Research

Forget the old folk tales about snakes hypnotizing their prey. The tentacled snake from South East Asia has developed a more effective technique. The small water snake has found a way to startle its prey so that the fish turn toward the snake's head to flee instead of turning away. In addition, the fish's reaction is so predictable that the snake actually aims its strike at the position where the fish's head will be instead of tracking its movement. Read More

Watch video of the tentacled snake using a body fake to trick fish into fleeing toward the snake\'s head. Read More

When a homegrown politician dies suddenly, local companies show the loss of a valuable connection immediately in their share prices, according to research from the Vanderbilt Owen Graduate School of Management. Read More

Jason Martin, a fellow in allergy, pulmonary and critical care medicine, is part of an interdisciplinary team at Vanderbilt University that has come up with a high-tech approach to combat this deadly illness, which is one of the top 10 causes of death in the United States and kills more than half a million people worldwide every year. Read More

Vanderbilt sociologists Jennifer Lena and Richard Peterson analyzed 60 samples of American music and found that each one --over time -- took on forms that were roughly comparable during their developmental sequences. The professors call these four distinct genre types Avant-garde, Scene-based, Industry-based and Traditionalist. "Classification as Culture: Types and Trajectories of Music Genres" has been published in the American Sociological Review. Read More

Black Power's complex relationship with liberalism during the civil rights era and the surprising consequences of that interaction are explored in Devin Fergus' book Liberalism, Black Power, and the Making of American Politics, 1965-1980. Read More

Empirical research from Vanderbilt professor of law and political science Tracey George shows how the United States court system, especially the Supreme Court and the Court of Appeals, could dramatically change under the Obama Administration. Read More

Many schools across the nation struggle in their efforts to deal with challenging behaviors. A new book co-authored by Kathleen Lane, associate professor of special education at Vanderbilt University's Peabody College of education and human development, aims to help schools develop a comprehensive strategy to identify and help students with behavior issues before violence erupts. Read More

A new generation of African American theology scholars are striving to define their place at the intersections of religion, social causes and education. Next month, more than 40 of them from across the country will gather at Vanderbilt University to discuss the challenges on this formidable road. Read More

Results from the latest AmericasBarometer Survey showing what the impact of worldwide economic decline might mean for democratic consolidation in Latin America will be presented on May 8 at the Inter-American Dialogue in Washington, D.C. The presentation by Vanderbilt University political scientists Mitchell Seligson and Elizabeth Zechmeister is titled "Economic Shocks and Democratic Vulnerabilities: Evidence from the AmericasBarometer Survey." Read More

A team of Vanderbilt engineers will play a key role in a new federal effort to significantly improve our understanding of how gases and liquids interact with solid surfaces – basic studies that have potential applications ranging from better batteries to more efficient methods for converting solar and electrical energy into fuel, improved fuel cells and enhancing the corrosion resistance of materials. Read More

Peabody College doctoral students Paul Morphy and Peter Beddow were named the first winners of the Bonsal Education Research Entrepreneurship Award (BEREA) April 22. Read More

Vanderbilt University's new Peabody Research Institute and the Tennessee Department of Education today announced a partnership to conduct the first statewide evaluation of the effectiveness of Tennessee's Voluntary Pre-K Program. Read More

A new national survey of high school writing instruction finds it lacking, with 50 percent of teachers reporting they are not prepared to teach students how to write well and rarely assign complex writing tasks. Read More

Urban school districts across the country have shifted back to managing segregated schools following the recent lifting of court-ordered desegregation plans, a new book finds. Read More

A team of synthetic chemists at Vanderbilt University report in the March 18 issue of the Journal of the American Chemical Society that they have created an efficient way to make a naturally occurring alkaloid that could have anti-cancer properties and may combat memory loss from scratch. Read More

A time could soon come when genetic tests and neurological brain scans are introduced as evidence in criminal trials as readily as DNA evidence is today. Read More

Early data from a project evaluating the first-year impact of New York City's performance pay program, the School-Wide Performance Bonus Program (SPBP), finds no discernable impact on student achievement thus far. However, the report's authors caution that it is too soon to draw any overall conclusions about the program's impact. Read More

K-12 and higher education experts from Vanderbilt University's Peabody College of education and human development will present their latest research April 12-18 in San Diego, Calif., at the American Educational Research Association's annual conference. Read More

As parents and policymakers increasingly worry about the quality of public schools, alternatives such as charter schools, magnet schools and vouchers appear more attractive. But experts wonder: What difference do schools of choice make? Read More