dazzling — but more importantly, it was vindicating.

The rare fish’s markings were a real-life example of something that he and Ankur Gupta, ��ɫ��Ƶ assistant professor of chemical and biological engineering, had previously only modelled mathematically. It confirmed that they were onto a scientific breakthrough.

Turing Patterns

To understand Gupta’s research, one must first understand morphogenesis. Morphogenesis is the process by which cells, tissues and organisms develop their shapes.

Nearly 75 years ago, the famed British mathematician Alan Turing published a paper titled “The Chemical Basis of Morphogenesis.” Since then, Turing’s work has been key to our understanding of how many — but not all — patterns form in nature.

“That’s sort of the foundational thinking, mathematically speaking, for this area of work,” said Gupta.

Turing had an uncommonly innovative mind — his ability to think beyond the status quo and make connections between various fields of thought led to breakthroughs in electronic computing, artificial intelligence, code breaking in WWII and, in this case, mathematical biology.

When it came to morphogenesis, Turing was interested in how heterogeneity, or diversity, arises out of homogeneity, which is when something is composed of all one type of thing. In other words, why does a zebra have both black and white stripes instead of a coat with hairs that are all one solid color, like gray?

The reason is diffusion — which is central to Turing’s theory. Diffusion is the movement of molecules from areas of higher concentration to areas of lower concentration; molecules tend to spread out until there’s an even distribution (much like people in an elevator). In chemistry, diffusion often dominates systems, especially when particles are tiny.

“Diffusion essentially promotes homogeneity,” said Gupta.

What he means is that if you drop blue dye into clear, still water, for example, it will slowly diffuse, in a gradient, until the whole container is equally blue. Similarly, when mixing red and blue dye in a diffusion-dominated system, one expects the colors to blend, ultimately yielding a homogenous purple hue. However, when a chemical reaction also occurs, something different may happen. In certain conditions, even a diffusion-dominated system can promote heterogeneity from homogeneity.

“Essentially, what [Turing] argued was that under the right conditions, if there is diffusion as well as [a chemical] reaction between different components — if I have five or six dyes, or three or four dyes, and they’re reacting with each other — then essentially it’s just a delicate dance between these two processes.”

These days, the term “Turing pattern” is generally applied to any reaction-diffusion pattern. This natural pattern forms when chemicals react with one another and spread out, often resulting in wavy lines or spots. A notable example of a Turing pattern in nature is the sparkling blue zebra fish, a slender creature that’s gilded with horizontal, blurry-edged golden stripes.

However, some wild animals feature very crisp markings.

“Why would a diffusion model describe something that is so striking and sharp?” Gupta wondered.

An Accidental Discovery

Gupta didn’t initially set out to answer that question. His focus was on diffusiophoresis, which is the combination of diffusion, described earlier, and phoresis, which describes how ultra-small dissolved particles — around a tenth or even a hundredth the width of a single human hair — can sometimes drag other things along with them in a solution. So, if diffusion is the way that blue dye spreads through clear water, phoresis is the movement of particles that happens because they’re temporarily dragged by that dye.

Alessio, who was doing computational research at the time, had been running mathematical simulations of reaction-diffusion systems that also had a diffusiophoretic element. The resulting visuals were notably defined, unlike the fuzzier ones that emerge from reaction-diffusion models (as seen in the zebrafish). And it was the striking violet and tangerine hexagon boxfish pattern that caught his attention in the Southern California aquarium.

“I was just literally simulating something like this on my computer,” thought Alessio when he saw it. He snapped a slew of photos and messaged Gupta excitedly. “I have something exciting to show you.”

Until that point, Gupta and Alessio had the models, but they didn’t have an example of them in nature.

“I didn’t have any sort of idea about this fish or anything like that,” said Gupta. “He showed me this, and then we sort of reverse-engineered the missing link.”

They dove into existing research and realized that chromatophores — cells that create pigment in the bodies of fish, reptiles and some other animals — can be carried by dissolved chemicals. In other words, they can move diffusiophoretically (like the particles temporarily dragged by dye).

In late 2023, Gupta and Alessio published a paper titled “Diffusiophoresis-Enhanced Turing Patterns” in the peer-reviewed journal Science Advances. Their research advances Turing’s theory by describing how more precise patterns — like the one seen on the ornate boxfish — come to exist.

