Potential for profits gives Rice lab’s plastic waste project promise
Rice University scientists create carbon nanotubes and other hybrid nanomaterials out of plastic waste using an energy-efficient, low-cost, low-emissions process that could also be profitable.
Engineered wood grows stronger while trapping carbon dioxide
Rice University scientists have figured out a way to engineer wood to trap carbon dioxide through a potentially scalable, energy-efficient process that also makes the material stronger for use in construction.
Rice scientists reengineer cancer drugs to be more versatile
Rice University scientists enlist widely used cancer therapy systems to control gene expression in mammalian cells, a feat of synthetic biology that could change how diseases are treated.
Black girls benefit most when STEM teachers train up
When middle and high school teachers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics pursue continuing professional development, their students benefit, and a new study from Rice University shows the payoff can be dramatic.
Scientific AI’s ‘black box’ is no match for 200-year-old method
Rice engineers discovered a 200-year-old technique called Fourier analysis can reveal crucial information about how a form of artificial intelligence called a deep neural network learns to perform tasks involving complex physics.
Mosquito’s DNA could provide clues on gene expression, regulation
Rice University researchers discover that the Aedes aegypti mosquito’s DNA has the physical properties of a liquid crystal, a unique feature not found in any other species that could provide new clues on the factors that govern gene expression and regulation.
Bite this! Mosquito feeding chamber uses fake skin, real blood
Rice bioengineers teamed up with tropical medicine experts from Tulane to invent a high-tech way to study the feeding behavior of mosquitoes. To eliminate the need for live volunteers, the system uses patches of "synthetic skin" made with a 3D bioprinter.
Peptide 3D-printing inks could advance regenerative medicine
How do you build complex structures for housing cells using a material as soft as Jell-O? Rice University researchers have the answer with a new 3D-printing ink.
People are more critical of government when family and friends are hit by natural disasters
Whether they’re personally struck by or spared from natural disasters, people are more likely to distrust the government when their family and friends are victims, according to new research from Rice University.
Molecular machines could treat fungal infections
Rice scientists show that light-activated nanoscale drills can kill pathogenic fungi.
Two Rice University professors elected AAAS fellows
Rice University professors Thomas Killian and Marek Kimmel are elected fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, a distinction that honors scientists, engineers and innovators whose efforts on behalf of science and its applications are scientifically or socially distinguished.
Persistence is crucial in the classroom, new reports from Kinder Institute’s HERC show
Possessing lots of persistence leads to better academic outcomes for Houston Independent School District students, according to a newly released series of reports from the Houston Education Research Consortium (HERC), a research center within Rice University’s Kinder Institute for Urban Research.
Rice lab uncovers dynamics behind protein crucial in breast cancer
Just as a puppeteer moves a puppet by manipulating its strings, estrogen receptors, which play a crucial role in breast cancer, work in similar ways when they facilitate the interaction between hormones and DNA, according to Rice scientists.
STAT’s Hopkins co-authors National Academies report. CAREER Awards keep coming. DOE funds NEWT desalination research.
Chinese prefer Europeans to Americans, but the feeling isn’t mutual
People in China have more favorable opinions of Europeans than Americans, but the feeling is not mutual, according to a new study from researchers at Rice University, the National University of Singapore and the University of British Columbia.
