Life, Earth And Space

Fossils at the Fort is happening on Saturday, March 25, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Fort Negley Visitors Center and Park. The event is free and will take place rain or shine. Read More

Research into retinal regeneration in zebrafish has identified a signal that appears to trigger the self-repair process, raising the possibility of inducing retinal repair in human eyes. Read More

Genes used by the insect parasite Wolbachia to control its hosts' reproduction can be used to help control the spread of mosquito-borne diseases like dengue, Zika and malaria. Read More

Scientists at Vanderbilt University have created a three-dimensional organ-on-a-chip that can mimic the heart’s amazing biomechanical properties in order to study cardiac disease, develop heart drugs. Read More

Professor Emeritus of Chemistry David James Wilson died peacefully Jan. 12 in Belleville, Michigan, following a three-year bout with melanoma. He was 86. Read More

A new study has compared the diet of a variety of Australian megafaunal herbivores from the period when they were widespread (350,000 to 570,000 years ago) to a period when they were in decline (30,000 to 40,000 years ago) by studying their fossil teeth. The analysis suggests that climate change had a significant impact on their diets and may well have been a primary factor in their extinction. Read More

Vanderbilt’s College of Arts and Science received a $1 million anonymous gift to bolster faculty research and student immersion experiences in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences. Read More

Astronomers participating in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey have announced the results of the first study that shows how the abundance of the "elements of life" varies across the Milky Way galaxy. Read More

A pair of Vanderbilt chemists have developed a faster, cheaper method for synthesizing ring molecules called cyclic depsipeptides found in antibiotics, anti-retrovirals and pesticides. Read More

A new microfluidic device containing human cells that faithfully mimics the behavior of the blood-brain barrier is providing new insights into brain inflammation, the silent killer. Read More

Tennessee joins California to become only the second American state memorialized in the periodic table of elements. Read More

A laboratory study of four animal species and their microbiota finds that each species hosts a unique community of microbes that can significantly improve its health and fitness. Read More

A novel "origami" rapid diagnostic test for malaria has received a $100,000 Grand Challenges Explorations grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Read More

A team of Vanderbilt scientists have genetically modified luciferase, the enzyme that produces bioluminescence, so that it acts as an optical sensor that records activity in brain cells. Read More

An ambitious postdoctoral training initiative designed to prepare recently graduated doctorates for competitive academic careers will launch later this year, Chancellor Nicholas S. Zeppos announced Oct. 24. Read More

Two Vanderbilt physicists, Keivan Stassun and Kalman Varga, have been elected fellows of the American Physical Society. Read More

New Associate Professor of Psychology Suzana Herculano-Houzel produced the first accurate count of the number of neurons in the human brain—86 billion, making it simply an enlarged primate brain. Read More

Bjarni Jónsson, Vanderbilt’s first Distinguished Professor of Mathematics, died Sept. 30 at the age of 96. Read More

Vanderbilt Professor of Chemistry, Emeritus, Mark M. Jones died Oct. 7 at 88 after an accident and brief illness. Read More

DNA related to black widow spider toxin been discovered in a phage that infects the bacterial parasite Wolbachia. It is the first time animal-like DNA has been found in a bacterial virus. Read More