While Alessio is now working on a PhD in mechanical engineering at Stanford, Gupta intends to continue researching how diffusiophoresis factors into Turing patterns.

“On the pattern-formation side, it would be useful to see if we can replicate some of this synthetically,” he said.

It’s a tall order, but more investigation can potentially help us understand how to control things synthetically.

Gupta is now investigating this phenomenon at an individual-cell level, which he likens to studying a single human versus a population of people.

“If I’m thinking about a population, then one option is to track individual people, and one is to say, ‘What is the population density?’” he said. “It was the population density approach that we were taking in our first paper. But now, we’re examining individual cells, and that has been interesting, because now what we start to see is imperfect Turing patterns.”

While mathematical models tend to be perfect, in reality, you often see imperfections: deformed hexagons or hexagons sliced in half. Taking an individual-cell-level approach to diffusiophoretic Turing patterns could provide more insight into why patterns sometimes don’t appear as expected based on mathematical models.

“We think it’s exciting, because real systems actually are not perfect,” Gupta said.

A Pilgrimage

In October 2023, before the “Diffusiophoresis-enhanced Turing patterns” paper was published, Gupta’s wife was traveling to a conference in San Diego. With anticipation, he packed his bags, hoping to set eyes on the ornate boxfish that inspired their discovery.

Inside the Birch Aquarium, he did a lap around the right side, where most of the fish seemed to be. But he wasn’t sure exactly where to look, and he struggled to spot its telltale scales.

“I couldn’t see it,” he said. “It was hidden.”

Ten minutes passed, then 20. Increasingly worried, he considered enlisting a staff member to help him track it down. Finally, in a last-ditch effort, he ventured off in the direction of the children’s area, toward the other side of the building. There, at long last, he caught his glimpse of the elusive fish.

Eureka.

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Illustration by Petra Péterffy

��ɫ��Ƶ's Ankur Gupta’s discovery of sharper, more precise natural patterns expands on Alan Turing’s mathematical theory.

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Five CU Innovators Changing the World

Anna Tolette — Mon, 07 Jul 2025 20:04:07 +0000

Five CU Innovators Changing the World Anna Tolette Mon, 07/07/2025 - 14:04

��ɫ��Ƶ is teeming with innovation, curiosity and thought leadership. And the people who comprise the university — CU Buffs — make global impact.

We’re highlighting five stellar Buffs — ��ɫ��Ƶ students, alumni and faculty whose work is relevant, leading-edge and promises to create ripples out into the world. Their stories were written by five equally outstanding CU affiliates, who personally know and understand the importance of their work.

As journalist Tom Costello (Jour’87) wrote in his essay on his NBC colleague Savannah Sellers (Jour’13), she “breaks through.”

Many Buffs are breaking through — they bridge traditional silos, strive to think differently, and take huge risks. And just as many credit the university for equipping them to pursue their passions. ��ɫ��Ƶ is more than its stunning location — this university is the people who push for more.

Idowu Odeyemi (PhDPhil’27)

Charting New Paths as a Rising Philosopher

Idowu Odeyemi came to ��ɫ��Ƶ to refine his philosophical acumen while carving a path for young Africans like him who aspire to study philosophy.

Beyond his research, he said, “I want to challenge and expand the traditional boundaries of the discipline so that the philosophical community must either engage with African thinkers or justify why not.”

Idowu’s work — centered on oppression and blame — delves into how oppressive systems like patriarchy, colonialism, Nazism and slavery affect moral agency. He invites us to consider haunting questions such as why a battered wife doesn’t simply leave while her husband is out, illustrating how the threat of severe harm to one’s welfare can override considerations of morality and compel individuals to remain in oppres-sive circumstances.

Consider a battered wife who faces an oppressive double bind: resisting her abuser risks her safety, while compliance perpetuates the very system that oppresses her. This leads to an untenable situation where she is damned if she revolts, and damned if she doesn’t. In Idowu’s view, this dilemma complicates blaming oppressed individuals for not revolting.

