Science & Technology

If you could chat with an AI ghost, what would you want them to say? New study explores

Lisa Marshall — Mon, 29 Jun 2026 22:34:28 +0000

If you could chat with an AI ghost, what would you want them to say? New study explores Lisa Marshall Mon, 06/29/2026 - 16:34

Lisa Marshall

Inside a second-floor lab in CU 91��Ҹ�’s Information Science building, Jack Manning and Jed Brubaker are quietly resurrecting the dead.

As the researchers look on, study volunteers log into Zoom and chat at length with AI-generated representations of lost grandparents, siblings, parents and family friends.

Some get emotional: “I can see her. I can feel her,” said one 32-year-old woman during a text-based conversation with her grandmother who died five years ago. “It just feels like I’m getting the closure I needed.”

Others plan the next visit: “It was so so powerful,” typed a 50-year-old woman to the ghost of her beloved. “I’d like for you to come to me again.”

These interactions, chronicled in a paper published this month by the Association for Computing Machinery, offer the first scientific glimpse at how people use “generative ghosts”—the increasingly popular AI agents trained on data about the deceased.

Among other things, the study found that participants preferred ghosts that spoke in the first person, acting as a resurrection rather than a representative. The more accurate and life-like the ghost’s emotional tone, dialect and conversational rhythm, the better.

“We originally thought it might feel very Black Mirror creepy to people and make them uncomfortable,” said first author Manning, a doctoral candidate in information science who found his way to the unusual field of study after losing his sister. “I ended up being completely wrong. People thought it was amazing.”

Jack Manning, a doctoral candidate in the Department of Information Science, presents his research findings at the ACM Designing Interactive Systems conference in Singapore. Credit: Jack Manning

Conjuring the dead

Once viewed as science fiction, generative ghosts, sometimes called “griefbots” or “deathbots,” are fast becoming a commercial reality.

Platforms like Project December and Séance AI use journal entries, social media posts and texts from the deceased to train text-based ghosts for surviving loved ones to chat with. Companies like HereAfterAI invite users to submit voice recordings and photos of themselves to create multimedia ghosts for their loved ones to interact with after they’re gone. Some start-ups have even created fully-immersive, virtual-reality options, enabling grieving clients to literally walk with a hologram of the dead.

Brubaker, an associate professor of information science who has spent most of his career at the intersection of tech and death, predicts it won’t be long before generative ghosts are a regular part of life as we know it.

But given their potential to both help and harm the grieving, he believes they should be designed with solid research as a guide.

That’s where his lab comes in.

“To our knowledge, we are conducting the first user experience studies of simulated AI ghosts,” said Brubaker.

Jang Ji-Sun interacts with an AI simulation of her late daughter Na Yeon in a documentary by a South Korean broadcaster. Credit: MBC Media/YouTube

Don't call me 'champ'

For their inaugural study, the research team recruited 16 people, ages 22–50, who had lost a close relative or friend.

Participants logged into Zoom for a brief on-camera interview with a facilitator, who gathered biographical information and other details about the deceased. Meanwhile, in the background, a second researcher plugged this information into a large language model (LLM), building a ghost in real-time.
Participants chatted with two iterations, each for about 20 minutes. One ghost spoke in first-person (“I remember going to the beach together.”) Another used third person. (“She loved going to the beach with you.”)

The facilitator stood by to intervene if things got uncomfortable, while the operator behind the scenes used the conversation details to fine-tune the ghost.

Subsequent interviews found that, across the board, participants preferred what the researchers called the “reincarnation” over the “representation,” even pivoting to address the latter as if they were their loved one.

For instance, if a ghost said, “Is there something you want your grandpa’s advice on?” the participant would respond: “Grandpa, what would you want to tell me if you were here?”

While people seemed willing to overlook occasional inaccuracies, or "hallucinations" spun up by AI, they cringed if the bot used the wrong term of endearment. (When the ghost of one participant’s stepfather called him "champ"—a term he would never have used—the participant nearly called off the session.)

“Maybe the chatbot didn’t know when exactly grandma was born, but if it used some slang or regional word choice that she used, it was extremely impactful,” said Brubaker.

