Earth grows fine gems in minutes
Aquamarine, emerald, garnet, zircon and topaz are but a few of the crystalline minerals found mostly in pegmatites, veinlike formations that commonly contain both large crystals and hard-to-find elements like tantalum and niobium. Another common find is lithium, a vital component of electric car batteries.
Ocean water could melt precarious Antarctic glacier
Rice University researchers, alumni and staff are part of an international effort that has discovered a pathway for warm ocean water to melt the underside of Thwaites Glacier, a precarious body of west Antarctic ice that could add as much as 25 inches to global sea level if it were to suffer a runaway collapse.
Rice mourns geophysicist, former college magister Dale Sawyer
The professor emeritus was esteemed around the world for his scientific leadership in marine geophysics.
Solomon, Siebach appear in science TV series 'Life 2.0'
Rice faculty members Scott Solomon and Kirsten Sieback appear in the first episode of "Life 2.0," a new television series that's available for streaming and slated to debut on the air this weekend.
Small quake clusters can’t hide from AI
A deep learning algorithm developed at Rice University analyzes data from a deadly landslide in Greenland to show how it may someday predict seismic events like earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.
Rice researchers use InSight for deep Mars measurements
Future Texas hurricanes: Fast like Ike or slow like Harvey?
Climate change will make fast-moving storms more likely in late 21st-century Texas.
Rice scientist goes deep to improve environmental tracers
Rice Earth scientist Laurence Yeung earns a prestigious National Science Foundation CAREER Award to improve our understanding of the biosphere’s productivity.
COVID-19 research funds back six new initiatives
Grants to Rice faculty will support diagnostic, environmental and social projects.
Three Ph.D. grads win NSF postdoctoral fellowships
Three Ph.D. graduates from the same Rice University research group have won prestigious postdoctoral fellowships from the National Science Foundation's Division of Earth Sciences.
Coral tells own tale about El Niño’s past
Researchers from Rice and Georgia Tech studied ancient Pacific corals to improve computer model predictions of El Niño events.
Fed grant backs Rice earthquake research
Rice University Earth scientist Melodie French earns a prestigious National Science Foundation CAREER Award to support her investigation of the tectonic roots of earthquakes and tsunamis.
Ordering in? Plants are way ahead of you
Dissolved carbon in soil can quench plants' ability to communicate with soil microbes, allowing plants to fine-tune their relationships with symbionts. Experiments show how synthetic biology tools developed at Rice University can help understand environmental controls on agricultural productivity.