Another facet of Idowu’s scholarship introduces the term “epistemic disgust” — a neglected psychological response that prompts us to reject certain beliefs and utterances because they repulse us. If someone says, “All white men smell like hot dog water,” for instance, many listeners feel revulsion that blocks such an utterance from entering our belief system. Idowu’s ground-breaking theory on how disgust can shape belief formation was published in the prestigious journal Episteme.

He also ventures beyond academia: His essay “On Accent and Confidence” in Isele Magazine was nominated for the 2025 non-fiction prize and recognized as one of the 50 notable essays from Africa in 2024, and another piece, “Living in America, Leaving Nigeria” (published by The Republic), was named among the 18 notable essays by a Nigerian in 2023.

As a graduate student, Idowu has published four peer-reviewed papers in leading journals — an achievement typically expected of faculty. Recently, he delivered a philosophy colloquium at the University of Missouri — uncommon for a graduate student. He was a Harper PhD Fellow at the Benson Center, a fellow at the Center for African and African American Studies and, in 2023, a fully funded fellowship took him to the University of Oxford. This summer, he will be visiting the National Archives in London through a research award from ��ɫ��Ƶ’s Center for African and African American Studies.

Through Idowu’s compelling research and prolific achievements, he exemplifies how ��ɫ��Ƶ’s nurturing environment fosters tomorrow’s transformative thinkers.

��ɫ��Ƶ philosophy associate professor Ajume Wingo serves as Odeyemi’s advisor. Ajume is a member of the royal family in the Nso kingdom, located in the northwest region of Cameroon. In addition to being widely published in political and social philosophy, he is the founder of several NGOs, including PridePads Africa and Pathfinders4peace.

Photo by Alastair Norcross

Savannah Sellers (Jour’13)

Serious, Fun, Whimsical — and Never Dull

As the face of “the Generation of Now,” Savannah Sellers co-anchors the streaming morning newscast of NBC News NOW, then reports for The Today Show and NBC Nightly News. She demonstrates how a journalist can break through a saturated news market and reach a new generation of consumers who crave accurate information on their own terms.

While transitioning from ��ɫ��Ƶ to NBC News in New York could have been daunting, Savannah quickly established herself as smart and determined, yet easy-going and relevant. This rare combination made her a natural choice to help lead NBC’s outreach to younger viewers, where they are — on social media.

She helped map a new look and pacing for NBC News. The target age: 20-to-40- somethings who want news on the go for their 24/7 lifestyle. Almost immediately, the audience was there. The newscasts moved fast. They were serious, fun, whimsical — and never dull.

Savannah took Snapchat viewers to Parkland, Florida, hours after a former student murdered 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. Her coverage was raw and real. A record 18 million people tuned in: mostly kids seeking information about a tragedy affecting other kids they didn’t know, but who were their age.

She has documented America’s heroin epidemic with an Emmy award-winning Nightly News series, revealing that the victims are not always stereotypical drug addicts — they could be your own neighbor or family member.

She has detailed and explained the confusing fight over banning TikTok, the app-of- choice for her younger audience, led honest discussions on diversity, equity and inclusion, and shared the deeply personal and painful struggle she and her husband have faced with fertility.

To meet Savannah is to discover a person of tremendous warmth, charm and insatiable curiosity who wants to know your story — what motivates you, and why. Those are the traits of a great broadcast journalist.

As one NBC exec put it, “She breaks through! She pops!”

It delights me to see a fellow CU alum become such a trusted voice and valued colleague at The Peacock. Go Buffs!

Tom Costello (Jour’87) is the senior correspondent at NBC News. With nearly 30 years of experience at CNBC and NBC News in London, New York and Washington, D.C., he reports daily across all NBC News platforms.

Photo by Nate Congleton

Dania Arayssi (MPolSci’22; PhD’26)

Vital Work in Transnational Politics

Dania Arayssi doesn’t just care deeply about the big social and economic problems that affect people’s everyday lives — she rigorously studies them and takes action.

Before coming to ��ɫ��Ƶ, she participated in the U.S.-Middle East Partnership Initiative (MEPI) at the U.S. State Department and earned multiple advanced degrees. She then founded the Gleam of Hope Group, which works with thousands of young people and women to address food and health needs. For many, these accomplishments would constitute an entire career. For Dania, this was just the beginning.

