David Salisbury

Vanderbilt chemist helps craft call for major new research initiative to increase our understanding of the invisible world of microbes that surround us. Read More

A new class of DNA repair enzyme has been discovered which demonstrates that a much broader range of damage can be removed from the double helix in ways that biologists did not think were possible. Read More

Recent research by Vanderbilt University biologist Ken Catania of the electric eel has revealed that it is not primitive creature that it has been portrayed as. Instead, it has a sophisticated control of the electrical fields it generates that makes it one of the most remarkable predators in the animal kingdom. Read More

A new "geospeedometer" that can measure the amount of time between the formation of an explosive magma melt and an eruption confirms that the process took less than 500 years in several ancient super-eruptions. Read More

When faced with ambiguous visual information, it is the visual processing areas of the brain that choose between the competing impressions, not the higher levels of the brain as previously thought. Read More

Recent experiments at the world's largest atom smashers are producing liquid drops so small that they raise the question of how small a droplet can be and still remain a liquid. Read More

New analysis shows that the scientific literature paints an overly rosy picture of the efficacy of psychotherapy for depression comparable to the bias previously found in reports of treatments with antidepressant drugs. Read More

Invention of the first integrated circularly polarized light detector on a silicon chip opens the door for development of small, portable sensors that could expand the use of polarized light for drug screening, surveillance, etc. Read More

The Earth's first mass extinction event 540 million years ago was caused not by a meteorite impact or volcanic super-eruption, but by the rise of early animals that dramatically changed to prehistoric environment. Read More

Recent microbiological research has shown that plants and animals, including humans, are not autonomous individuals but are holobionts: biomolecular networks that consist of visible hosts plus millions of invisible microbes. Read More

A Vanderbilt team of scientists have developed a new formulation for cosmic viscosity which strongly favors the "Big Rip" end of the universe. Read More

Vanderbilt researchers have made the world’s smallest spirals and found they have unique optical properties that are nearly impossible to counterfeit. Read More

Jessica Oster and her colleagues have shown that the analysis of a stalagmite from a cave in north east India can detect the link between El Nino conditions in the Pacific Ocean and the Indian monsoon. Read More

Vanderbilt biologists have localized the seasonal light cycle effects that drive seasonal affective disorder to a small region of the brain called the dorsal raphe nucleus. Read More

Vanderbilt researchers have identified the role that a key protein associated with autism and the co-occurrence of alcohol dependency and depression plays in forming the spines that create new connections in the brain. Read More

The evolutionary history of whales, sea turtles and other land animals that have returned to the sea details the radical changes to their life style, body shape, physiology that they made to survive in an aquatic environment. Read More

California's aggressive incentive program for installing rooftop solar-electric systems has not been as effective as generally believed according to a new analysis. Read More

EPA is establishing a new center at Vanderbilt University and the University of Pittsburgh to develop an alternative approach for toxicity testing to help evaluate the safety of the 80,000-plus chemicals in general commerce. Read More

A team of Vanderbilt engineers is using magnetic force to design new and improved instruments for minimally invasive surgery. Read More

Vanderbilt biologists have found a direct link between the biological clock and Angelman syndrome, a neurogenetic disorder that occurs in more than one in every 15,000 live births. The link may provide a valuable way to judge the effectiveness of the first experimental drugs under development for treating the syndrome. Read More