Users also preferred shorter sentences with emojis rather than the rambling paragraphs that AI tends to produce.

In search of closure

Information Science Professor Jed Brubaker

Perhaps the most interesting finding came at the end, when participants were asked if they would use the technology again.

Surprisingly, everyone said yes (although some feared they would become overly reliant on it). But almost all added that they feared what would happen to their grieving loved ones if they got their hands on one.

“I just fear he would get addicted,” said one study subject about a brother still struggling with a loss.

Manning came to the study with skepticism.

He had lost his sister to a heart condition when they were kids and had longed for years for more meaningful ways to memorialize her.

“There were bake sales and concerts, all to try to create a place where we could come together to remember her, but it just seemed like a monumental task,” he said.

When he heard about AI ghosts, he was initially horrified—which is exactly why he felt he was a good fit to study them.

“I felt it was important for me to do the work because the people who are the largest fans might skip the empirical research and just make a product,” Manning said.

The lab has already begun the next studies, including one working with mental health professionals to analyze the benefits and risks of interacting with AI ghosts.

Along with their potential pitfalls, Manning now sees their promise, too.

“I think a lot about 11-year-old me. If I had access to ChatGPT and it started responding as my sister late at night without supervision…that is a very scary thought,” he said. “But as we have learned through this paper, it can also be an incredibly meaningful experience for people that enables them to get some closure and peace.”

The first user-experience study of "generative ghosts" offers insight into what people want—and don't want—from digital representations of their deceased loved ones.

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Seaweed-based ingredient can help turn dirt into 3D-printed walls

Yvaine Ye — Mon, 22 Jun 2026 10:44:50 +0000

Seaweed-based ingredient can help turn dirt into 3D-printed walls Yvaine Ye Mon, 06/22/2026 - 04:44

Yvaine Ye

An ingredient that gives ice cream a creamier texture could make natural earthen materials like clay and sand easier to 3D-print into durable structures, according to new research led by scientists at the 91��Ҹ� 91��Ҹ�.

The discovery could help turn construction waste into building materials with lower environmental impact.

“From termite mounds to adobe buildings, humans and animals have been building with earth since the dawn of time,” said Wil Srubar, professor in the Department of Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering. “But there hasn’t been a lot of science to how earthen builders design the materials. So, we wanted to use scientific knowledge and tools to understand it.”

In nature, termites construct towering mounds. Wasps build intricate nests, and honeycomb worms create reef-like structures along coastlines. Rather than relying on cement, these organisms use biopolymers, which are large biological molecules that act like glue, often found in saliva, to bind natural materials like soil and clay together.

Inspired by nature’s designs, Srubar and his team, including researchers at Columbia University in New York, set out to investigate which biopolymer could bind earthen materials and make them 3D-printable.

The team tested five biopolymers, including legume-derived guar gum, locust bean gum and cassia gum. These compounds are commonly found in food products like salad dressings to keep oil and water from separating. They also studied sodium alginate, derived from seaweed, and xanthan gum, produced by fermenting sugar.

The researchers found that locust bean gum could hold earthen materials tightly together by binding soil particles into a stronger network. But that same effect made the material harder to push through a 3D-printer nozzle.

Sodium alginate, often found in ice cream and used to make spherical foods like popping boba, produced the opposite effect. Instead of functioning like a glue, the polymer changed the electrical charges on clay particles, causing them to repel one another, similar to how the same poles of two magnets push each other away.

As a result, adding sodium alginate to clay and sand produced materials that allowed the particles to suspend in a stable mixture while still flowing smoothly through a 3D printer.

Left: Earthen Rituals, exhibited at the 2026 Venice Architecture Biennial, is constructed with 3D-printed earthen materials. (Credit: Alessandro Terranova); Middle: Details of the earthen bricks. (Credit: Alessandro Terranova); Right: A vertical vessel with earthen materials. (Credit: Lola Ben-Alon and the Natural Materials Lab)

Then the team searched for the best formulation. To natural earth excavated from a granite quarry near Golden, Colorado, they added just 0.12% of sodium alginate, which produced a material that was both strong and printable. It could withstand 25% more pressure than earth without the biopolymer and could be printed 33% faster.