Dania brought her passion for understanding pressing socioeconomic and political issues to ��ɫ��Ƶ in 2021. Her dissertation work centers on remittances, money sent by those working abroad back to their families in their home countries. Remittances are an important source of income for families around the world. Dania’s research seeks to explain how these remittances affect people’s incentives to be politically active. Does the added economic security make people more likely to pressure the government for change? Or does economic security dampen any potential dissent, making people less likely to vote or protest? What issues do people who receive remittances care about the most?

Dania uses a rigorous combination of interviews, focus groups and original survey data to study these questions in her home country of Lebanon. Her work helps us understand how diaspora communities affect politics around the world. In an era of transnational politics, her work is vitally important.

Dania represents the best of ��ɫ��Ƶ. After completing her dissertation, she plans to work at the New Lines Institute for Strategy and Policy in Washington, D.C. During these politically contentious times plagued by myriad challenges, I personally find enormous hope that CU alumni like Dania will be out in the world contributing their expertise, knowledge and wisdom.

Sarah Wilson Sokhey works as an associate professor in ��ɫ��Ƶ’s Department of Political Science, a faculty associate at the Institute of Behavioral Science and the founding director of the Studio Lab for Undergrads in the College of Arts and Sciences. Her current research focuses on the local provision of public services in Ukraine during wartime. In 2024, she was inducted into the President’s Teaching Scholars Program, one of the highest CU teaching awards.

Photo courtesy Dania Arayssi

Jun Ye (PhDPhys'97)

Using Quantum for High-Tech Innovation

My friend and colleague Professor Jun Ye is an ever-flowing fountain of scientific and technological innovation.

One of the greatest laser scientists in the world, he and his students have built several generations of record-setting optical clocks. The technology has advanced to the point where Jun’s clocks would gain or lose less than a second in the whole age of the universe. These highly accurate clocks are tied into technology improvements to support better navigation, communication and the ability to sense unseen things (for example, small changes in gravity associated with objects buried underground). Additionally, his lab created the world’s first nuclear clock.

Through his research at JILA, Jun uses lasers to detect slight traces of unusual elements in gas samples. His group is now examining the air exhaled by people with various diseases to find tiny traces of certain chemicals associated with a particular disease. If this works, one day cancer testing might be as easy as puffing some air into a soda straw.

Much of his research is built around using the properties of quantum mechanics to do high-tech research — precision measurement, secure communication, exotic material design — that eludes the reach of “old-school” classical mechanics.

Perhaps as impactful as anything else he does, Jun has trained an entirely new generation of elite scientists and engineers, who are now the beating heart of Colorado’s, and the nation’s, high-tech industry. When I visit high-tech Colorado companies, it often seems that the technical leadership are ��ɫ��Ƶ alums who earned their degrees while working in Jun’s group.

On top of his research, Jun is working with me on a joint project to understand why there is more matter than antimatter in the universe. It sounds like a very abstract topic, but it is part of a bigger question: How are the conditions in the universe such that the development of humankind is possible? I feel very privileged to collaborate with Jun. I’ve learned a lot from working with him. Sometimes I wonder if the man ever sleeps!

Eric Cornell has been at CU for 34 years and wears many hats. He teaches first-year physics for the ��ɫ��Ƶ Department of Physics; he is a JILA fellow; and a scientist with the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), part of the U.S. Department of Commerce. In 2001, he and ��ɫ��Ƶ professor Carl Wieman won the Nobel Prize in Physics for creating Bose-Einstein Condensation, the “world’s coldest stuff.”

Photo courtesy Jun Ye

Steve Swanson (EngrPhys’83)

Space Commander Gains and Gives Respect

Steve Swanson was one of the most highly respected members of the NASA astronaut office during the Shuttle and Space Station Programs in the 1990s and 2000s.

Steve and I met in the late 1980s when we were both in the aircraft operations division at Johnson Space Center. I was an instructor pilot in the space shuttle training aircraft. Steve was a software wizard and the flight simulation engineer responsible for managing the computer that enabled a Gulfstream II business jet to fly like a space shuttle. We were both interested in becoming astronauts. I was selected in 1992, and

Steve was named an astronaut in 1998 after obtaining a PhD in computer science from Texas A&M University.

