University of Florida News

GAINESVILLE — With the busiest shopping day of the year upon them, millions of American shoppers will be reaching for their credit cards to spread a little holiday cheer and a lot of post-holiday debt.

GAINESVILLE — Even though Florida’s consumer confidence fell in November for the first time in seven months, its relative strength bodes well for lucrative holiday sales, University of Florida economists report.

GAINESVILLE — You’ve eaten your Thanksgiving dinner, cleaned up the kitchen and scraped the leftovers into Fido’s dish. That’s easy for one family, but what do you do if you’re, say, Walt Disney World and you have 35 tons of leftovers to get rid of — every day of the year?

GAINESVILLE — If it seemed like the plastic light-up Santa Claus in the toy aisle was dangerously close to rubbing elbows with the Fourth of July Uncle Sam cutout over in lawn and garden, join the crowd: Most people think retailers are putting up their Christmas displays earlier than ever, according to a recent University of Florida survey.

BELLE GLADE—Instead of using expensive pesticides to control crop diseases, South Florida rice growers can save thousands of dollars in production costs and boost yields simply by adding some silicon to the soil.

GAINESVILLE — Researchers at the University of Florida and University of California, Irvine, have designed a fusion reactor that will produce electricity twice as efficiently as a traditional coal-burning power plant and, unlike nuclear power plants, will involve no radioactive fuels or byproducts.

GAINESVILLE—College students who feel unable to cope with bad moods are much more likely than their peers to become problem drinkers, a new University of Florida study indicates.

GAINESVILLE — A computerized forecasting model designed to predict more accurately the financial impact of El Niño weather patterns could save millions of dollars in energy costs in affected countries, including the United States, says a University of Florida professor who helped create the model.

GAINESVILLE — A group of University of Florida students is helping the Department of Defense see if such seemingly unlikely things as landscaping and street design can help protect a military installation in the midst of a tourist mecca from a terrorist bomb blast.

VERO BEACH—There was a time when people came to Florida to see botanical wonders rather than those made by man.