UCF in the News

Migratory animals may navigate using Earth’s magnetic fields, potentially aided by magnetic bacteria living inside them. Robert Fitak and his team have compiled a vast DNA database to investigate the presence of these bacteria in animals, focusing on their possible role in aiding navigation, especially in sea turtles. The remarkable navigation and route-recalling abilities of migratory animals may stem not only from their sensitivity to Earth’s magnetic fields but also from a potential interaction with magnetic bacteria living within them. The relationship between these magnetic bacteria and the animals they reside in is not yet fully understood, but UCF Department of Biology Assistant Professor Robert Fitak recently compiled a database of animal DNA that houses hundreds of millions of sequences showing the presence of various types of magnetic bacteria to use as a tool in his pursuit to learn more.

Could things get any worse for Boeing? Last week, the company’s Starliner spacecraft landed in New Mexico, having made its way home from the International Space Station without its crew. Left behind are two astronauts unexpectedly stuck aboard the ISS for months thanks to Boeing’s failure. They will have to wait to be rescued by Boeing’s archnemesis, SpaceX. “The companies have some bad feelings toward each other, and their own sets of fans have bad feelings toward each other, and so then NASA, in a sense, is kind of caught in the middle,” said Philip Metzger of the University of Central Florida, who worked at NASA on human space flight programs for over a decade. he Starliner would probably have been safe to fly, most observers seemed to agree at the time, but why take the risk? With the SpaceX Dragon, there was a known safe alternative. “In the past, they may have gone ahead and flown it,” Metzger said. And if SpaceX were running its own test flight that experienced similar problems and was in charge of decision-making, he said, it might have chosen to go ahead with the flight, “because SpaceX doesn’t seem to be as cautious as Boeing or NASA.”

Dopamine, a neurotransmitter in our brains, not only regulates our emotions but also serves as a biomarker for the screening of certain cancers and other neurological conditions. University of Central Florida researchers, led by UCF NanoScience Technology Center Professor Debashis Chanda, have developed an integrated optical sensor capable of detecting dopamine directly from an unprocessed blood sample.

It couldn’t be clearer at this point that the US labor market is cooling. Even though the unemployment rate edged lower last month to 4.2%, joblessness is still hovering near highs not seen since the fall of 2021. On top of that, employers have hired significantly fewer workers in recent months compared to prior years and the number of job openings fell in July to the lowest level since January 2021, according to Labor Department data. Holding off on hiring more workers until after the election is “a rational decision,” said Sean Snaith, director of the Institute for Economic Forecasting at the University of Central Florida. “When there’s more clarity about the future,” he said, “businesses are more confident in making these kinds of decisions.”

UCF has unveiled new renderings of the $88 million expansion of the Roth Tower attached to FBC Mortgage Stadium, along with more details for its premium seating options. “We are creating the most affordable premium experience in all of college athletics with this new tower,” UCF athletics director Terry Mohajir told the Sentinel. The project will expand the existing structure by approximately 58,000 square feet, with approximately 15,000 square feet dedicated to club space. This includes 42% more club seating, loge suites with seating, 28 luxury suites and 34 new outdoor sky suites. “It’s going to be a one-of-a-kind tower, and it’s being built and utilized with the intent of being used other than the seven times we have home football games a year,” said Mohajir. “We wanted this to be a year-round opportunity for people to use this.”

SpaceX's astronauts will be the first non-government astronauts to attempt a spacewalk as part of the Polaris Dawn mission. The mission will also test SpaceX's new, slimmer spacesuit, and a Crew Dragon vehicle that was modified so it can open its hatch door in the vacuum of space, meaning it does not require an airlock. The crew will use an ultrasound device to monitor any bubble formation, one of many tools to be used in the mission to inform dozens of scientific experiments, providing researchers a rare peek into how astronauts might fare on the moon's surface or elsewhere in deep space. "It gives us a very unique opportunity to test these vehicles in such a very unique environment," said Emmanuel Urquieta, vice chair for aerospace medicine at the University of Central Florida's internal medicine department.

On a video chat in early June from the International Space Station, Sunita Williams talked to a packed elementary-school gym in her Massachusetts hometown about how it feels to ride a rocket into space (like a roller coaster) and what life is like hundreds miles above the planet. “Being in space is a lot of fun,” the 58-year-old astronaut said as her hair floated loosely in a dark halo around her head. She demonstrated a few flips, sipped tropical punch from a pouch and opened up about how people pass the time in the microgravity environment of Earth’s orbit. “Sometimes we play hide-and-go-seek,” Williams told the enraptured students. At the end of the call, a student asked a seemingly innocuous question: “How many days will you be in space?” For Williams, who was four days into what was meant to be an eight-day mission, the answer should have been clear. It wasn’t: “We’re not exactly sure when we’re going to come back.” What happens next is anyone’s guess. Given the weight of past tragedies, such as the 1986 Challenger shuttle explosion that killed seven crew members and the 2003 Columbia disaster that killed seven more, insiders tell The Journal that they are glad NASA is taking its time. “They will take some embarrassment over some kind of disaster,” said Roger Handberg, a University of Central Florida professor who studies space policy.

It has been long found that Mars is cold and dead, but one can't help wonder if we can somehow make the surface of Mars more habitable for humans. In a study published in Science Advances, researchers from the University of Chicago, Northwestern University, and the University of Central Florida have come up with a revolutionary plan that can help toward terraforming Mars.

On a recent Thursday afternoon at a Denny's in Long Beach, Calif., a four-foot-tall robot glided toward Diane Deconnick's table. Its three tiered trays could have hauled a feast, but they were empty except for a bowl of soup and a fried chicken salad. As the machine rolled to a stop, a scrolling digital display announced, "FOOD IS HERE.""It talks!" Ms. Deconnick said. People come to restaurants to feel connected to other humans. They want to encounter people, not a chatbot, kiosk or mechanical arm. So successfully integrating robots is more than just an engineering challenge.Human emotions are decisive for restaurant employees as well, though in their case, it’s less about feeling the love than assuaging the fears. An observational study conducted in Central Florida found that if restaurant management had consulted workers before bringing in a robot, they used it more effectively. At restaurants where a robot simply appeared one day with no employee input, workers were more likely to feel frustrated. Mindy Shoss, an organizational psychology professor at the University of Central Florida who worked on the study, said that automation can make workers anxious about losing their jobs, or even their entire occupation. “Given popular discussions about tech replacing workers, it is a common concern, especially when the organization isn’t clear on why the tech is brought in.”