Steve excelled right away in the astronaut office and was selected as one of the four extra-vehicular activity (EVA) crewmembers to install one of the four solar array elements of the station. It was considered an honor to be chosen for such a significant mission on his first flight — he was clearly a rising star!

I began working at ��ɫ��Ƶ thanks to Steve. He talked to me after his post-flight trip to Boulder to visit with the students and return items he had flown for the university. CU asked him to consider a professor position in the CU aerospace department, but he wanted to fly more for NASA and so asked if I might be interested instead.

Steve also led the EVA team to install the final solar array element two years later. His final mission in 2014 was serving as a station crewmember and the mission commander.

That fall, I was proud to arrange a live video conference in the Fiske Planetarium so Steve could talk to the students while he was on the Space Station. Today, Steve shares his experiences at Boise State University, leading and advising student teams participating in NASA’s Artemis Challenges, inspiring them to do great things in science and engineering.

Joe Tanner is a retired NASA astronaut, Navy pilot and ��ɫ��Ƶ teaching professor. During his 16-year career as an astronaut, he flew four missions on the space shuttle, one to the Hubble Space Telescope and two to the International Space Station. He also mentored astronaut Sarah Gillis (AeroEngr’17) when she was a CU student; Gillis traveled to space in fall 2025 with SpaceX.

Photo courtesy NASA

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From quantum science to journalism, these five ��ɫ��Ƶ students, alumni and faculty are making bold, world-shaping contributions.

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Colorado Firefly Field Guide

Anna Tolette — Mon, 07 Jul 2025 20:03:02 +0000

Colorado Firefly Field Guide Anna Tolette Mon, 07/07/2025 - 14:03

Kelsey Yandura

“Magic is just science we don’t understand yet,” science fiction author Arthur Clarke famously penned in the 1960s. If that’s true, ��ɫ��Ƶ computer science researchers have been busy studying the fairy tale of fireflies in Colorado.

The work looks romantic, but it’s no picnic: In twilight vistas across the state, doctoral student Owen Martin (PhDCompSci’25) and associate professor Orit Peleg tow cameras and computers to document firefly populations and decode their flash patterns. It’s all part of a longstanding effort to understand firefly communication.

When the scientists discuss their work, locals are often surprised.

“A lot of people here come from places like the Midwest, where they’ve seen fireflies,” Martin told ��ɫ��Ƶ Today in July 2024. “But they don’t know about them in their own backyards.”

That’s why he’s eager to raise what he calls “firefly literacy” in the state.

Fireflies have quietly flickered in Colorado for centuries, though the first formal documentation came in 2016, when naturalist Tristan Darwin Kubik identified a population near Fort Collins. Genetic testing suggested they may represent a previously undocumented species, potentially dubbed Photuris coloradensis.

In 2018, Martin and Peleg began tracking fireflies, which have been documented in at least 19 counties, including near Fort Collins, Loveland, Greeley, Pueblo, Mofat, Divide, Durango and Carbondale.

Why are sightings so rare? Studies show fireflies prefer swampy environments — wetlands, meadows and areas near streams and ponds. Their patchy distribution and brief annual activity window leave many residents unaware of their presence.

As magical as these discoveries are, scientists warn they could be short-lived. Habitat loss, wetland drainage, livestock grazing, urban development and light pollution all pose serious threats.

“They are very special. We have a lot to learn from them, but also, they are under threat from environmental issues,” Peleg told ��ɫ��Ƶ Today.

Residents can help to protect these luminescent creatures by assisting with flash data collection, supporting habitat restoration, staying on marked trails and turning of outdoor lights from June to August, especially near wetlands.

“Biodiversity is magical,” Martin added. “And if we don’t alert the right people that these cool fireflies, that are really rare, are in this habitat, we’ll lose them forever. And then you lose the kind of wonder and magic they bring to you.”

To spot them, keep your eyes peeled from mid-to-late June through mid-July, usually after 9 p.m. in swampy or wetland areas.

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Illustration by Sunnu Rebecca Choi

��ɫ��Ƶ researchers are uncovering the story of Colorado’s rare fireflies.

