Celebrating National Girls and Women in Sport Day

Bright blue and orange brackets on a mossy stump

Research & Academics

Using AI to uncover the secret lives of fungi

Understanding the flexibility of fungi is vital for predicting how forests and farms will react to climate change. Unfortunately, the information researchers need is buried in decades of scientific papers that would take too long to comb through manually. But a new study led by NAU doctoral student Beatrice M. Bock demonstrates how AI can solve this problem: By using a specialized language model called BioBERT, Bock developed an automated workflow that assesses scientific abstracts and accurately identifies whether a fungus has a single lifestyle or a dual, flexible one.

Campus & Community

New partnership helps ensure no Lumberjack goes hungry

After a successful pilot program last semester, the Flagstaff Family Food Center is taking over management of Louie’s Cupboard. The partnership will expand food offerings and offer improved access for students both now and in the long term.

Gayle Gratop standing on her farm with sunflowers behind her

Research & Academics

Women in agriculture on the road to mental wellness

Hidden underneath the tough exterior of women in agriculture lies a growing mental health crisis shaped by isolation, financial pressure and relentless farm stress. A doctoral student at NAU, who is a farmer herself, is working on finding ways to offer support where existing systems fall short.

Research & Academics

Woman kneeling with a dog and placing her forehead on his

How animals have shaped us

We raise them, worship them, eat them, love them and sometimes protect them. From ancient burials to lab experiments, pet culture and vegan movements, animals have shaped every corner of human life. A class at Northern Arizona University looks at the complex, evolving entanglement between humans and animals through an anthropological lens.

Bright blue and orange brackets on a mossy stump

Using AI to uncover the secret lives of fungi

Understanding the flexibility of fungi is vital for predicting how forests and farms will react to climate change. Unfortunately, the information researchers need is buried in decades of scientific papers that would take too long to comb through manually. But a new study led by NAU doctoral student Beatrice M. Bock demonstrates how AI can solve this problem: By using a specialized language model called BioBERT, Bock developed an automated workflow that assesses scientific abstracts and accurately identifies whether a fungus has a single lifestyle or a dual, flexible one.

Artist’s representation of how 14C produced by cosmic rays is recorded in tree ring cellulose.

How tree rings help scientists understand disruptive extreme solar storms

A study published this week shows that how trees store and use radiocarbon left over from ancient solar storms can tell scientists a lot about these ancient storms and help them refine estimates of how strong future solar storms could be

Campus & Community

A student in a black-and-white knitted hat holds a brown puppy in her arms.

Dogs in the Den brings tender loving canines to NAU

Put a "paws" on all the things stressing you out, and come visit the Health Promotion Office’s Zen Den for the return of its widely beloved Dogs in the Den events. Every other Wednesday, students can visit with puppies from the High Country Humane animal shelter, hang out with new friends and even wind down with an arts and crafts project.

Celebrating National Girls and Women in Sport Day

Hear from student-athletes about the first time they picked up a ball or club or laced on running shoes, their best moments wearing blue and gold and how their athletic careers are helping prepare them for their professional careers, in their sport or in an office.

New partnership helps ensure no Lumberjack goes hungry

After a successful pilot program last semester, the Flagstaff Family Food Center is taking over management of Louie’s Cupboard. The partnership will expand food offerings and offer improved access for students both now and in the long term.

Lumberjack Features

Lumberjacks Abroad: France

Madelein John will be walking on the stage this fall as she graduates with not one, not two, but three degrees—two from NAU and a third from the University of Bordeaux, where she experienced a year abroad through the Interdisciplinary Global Programs. Read what advice this native Arizonan has for those who want to learn a new language and where she is headed next to get her master’s degree in cancer sciences.

Three male members of Mock Trial Club pose with individual competition trophies.

Club Spotlight: Mock Trial Club

If you have an objection in your heart and nowhere to unleash it, consider the following evidence and rule in favor of joining NAU's Mock Trial Club! Participating members take on the roles of lawyers and character witnesses and work together to simulate real criminal cases. Throughout the semester, they take their skills to nationwide competitions and prove themselves in front of genuine judges.

Inside of the Museo della Shoah in Milan

International Holocaust Remembrance Day: How to prepare ourselves for the future

The Holocaust is not merely a historical subject, argues Martin-Springer Institute director Björn Krondorfer. Teaching it today comes with moral and ethical expectations.