Using the formula, the team printed an 8-millimeter-thick (0.3-inch) wall that leaned outward at dramatic angles. They found that the structure could remain stable even when tilted to 60 degrees, far steeper than the Leaning Tower of Pisa.

While the current study focuses primarily on improving the printability of earthen materials, Srubar said scientists could use the same framework to test other biopolymers for enhanced properties such as strength and durability.

“There are some good indoor environmental benefits of having earth in a building,” said Samuel Armistead, a research associate in the Department of Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering. “It can regulate indoor moisture and uptake air pollutants. It can also serve as a thermal insulator, keeping things cool in the summer and warm in the winter.”

Construction projects often generate large amounts of excavated soil when workers dig foundations, basements, or parking structures. Much of that material ends up in landfills.

“Our study suggests that there are ways to reuse waste earth material onsite, and that could largely reduce the environmental footprint of construction,” Armistead said.

Because clay and sand are widely available, Srubar said the team's findings could help builders around the world to tap into local resources.

“Clay and sand are among the most abundant building materials on Earth,” Srubar said. “The science and engineering we're developing can be applied almost anywhere in the world.”

Rebecca Mikofsky at CU 91��Ҹ�, and Columbia University scientists Yierfan Maierdan, Olga Carcassi, Shiho Kawashima and Lola Ben-Alon also contributed to the work.

By studying how nature builds with dirt, CU 91��Ҹ� researchers found a way to turn excavated soil into stronger and 3D printable building materials.

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3D-printed earth-fiber objects by Lola Ben-Alon and the Natural Materials Lab were exhibited at the London Craft Week. (Credit: Dan Weill)

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3D-printed earth-fiber objects by Lola Ben-Alon and the Natural Materials Lab were exhibited at the London Craft Week. (Credit: Dan Weill)

Rare meteorite provides evidence of giant early planet

Yvaine Ye — Mon, 01 Jun 2026 14:58:51 +0000

Rare meteorite provides evidence of giant early planet Yvaine Ye Mon, 06/01/2026 - 08:58

Yvaine Ye

Four-and-a-half billion years ago, a massive world, possibly as big as the moon or even Mars, orbited our sun before crashing into another celestial body and shattering into rubble.

Now, in a paper published in the journal Earth and Planetary Science Letters, scientists report the first definitive evidence that this lost planetary embryo, or protoplanet, existed. Its unique geological makeup challenges long-held assumptions about how planets evolve.

A slice of NWA 12774.The green circle is an olivine crystal, a magnesium-rich mineral. (Credit: John Kashuba)

“It’s incredible to think there was once a world this large,” said Aaron Bell, an assistant research professor in the Department of Earth Science at CU 91��Ҹ�. “We only know it existed because a few fragments of it happened to land on Earth. These meteorites preserved evidence of a completely different pathway through which early planets developed.”

What gave away the lost world’s secret was a piece of its debris uncovered on Earth in the Sahara Desert, known as the Northwest Africa (NWA) 12774 angrite meteorite.

Angrites are among the oldest known volcanic rocks in the solar system, forming within just a few million years after the solar system began about 4.56 billion years ago. They are also exceptionally rare. Out of more than 80,000 meteorites discovered on Earth, only 68 are angrites.

What makes angrites especially puzzling is their chemistry. Unlike Earth, Mars and other rocky planets, angrites contain very little silicon dioxide, or silica, which is a major ingredient in nearly every known terrestrial planet in the solar system.

For that reason, scientists thought angrites must always come from an asteroid, something with a radius of less than 200 kilometers (124 miles).

An X-ray image of NWA 12774. (Credit: Aaron Bell/CU 91��Ҹ�)

When Bell and his colleagues were studying NWA 12774, they found the meteorite contained clinopyroxene, a mineral crystal commonly found in Earth's crust and mantle. In particular, NWA 12774’s clinopyroxene was exceptionally rich in aluminum, a telltale sign that the rock formed under enormous pressure deep underground.

The researchers then reconstructed the pressure conditions that might have been present for NWA 12774 to form.

