Scientists working in an underground lab in South Dakota are getting close to turning on the world’s most sensitive dark matter detector, known as the Large Underground Xenon experiment, in the hopes of finally detecting dark matter. Rick Gaitskell, professor of physics, has been heavily involved with the project, working with 70 scientists and 14 institutions over the past four years to finally make the LUX experiment a reality. "This year, 2012, is going to be a very significant year because we get to turn the ... detector on and know very soon whether we have actually found dark matter or not," Gaitskell says.

New research from Brown finds that infants with colic who take part in “integrated care” – an unusual model being pioneered at Brown – stop crying sooner than those who see only their regular pediatrician for standard scheduled visits. Lead author Amy Salisbury, assistant professor of pediatrics, says that while colic does eventually go away for most babies, successful treatment can significantly cut down on the amount of time parents have to deal with stressful crying.

Alumna Madeline Miller was awarded the 2012 Orange Prize for Fiction for her debut novel The Song of Achilles. At the awards ceremony May 30, 2012, Miller received £30,000 (about $46,000) and the “Bessie,” a limited-edition bronze figurine. The Song of Achilles retells the story of Patroclus and the legendary warrior Achilles from their first meeting as children to their deaths at the siege of Troy. Miller worked on the book for 10 years while teaching Latin, Greek, and Shakespeare to high school students.

Mike Martin has been named the new head basketball coach of the Bears. A 2004 Brown graduate, Martin was a member of the winningest senior class in the history of the Brown program. In assuming the position, Martin becomes the fourth-youngest head coach in Division I men’s basketball. “It means the world to me to be able to come back to my alma mater,” Martin says. “It means everything and I’m excited to be here and get started.”

Tech firms begin to woo top students long before graduation. Stephen Poletto, a senior computer science major at Brown, says that in the middle of his junior year, he started fielding calls from headhunters, company recruiters and Brown alumni who work in the industry. Computer science major Kelsey Tripp accepted a lucrative summer internship at a start-up called Nebula Inc. after receiving a personal phone call from the company’s CEO.

A new study by recent Alpert Medical School graduate Nilay Patel finds that myriad political, practical and professional obstacles are making it difficult for college health centers to reach those students at highest risk of HIV. In his survey of 31 New England college health centers, Patel found that while many directors said they wanted to perform more testing, there was no ongoing effort to address HIV campuswide. And despite infection rates remaining fairly constant, the sense of urgency that existed when HIV first emerged has "dropped off fairly dramatically," Patel says.

Brown was awarded one of several grants given by the National Endowment for the Arts to investigate the impact of the arts on different parts of society. The first 15 grants were announced this week, totaling $250,000. The awards range from $10,000 to $30,000. The projects explore three different areas: the impact of the arts on economic development, the health of arts organizations, and the links between arts engagement and social outcomes, learning or behavior.

A team of Brown undergraduates has been trying to decipher an old book whose margins are filled with shorthand by Rhode Island founder Roger Williams. The book has been at the John Carter Brown Library since the library’s founding 150 years ago. “Roger Williams is writing all over this book in code,” says Ted Widmer, John Carter Brown Library director. “It’s like something out of Harry Potter, but Harry Potter set in Rhode Island.”

A recent report by the Surgeon General’s office finds that after years of steady drops, declines in cigarette use by youth and young adults have slowed; for smokeless tobacco products, the declines have stalled. Richard Rende, associate professor of psychiatry and human behavior, says that young people often encounter risk factors for smoking at home, including parents and older siblings who smoke. Beyond influencing a child’s choices and access to cigarettes, family affects whether he or she has the genetic predisposition to become addicted, Rende says.