Now you don’t see it … and now you do
Scientists and engineers from Rice University and the Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research discover fluorescence from silicon nanoparticles in cement and show how it can be used to reveal early signs of damage in concrete structures.
Acting like an expert even without experience can help secure venture capital funding, study finds
A report from Alessandro Piazza, assistant professor of strategic management at Rice University's Jones Graduate School of Business; Brian Chung, doctoral candidate at Rice Business; and Dortmund University’s Daniel Reese analyzed data on 4,190 new ventures and their founders. They found that “expertise signaling” by founders — self-presentation that might not align with reality when it comes to their experience, skills or background — played a significant role in their companies' success.
‘Lefty’ tightens control of embryonic development
A protein known as Lefty pumps the brakes as human embryos begin to differentiate into the bones, soft tissues and organs that make us.
James Tour available to comment on molecular electronics advance
More than 20 years ago, Wired featured Rice University chemist James Tour in a story about molecular electronics, then a focus of his lab. At the time, he said commercializing single molecules turned into circuits was perhaps three to five years away. “I was only off by an order of magnitude,” Tour says now after assisting a California company, Roswell Biotechnologies, in fabricating semiconducting sensors using single molecules as the key component.
Antibody with engineered peptide targets bone metastasis
A moderate amount of a peptide-enhanced cancer drug goes a long way in treating breast cancers that metastasize to the bone.
Biologists discover new insect species at Rice University
Newly discovered insect Neuroterus valhalla is barely a millimeter long and spends 11 months of the year locked in a crypt. It’s legendary sounding name stems from where it was discovered: A tree outside Rice’s graduate student pub Valhalla.
Black and Hispanic communities bore disproportionate share of Texas’ early COVID-19 deaths
Texas state officials did not publish the race and ages of COVID-19 victims in early 2020, but a county-level statistical analysis spearheaded by Rice University undergraduates in collaboration with university faculty has found deaths statewide were disproportionately concentrated in Black and Hispanic communities.
Rusting iron can be its own worst enemy
Atom-level simulations reveal the reason iron rusts in supposedly “inert” supercritical carbon dioxide fluid. Trace amounts of water can cause a reaction at the interface between iron and the fluid, prompting the formation of corrosive chemicals.
When graphene speaks, scientists can now listen
Brothers working in a lab at Rice University discover that sound can be used to analyze the properties of laser-induced graphene in real time.
New models assess bridge support repairs after earthquakes
Civil engineers develop a computational modeling strategy to help plan effective repairs to damaged reinforced concrete columns.
A musical talent that shimmers
For many students, the focus of their first semester in college is on navigating a new chapter of their lives.
New book emphasizes key role social interaction plays in creativity
While some organizational decision-makers focus their attention on capital and physical resources, a new book reveals that effective people management should take center stage in the innovation process.
Halting antibiotic resistance is a little less futile
Rice University bioscientists develop a microfluidic platform for high-throughput studies of how bacteria evolve antibiotic resistance.
Rice physicist Pengcheng Dai wins superconductivity award
Rice University physicist Pengcheng Dai and two European physicists have won the 2022 Heike Kamerlingh Onnes Prize, one of the leading awards for experimental research in superconductivity.
NSF funds Rice effort to measure, preserve quantum entanglement
Rice University physicist Guido Pagano has won a prestigious CAREER award from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to study quantum entanglement and develop new error-correcting tools for quantum computation.
