Featured Research

Invention of the first integrated circularly polarized light detector on a silicon chip opens the door for development of small, portable sensors that could expand the use of polarized light for drug screening, surveillance, etc. Read More

How depressed you are may have something to do with who you know—and where you come from. Read More

New work by researchers at Vanderbilt University and Harvard University confirms that a specific area of the brain, the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, is crucial to punishment decisions. Read More

Calling the notion of an immense wall between Mexico and the United States “nonsense,” a Vanderbilt professor in his new book makes the case for open borders between the two countries. Read More

If terror strikes increase in the United States, some consumers will keep buying as they always have, but others will withdraw from certain markets to minimize their risk. “The key issue we’ve identified is, ‘Do you feel like you can control the odds of becoming a victim, should a terrorist attack occur?’” said Steven S. Posavac. Read More

New research shows that focusing on past behaviors is not always the best strategy to avoid repeating mistakes. Read More

Jessica Oster is a member of a small group of earth scientists pioneering the use of mineral cave deposits in stalagmites, collectively known as speleothems, as proxies for the prehistoric climate. Read More

Vanderbilt University is seizing the opportunity to become a hub for music research in the heart of Music City. Read More

The Earth's first mass extinction event 540 million years ago was caused not by a meteorite impact or volcanic super-eruption, but by the rise of early animals that dramatically changed to prehistoric environment. Read More

Recent microbiological research has shown that plants and animals, including humans, are not autonomous individuals but are holobionts: biomolecular networks that consist of visible hosts plus millions of invisible microbes. Read More

The AmericasBarometer survey is the only scientifically rigorous comparative survey that covers all of North, Central, and South America, as well as a significant number of countries in the Caribbean. Read More

More people than surveyors expected think protection of the environment should be a priority in Latin America and the Caribbean. Read More

A Vanderbilt team of scientists have developed a new formulation for cosmic viscosity which strongly favors the "Big Rip" end of the universe. Read More

A new study led by Vanderbilt University Medical Center investigators found new diagnoses of prostate cancer in the U.S. declined 28 percent in the year following the draft recommendation from the United States Preventive Services Task Force against routine PSA screening for men. Read More

Special care needs to be taken during patient transfers within hospitals, according to a study by a researcher from Owen Graduate School of Management at Vanderbilt. Read More

Lawmakers in the Americas hew close to voters' preferences when it comes to same-sex marriage, according to a new study from Vanderbilt's LAPOP opinion project. Read More

Vanderbilt researchers have made the world’s smallest spirals and found they have unique optical properties that are nearly impossible to counterfeit. Read More

Unstable federal research funding and reductions in health care revenue for academic medical centers threatens to undermine the nation’s biomedical research enterprise, and in turn clinical medicine, which the nation needs now more than ever. Read More

A more specific drought-measuring formula created by a group of Vanderbilt University environmental engineers could have implications for emergency planning, federal relief payouts and drought mitigation efforts. Read More

More than half the population of Ecuador believe that free trade agreements are a good thing for the country, according to a LAPOP study from Vanderbilt. Read More