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The University of Colorado Academic Progress Rate (APR) report based on information for the four year period between 2009-10 and 2012-13 was released by the NCAA Wednesday with those of all other Division I schools, with CU reporting record news for all 16 of its intercollegiate athletic programs in that time frame. For the fourth consecutive year, the APR results are the highest in school history since the NCAA’s Academic Performance Program was introduced in 2003. To read the entire article, visit www.cubuffs.com.

Lauren E. Cross graduates May 9 from CU-Boulder with a degree in political science and minor in economics, leaving her legacy with CU Student Government and the campus comedy improv group, Left Right Tim. A Colorado native, Cross sees herself sticking around Boulder for a little while before venturing to a place that offers a scene for politics as well as comedy.

A $500,000 gift from Phillips 66 will go toward the Leeds School’s Career Development Office , which supports undergraduates by providing professional skills, career exploration and preparation, industry experiences and access to employer and alumni connections throughout the student experience.

During two days of intensive airborne measurements, oil and gas operations in Colorado’s Front Range leaked nearly three times as much methane, a greenhouse gas, as predicted based on inventory estimates, and seven times as much benzene, a regulated air toxic. Emissions of other chemicals that contribute to summertime ozone pollution were about twice as high as estimates, according to the new paper, accepted for publication in the American Geophysical Union ’s Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres .

A °µÍø½ûÇø professor who developed a clever method to measure snow depth using GPS signals is collaborating with Western Slope officials to make the data freely available to a variety of users on a daily basis.

An antioxidant that targets specific cell structures—mitochondria—may be able to reverse some of the negative effects of aging on arteries, reducing the risk of heart disease, according to a new study by the °µÍø½ûÇø. When the research team gave old mice—the equivalent of 70- to 80-year-old humans—water containing an antioxidant known as MitoQ for four weeks, their arteries functioned as well as the arteries of mice with an equivalent human age of just 25 to 35 years.

The °µÍø½ûÇø today launched CU-Boulder Crowdfunding, an online pilot platform to help drive the ideas generated by students, faculty and staff. Crowdfunding is the practice of sourcing small contributions from a large number of people to provide funding for a particular project or campaign, usually via the Internet.

A simple sample of the protective mucus layer that coats a frog’s skin can now be analyzed to determine how susceptible the frog is to disease, thanks to a technique developed by a researcher at the °µÍø½ûÇø. The same method can be used to determine what kind of probiotic skin wash might be most effective at bolstering the frog’s defenses without actually exposing the frog to disease, according to a journal article published today in the journal PLOS ONE.

If you think Neanderthals were stupid and primitive, it’s time to think again. The widely held notion that Neanderthals were dimwitted and that their inferior intelligence allowed them to be driven to extinction by the much brighter ancestors of modern humans is not supported by scientific evidence, according to a researcher at the °µÍø½ûÇø.

In 2012, temperatures at the summit of Greenland rose above freezing for the first time since 1889, raising questions about what led to the unusual melt episode. Now, a new analysis led by the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences at the °µÍø½ûÇø shows that some of the same weather and climate factors were at play in both 1889 and 2012: heat waves thousands of miles upwind in North America, higher-than-average ocean surface temperatures south of Greenland and atmospheric rivers of warm, moist air that streamed toward Greenland’s west coast.