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How to Embrace AI

Anna Tolette — Mon, 07 Jul 2025 19:53:59 +0000

How to Embrace AI Anna Tolette Mon, 07/07/2025 - 13:53

Christie Sounart

CU law professor Harry Surden worked as a software engineer for five years before deciding to fuse his interests in tech and law. He attended Stanford Law School, where he helped create a groundbreaking interdisciplinary research center, the Stanford Center for Legal Informatics (CodeX), where he remains involved today. He joined ��ɫ��Ƶ in 2008, and his research focuses on the intersection of artificial intelligence (AI) and law.

What spurred your interest in technology and law?

As an undergraduate, I wondered about this interplay between society, computer science and law. I was working as a software engineer and kept interacting with the legal sector, noticing ways in which aspects of law were becoming standardized — and to some extent automated.

What brought you to ��ɫ��Ƶ?

Colorado Law has a leading technology policy center, the Silicon Flatirons Center, led by well-known academics doing groundbreaking research — at the time Phil Weiser and Paul Ohm — and I was attracted to the idea of working with them. I was also very interested in moving to Boulder, which I had heard a great deal about. It turned out to be an absolutely terrific place to live.

What are your thoughts on the impact of large language models (LLMs)?

LLMs are absolutely revolutionary. I have studied artificial intelligence for about 20 years. For 17 of those years, I was somewhat disappointed. I observed that AI of the era prior to 2022 was good in very specific, narrow circumstances, but was far from the AI systems that most people conceived of when they conjured up the notion that machines could think and reason. With the advent of ChatGPT and LLMs since 2023, we are much closer to that vision of AI.

Today’s AI systems can understand and process ordinary language. Now, these AI systems are still simulation machines, and are not ‘thinking’ or conscious. They reproduce variants of complicated patterns that they have previously seen in billions of pages of written text and video. Nonetheless, they are extremely useful systems able to engage in fairly complex and advanced problem solving and analysis.

How often are you using ChatGPT?

I use ChatGPT (as well as Claude and Gemini) nearly every day. Part of the reason is due to my academic research, which aims to benchmark the legal reasoning and analysis abilities that AI models have for legal scenarios.

At this point, most of the frontier-leading AI models can engage in reasonably accurate legal reasoning for basic legal scenarios. But there are a couple of caveats. First, they make mistakes. They sometimes ‘hallucinate,’ inventing case names or occasionally misdescribing the holding of legal cases, so professionals have to be careful in completely relying on these systems. The second limitation is that such AI systems are still not great at complex and nuanced legal scenarios that rely upon the intuition, tacit knowledge and experience of attorneys.

How can LLMs be used to benefit the general public?

These models are not perfect, so we have to learn and practice their strengths and account for their weaknesses. I think of answers from ChatGPT as kind of background information that is likely reliable 90% of the time, but I still want to double check. I often cross-check answers across two or three different models in an attempt to triangulate on common knowledge.

How do you keep up with the AI industry?

I follow the academic research that is produced and uploaded to the academic article archive site for Cornell University’s arxiv.org. I also read the content of researchers on social media and watch the recordings of academic lectures or conferences on YouTube. However, primarily, I continually use the AI systems and test their strengths and weaknesses over time.

What should people know about the ways AI can intersect with the law?

AI can be very useful for access to justice. In the U.S., people who are involved in civil (non-criminal) cases, such as family law, landlord tenant law, wage disputes and immigration, have no right to counsel. An estimated 80% of Americans who have a civil matter cannot afford an attorney or do not have access to attorneys. AI may be able to help bridge that gap and provide people with a better option for legal advice and information.

How should law schools prepare students for the ethical dilemmas that AI may present in practice?

Law schools should be cautiously studying and, to some extent, embracing AI. I try to inculcate in my students principles of good AI usage in learning.

In education, there are two ways that AI can be used: to substitute for learning or to complement and enhance learning. Students who use AI should always reflect upon what any use of AI is doing. They should avoid uses where the AI is doing the work for them. However, AI can be a terrific learning enhancement. Imagine you read about a legal case for class, and you have some core confusion and unanswered questions. Here, you’d have the opportunity to use AI to connect the dots, enhancing your comprehension.

Do you believe current regulations are adequate to manage the risks posed by AI systems in society?

