AMHERST, Mass. - New geologic dating techniques are providing a greater resolution of Earth’s history. The new method offers greater efficiency, and access to a much more detailed geologic record than current dating methods, the scientists say.

AMHERST, Mass. - The widespread belief that lesbians and gay men are more affluent than the general population is a myth, says M.V. Lee Badgett, associate professor of economics at the University of Massachusetts and author of the new book "Money, Myths, and Change: The Economic Lives of Lesbians and Gay Men."

AMHERST, Mass. - For centuries, scientists have wondered why gold is found in two forms - as a solid in deposits close to the Earth''s crust, and in solution, often far removed from gold-ore deposits. A fairly simple lab experiment conducted at the University of Massachusetts may lead to an understanding of how the precious metal came to be available in disparate forms, and how some gold-ore deposits might have been formed.

AMHERST, Mass. - Stephen J. Simurda, a faculty member in the journalism department at the University of Massachusetts, has been named a Fulbright Scholar. Simurda will spend the upcoming fall semester teaching journalism at two universities in the Slovak Republic, part of the former Czechoslovakia. He will teach graduate courses at Academia Istropolitana Nova in Bratislava, the Slovak capital, and an undergraduate class at the University of Cyril and Methodus, which is located in Trnava, the oldest town in Slovakia. Both schools were founded in the late 1990s.