Bright Ideas

An international consortium of autism researchers, including two from Vanderbilt, has reported a significant advance in unraveling the genetics of autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Reporting in the June 9 issue of the journal Nature, the researchers compared the DNA obtained from nearly 1,000 people with ASD to nearly 1,300 matched… Read More

Researching the link between diabetes and schizophrenia are (from left) Aurelio Galli, Sabrina Robertson, Kevin Niswender and Michael Siuta. Defects in insulin action that occur in diabetes and obesity could directly contribute to psychiatric disorders like schizophrenia. Vanderbilt researchers have discovered a molecular link between impaired insulin signaling in the brain… Read More

Discovery of a new super-heavy element sheds light on the basic organization of matter and strengthens the likelihood that still more massive elements may form an “island of stability”— a cluster of stable super-heavy elements that could form novel materials with exotic and as-yet-unimagined scientific and practical applications. Vanderbilt physicist Joe Hamilton… Read More

  Reading and writing have become essential skills for almost every job, yet the majority of students do not read or write well enough to meet grade-level demands. A report co-authored by Vanderbilt researchers Steve Graham and Michael Hebert finds that while the two skills are closely connected, writing is… Read More

Eva Harth’s method for targeted drug delivery relies on relatively simple chemistry, making commercial production more viable. Imagine treating cancerous tumors by filling tiny sponges with drugs, attaching special chemical “linkers” that bond to the surface of tumor cells, and then injecting these sponges into the body. That’s the idea behind a nanosponge… Read More

Among business leaders it’s generally accepted that “poaching” or hiring a competitor’s employees violates an unwritten rule of business and may be unethical. But a new research paper concludes that as long as their actions are not deceptive or illegal, companies that intentionally identify, contact and offer employment to a rival… Read More

Greene, Maguire, and Velkovska It’s the hottest temperature ever achieved in a laboratory: 250,000 times hotter than the heart of the sun. Three Vanderbilt physicists are members of the scientific team that has reported creating an exotic state of matter with a temperature of 4 trillion degrees Celsius. The new… Read More

When Jason Martin gives a talk about his research, he begins with the story of Mariana Bridi da Costa. The Brazilian supermodel died from severe sepsis after amputation of her hands and feet failed to stop its spread. Martin, a fellow in allergy, pulmonary and critical care medicine, is part… Read More

One of the best ways the world can promote peace and stability is to expand commercial nuclear power based on the extraction of uranium from the ocean, contends Frank Parker, an internationally recognized expert in remediation of radioactively contaminated soil and water. At a meeting held at the Pontifical Academy… Read More

About 100 million years ago, the bacterium Wolbachia came up with a trick that has made it one of the most successful parasites in the animal kingdom: It evolved the ability to manipulate the sex lives of its hosts. “When it developed this capability, Wolbachia spread rapidly among the world’s… Read More

Imagine a platoon of soldiers carrying personal digital assistants that can display the location of enemy shooters in three dimensions and accurately identify the caliber and type of their weapons. Engineers at Vanderbilt University’s Institute for Software Integrated Systems (ISIS) have developed a system that can give soldiers just such… Read More

Functional magnetic resonance imaging is revealing clues about visual memory. Vanderbilt researchers have discovered that early visual areas, long believed to play no role in higher cognitive functions such as memory, retain information previously hidden from brain studies. Researchers made the discovery using a new technique for decoding… Read More

The day that robots help children with autism to learn social skills is a step closer with the development of a system that allows a robot to monitor a child’s emotional state. “A lot of research going on around the world today tries to use robots to treat children with… Read More

Barnes Churches with predominantly black congregations are thriving in urban and suburban areas, and the most successful among them employ a variety of sophisticated marketing and programming strategies to draw members, a study by researcher Sandra Barnes finds. Her findings offer insights into what successful black churches have in common… Read More

The ability of breast milk to protect infants against respiratory viruses is gender-biased in favor of girls, reveal studies by Dr. Fernando Polack. Polack’s first study appeared last June in Pediatrics, and the second came out in February’s Pediatric Infectious Disease Journal. The research took place at hospitals in Buenos… Read More

 www.istockphoto.com Musicians really do think differently than the rest of us. Vanderbilt psychologists have found that professionally trained musicians more effectively use a creative technique called divergent thinking, and use both the left and right sides of their frontal cortex more heavily than the average person. Previous studies of creativity… Read More

Why do some bone cells knit together neatly following a fracture or amputation, while others grow wildly into soft tissue that can limit range of motion and cause problems with prosthetics? Dr. Erika Mitchell, assistant professor of orthopaedic trauma, has won a $1.3 million, three-year grant from the U.S. Read More

  © MCT/TIM LEE Each year some 10 million American households borrow money through payday loans. Payday lenders now have more storefronts than McDonald’s and Starbucks combined. But a recent study shows that payday-loan applicants who received the quick cash after their first application were significantly more likely to file… Read More

Children born four months before the peak of cold and flu season have a greater risk of developing childhood asthma than those born at other times of year, according to new research from Vanderbilt. In the Tennessee Asthma Bronchiolitis Study, which involved an analysis of the birth and medical… Read More

Earth is protected from the onslaught of solar wind by the magnetosphere, an invisible shield of magnetic fields and electrically charged particles that surrounds our planet. The northern and southern polar lights—the aurora borealis and aurora australis, respectively—are the only visible parts of the magnetosphere, but it is a critical… Read More