Author: Heidi Hall
Computer model illuminates critical moment in Drosophila development
Jun. 19, 2019—A computer model of forces exerted by cells during development of a fertilized egg into a fruit fly larvae holds promise to help scientists understand the morphogenesis of organisms that are much more complicated. Shane Hutson, professor of physics and biological sciences and chair of the Department of Physics and Astronomy, said the model sought...
Ediacaran dinner party featured plenty to eat, adequate sanitation, computer model shows
Jun. 19, 2019—“They are behaving like animals, and that’s a link between them and what we recognize as animals," says paleontologist Simon A.F. Darroch.
Vanderbilt engineers tripped people 190 times, but it was for a good cause
Jun. 19, 2019—The automatic stumble response, so natural for most people, is virtually impossible for those who use prosthetic legs, simply because even state-of-the-art prosthetics cannot adapt to stumbling.
Quick DNA test for malaria drug resistance is life-saver, holds promise for other diseases
Jun. 12, 2019—Doctors formerly had to extract the malaria parasite’s DNA first, virtually impossible to do in rural, low-resource areas.
iPhone plus nanoscale porous silicon equals cheap, simple home diagnostics
Jun. 11, 2019—A Vanderbilt University electrical engineer has combining her research on low-cost, nanostructured thin films with a device most American adults already own to create a diagnostic tool.
Researchers by day, rockers by night, biofunkiest engineers hit the airwaves
May. 31, 2019—The Vanderbilt Initiative of Biofunky Engineers, or VIBE, began performing together in 2017 and have played a handful of gigs, including the biomedical engineering department’s holiday party. Last week they took to the airwaves of Radio Free Nashville.
Inaugural Alzheimer’s Disease Research Day draws crowd for talks, posters, data blitzes
May. 28, 2019—Vanderbilt's inaugural Alzheimer’s Disease Research Day drew more than 100 attendees to hear faculty lectures on subjects ranging from diet to brain modeling, take in short “data blitzes” on individual areas of research, and visit a 35-station poster session.
Stassun appointed to Astro2020 Steering Committee
May. 22, 2019—Vanderbilt University astrophysicist Keivan Stassun, Stevenson Professor of Physics and Astronomy, was named Tuesday to the National Academies’ Decadal Survey on Astronomy and Astrophysics (Astro2020) Steering Committee.
Life in evolution’s fast lane
May. 21, 2019—A group of budding yeasts in the genus Hanseniaspora, which is closely related to the baker’s yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, has lost large numbers of genes related to cell cycle and DNA repair processes.
Vanderbilt neuroscientists, art museum collaborate on NEA-funded visual cognition research
May. 17, 2019—Vanderbilt neuroscientists Isabel Gauthier and Thomas Palmeri will collaborate with a Buffalo, New York, art gallery on a two-year project that recently earned a National Endowment for the Arts Research: Art Works program award.
Vanderbilt wins NASA’s 2019 Student Launch Competition, sixth in 7 years
May. 16, 2019—Vanderbilt’s Aerospace Design Laboratory again has earned top honors in NASA’s National Student Launch Competition, the lab’s sixth national championship and second consecutive win in 12 years.
Dolphin ancestor’s hearing was more like hoofed mammals than today’s sea creatures
May. 15, 2019—The team, one of the first in the world to examine the ability’s origins, used a small CT scanner to look inside a 30-million-year-old ear bone fossil from a specimen resembling Olympicetus avitus.