To their surprise, the aluminum-rich clinopyroxene needed at least 17.5 kilobars of pressure. For comparison, the crushing pressure at the bottom of the Mariana Trench, the deepest point on Earth, is only around 1 kilobar.

That level of pressure could not have existed inside a small asteroid. Instead, the calculations suggested that the body where angrites came from must have been at least 1,000 kilometers (621 miles) in radius.

Other clues in the meteorite pointed to an even more striking possibility. The crystals inside NWA 12774 still preserved sharp edges and delicate chemical patterns that would have been erased if they formed deep underground. This suggested that the crystals likely formed at relatively shallow depths inside the parent body, so the world had to be even larger.

Under that scenario, the angrite parent body might have stretched beyond 1,800 kilometers (1118 miles) in radius, making it comparable in size to Earth’s moon and possibly approaching a Mars-sized world, which has a radius of 3300 kilometers (2050 miles).

“There are many meteorites sitting in drawers that haven’t been thoroughly studied, so there were likely more of these protoplanets we don’t know about,” Bell said.

It remains unclear how the protoplanet met its end. One possibility is that a catastrophic event in the early solar system shattered it, with its fragments later become the building blocks of other terrestrial planets, including Earth.

“The materials that formed the angrite parent body are fundamentally different from the ingredients of Earth and Mars. It points to a distinct and separate evolutionary path in planetary formation in the early history of our solar system,” Bell said.

A fragment of a lost world has provided the first direct evidence that a protoplanet in the early solar system could have been as large as Mars. The findings challenge assumptions about how early planets evolved.

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NWA 12774 under cross-polarized light. (Credit: John Kashuba)

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NWA 12774 under cross-polarized light. (Credit: John Kashuba)

Tiny rodent-like mammals roamed the ancient Arctic, outlasted the dinosaurs

Yvaine Ye — Mon, 18 May 2026 14:54:51 +0000

Tiny rodent-like mammals roamed the ancient Arctic, outlasted the dinosaurs Yvaine Ye Mon, 05/18/2026 - 08:54

Yvaine Ye

Today’s Arctic may feel remote and desolate, but more than 70 million years ago, it was a surprisingly lively place for some of Earth’s ancient mammals.

In a new study published May 18 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), CU 91��Ҹ� researchers and collaborators describe three previously unknown species of rodent-like mammals that once scurried alongside dinosaurs in what is now northern Alaska. They found that some of these creatures’ ancestors had traveled all the way from modern-day Mongolia, in East Asia, challenging a long-held assumption that the polar regions played only a minor role in evolution.

“While the polar regions don’t host the same level of biodiversity as the tropics, they were still very active places for life to flourish, extending far back into deep time,” says Sarah Shelley, the paper’s first author at the University of Lincoln in the U.K. She conducted the study as a postdoctoral researcher at CU 91��Ҹ� with senior author Jaelyn Eberle, a professor in the Department of Geological Sciences and curator at the CU Museum of Natural History.

Druckenmiller and the field crew travel by boat to study the Late Cretaceous Prince Creek Formation in Alaska. (Credit: Patrick Druckenmiller)

Shelley, Eberle and colleagues named the three species Camurodon borealis, which roughly translates to “Northern curved-tooth;” Qayaqgruk peregrinus, or “the little wandering hero;” and Kaniqsiqcosmodon polaris, meaning “polar frost ornamented tooth.”

The team identified the animals using fossil teeth discovered in the Prince Creek Formation, located near the top of the world in the Arctic Circle. The fossil site dates back 73 million years. Even then, the region experienced months of darkness in winter, freezing temperatures and likely seasonal food shortages. But these little creatures thrived.

“These three new mammal species add to a growing body of evidence that this ancient arctic region was home to unique, polar-adapted species,” said Patrick Druckenmiller, a coauthor at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

All three animals belong to an extinct mammal group called multituberculates. Roughly in the size range between mice and rats, multituberculates were the longest-lived group of mammals known in Earth’s history. They persisted for more than 100 million years, from the Jurassic Period to the end of the Eocene Epoch about 35 million years ago. They even survived the asteroid impact that killed all non-avian dinosaurs. By comparison, modern humans (Homo sapiens) have existed for only about 300,000 years.

