Arts And Science

Vanderbilt physicist John Wikswo reported significant progress toward creating “homo minutus” – a human-on-a-chip that can be used to test drugs and toxins – on Mar. 26 at the Society of Toxicology meeting in Phoenix. Read More

By shifting evolution into reverse to produce an expensive HIV drug out of a simple sugar, Vanderbilt chemist Brian Bachmann has shown that it may be possible to manufacture exotic and expensive synthetic drugs as easily as brewing beer. Read More

Vanderbilt psychologists show it is possible to selectively manipulate our ability to learn through the application of a mild electrical current to the brain, and that this effect can be enhanced or depressed depending on the direction of the current. Read More

Researchers analyzed data from the Program Assessment Rating Tool (PART) used by the George W. Bush administration to grade the effectiveness of federal programs. Read More

A brain-mapping study of patients with schizophrenia has found that areas associated with the ability to imitate are impaired, providing new support for the theory that deficits in this basic cognitive skill may underlie the profound difficulty with social interactions that characterize the disorder. Read More

An ultra-fast and ultra-small optical switch has been invented that could advance the day when photons replace electrons in the innards of consumer products ranging from cell phones to automobiles. Read More

Tiffany Patton, BA’03, is the executive director of Girls on the Run Nashville, an after-school program that runs for 12-weeks each spring and fall, teaching girls how to form positive relationships and live active lives. Read More

See how a discovery about mosquito sperm could fight deadly disease; learn where to click for the coolest original music created by Vanderbilt students; and tour the newest evolution of College Halls. All this and more in the latest VUCast, Vanderbilt’s online newscast. Watch now. Read More

Matt Rubinger, at age 25, is director of luxury accessories for Heritage Auctions, an international auction house. Three years after graduting from  Vanderbilt University in 2010, Rubinger made $9 million for his company, according to Forbes. Rubinger made his career in sales after spending his high school and college years… Read More

Some scholars still believe that romantic love was invented by European troubadours in the Middle Ages, and that people outside of the western tradition don’t really experience it. Ted Fischer, professor of anthropology, decided to test that theory. The verdict? Everybody loves. Read More

A former Vanderbilt student dreamed of using business and economics to help the poorest people in the world help themselves. That student was micro-loan pioneer and nobel-prize winner Muhammad Yunus. Now another Vandy student is following this dream, as Amy Wolf reports. [vucastblurb]… Read More

The UK audio science fiction magazine Starship Sofa has published a podcast of "Descartes' Stepchildren," a short story by Robert Scherrer, professor and chair of the Vanderbilt's department of physics and astronomy. Read More

When an Aztec child was born, soothsayers would consult the birth almanacs contained in codices to determine the most auspicious date to initiate the child into the Aztec community. Read More

Vanderbilt biologists have discovered that mosquito sperm have a “sense of smell” and that some of same chemicals that the mosquito can smell cause the sperm to swim harder. Read More

A study has found that the time it takes neural networks in the brain to make decisions is remarkably stable regardless of size: a finding that could make it easier to achieve the goal of the President's BRAIN Initiative established last spring. Read More

In the latest VUCast: One Vanderbilt student plans to help the world's poor; take a tour inside the new Recreation and Wellness Center; and learn how Vanderbilt experts are reaching millions. All this and more in the latest VUCast, Vanderbilt's online newscast. Watch now. Read More

A Vanderbilt economist turned his expertise back onto his own discipline and has published a 15-year analysis of graduate economics education in the United States. Read More

Support for political tolerance remains strong in many Latin American and Caribbean nations, but in others a move in the opposite direction “represents alarming news,” concludes a study by Vanderbilt University’s Latin American Public Opinion Project. Read More

Todd Jackson, BA’96, EMBA’08, is the recipient of the Vanderbilt Alumni Association Board of Director’s new Alumni Volunteer Award. As founders and co-chairs of the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center Young Ambassadors, Jackson and his wife, EB, have helped raise $250,000 and award seven Discovery Grants to innovative cancer… Read More

The popular science magazine Science News has chosen a story featuring research by Vanderbilt's Seth Bordenstein and Robert Brucker as its top science story for the year. Read More