I think we should be cautious in regulating AI too early. AI has both benefits and risks, and we should avoid disproportionately attempting to predict future problems that have not yet arisen and may not arise. In my opinion, the best approach is to engage in continual information gathering and monitoring.

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Photos by Glenn Asakawa

CU law professor Harry Surden discusses the ways AI can be used in daily life.

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Astronaut Sarah Gillis is the First to Play Violin in Space

Anna Tolette — Mon, 10 Mar 2025 20:29:29 +0000

Astronaut Sarah Gillis is the First to Play Violin in Space Anna Tolette Mon, 03/10/2025 - 14:29

Christie Sounart

At more than 870 miles above Earth, this was no ordinary violin recital.

On Sept. 13, 2024, Sarah Gillis (AeroEngr’17) played “Rey’s Theme” from Star Wars: The Force Awakens by legendary composer John Williams — from a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft. As she played, Gillis firmly pressed her violin to her shoulder with her chin as she floated around the zero-gravity chamber, her hair flowing wildly.

Gillis’ three astronaut crewmembers filmed the inaugural performance as part of the Polaris Program’s Polaris Dawn mission, then transmitted the video to Earth via Starlink, a laser-based satellite communication.

Polaris Dawn posted the video, “Harmony of Resilience,” on X that day as part of a partnership with St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and El Sistema USA, which supports American music education programs. The video included Gillis’ performance and clips from orchestras playing the same piece in Los Angeles, Boston, Haiti, Sweden, Brazil, Uganda and Venezuela.

“The whole music moment was meant to inspire and show what’s possible when you can bring the world together,” Gillis said in an interview two months after returning to Earth.

“The whole music moment was meant to inspire and show what’s possible when you can bring the world together.”

Gillis reflected on the months of preparation for the performance, which included having engineers completely reconstruct her violin to survive the harsh space environment, and meeting Williams himself at the Los Angeles recording session.

“That was probably more stressful than actually going to space, if I’m completely honest,” said Gillis, who does not play violin professionally. “I was so nervous that he would show up and say, ‘No, you don’t have the rights to use this anymore.’ And instead he was so kind and supportive.”

From Training Astronauts to Becoming One

Gillis first gained interest in space as a high school student at Boulder’s Shining Mountain Waldorf School, where she attended a ��ɫ��Ƶ space for nonmajors course with her brother David Levine (FilmSt, Hist’13) and met former CU instructor and NASA astronaut Joe Tanner. Tanner helped Gillis with a space-related project she had for school, and he encouraged her to consider engineering at ��ɫ��Ƶ.

“He really planted that seed,” she said. “I honestly don’t know that I would’ve considered engineering if that hadn’t happened.”

After Gillis returned to Earth, Tanner — who flew on four NASA space shuttle flights from 1994 to 2006 — was eager to swap space stories with her.

“Being a friend to Sarah was perhaps my greatest joy during my eight years at CU,” said Tanner. “I may have helped open a few doors for her, but she made everything happen. I couldn’t be more proud of her, even if she were my own daughter.”

During her junior year at CU, Gillis took an internship at SpaceX that lasted more than two years. She helped develop and test displays and interfaces on the interior of the company’s Dragon spacecraft, the first private spacecraft to take humans to and from the International Space Station.

“I got to see some of those design decisions in space on my mission,” she said. She joined SpaceX full time in August 2017 as a space operations engineer, training astronauts on the interfaces she’d already worked on.

Several years later, her boss called a surprise meeting with her. Jared Isaacman, Polaris Dawn’s mission commander, was there to invite her to become part of the crew as a mission specialist, joining himself, Scott Poteet (mission pilot) and Anna Menon (medical officer and mission specialist).

“My response was, ‘Hell yes, but I’ll need to talk to some people first,” she said. “I immediately walked out of the room and straight downstairs to my husband, who worked at SpaceX with me. He had his headphones on at his desk. I tapped him on the shoulder and said, ‘I need to talk to you.’ … It was very special to share that exciting news.”

Five Record-Breaking Days

Two and a half years later, on Sept. 10, 2024, SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket launched the crew aboard a Dragon spacecraft from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. One of the crew’s main objectives on the mission was to conduct research to help better understand the human effects of space flight and space radiation. This included the first spacewalk from Dragon.