Scientists have long wondered what allowed multituberculates to outlive many other mammals, and these teeth offered a clue.

The researchers found striking differences in tooth shape among the three species, suggesting that they likely ate different foods. C. borealis had the teeth of herbivores, while Q. peregrinus was an omnivore that probably fed on insects along with some plants. K. polaris, also appeared to have been an omnivore, but might have eaten mostly plants.

Camurodon borealis had the teeth of herbivores. (Credit: Shelley et al.)

In a region with limited food, the ability to evolve and carve out their own diets might have helped different multituberculate species coexist. Such adaptability might also have helped them survive the asteroid impact, Shelley said.

“There's a lot of diversity in the multituberculate group. They lived for an incredibly long time, and I think they can reveal a lot about the resilience of mammals, not just to the mass extinction, but also to climatic stresses that many organisms are facing today,” she said.

This discovery also helps paint a more complete picture of the ancient Arctic.

The team found that Q. peregrinus, named after a legendary hero, Qayaq, in the Alaskan Inuit culture, is closely related to a species found in what is now Mongolia, suggesting Q. peregrinus’ ancestors traveled from Asia to North America. Shelley estimated that this dispersal happened about 92 million years ago, making it one of the earliest known examples of mammals crossing between the continents.

“This means there was a land corridor between Asia and North America for these little mammals to come through,” Eberle said. “And this land bridge was already pretty active as far back as 90 million years ago.”

The discovery adds to the growing evidence that species have been migrating and reshaping ecosystems across continents for hundreds of millions of years.

“It really challenges how we think about native species,” Shelley said. “Deep time reminds us that a place is not just a point on a map, but a long, layered history of landscapes and inhabitants.”

91��Ҹ�ers have discovered new rodent-like species that inhabited the ancient Arctic 73 million years ago. Their fossil teeth offer surprising clues on where they came from and how they outlived the dinosaurs.

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A reconstruction of the Late Cretaceous paleoenvironment of Alaska. (Credit: James Havens)

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A reconstruction of the Late Cretaceous paleoenvironment of Alaska. (Credit: James Havens)

Light without electricity? Glowing algae could make it possible

Yvaine Ye — Wed, 06 May 2026 18:00:00 +0000

Light without electricity? Glowing algae could make it possible Yvaine Ye Wed, 05/06/2026 - 12:00

Yvaine Ye

Imagine a sea of glowing blue lights pulsing to the beat of the music. But instead of glow sticks filled with toxic chemicals, the luminescence comes from living algae, shimmering on demand.

In a new study published May 6 in Science Advances, CU 91��Ҹ� researchers and collaborators unveil a new technology that could make it possible. They’ve successfully turned on the “light switch” in algae and kept them lit up using simple chemical solutions. The finding opens the door for future technologies such as autonomous robots that can operate in dark environments and living sensors for water quality.

“This project was a moonshot idea,” said Wil Srubar, professor in the Department of Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering. “I was curious if we could create a world in which we don’t use electricity but rather use biology to produce light. This discovery really paves the way for engineering other living light materials and devices.”

In the natural world, a wide range of animals, from fireflies to anglerfish and even certain mushrooms, produce their own light, a phenomenon known as bioluminescence. In the deep ocean, as much as 90% of creatures may be able to glow and glitter through chemical reactions inside their cells.

Pyrocystis lunula, a type of bioluminescent algae, is one of the organisms that emit an icy blue glow sometimes seen in ocean waves. Subsisting only on seawater, sunlight and carbon dioxide (CO₂), these photosynthetic organisms flash when they are agitated by crashing tides or passing boats, for example.

But those flashes last only milliseconds. Srubar and his team wondered if they could keep the lights on with chemistry instead. Previous research has suggested that exposure to different chemical compounds could activate P. lunula’s bioluminescent reaction. So the team exposed the algae to an acidic solution with a pH of 4, similar to that of tomato juice, and a basic solution with a pH of 10, comparable to mild soap.

They found that both environments could trigger light production in P. lunula. In the acidic condition, the algae could stay aglow for as long as 25 minutes, with light appearing bright and concentrated. In the basic condition, the glow was more diffused and short-lived.

