Maryland Today

The University of Maryland Police Department is collecting new school supplies for nearby Paint Branch Elementary School through Aug. 10. Items that are needed include backpacks, composition books, index cards, crayons, erasers, dry-erase markers, headphones, pocket folders with three hole punches, glue sticks, highlighters, colored markers and pencils, pencils, rulers, blunt scissors and pencil boxes.

Nestled in the foothills of the world’s tallest mountains, the Namobuddha Municipality of Nepal relies on water from natural springs and mountain snowpack diminished by climate change. Another threat to the water supply comes from the communities themselves. A lack of well-maintained wastewater treatment systems means raw sewage spills into local streams, which can cause disease outbreaks.

From slurping water on a Gaithersburg homeowner’s deck to moseying around an Elkridge backyard, bear sightings seem to be on the rise in Maryland. A University of Maryland Department of Environmental Science and Technology research team led by Jennifer Mullinax is partnering with the Maryland Department of Natural Resources and the Maryland Zoo to determine how many black bears are in the state, where they’re coming from, where they’re headed and their paths in between.

For decades, astronomers have faced an invisible obstacle: the glow of Earth’s own atmosphere. Scientists trying to observe faint, distant celestial objects in infrared light are hampered by brightness in the sky itself—not just from city lights, but from a chemical reaction happening miles above Earth’s surface. When sunlight breaks ozone apart in the upper atmosphere in the presence of water, hydroxyl, or OH, molecules are produced and emit a dense barrage of light.

An AI model may be designed to behave safely, but that doesn’t mean the system delivering it is secure, according to new research from the University of Maryland. The study, currently under review for presentation at a major conference on neural processing systems later this year, found that critical security vulnerabilities often lie not within AI models themselves, but in the complex software infrastructure that serves them to millions of users.

Nearly half the world's population experiences menopause, yet women aren’t talking about many of its emotional, cognitive and social impacts during medical appointments. A new study out Tuesday in JAMA Network Open led by a University of Maryland researcher highlights these symptoms by comparing clinical notes that include menopause symptoms with the top Reddit posts in menopause forums.

Inside Dining Services’ Willy Wonka-esque bakery at the University of Maryland, marshmallows, peanut butter cups, brownie dough, chocolate ganache, caramelized graham crackers and salted caramel swirl together to make some 12,000 gallons of ice cream every year for the Maryland Dairy. Saturday marks National Ice Cream Day, perhaps the only annual day of celebration we can all agree to observe.

A University of Maryland researcher has received a nearly $425K grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to investigate the causes of a rare and devastating form of congenital muscular dystrophy. The two-year award from the NIH’s Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development will also support research aimed at laying the groundwork for future therapies of LMNA-related congenital muscular dystrophy (L-CMD), named for the mutated gene.

The Hochstadts’ gift supports Forward: The University of Maryland Campaign for the Fearless, a $2.5 billion fundraising initiative in support of expanding access to UMD’s top-tier education, accelerating groundbreaking research and building stronger communities.

A University of Maryland researcher plans to expand and deepen his work in rural Maryland combating substance use, supported by a new grant of $909,084 from the National Institute on Drug Abuse. Noah Triplett, an assistant professor of behavioral and community health, will work with school and community partners on the Eastern Shore to examine how external behavioral health services can be effectively integrated into school settings and sustained over time.