Life, Earth And Space

Two Vanderbilt astronomers are among an international team that has discovered a surprising new class of “hypervelocity stars” – solitary stars moving fast enough to escape the gravitational grasp of the Milky Way galaxy. Read More

Vanderbilt University researchers say to take down the water temperature a degree or two when washing your hands to help battle global warming. Read More

A NASA astrophysicist and Vanderbilt graduate student Lisa Upton have confirmed the existence of giant convection cells flowing slowly on the sun, lending further insight into the transport of heat from its core and the origin of cycles of sunspot activity that affect essential satellite-based communications such as cell phones and TV broadcasting. Read More

Two organic chemists at Vanderbilt University are among the ten recipients of the 2014 Arthur C. Cope Scholars Award that recognizes and encourages excellence in the field of organic chemistry. Read More

Tricking algae’s biological clock to remain in its daytime setting can dramatically boost the amount of commercially valuable compounds that these simple marine plants can produce when they are grown in constant light. Read More

Science has progressed from wild speculation about Earth’s planetary neighbors—including how they formed and whether they are inhabited—to a better understanding of our celestial neighborhood, David Weintraub, professor of astronomy, writes in "Scientific American." Read More

Lauren Parker Jackson learned the difficult and demanding art of X-ray crystallography in the Cambridge University lab where it was invented. She brings her expertise to Vanderbilt, where she will continue her research in protein trafficking. Read More

Neuroscientists have identified the location in the brain's visual cortex responsible for generating a common perceptual illusion: seeing shapes and surfaces that don't really exist when viewing a fragmented background. Read More

D. Borden Lacy, Ph.D., associate professor of Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology, and Biochemistry, will receive the 2014 Margaret Etter Award from the American Crystallographic Association (ACA) for outstanding achievement and exceptional potential in crystallographic research demonstrated by a scientist at an early stage of their independent career. Read More

Tiffiny Tung, associate professor of anthropology, is on familiar terms with the dead. She may not know their names, but she can tell you a surprising amount of information about how they lived—and even, on occasion, how they died. Read More

Ellen Fanning, Stevenson Professor of Biological Sciences and a professor of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, died on Sunday morning, Sept.1, after a lengthy battle with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). She was 67 years old. Read More

Astronomers have found a clever new way to slice and dice the flickering light from a distant star in a way that reveals the strength of gravity on its surface. Read More

Scientists at Vanderbilt University and the New York Health Department say colonies of Antarctic brittle stars may be especially vulnerable to the effects of ocean acidification. Read More

Fisk and Vanderbilt's Bridge Program mentors talented minority students pursuing advanced science degrees. Keivan Stassun, professor of astronomy and director of the Fisk-Vanderbilt Masters-to-Ph.D. Bridge Program, is quoted. Read More

More efficient catalytic converters on autos, improved batteries and more sensitive gas sensors are some of the potential benefits of a new system that can directly measure the manner in which nanocrystals adsorb and release hydrogen and other gases. Read More

A new study provides the first direct evidence that microbes can contribute to the origin of new species by reducing the viability of hybrids produced between males and females of different species. Read More

It is peak mosquito season, and while some lucky outdoor venturers seem unperturbed by the tiny insects, others appear to be relentlessly assaulted. Laurence Zwiebel, Cornelius Vanderbilt Professor of Biological Sciences, explains the most common culprits. Read More

A team of Vanderbilt researchers has provided important validation of maps of the brain at rest that may offer insights into changes in the brain that occur in neurological and psychiatric diseases. Read More

The reason dark matter, which makes up 85 percent of all the matter in the universe, is invisible could be because it possesses a rare, donut-shaped type of electromagnetism instead of the more exotic forces that have been proposed, according to an analysis of a pair of Vanderbilt theoretical physicists. Read More

A scientific team led by University of Louisville doctoral student Karen Collins has discovered a hot Saturn-like planet in another solar system 700 light years away. The discovery was made using inexpensive ground-based telescopes, including one specially designed to detect exoplanets and jointly operated by astronomers at Ohio State University and Vanderbilt University. Read More