Acidic (top) and basic (bottom) environments trigger different bioluminescent behaviors in algae. (Credit: Giulia Brachi)

“It was a very exciting moment when we found the right chemical stimulant that allowed the light to stay on for a long time,” says Giulia Brachi, the first author and research associate in the Department of Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering. “This is the first time we have figured out how to sustain luminescence.”

To turn these glowing algae into usable materials, the researchers embedded them into a naturally derived hydrogel, a type of water-based gel material. They then used 3D printing to shape the material into structures and shapes, from a crescent pattern to a CU Buffalo logo.

By exposing the structures to the acidic or basic solution, they prompted the P. lunula inside to emit light, illuminating the entire structure in a blue glow.

Inside these printed structures, the algae remained alive for weeks. The acidic condition worked best, with P. lunula in these 3D printed structures retaining 75% of their brightness even after four weeks.

The findings could have wide applications beyond making eye-catching designs. These living materials could someday help light up autonomous robots for deep-sea or space exploration without the need for batteries.

Next, the team is exploring whether P. lunula may respond to other chemicals. If so, they could also serve as a tool for water quality monitoring and light up when toxins are present.

Beyond their ability to light up spaces, P. lunula also offers an environmental benefit. Because these algae are photosynthetic, they convert carbon dissolved in seawater into energy.

“We’re storing carbon while we’re producing light, whereas conventionally, we emit carbon to light up spaces,” Srubar said.

And yes, future rave scenes could someday glow with light powered by living algae.

CU 91��Ҹ� researchers have developed 3D-printable materials embedded with living bioluminescent algae that can produce sustained light.

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Bioluminescent algae blooms in San Diego. (Credit: slworking2/Flickr)

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Bioluminescent algae blooms in San Diego. (Credit: slworking2/Flickr)

Two to tango: Study shows dancers’ brains sync up as they move together

Yvaine Ye — Mon, 04 May 2026 13:00:00 +0000

Two to tango: Study shows dancers’ brains sync up as they move together Yvaine Ye Mon, 05/04/2026 - 07:00

Daniel Strain

Scientists at CU 91��Ҹ� have discovered something that experienced ballroom dancers have long known: When dancers are in tune with each other, their brains may sync up, helping them move as one.

“When we dance, our brains are actually coupling,” said Thiago Roque, a graduate student in the ATLAS Institute who led the study. “We are synchronizing our brains through our behavior.”

For the unique experiment, the researchers placed electroencephalogram (EEG) caps, or devices that measure electrical activity in the brain, on pairs doing the Argentine tango—a sensuous dance where a leader and follower hold each other tight while moving together to music.

Thiago Roque (left) puts on an EEG cap on Ruojia Sun (right). (Credit: ATLAS/CU 91��Ҹ�)

The team found that when those dancers were moving together in time, the activity in their brains also began to look startling similar. Scientists call that phenomenon “interbrain coupling” or “neural synchronization.” 91��Ҹ�ers have seen similar patterns in other social activities, such as playing duets on the guitar, but never before in dancing.

Roque presented the group’s results in March at the 20 International Conference on Tangible, Embedded and Embodied Interaction in Chicago.

The researchers also took their findings one step further, designing a wearable device that monitors dancers’ brains and vibrates when they sync up.

The tool, which dancers wear on their wrists, is still in its early stages. But Roque envisions that similar technologies could one day help people learn a wide range of tasks that require humans to coordinate without speaking—such as playing music or team sports.

“When we are performing, we aren’t conscious of this sort of synchronization,” Roque said. “My goal was to bring unconscious things to the conscious level.”

Shall we dance?

Ruojia Sun knows all about that kind of unconscious communication. She took part in the new study both as a researcher and co-author and as one of the dancers.

Sun started tangoing when she moved to 91��Ҹ� five years ago. Unlike many other types of dances, the tango is rarely choreographed—dancers usually improvise their steps in the moment. Pairs signal their next moves through subtle signs like a light compression of the hands or a shift in the upper body.

“I wound up loving so many aspects of it,” said Sun, who earned a master’s degree in creative technology and design at CU 91��Ҹ� in 2024. “It’s a really interesting way to connect with another human being.”

