Science and Technology

Sea sponges offer clues to how human-made structures can resist buckling

January 4, 2017

Brown University engineers looked to nature to find a shape that could improve all kinds of slender structures, from building columns to bicycle spokes.

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Are Uber drivers entrepreneurs?

December 21, 2016

A case study created by Brown undergraduates as part of an entrepreneurship class investigates the entrepreneurial aspects of the ridesharing platform’s driver model.

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RNA pathway plays key role in health, lifespan, fly study shows

December 21, 2016

The piRNA pathway was thought to be most active in the reproductive organs of animals, but researchers have discovered in the common fruit fly that the pathway also operates in a non-reproductive body tissue, playing a vital role in maintaining health and lifespan.

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Celebration in Stockholm: Kosterlitz receives Nobel Prize

December 10, 2016

Brown physicist Michael Kosterlitz stood on the most revered stage in all of science to receive his medal for the 2016 Nobel Prize in Physics.

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Research offers clues about the timing of Jupiter's formation

December 9, 2016

The new study shows that Jupiter had probably reached its present day size by about 5 million years after the first solids in the solar system formed.

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New compound targets TB bacterium’s defense against the immune system

December 5, 2016

Developed by chemists at Brown University in conjunction with colleagues at MIT and Cornell, the compound could enable a new drug strategy for treating tuberculosis.

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Video: Kosterlitz meets with President Obama in the Oval Office

December 1, 2016

Obama congratulated four American 2016 Nobel Laureates on their "amazing work."

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Brown’s influential biomechanics X-ray technology grows ever more powerful

November 30, 2016

Two recent papers describe the latest ways that XROMM technology, which has spread to dozens of similar research facilities worldwide, enables studies of human and animal motion in previously unseen detail.

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Quantum obstacle course changes material from superconductor to insulator

November 30, 2016

The research could help scientists better understand how defects can affect the quantum behavior of materials.

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Nobel Prize festivities to kick off with D.C. event

November 29, 2016

A week before heading to Sweden to receive the Nobel Prize, Brown physicist and 2016 Nobel Laureate Michael Kosterlitz will meet President Obama and participate in a discussion at the Swedish Embassy in Washington, D.C.

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Scientists reconstruct formation of the Appalachians

November 21, 2016

A new study finds that the process that built the Appalachian Mountains 300 million years ago is similar to the process building the Himalayas today.

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National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine committee tackles data privacy and national security

November 17, 2016

Seny Kamara, a computer scientist at Brown, is part of a committee that will explore the tradeoffs between data privacy, encryption, national security and law enforcement.

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Study reveals workings of immune response to deadly fungal infections

November 17, 2016

Now that scientists understand what triggers key steps in the immune response to menacing fungi such as Candida albicans, they hope to develop ways to make it work better.

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Brown planetary scientist elected to Russian Academy of Sciences

November 8, 2016

Professor Jim Head is honored as a foreign member for his decades of contributions to planetary science.

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Researchers use graphene templates to make new metal-oxide nanostructures

November 7, 2016

Metal-oxide films with wrinkles and crumples transferred from graphene templates have improved properties as catalysts and electrodes.

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Brown researchers developing new interactive sleep app

November 1, 2016

The new approach combines personal sleep analytics with recommendations based on the scientific sleep literature.

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Fun with physics: Brown’s new Nobel Laureate talks theory

October 27, 2016

Michael Kosterlitz, winner of the 2016 Nobel Prize in Physics, met with students from the physics department during a town hall event.

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Research helps explain formation of ringed crater on the Moon

October 27, 2016

The Moon’s Orientale basin is an archetype of “multi-ring” basins found throughout the solar system. New research reveals how those rings were formed.

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As competition concludes, ‘bio balloon’ team has reached great heights

October 26, 2016

An undergraduate team of emerging synthetic biologists from Brown and Stanford prepares to culminate a global competition this weekend after a productive nine months advancing the science of an entirely biological balloon.

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Brown launches new Data Science Initiative

October 25, 2016

The initiative, which includes a new master’s program, will bolster research that integrates data in new scholarly contexts and prepare students to be leaders in a data-enabled society.

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Study yields rich dossier of cancer-linked protein’s associates

October 24, 2016

By developing an atomic-scale picture of how the cancer-linked enzyme PP2A binds to other proteins, Brown University researchers have developed a new list of nearly 100 of its potential partners.

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Ladd Observatory to celebrate 125 years

October 14, 2016

A weeklong series of events will commemorate the observatory’s rich history.

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Brown researchers develop new ligase for biomedical use

October 11, 2016

The new heat-stable RNA ligase could be useful for a variety of applications including in vitro diagnostics and sequencing.

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Machine learning technique helps identify cancer cell types

October 11, 2016

The new technique could be useful in early testing of cancer drugs and in understanding drug resistance.

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New grant to aid design of data-sharing platform

October 6, 2016

Brown researchers will share nearly $1 million from the National Science Foundation for a project to help encourage big data research.

