News Releases

‘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.

Rice research shows childhood abuse can lead to poor stress management, worse health in adults

People who suffer abuse or neglect as children may have trouble managing stress later in life, a problem that’s linked to a host of negative health conditions, according to new research from Rice University.

Lost birds and mammals spell doom for some plants

In one of the first studies of its kind, researchers have gauged how biodiversity loss of birds and mammals will impact plants’ chances of adapting to human-induced climate warming.