To explore that connection, Roque brought five pairs of experienced tango dancers, including Sun and her longtime dance partner, into the lab. In addition to the EEG caps, the pairs wore movement sensors on their ankles so that the research team could track their steps.

Then, the dancers began to tango.

Riding the wave

Ruojia Sun (left) dances with an EEG cap. (Credit: ATLAS/CU 91��Ҹ�)

When neurons fire in the brain, they create pulses of electrical activity, or “brainwaves.” EEG sensors measure those waves at different frequencies. Humans, for example, tend to produce fast pulses known as beta waves when they are concentrating or thinking hard. In contrast, they often generate slower, theta waves, when they’re relaxing.

Roque noted how those waves behaved in the experiment depended on how in-step the dancers were with each other.

When a leader, for example, took a step forward and the follower took an immediate (within 200 milliseconds or less) step back, their brain waves tended to match up—rising and falling at about the same time. When their steps weren’t in sync, neither were their brains. Those trends were true for a range of brain waves, including beta and theta waves.

“When I started seeing the results—they were perfect,” Roque said. “The coupling was even better than I expected.”

Other co-authors of the new study included Grace Leslie, associate professor at ATLAS and the College of Music, and Ellen Do, professor at ATLAS and the Department of Computer Science.

From dancing to cycling

Roque and his colleagues wondered if a wearable device could enhance that experience of synchrony.

Sun tried out the team’s biofeedback device with her tango partner. The tool buzzed at all times but vibrated vigorously when the pair’s brain waves lined up. Sun noted that the buzzing was distracting when she and her partner weren’t in sync. But when they were, it just felt right.

“It almost enhanced that feeling of connection,” Sun said.

Roque still has a lot of work to do before dancers, or anyone else, can wear that kind of device in the real world. For a start, he’d like to flip the settings—making the wrist device buzz when dancers aren’t in tune with each other and go silent when they’re synchronizing.

He believes that technologies that make unconscious signals conscious could help humans learn and understand each other’s behavior—including during collective sports like soccer, cycling and more.

“In sports, you need to know what your teammates are going to do,” he said. “By using a system like this, they may be able to better learn how to understand each other during training.”

New research revealed that when dancers are in tune with each other, their brains may sync up, helping them move as one.

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Ruojia Sun tango dancing with an EEG cap on to monitor her brain waves. (Credit: ATLAS/CU 91��Ҹ�)

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Ruojia Sun (right) tango dancing with an EEG cap on to monitor her brain waves. (Credit: ATLAS/CU 91��Ҹ�)

Moon clam vies for Mollusk of the Year, thanks to CU researcher

Yvaine Ye — Fri, 10 Apr 2026 20:53:57 +0000

Moon clam vies for Mollusk of the Year, thanks to CU researcher Yvaine Ye Fri, 04/10/2026 - 14:53

Yvaine Ye

At first sight, the moon clam may not look like a contender for stardom. Its size is humble, its color pale. Most shocking of all, for a clam, its shells can’t even close.

But this oddball of the seafloor is now a finalist in an international popularity contest, and scientists say the moon clam’s strange shells may hold clues to how animals evolve.

Moon clams live tucked inside burrows and cracks built by shrimp and sea sponges. (Credit: Andy Tan and Lisa Kirkendale)

Each year, the Senckenberg Institutes in Germany hosts the “Mollusk of the Year” competition, inviting researchers from around the world to nominate their favorite squishy invertebrates with shells or no shells in the Mollusca group, the second largest animal category on Earth. There are more than 86,000 species of mollusks recognized to date, from the giant squid, which is the largest known invertebrate, to the iconic Giant clam.

The judging criteria? Whichever creature the public thinks is the coolest.

This year, among the finalists is the moon clam (Ephippodonta lunata), a mighty but unique creature found only in the remote waters of southwestern Australia.

“The mysterious moon clam proves that not all clams live life closed shut,” wrote Jingchun Li, associate professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology who nominated the species. “Strange, elegant, and almost unreal, this hidden bivalve challenges everything we think a clam should be.”

