Science

Discoveries by Vanderbilt archaeologist Francisco Estrada-Belli will be the focus of a new National Geographic special, Dawn of the Maya, scheduled to air Wednesday, May 12, at 8 p.m. ET on PBS. Read More

Researchers, using a new combination of techniques, have discovered that dopamine levels in our brains vary the most in situations where we are unsure if we are going to be rewarded, such as when we are gambling or playing the lottery. Read More

According to business gurus, the smart money is on "smart" systems-those computer enhancements that pop up in everything from musical greeting cards to "smart dust" defense intelligence systems. However, much is lost in the translation when computers move out of the box into the physical world to form "smart" embedded systems. Read More

Important new stone monuments covered with historical texts dating from a period just before the collapse of the classic Maya civilization have been unearthed by archaeologists from Vanderbilt University and the Guatemalan Ministry of Culture who are excavating a thousand-year-old ball court with support from the National Geographic Society. Read More

Scientists have discovered the region of the brain responsible for the old adage, "out of sight, out of mind." Read More

Vanderbilt Professor of Political Science John Geer will become editor of The Journal of Politics, consistently ranked as one of the nation's most influential political science journals, in January 2005. The scholarly journal, which is published quarterly by the Southern Political Science Association, will be housed within the Vanderbilt Department of Political Science for four years. Read More

The 2004 Tennessee Statewide Brain Bee Award will be presented to Jingyuan Wu of Oak Ridge High School at Vanderbilt University at noon on Thursday, March 11. Read More

Vanderbilt University will host researchers from several countries to review and discuss the latest research in blindness and its impact on the brain in a workshop March 12-14. The main lectures of the invitational workshop, "Blindness, Brain Plasticity and Spatial Function," are free and open to the community. Read More

Last year, the amount of external funding that Vanderbilt researchers received from peer-reviewed contracts and grants increased by 19 percent to reach an all-time high of $339.4 million. Read More

The Vanderbilt Learning Sciences Institute will host the first installment of its new guest lecturer series Thursday, Feb. 26, at 4 p.m. with University of California-Berkeley professor of education and geology Jean Lave. Lave will speak on how people learn during their everyday lives, a theory referred to as "learning-in-practice." Read More

As world reserves of oil and natural gas dwindle over the coming decades-a prospect predicted by many energy experts-the rate at which the people in most societies around the world have babies is likely to drop precipitously as well. Read More

Scott Hubbard, a Vanderbilt alumnus and director of NASA's Ames Research Center in California, is scheduled to give a free public lecture at Vanderbilt on the latest information about Mars, including the latest images coming from the two robot rovers currently operating on the surface of the red planet. Scientists and engineers at Ames provided scientific guidance and developed some of the scientific instruments carried by the two rovers. Read More

An international team of chemists has developed a new family of antioxidants that are up to 100 times more effective than Vitamin E. Read More

The Vanderbilt University Vision Research Center (VVRC) recently won a competitive renewal of a $2.8 million grant from the National Eye Institute to train graduate and post-doctoral students in vision research. The grant is the latest in a series of funds the University has won to support vision research. Read More

How does investigating the roots of crime change a vacant lot into a community garden? Harvard public health researcher Felton Earls will discuss his findings that change can be as simple as "taking action, making an effort" as part of the Vanderbilt Martin Luther King Jr. Commemorative Lecture Series Thursday, Jan. 22, at 4 p.m. at the Vanderbilt Kennedy Center for Research on Human Development. Read More

Today, we know a little bit more about one of mankind's deadliest enemies, the mosquito. Scientists have taken an important step toward understanding the mosquito's sense of smell, an avenue of research that may lead to better ways to repel the deadly insect. Read More

The ability to analyze and defend against novel biological agents has been strengthened by the development of a new device that can monitor the metabolism of living cells in near real time. Read More

A typical school day for a middle school student might involve a biology class with a study of growing plants, and later a math class spent solving equations that can be used in statistics. Read More

For 50 years, Vanderbilt Dyer Observatory has been a window to the stars and planets for Nashvillians. Vanderbilt University officials, relatives of the founder and officials of the companies who contributed to making the observatory a reality will gather Friday, Dec. 12, to commemorate the facility's opening in December 1953. Read More

The Vanderbilt Kennedy Center for Research on Human Development will host a workshop for children who have a sibling with special needs on Saturday, Dec. 13, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Read More