News Releases

Drop in activity along border could cost Texas billions, says Baker Institute expert

The reduction in mobility along the Texas-Mexico border caused by COVID-19 will hurt the state's economy as a whole, according to new research from Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy.

Top Rice data science team shows heart in plan to save babies

Winning Data to Knowledge Lab project uses data science techniques to help save babies with congenital heart defects.

Bad news for fake news: Rice research helps combat social media misinformation

Improved use of machine learning can double throughput of real-time information filters, Rice researchers find.

Rice's Pumani hailed for reaching 1 million babies

Rice global health institute's low-cost, neonatal CPAP joins Global Innovation Exchange's Million Lives Club.

Religious discrimination particularly high for Jews and Muslims, study shows

HOUSTON – (Dec. 9, 2020) – Although people of all faiths report growing religious discrimination during the past few years, the phenomenon is most common among Jews and Muslims, according to a new study from researchers at Rice University and West Virginia University (WVU). In addition, Jews and Muslims are much more likely to become victims of violence because of their religious beliefs.

Texas lawmakers see vaccine legislation as nonpartisan

Vaccine-related legislation should be promoted as nonpartisan, new research suggests, and most Texas lawmakers agree despite a vocal anti-vaccine movement.

US must ‘hold the line’ against China’s revisionist actions, says Baker Institute expert

The United States government should accept greater strategic risk to “hold the line” against the revisionist measures of the Chinese government, according to new research from Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy.

Rice Business online MBA program earns high marks in its first year

Rice University’s Jones Graduate School of Business placed in the top 10 of five categories in The Princeton Review's latest rankings of the Best Business Schools for 2021, including the No. 6 spot for its newest program, MBA@Rice.

Vitamin boosts essential synthetic chemistry

Inspired by light-sensing bacteria that thrive near hot oceanic vents, synthetic chemists use vitamin B12 to catalyze valuable hydrocarbons known as olefins, or alkenes, useful precursor molecules for the manufacture of drugs and agrochemicals.

'Pink tax' hurts female consumers, but electing more women combats it

HOUSTON – (Dec. 8, 2020) – The wage gap between men and women is no secret, but another form of gender discrimination directly and disproportionately affects women worldwide: the "pink tax" imposed by import tariffs that target female products.

Can gender inequality kill? Paper looks at impact among older Indian women

HOUSTON – (Dec. 7, 2020) – Indian women past childbearing age are dying at a higher rate than those in other countries because of poverty and limited access to resources such as food and health care, according to a study from Rice University.

Scientists get the lowdown on sun’s super-hot atmosphere

Images of the sun captured by the IRIS mission show new details of how low-lying loops of plasma are energized, and may also reveal how the hot corona is created.

House vote to decriminalize marijuana reflects the will of the American public, says Baker Institute expert

HOUSTON – (Dec. 4, 2020) – The U.S. House of Representatives today approved legislation that would decriminalize marijuana and seek to "address the devastating injustices caused by the war on drugs." Katharine Neill Harris, the Alfred C. Glassell III Fellow in Drug Policy at Rice University's Baker Institute for Public Policy, is available to discuss the so-called MORE Act with the news media.

Hidden structure found in essential metabolic machinery

Rice University biochemists have discovered membrane-divided subcompartments within organelles called peroxisomes, essential pieces of metabolic machinery for all higher order life from yeast to humans. The research appears this week in Nature Communications.

Rice physicist shares grant to advance imaging

The lab of physicist Junichiro Kono will share in a $1 million grant from the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative to improve imaging of proteins, cells and tissues.