Society & Culture - Aug 26, 2010 11:42 - 0 Comments

The 4 types of evangelical bigwigs

RICE (US)—A new study based on interviews with hundreds of American leaders who are evangelical Christians (including CEOs, presidents, and chairs of large businesses and their equivalents in government and politics, nonprofits, arts, entertainment, the media, and sports) finds enormous variety in how leaders engage their personal faith in workplace decision-making. (more…)

Earth & Environment - Aug 17, 2010 9:45 - 0 Comments

Humans flip Texas river’s native carbon cycle

RICE (US)—Damming and other human activity has completely obscured the natural carbon dioxide cycle in Texas’ longest river, the Brazos. (more…)

Science & Technology - Aug 13, 2010 14:43 - 0 Comments

With home video, content beats quality

RICE (US)—Home video quality doesn’t matter that much as long as the viewer enjoys what’s on, according to a new study. (more…)

Earth & Environment - Jul 8, 2010 10:26 - 0 Comments

Can carbon tax remove gorilla in the room?

RICE (US)—In order to limit carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, policymakers should levy a carbon tax to encourage a transition from coal-based electricity production to a system based on natural gas, a new research paper recommends. (more…)

Science & Technology - Jul 7, 2010 9:58 - 0 Comments

Computer simulates super-fast protein fold

RICE (US)—A computer program is allowing researchers to accurately simulate protein folding dramatically faster than previous methods. (more…)

Health & Medicine - Jun 10, 2010 14:20 - 0 Comments

Baby Bubbler helps children breathe easy

RICE (US)—A newly developed portable device will help children with acute respiratory infections breathe naturally as they recover from illness. (more…)

Earth & Environment - Jun 8, 2010 14:32 - 0 Comments

Global warming taking toll on rainforests, too

RICE (US)—Global warming may also be a threat to animal and plant life in biodiversity hot spots like Madagascar, once thought less likely to suffer from climate change. (more…)

Earth & Environment - May 27, 2010 17:13 - 0 Comments

Journal makes oil-related studies available free

RICE (US)—The international journal Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry this week released a special free virtual edition that makes available 25 previously released full studies on the Exxon Valdez oil spill. (more…)

Science & Technology - May 4, 2010 10:03 - 3 Comments

Team builds centrifuge for $30

RICE (US)—A group of college students has turned a salad spinner into a rudimentary centrifuge that medical clinics in developing countries could use to manually separate blood without electricity. They built it for about $30—including the spinner—using plastic lids, cut-up combs, yogurt containers, and a hot-glue gun. (more…)

Earth & Environment - Apr 21, 2010 19:57 - 1 Comment

Buried shells are no ecological treasure

RICE (US)—Fan-Wei Zeng saw seashells, but not by the seashore. In fact, they were quite far away, and they were skewing the Rice University graduate student’s study of the environmental impact of Houston’s rivers. (more…)

Health & Medicine - Apr 6, 2010 11:47 - 1 Comment

Chip gives early check for oral cancer

RICE (US)—A test that uses a new diagnostic nano-bio chip is as effective and far more expedient in detecting oral cancer than traditional invasive lab procedures. (more…)

Society & Culture - Apr 2, 2010 8:37 - 0 Comments

Financing faith—but at what cost?

RICE (US)—While millions of Americans make individual contributions weekly at their places of worship, a new study finds private foundations have a disproportionate influence on the religious sector—despite the fact that their contributions constitute only a fraction of all philanthropy to religion. (more…)

Health & Medicine - Mar 25, 2010 16:05 - 2 Comments

All-natural healing power of fat

RICE (US)—It frequently happens in science that what you throw away turns out to be most valuable. Deepak Nagrath, a researcher at Rice University, was looking for ways to grow cells in a scaffold, and he discarded the sticky substance secreted by the cells. (more…)

Earth & Environment - Mar 23, 2010 12:32 - 0 Comments

Predicting Earth’s tectonic dance

RICE (US)—A research team has put the finishing touches on a 20-year labor of love: a precise description of the relative movements of the interlocking tectonic plates that account for about 97 percent of Earth’s surface. (more…)

Science & Technology - Mar 19, 2010 11:00 - 8 Comments

Invisible tags may give bar codes the boot

RICE (US)—Long checkout lines will be history if a newly developed technology delivers. The printable transmitter—invisibly embedded in packaging—would allow a customer to walk a cart full of groceries or other goods past a scanner on the way to the car. (more…)

Society & Culture - Feb 18, 2010 12:47 - 8 Comments

Turning Facebook fans into loyal customers

RICE (US)—Companies that use Facebook and its fan page module to market themselves can increase sales, word-of-mouth marketing, and customer loyalty significantly among a subset of their customers, new research shows. (more…)

Science & Technology - Feb 15, 2010 12:50 - 0 Comments

Gold nanowire bond stays strong naturally

RICE (US)—Welding uses heat to join pieces of metal in everything from circuits to skyscrapers. But researchers have found a way to beat the heat on the nanoscale. (more…)

Science & Technology - Feb 5, 2010 11:28 - 1 Comment

Physicists blast cancer with nanobubbles

RICE (US)—Using lasers and nanoparticles, scientists have discovered a new technique for singling out individual diseased cells and destroying them with tiny explosions. (more…)