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The Scope of Our Research: Winners of the 2024 Envisioning Research Contest

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Adam Nahor and Sierra Hunter working in a chemistry lab at NC State

Sep 6, 2024

A Summer of Hands-on Science

Undergraduate students from all over the U.S. spent their summer getting hands-on research experience in NC State's labs.

An artistic rendering of a pair of dinosaurs walking through a cave toward a swamp.

Sep 6, 2024

From the Departments

Catch up on the latest news from our academic departments.

Sep 5, 2024

Chemist Ohata Receives NIH MIRA Award

Jun Ohata, an assistant professor of chemistry, earned a prestigious research award for faculty in the sciences.
The Memorial Belltower surrounded by fall leaves.

Aug 30, 2024

Meet Our Newest Faculty

The College of Sciences is welcoming six new scientists this fall.

Aug 29, 2024

Here’s How an Arthropod Pulls Off the World’s Fastest Backflip

Science News
“Nothing on Earth does a backflip faster than a globular springtail,” says biologist Adrian Smith of North Carolina State University in Raleigh. “They’re extraordinary, but also ordinary.” The arthropods that Smith used in the study “are literally from my backyard,” he says.

Aug 29, 2024

Backflipping Springtails Are the Fastest Spinners Known in Nature

New Scientist
Adrian Smith at North Carolina State University sifted through leaf litter in his backyard to collect mottled orange and brown, round-bodied Dicyrtomina minuta. “I brought them in the lab and filmed them, and I was amazed at what they did,” says Smith.

Aug 29, 2024

This Tiny Bug Does the Fastest Backflip on Earth — And We Have the Footage to Prove It

BBC Science Focus
“When globular springtails jump, they don’t just leap up and down, they flip through the air – it’s the closest you can get to a Sonic the Hedgehog jump in real life,” said corresponding author Adrian Smith, head of the evolutionary biology and behaviour research lab at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences. “So naturally I wanted to see how they do it.”

Aug 29, 2024

Watch: ‘Incredible’ Bug Found in U.S. Backyards May Be Earth’s Best Gymnast

Newsweek
“What excites me most about this research is how extraordinary the movements of these creatures are; there’s nothing on Earth that does a backflip faster than a globular springtail,” Adrian Smith, research assistant professor of biology at North Carolina State University, told Newsweek.
The globular springtail

Aug 29, 2024

This Tiny Backyard Bug Does the Fastest Backflips on Earth

The globular springtail can leap 60 times its body length and spin at a rate of 368 rotations per second.
Several blue and yellow tentacles wave from a blue and yellow stem against a black backdrop

Aug 28, 2024

The Scope of Our Research: Winners of the 2024 Envisioning Research Contest

Four Sciences students were recognized in the 2024 Envisioning Research contest.