This marks the first time a nomination from CU 91��Ҹ� researchers has made it to the final five. The winner will receive not just bragging rights, but a full genome sequence, a powerful tool that Li said could crack the code for the mystery of why this clam evolved shells that never close.

“Moon clams first caught my eye because they don’t look like clams,” said Li, who’s also a curator at the CU Museum of Natural History .

Most clams have two-part shells that open and close to protect their soft tissues from predators and the environment. Unlike a typical clam, the moon clams’ shells remain apart at nearly 180°, forming a moon-like shape.

Small bumps on the moon clam's mantle may act as sensory organs. (Credit: Andy Tan and Lisa Kirkendale)

“I wasn’t sure how these animals survive in the ocean, which is a very dangerous place with tons of predators,” Li said. “It turns out they live in houses built by other animals.”

Smaller than a fingernail, moon clams live tucked inside burrows and cracks built by shrimp and sea sponges. They hide in these shelters, feeding on plankton that drifts by.

Maintaining a thick hard shell takes a lot of energy, Li said. She suspects that by relying on such a symbiotic relationship with shrimp and sponges, moon clams no longer need to invest as much in building their shells.

Instead, the clam seems to have redirected that energy to a different task: sensing the world.

Their mantle, the soft flesh that typically lines a clam’s shell, extends outward and folds over the shell surface. There are small bumps and tentacle-like structures all over the mantle, and Li said these may act as sensory organs, helping the animal detect changes in its environment through touch or chemical signals.

While many clams have sensory receptors on their mantles that they extend from their shells occasionally, Li said moon clams take this ability to the extreme by evolving soft tissues that remain permanently exposed.

This unusual evolutionary tweak is exactly why scientists are eager to study them.

For decades, scientists focused on mollusks with large and colorful shells. Moon clams and their relatives were often overlooked, even though they may represent one of the most diverse groups of bivalves.

Li is currently working with researchers from 10 other research institutions around the world to map the biodiversity of this understudied group, known as galeommatoidean bivalves. Sequencing the moon clam’s genome would give scientists a blueprint of its biology, helping them understand how it evolved to be the clam that doesn’t close, and what sets it apart from other related species.

Make the moon clam 2026 Mollusk of the Year!

Cast your vote between April 13 and 26. The winner will be announced on April 30.

Vote for E. lunata

A bizarre, perpetually-open clam from Australia is running for Mollusk of the Year, offering scientists a chance to study how unusual animal forms evolve.

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Moon clams are bivalves found only in the remote waters of southwestern Australia. (Credit: Andy Tan and Lisa Kirkendale)

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Moon clams are bivalves found only in the remote waters of southwestern Australia. (Credit: Andy Tan and Lisa Kirkendale)

'Good evening, I'm AI, and this is your nightly news'

Megan M Rogers — Fri, 03 Apr 2026 14:54:43 +0000

'Good evening, I'm AI, and this is your nightly news' Megan M Rogers Fri, 04/03/2026 - 08:54

College of Communication, Media, Design and Information

More stations are experimenting with AI anchors, and doctoral student Muhammad Ali says the trend has finally reached the United States.

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CU 91��Ҹ�'s Jolly Rancher-influenced vaccine

Megan M Rogers — Fri, 27 Mar 2026 17:00:31 +0000

CU 91��Ҹ�'s Jolly Rancher-influenced vaccine Megan M Rogers Fri, 03/27/2026 - 11:00

Coloradan , Amber Carlson

The challenge with some vaccines, like the rabies shot, is that they need to be kept refrigerated or frozen. But CU 91��Ҹ� scientists have discovered a way to keep these types of shots viable at warmer temps, easing some of the difficulties for international regions that lack electricity or specialized cold storage equipment.

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Eyes in the sky focus on elephants

Megan M Rogers — Fri, 27 Mar 2026 13:19:17 +0000

Eyes in the sky focus on elephants Megan M Rogers Fri, 03/27/2026 - 07:19

Colorado Arts and Sciences Magazine

CU 91��Ҹ� doctoral student Liam Jasperse-Sjolander is helping elephant behavioral observation get off the ground—and into the air above Africa.

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