Science

Vanderbilt University Chancellor Gordon Gee and Fisk University President Hazel O‘Leary will lead a celebration Sept. 7 at 6 p.m. of the two universities‘ Masters-to-Ph.D. Bridge Program partnership to increase the number of minority students pursuing their doctoral degrees in physics, astronomy and the biomedical sciences. Both university leaders will speak, and students who are participating in the partnership will be available for interviews. The event will feature a performance by the Fisk Jubilee Singers. Read More

Vanderbilt University Chancellor Gordon Gee and Fisk University President Hazel O'Leary will lead a celebration Sept. 7 at 6 p.m. of the two universities' Masters-to-Ph.D. Bridge Program partnership to increase the number of minority students pursuing their doctoral degrees in physics, astronomy and the biomedical sciences. Both university leaders will speak, and students who are participating in the partnership will be available for interviews. The event will feature a performance by the Fisk Jubilee Singers. Read More

A quirky or socially awkward approach to life might be the key to becoming a great artist, composer or inventor. Read More

Vanderbilt experts are available to discuss a variety of issues related to the Hurricane Katrina disaster, including emergency response planning, police response, looting, economic impact, impact on universities, mass casualties, infectious disease and medical problems facing children. Read More

If your partner seems to be ignoring you after a flash of nudity on the television screen, it might not be his or her fault. New research indicates that people shown erotic or gory images frequently fail to process what they see immediately afterwards. Read More

Vanderbilt University has raced up the list of national research-spending rankings, according to a July report from the National Science Foundation on research and development expenditures. The university advanced nine places in the agency‘s rankings to 30th, placing it between Emory University, which ranked 29th, and the California Institute of Technology, which ranked 31st. The rankings are based on the university‘s federal research expenditures in fiscal year 2003. Read More

Vanderbilt researchers are two of the authors of a research study released today that revealed seafood from the area close to the Aleutian Islands in Alaska currently is not threatened by radioactive materials resulting from underground nuclear tests carried out at Amchitka Island between 1965 and 1971. Read More

An international team of biomedical engineers has demonstrated for the first time that it is possible to grow healthy new bone reliably in one part of the body and use it to repair damaged bone at a different location. Read More

Unlike the spectacular movie version, real-life sun storms can‘t turn ordinary astronauts into the Fantastic Four. But they can and occasionally do incapacitate expensive and vitally important space systems, like satellites and spacecraft. Read More

NASA will be setting off fireworks of a different kind this July 4, when it plans to slam an 820-pound projectile into a 10-mile wide rocky, icy comet. Vanderbilt University‘s Dyer Observatory will provide live streaming images of the impact from the Astronomical League‘s International Space Station Amateur Telescope near Tuscon, Ariz., and will provide live online commentary by Vanderbilt physicist Robert O‘Dell, former chief scientist for the Hubble Space Telescope. Read More

Is there a copy of you reading this announcement? A person who is not only you but who lives on a planet called Earth, with misty mountains, fertile fields and sprawling cities, in a solar system with eight other planets? If the theory of parallel universes is correct, then each of us has dozens of such alter egos. Read More

The complex issues of attachment between children and parents will be the topic of an all-day research conference at the Vanderbilt Kennedy Center for Research on Human Development, Thursday, May 19. Read More

As the science that could lead to designer babies advances, and as machines take on more human-like capabilities, what once was considered science fiction is becoming reality for contemporary scientists and technologists, with more in common than generally assumed. Read More

Research reported April 20 at a meeting of the American Physical Society reveals that the early universe may have behaved like a liquid in the first few microseconds after the Big Bang. Physicists from Vanderbilt University were part of a prestigious international team that made the surprising findings. Read More

Vanderbilt University‘s School of Engineering will play an important role in a major new $19 million National Science Foundation (NSF) multi-institutional center to protect the nation‘s computer infrastructure from cyber attacks while improving its reliability. Read More

Research at Vanderbilt University and the University of Pennsylvania challenges the American Psychiatric Association‘s position that antidepressant medications are the only effective treatment for moderately to severely depressed patients. Read More

T. John Koo, assistant professor of computer engineering, has been recognized with a CAREER award from the National Science Foundation to support his efforts to pioneer a new science that will help engineers do a better job of designing the wide array of "smart devices" which contain microchips and are spreading rapidly throughout modern society. Read More

Nashville kids ages 4 to 18 are invited to enter a new local art contest to help decorate the Learning Sciences Institute at Vanderbilt University. Read More

It‘s nature‘s fastest quick-change artist: In less than the time it takes a beam of light to travel a tenth of a millimeter, vanadium dioxide can switch from a transparent to a reflective, mirror-like state. Read More

Vanderbilt Law School maintained its No. 17 ranking in the nation for the fifth consecutive year, while Peabody College saw seven of its programs ranked in the top 10 by U.S. News & World Report in its annual ranking of the leading graduate and professional schools. Peabody‘s Special Education program was ranked first in the nation for the third straight year. Read More