David Salisbury

Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction members (C-span) These days the news is full of stories about the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction, nicknamed the Super Committee, and whether it can come up with a politically acceptable way to reduce the ballooning federal deficit. This… Read More

Astronomer David Weintraub has given introductory astronomy a “CSI” format by following the scientific evidence that gives us the age of the universe and has put this in a popular science book. Read More

Fields medalist brings informal style to Vanderbilt Vaughan Jones (Joe Howell/Vanderbilt) When Vaughan Jones was 5 years old, he made his first mathematical discovery. “I was learning the addition tables and realized that if one plus one equals two, then 100 plus 100 must equal 200 – something that… Read More

Interfacial scientist thrives on moment of discovery Erin Rericha (Lauren Owens/Vanderbilt) Erin Rericha considers herself an interfacial scientist. The new assistant professor of physics explained that she has “a bit of a split personality.” “I am trained as a condensed matter physicist,” she said, “and I spent… Read More

First Lady Michelle Obama addresses the National Science Foundation's Career-Life Balance initiative event in the East Room of the White House. (Official White House Photo by Lawrence Jackson) On Monday, Sept 26, when First Lady Michelle Obama hosted an event at the White House to announce… Read More

Should scientists inform participants in genomic studies about their risk for diseases or conditions discovered during the studies, and if so, when and how? A Vanderbilt professor is part of a team working to answer these questions. Read More

Vanderbilt chemists have developed the first method that can rapidly and accurately map the surfaces of tiny particles that possess two chemically distinct faces. The findings have broad potential applications ranging from drug delivery to video displays. Read More

(iSTOCK) Like the Wizard of Oz, computer scientists have largely been happy to perform their magic behind the curtain, out of public view.  However, this reticence has begun causing problems in the digital realm. “Computer scientists face the drawbacks of lacking public awareness,” wrote an international team… Read More

Astronomer Davy Kirkpatrick (Courtesy of Davy Kirkpatrick) If Davy Kirkpatrick’s calculations stand up, then Vanderbilt will have solid connections to two of the Sun’s nearest stellar neighbors. One link is long standing. Barnard’s star, which is six light years away from the Sun and its second-closest… Read More

How the brain is wired to control impulsive behavior differs significantly from what psychologists have thought, new research finds. Read More

Last week when the Nashville Scene’s annual Innovations Issue hit the newsstands, three of its ten “forward-thinking ideas that are pushing Nashville – and the world – into the future” came from Vanderbilt. The three campus projects that impressed the Scene editors were: Digging for Drugs:… Read More

Despite the uncertainties surrounding climate change, it is time to start developing effective strategies to keep the nation’s transportation systems and other critical infrastructure running. Read More

A new lower-limb prosthetic uses the latest advances in computer, sensor, electric motor and battery technology to give it bionic capabilities. Read More

  It’s easy to make fun of things you don’t understand. That is particularly true of scientific research. In fact, making fun of federally funded science projects has become an unfortunate political tradition. The Association of American Universities has taken up the challenge of defending publicly… Read More

There is a new way to design computer chips and electronic circuitry for extreme environments: make them out of diamond. Read More

  Every so often a piece of research makes it into the popular culture. That is the case with the discovery of Vanderbilt biologists Antonis Rokas and Jason Slot that entire gene clusters have jumped between unrelated species of mold millions of years… Read More

Vanderbilt researchers have discovered that parathyroid glands have a natural fluorescence that can be used during surgery to identify these tiny organs, which are hard to find with the naked eye. Read More

Vanderbilt graduate student Cassidy Cobbs has investigated recent news reports linking cell phone emissions with bee mortality and found that there is no scientific basis for the claims. Read More

Photo of a true blue-eyed cicada (Matt Weiss, Cicada Mania) Have you heard the latest buzz going round that scientists at Vanderbilt are paying as much as $3,000 for specimens of the rare blue-eyed cicada? If you have, I hope you haven’t spent a lot of time… Read More

A team of Vanderbilt engineers have developed a rapid and low-cost imprinting process that can stamp out a variety of devices that have unique optical, electrical, chemical and mechanical properties. Read More