Utah State News Service

By Lauren Bennett This month’s temperatures have been 7.6 degrees warmer than average — and that’s likely to be just the start of warming to come, a National Weather Service scientist said today at the annual Spring Runoff Conference at Utah State University. “This is something we’re going to have to deal with,” said Brian McInerney, the senior hydrologist at the service’s forecast office in Salt Lake City. Anomalous temperatures in February and March indicate that temperatures are rising earlier in the year and by increased margins. The consequence this year has been rapid snow melting — and flooding — in Northern Utah. The early melting is a direct result of the warming conditions and it has significant impacts on Utah’s economy, as flooding can cost millions of dollars in repair damages, McInerney said. In a world in which carbon emissions continue at high levels, temperatures could increase by 12 degrees by the year 2100. A low-emissions scenario projects a 7-degree in...

By Eddie Collins A spike in Cache Valley’s air pollution earlier this month may have been bad for the health of people in Northern Utah, but it has been good for some researchers at Utah State University. The inversion culminated in the highest level of particulate matter 2.5, or PM2.5, in a single day since 2005. And that has provided researchers with increased accessibility to samples that are crucial for their work. “We want to know what air pollutants do to human health,” said Randy Martin, who researches airborne particulate matter in Utah’s Uintah Basin. “If we’re going to try to quantify that, we need to sample our air pollutants.” Collection of particle samples is Martin’s area of expertise, and it requires understanding of what the particles are made of, their sizes, and how to effectively collect them. During periods of bad pollution, his duties increase with the number of agencies and colleagues who need samples to carry out their own research. Roger Coulombe, a p...

By Shanie Howard A Utah State University researcher believes his team might have found a potential vaccination for Zika virus. Justin Julander, an associate professor with the university’s Institute for Antiviral Research, has been working on Zika with funding from the National Institute of Health and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases since December. Now, he said, he’s ready to publish some of the team’s findings. “We’ve identified several anti-viral agents and a few vaccines that are effective in treatment and prevention of Zika,” said Julander, who plans to submit a paper about the discoveries by the end of this week. Up to this point, these vaccinations have only been tested on mice, and would still need to undergo clinical trials before being distributed to those infected or at risk of infection. It’s not the first time a potential vaccine has been identified. Clinical trials got underway for one possible inoculation on Tuesday in Baltimo...

By Lauren Bennett  Many hogs being raised by 4H participants in Utah may be carrying a gene that can negatively impact the texture and taste of their meat, according to an agricultural researcher at Utah State University.  Josh Dallin, a specialist in livestock, horse and agriculture for Utah State’s 4-H extension, conducted a research project involving the genetic mutation in market hogs. According to Dallin, a small sampling was collected at the beginning of last year in Kane and Garfield counties, and many tested positive for the Rendement Napole gene, also known as RN.  The RN gene produces pig meat that is “soft, pale and watery,” Dallin said, and also caused to meat to taste leathery, “almost like eating a boot.” A more recent DNA sample from 140 hogs was collected from all around the state of Utah between May 2016 and September 2016. The results were sent in for testing in late 2016 and 4-H received them in early 2017. The test results fou...

By Valentino Warren The International Dark-Sky Association announced on Tuesday that Cedar Breaks National Monument would become the next park in Utah to be dark sky certified. The park will be formally reviewed in late January and receive bronze, silver or gold status by the second week of February, said John Barentine, a program manager from the non-profit association that works to stop light pollution.  Barentine said the one-to-two-year process of selecting and certifying a Dark Sky Park is extremely thorough. The certification recognizes conservative use of artificial light of all kinds and particularly the reduction of blue light emissions, which are a known ecological hazard, Barentine said.  "Our process is fairly rigorous and balanced against the fact we're a very small organization, by typical non-profit standards," Barentine said.  An association-certified Dark Sky Park is a land mass possessing an exceptionally starry sky and nocturnal environm...

By Bronson Teichert If rhetoric foretells policy when it comes to international trade, it might not matter who wins the presidency in November. Utah’s farmers could lose big. That’s the contention of several Utah economists who say the politics of public perception, rather than sound policy, appear to be driving the debate on trade agreements that benefit American agriculture. “From the point of economics, I see politically where people will talk about trade and say we are disadvantaged in some way,” said DeeVon Bailey, a professor of agriculture and applied economics at Utah State University. “But in the case of agriculture, that’s not true.” Yet between barbed exchanges during three debates culminating Wednesday in Las Vegas, Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton found détente on trade. Both favorably spoke of renegotiations of the North American Free Trade Agreement, the Trans Pacific Partnership and economic relationships with China. NAFTA includes the United States, Cana...