On the third day of the mission, Gillis and Isaacman exited the spacecraft in SpaceX’s newly designed and developed extravehicular activity spacesuits. For 10 minutes, she tested different components of the suit and became, at 30 years old, the youngest astronaut to complete a spacewalk.

When asked to describe the feat in one word, she settled on “dark.”

“I was emerging into the total blackness of space. It’s this immense void where you realize how close to Earth we are and how much is still left to explore out there, but it’s also this overwhelming dark blanket that is surrounding you.”

"It’s this immense void where you realize how close to Earth we are and how much is still left to explore out there."

The next day was her violin performance, which was planned to test the connectivity of SpaceX’s Starlink laser-based internet from space. The data may help improve communications for future missions to the Moon and Mars.

The crew also conducted other experiments — including gathering data on space radiation — that could help advance human health for future long-duration space flights.

Gillis noted one surprising aspect of being in space she hadn’t prepared for: how easily things got lost without the presence of gravity.

“It was always a constant treasure hunt of, ‘Has anybody seen this? Has anybody seen that?’” she said, adding that a missing camera SD card was found in the spacecraft weeks after landing. “You’d stick something with Velcro, then turn around and it would be gone.”

The historic mission lasted five days and ended with a successful splashdown off the coast of Florida.

“I hope that it is inspiring to people to see what the future of human spaceflight could be and where we’re going — that it is a possibility that more and more people are going to go to space.”

“I hope that it is inspiring to people to see what the future of human spaceflight could be and where we’re going — that it is a possibility that more and more people are going to go to space,” Gillis said.

The Next Step

Gillis’ husband, Lewis Gillis (Aero Engr’17; MS’17), formerly a SpaceX senior propulsion engineer, reflected on his wife’s extraordinary career to date when the couple visited campus this past November.

“With some curiosity and passion and connecting to all the humans around her, Sarah’s made it quite a long way,” he said. “I’m excited to see what she builds next and who she meets along the way.”

Gillis said she would reconsider another spaceflight if given the opportunity, but she is eager for others to experience space first. She remains in her astronaut training position at SpaceX.

Reflecting on her historic mission, she said: “I think the more people we can get into space to see the world from that perspective, the better off humanity will be.

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Photo by Glenn Asakawa; Polaris Dawn Crew (violin)

SpaceX's Sarah Gillis made history by becoming the youngest astronaut to complete a spacewalk and perform the first violin recital in space.

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Science & Technology

Art, Science and Polar Bears

Tell us about some of your Arctic adventures.

What are some things you work on now in the Arctic?

What do you want people to take from your storytelling work?

What motivated you to return to school for an education degree?

What are you doing when you aren’t in the Arctic?

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Spruce Gulch: Grounds for Discovery

A Symbiotic Friendship

Inheriting a Legacy

Acres for Academics

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The Reaches of ��ɫ��Ƶ Research

Exploring New Horizons <LASP>

Engineering Organoids <BioFrontiers Institute>

Plastics to Fertilizer <ATLAS Institute>

Our Shared Future

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The Science Behind a Sub-Four-Minute Mile

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The Age of AI Ghosts

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How a Fish Proved a Mathematical Breakthrough

Turing Patterns

An Accidental Discovery

A Pilgrimage

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Five CU Innovators Changing the World

Jump to:

Idowu Odeyemi (PhDPhil’27)

Savannah Sellers (Jour’13)

Dania Arayssi (MPolSci’22; PhD’26)

Jun Ye (PhDPhys'97)

Steve Swanson (EngrPhys’83)

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Colorado Firefly Field Guide

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How to Embrace AI

What spurred your interest in technology and law?

What brought you to ��ɫ��Ƶ?

What are your thoughts on the impact of large language models (LLMs)?

How often are you using ChatGPT?

How can LLMs be used to benefit the general public?

How do you keep up with the AI industry?

What should people know about the ways AI can intersect with the law?

How should law schools prepare students for the ethical dilemmas that AI may present in practice?

Do you believe current regulations are adequate to manage the risks posed by AI systems in society?

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Astronaut Sarah Gillis is the First to Play Violin in Space

From Training Astronauts to Becoming One

Five Record-Breaking Days

The Next Step

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