Science

Vanderbilt University will become the center of an ongoing conversation about the friction and connections between science and religion with the help of a grant from the Metanexus Institute on Religion and Science in Philadelphia. Read More

When you grab a piece of food and put it in your mouth, when you smile in response to the smile of a passerby or squint and grimace in anger, the complex pattern of movements that you make may be hard-wired into your brain, according to Vanderbilt researchers writing this week in the "Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Online Early Edition." Read More

Laws and public policy will often miss their mark until they incorporate an understanding of why, biologically, humans behave as they do, scholars from Vanderbilt and Yale universities argue in the March issue of Columbia Law Review. Read More

A Vanderbilt engineering professor has been selected as one of a handful of high-level experts who advise the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission on safe management of nuclear waste. Read More

Bernard Rollin, a philosopher who developed the first university course on veterinary ethics, will speak at Vanderbilt University March 23 about "Animal Rights as a Mainstream Phenomenon." Read More

Journalists are encouraged to apply to attend a media fellowship, "Autism: Rates, Causes and Treatment," hosted by Vanderbilt University in conjunction with the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education April 10-13 in Nashville, Tenn. At this fellowship, journalists will have an opportunity to meet with leading autism researchers and affected families to learn about the latest advances in understanding this complex disorder. Read More

Constant light has long been understood to disrupt our internal clocks, resulting in problems like jet lag and health problems in extended-shift workers. A study led by Vanderbilt researcher Douglas McMahon reveals that although the clocks of individuals exposed to constant light may get out of synch, they keep ticking. The findings offer insight into how to modify constant-light situations to lessen their impact on humans. Read More

Vanderbilt archaeologist Arthur A. Demarest will give a public lecture on his efforts to restore a Maya royal palace in Guatemala and make it into an ecotourism resort run by the modern-day Maya villagers who live nearby for their economic benefit. The story that Demarest, who is the Ingram Professor of Anthropology, tells interweaves modern science, ancient mysteries and modern politics, including snake pits, death threats, looters and sacred midnight rituals. Read More

The star-nosed mole gives a whole new meaning to the term "fast food." A study published this week in the journal Nature reveals that this mysterious mole has moves that can put the best magician to shame: The energetic burrower can detect small prey animals and gulp them down with a speed that is literally too fast for the human eye to follow. Read More

Smaller than molecules, smaller than atoms, smaller than the sub-atomic particles that make up atoms — is string. Undetectably small, vibrating loops of string, to be exact. It‘s this string — the smallest of all the building blocks — that composes all matter in the universe, according to Brian Greene, a leading physicist and upcoming speaker in the Chancellor‘s Lecture Series at Vanderbilt University. Read More

Vanderbilt University encourages active journalists to apply to attend its Council for the Advancement and Support of Education media fellowship, "Autism: Rates, Causes and Treatment," April 10-13, 2005, in Nashville, Tenn. Read More

The Vanderbilt University Center for Science Outreach and the Adventure Science Center are co-hosting a forum on tsunamis and other natural disasters Tuesday, Feb. 1, from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. The forum will be held at the Adventure Science Center in Nashville and is free and open to the public. Read More

Frank L. Parker, the Distinguished Professor of Environmental and Water Resources Engineering at Vanderbilt, has been named a "national associate" by the National Academies, which includes the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, the Institute of Medicine and the National Research Council. Read More

The Vanderbilt Learning Sciences Institute is starting 2005 with a new lecture series designed to bring minority scholars to Vanderbilt to share ideas and discuss trends in the learning sciences, a field that encompasses learning, teaching, curriculum, assessment, policy and educational design. Read More

A portable device similar to today‘s home pregnancy tests that can quickly detect the presence of infectious diseases, including HIV-AIDS and measles as well as biological agents such as ricin and anthrax, is the object of a new joint university-industry research project. Read More

In a process comparable to that of an artist who turns a two-dimensional canvas into a three-dimensional work of art, astronomers use the two- dimensional images that they capture in their high-powered telescopes to reconstruct the three-dimensional structures of celestial objects. Read More

Kenneth C. Catania, assistant professor of biological sciences, has won the 2005 C.J. Herrick Award in Neuroanatomy from the American Association of Anatomists. Read More

If you run into Ed Saff at a cocktail party and ask him what he does for a living, the mathematician is likely to reply that he is working on a "method for creating the perfect poppy-seed bagel." Then he'll pause and add, "Maybe that's not the most accurate description, but it's the most digestible." Read More

Vanderbilt chemist Chuck Lukehart has received a $50,000 grant from Honda Corporation to develop new breakthroughs in fuel cell technology. Lukehart was one of five researchers selected this year by Honda to receive its annual Honda Initiation Grant. Lukehart will accept the grant at the 2004 Honda Initiation Grant Symposium Nov. 19 in Hollywood, Calif. Read More

The modern world is filled with the uncoordinated beeping and buzzing of countless electronic devices, so it was only a matter of time before someone designed an electronic network with the ability to synchronize dozens of tiny buzzers in much the same way that frogs and cicadas coordinate their nighttime choruses. Kenneth D. Frampton, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering at Vanderbilt University, dreamed up the project. Read More