Research

LOGAN — Utah State University student teams have built bridges and scaled walls to top honors in the Air Force Research Laboratory’s Design Challenge the last two years.

This spring, two teams came out on top by creating a light, portable bridge that, like a web, would allow for safe movement between roof tops or terrain with deep gaps. Last year, two other USU student design teams won the competition by inventing the Personal Vacuum Assisted Climber, which allows the wearer to quickly scale a 90-foot wall.

For decades, scientists thought that flying squirrels could do little more than glide, controlling their descent from a high point to a low point. After all, that’s what the squirrels did when observed. But most detailed observations took place in laboratory settings.

OGDEN — E.K. Valentin doesn’t quite grasp the advantage to holiday gift cards over cash, but as a Weber State marketing professor, he felt bound to study them.

“They really don’t make sense from an economic standpoint,” Valentin said of gift cards. “You are trading a high degree of liquidity of cash for a more restricted gift card, which may have to be used at a specific store. Recipients can spend cash on anything they want, and givers save hours of shopping time — but noncash gifts remain the most popular because of their emotional and symbolic aspects.”

LOGAN — Spencer Donovan’s first test every Tuesday morning is the easiest of the week for the Utah State University student.

Donovan lines up with more than 100 other would-be volunteers each week outside of the sensory-evaluation lab in the Nutrition and Food Sciences Building for a chance to rate milk samples for commercial dairy research.

The first 120 adults in line are asked to taste three tiny samples of milk and rate them on a computer for traits that can include creaminess, sweetness, tartness, overall flavor and more.

Each participant gets a coupon for a scoop of Aggie ice cream. And for this research project only, people who rate samples for five or 10 weeks get $25 or $50.

CHATHAM, Mass. — The scientists and fishermen on board the Ocearch, a repurposed crabbing vessel, received word that their scouting boat had hooked a great white shark, sparking a flurry of activity.

LOGAN — Ready for an amazing spider-related sequel? Well, you’ll have to wait until July to see Spider-Man in theaters, but two Utah State University faculty members already have welcomed two sets of cloned spider goat twins.

Spider goats, as scientists informally call them, are goats that have been modified as embryos to introduce a spider gene that allows the female goats to produce a milk containing spider silk. The strong silk substance, not in web form, is then isolated and purified before use.

OGDEN — Race can play a critical role in how witnesses identify criminal suspects.

Weber State professor Sheree Josephson recently published a study that shows eyewitnesses struggle when trying to identify a suspect of another race, and whites and blacks react differently when trying to identify suspects of their own race from a photo array, or lineup.