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Brown’s J. Michael Kosterlitz wins Nobel Prize in Physics

October 4, 2016

Professor of physics awarded "for theoretical discoveries of topological phase transitions and topological phases of matter.”

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Environmental change drove diversity in Lake Malawi cichlids

October 3, 2016

Researchers show that periods of deep, clear water in Lake Malawi over the past 800,000 years coincide with bursts of species diversification.

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Startup@Brown connects students with startups

September 30, 2016

The second annual Startup@Brown conference, to be held this weekend, offers entrepreneurial students a sneak peak at the startup world.

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Ancient global cooling gave rise to modern ecosystems

September 26, 2016

Sea surface temperatures dipped dramatically during a period from 7 million to 5.4 million years ago, a time of massive global ecological change.

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Pluto’s ‘heart’ sheds light on a possible buried ocean

September 23, 2016

A giant asteroid impact in the dwarf planet’s past offers new insights into the possibility of an ocean beneath its surface.

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Experiment looks back to when the universe’s lights came on

September 20, 2016

A Brown University physicist is part of an international experiment, newly funded by the National Science Foundation, to learn more about the first stars and galaxies.

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Simulation posits why legendary leapers have different ‘spring’ stiffness

September 15, 2016

New research on grasshoppers and bullfrogs offers a conclusion about jumping: When an animal has less time to store energy for a jump, it needs a less stiff tendon than one that can take its time.

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Researchers make better sense of incoherent light

September 14, 2016

A technique called plasmonic interferometry helps to detect spatial coherence in ‘incoherent’ light.

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Driven to discover, graduate student wins awards and strives to achieve

September 13, 2016

William Jordan filled his childhood with books, but college was more of a goal than a given — now he’s a doctoral student who hopes his example will make that path more apparent for others than it was for him.

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Study results advance ‘transposon theory of aging’

September 12, 2016

A new study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences provides substantial new evidence that health becomes endangered when aging cells lose control of rogue elements of DNA called transposons.

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Brown to lead $9.7M grant to advance theory of aging

September 6, 2016

A new multi-university research effort will seek to determine whether rogue elements of DNA promote or even cause aging and whether interventions against them could help people live longer and more healthfully.

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Mitosis study finds potential cancer target

August 30, 2016

By drilling down to the atomic level of how specific proteins interact during cell division, or mitosis, a team of scientists has found a unique new target for attacking cancer.

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Profiles in Summer Research: Sophia Gluskin-Braun

August 26, 2016

With a passion for problem-solving, the engineering concentrator is focused on the fundamentals of light and playing a role in promising research on next-generation solar cells.

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Profiles in Summer Research: Nari Lee

August 26, 2016

A progression of summer experiences with faculty has left the rising senior with an expanding set of research skills and medical school aspirations.

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For planetary science students, a summer of science in space with NASA

August 24, 2016

For Brown planetary science graduate students, a “mission-planning bootcamp” at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena offers an insider’s view of how to conduct research in space.

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Mathematicians, police join forces on the mathematics of crime

August 19, 2016

Researchers used real data from the City of Providence to look for interesting trends and patterns that might help police analyze criminal activity.

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In summer at sea, adventurous student continues a personal academic journey

August 16, 2016

Driven by a love of marine life and the memory of his grandfather, Peter Baek set out this summer on a six-week sailing voyage to study a delicate ecosystem south of the Equator.

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Declining fishery production in critical African lake pinned to climate change

August 5, 2016

Warming water over the past 150 years is causing declining fish stocks in Lake Tanganyika, a large freshwater lake that supplies food for millions of Africans.

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Researchers image brain cells’ reactions to concussive trauma

August 2, 2016

Using a laboratory device that can deliver concussive impacts to cell cultures and image the aftermath in real time, researchers from Brown are gaining new insight into how brain cells react to trauma.

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Process could make key biodegradable polymer stronger and longer-lasting

July 25, 2016

The creation of a new polymer morphology in a material called PLA could lead to better medical implants and drug-delivery devices.

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Asteroid that formed Moon’s Imbrium Basin may have been protoplanet-sized

July 20, 2016

The research, published in Nature, has implications for our understanding of the early solar system.

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GAGA may be the secret of the sexes — at least in insects

July 14, 2016

Without simple repeating sequences of the DNA “letters” GA on the X chromosome, distinct genders could never have evolved, at least in flies and mosquitoes.

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Tiny ‘racetracks’ show how bacteria get organized

July 13, 2016

The new research sheds light on the surprisingly complex collective movements of bacteria in confined spaces.

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Researchers develop key power-splitting component for terahertz waves

June 29, 2016

The new device could be useful in future terahertz communications networks, which would have a much higher data capacity than current cellular and wireless networks.

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Research uncovers spleen’s role in shaping blood cells

June 27, 2016

Computer models developed by Brown University mathematicians help to describe an underappreciated function of the spleen.

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