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Featured Research & Creative Activity

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Every day, faculty and students in the College of Arts and Sciences undertake boundary-pushing research and creative activity. They investigate, innovate, and invent, asking the big questions and challenging conventional wisdom. They explore new perspectives and ways of doing things. And no matter what their fields are, they constantly strive to pursue new knowledge, find solutions to complex problems, and work for the greater good.

College research + creative activity

Saturn’s rings younger than previously thought—just a few hundred million years

Saturn’s rings are much younger than scientists once thought, according to new research from IU Professor Emeritus of Astronomy Richard Durisen—and they are not here to stay. For decades, there has been debate about the origin of Saturn’s icy rings. But according to two new studies from Durisen, published in Icarus, the rings are no more than a few hundred million years old—much younger than the planet itself, which formed 4.5 billion years ago. In fact, Durisen said the rings may well have formed when dinosaurs were still walking on the Earth.

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Losing sleep over losing sleep: how watching the clock impacts insomnia, use of sleep aids

Watching the clock while trying to fall asleep exacerbates insomnia and the use of sleep aids, according to research from Spencer Dawson, clinical assistant professor and associate director of clinical training in the College. The research focuses on a sample of nearly 5,000 patients presenting for care at a sleep clinic. “We found time monitoring behavior mainly has an effect on sleep medication use because it exacerbates insomnia symptoms,” Dawson said. “People are concerned that they’re not getting enough sleep, then they start estimating how long it will take them to fall back asleep and when they have to be up. That is not the sort of activity that’s helpful in facilitating the ability to fall asleep—the more stressed out you are, the harder time you’re going to have falling asleep.”

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First graduate of food studies master’s program reveals scale of food waste

The capstone project of the first graduate of the College's new master’s program in food studies produced eye-opening results about food waste that are guiding IU Dining’s efforts to reduce waste. Kaeley Geschke, who earned a Master of Arts in food studies in December, worked in conjunction with IU Dining to conduct her “Weigh the Waste” project at two residence dining halls in the fall. The data, when extrapolated, showed that each person was generating an average of 67 pounds of food waste per semester. “Students didn’t know how much they were throwing out,” Geschke said.

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Earliest animal likely used chemical signaling to evolve into multicellular organism

Findings from the study led by assistant professor of chemistry J.P. Gerdt provide new information about how one of the biggest transitions in the history of life on earth likely occurred. “The general view is that animals evolved from a unicellular organism, and this research helps explain how that may have happened and how those cells chose whether to be together or on their own,” Gerdt said. “Our results help us understand more about the first animals and their ancestors.”

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Trusted AI Initiative provides interdisciplinary research opportunities for students and faculty

Many of the projects involved in the initiative are cross-campus collaborations that marry different disciplines and research approaches. Bennett Bertenthal, the James H. Rudy Professor of Psychological and Brain Sciences in the College, and Greg Lewis, assistant professor of intelligent systems engineering in the IU Luddy School of Informatics, Computing and Engineering, are leading one of the research projects. In Bertenthal’s lab, participants are tested on a series of decision-making and risk-taking tasks that help the research team understand the body’s responses to uncertain or untrustworthy information.

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Mississippi River Delta study reveals which human actions contribute to land loss

“What we found was really surprising,” said Doug Edmonds, the Malcolm and Sylvia Boyce Chair in the College’s Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences. “It is tempting to link the land loss crisis to dam building in the Mississippi River Basin — after all, dams have reduced the sediment in the Mississippi River substantially. But in the end, building levees and extracting subsurface resources have created more land loss and, according to our research, building dams has not had that big of an effect.”

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Research aimed at understanding and dismantling injustice

Seven faculty members within the College of Arts and Sciences have recently been awarded grants to explore racial equity issues within their fields of expertise.

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The University cannot discharge any of its obligations to society unless it is first and foremost an institution dedicated to scholarship and scholarly objectives.
Herman B Wells, IU president, 1938–62

Featured Research & Creative Activity

Making an impact

College research + creative activity

Saturn’s rings younger than previously thought—just a few hundred million years

Losing sleep over losing sleep: how watching the clock impacts insomnia, use of sleep aids

First graduate of food studies master’s program reveals scale of food waste

Earliest animal likely used chemical signaling to evolve into multicellular organism

Trusted AI Initiative provides interdisciplinary research opportunities for students and faculty

Mississippi River Delta study reveals which human actions contribute to land loss

Research aimed at understanding and dismantling injustice

Learn more about research in the College

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