Research

Although reading and writing have become essential skills for almost every job, the majority of students do not read or write well enough to meet grade-level demands. A new report co-authored by Vanderbilt researchers Steve Graham and Michael Hebert finds that while the two skills are closely connected, writing is an often-overlooked tool for improving reading skills and content learning. Read More

There are two major schools of thought when it comes to educating children and youth with severe learning needs and both are off target, researchers from Vanderbilt and Clemson universities report. The researchers argue a return to the original principles of special education that is informed by modern data and techniques is needed to reform both general and special education. Read More

Vanderbilt physicist Joe Hamilton played a key role in the discovery of element 117, a new super-heavy element that has been created and identified by an international scientific team. Discovery of the new element provides new information about 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. Read More

On Tuesday, March 30, Vanderbilt's high-energy physicists are opening a virtual control room that will allow them to participate fully in the experiments that will be conducted on the world's largest particle accelerator, the $9 billion Large Hadron Collider located in Switzerland. The LHC is beginning its research program on Tuesday and the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), which operates the machine, has invited the world's science press to cover the event. Read More

The battle between creationists and Darwinians sometimes appears to be irresolvable. Pick science or religion – you can't have both. Read More

Should states “take back” some of the power to regulate land use from local governments to help facilitate more environmentally sustainable building? That's the question that will be debated during a panel discussion on the role of local and state land use regulation in fostering green building design. Read More

When cells move about in the body, they follow a complex pattern similar to that which amoebae and bacteria use when searching for food, a team of Vanderbilt researchers have found. Read More

President Obama is now debating whether to have the self-proclaimed mastermind of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Khalid Sheik Mohammed, prosecuted in a military tribunal, despite Attorney General Eric Holder's plan to try Mohammed in civilian court. Read More

The current financial crisis hitting the United States has made the idea of legalizing and taxing marijuana much more attractive for debt-ridden states. California proponents claim they could generate more than a billion dollars by legalizing and taxing marijuana distribution and save millions more by reducing law enforcement costs on prohibition enforcement. But Vanderbilt University Law School professor Robert Mikos explains in a new paper why the seemingly clear way to make money by legalizing and taxing marijuana distribution has too many legal hurdles to actually work. Read More

Problems of extreme poverty – from affordable housing to health care delivery to nutrition – will be the focus of efforts by a large number of students traveling this spring to Guatemala, where Vanderbilt already leads numerous sustained studies and initiatives. Read More

Watch video beginning of a talk by Charles M. Vest, president of the National Academy of Engineering and President Emeritus, MIT. Read More

Three Vanderbilt physicists are members of the scientific team that have reported creating an exotic state of matter with a temperature of four trillion degrees Celsius. It's the hottest temperature ever achieved in a laboratory and 250,000 times hotter than the heart of the sun. Read More

The unexpected discovery of a new type of genetic variation suggests that natural selection – the force that drives evolution – is both more powerful and more complex than scientists have thought. Read More

Watch video about new applications developed by Vanderbilt engineering students for iPhone and Android mobile devices. Read More

Finding out where to eat, what's happening and how to get around are common questions on every college campus. Now at Vanderbilt University, the answers to these questions can be quickly and easily found using new applications developed by Vanderbilt engineering students for iPhone and Android mobile devices. Read More

Scientists at Vanderbilt and Yale universities have successfully transplanted most of the "nose" of the mosquito that spreads malaria into frog eggs and fruit flies and are employing these surrogates to combat the spread of the deadly and debilitating disease that afflicts 500 million people. Read More

Those wishing to teach in Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools will have the opportunity to earn a Vanderbilt University master's degree designed expressly for them beginning this summer, Vanderbilt and MNPS announced today. Read More

In celebration of the 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin, the Department of Biological Sciences and the Law School at Vanderbilt University are jointly sponsoring a panel discussion about the famous naturalist's life and research. Read More

Count on more political attack ads in 2010 after a Supreme Court ruling lifting the ban on corporation and labor donations, according to Vanderbilt University political scientist John Geer. Read More

Vanderbilt experts David Lewis, John Geer and Thomas Schwartz are available to discuss the one-year anniversary of the Obama presidency and his Jan. 27 State of the Union address. Read More