Natural Sciences

BioScience's Rosa Uribe wins NSF CAREER Award

Rice University neurodevelopmental biologist Rosa Uribe has won a prestigious CAREER Award from the National Science Foundation.

Algae team rosters could help ID 'super corals'

U.S. and Australian researchers have found a potential tool for identifying stress-tolerant "super corals." In experiments that simulated climate change stress, researchers found corals that best survived had symbiotic algae communities with similar features.

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.

Cells’ springy coils pump bursts of RNA

Models by Rice chemists calculate the chemical and mechanical energies involved in “bursty” RNA production in cells.

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.

Rice lab turns trash into valuable graphene in a flash

Scientists at Rice University are using high-energy pulses of electricity to turn any source of carbon into turbostratic graphene in an instant. The process promises environmental benefits by turning waste into valuable graphene that can then strengthen concrete and other composite materials.

CPRIT grant bolsters Rice biosciences

Rice University recruits synthetic biologist Caroline Ajo-Franklin with a $6 million grant from the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas to bolster the university’s cutting-edge Systems, Synthetic and Physical Biology program.

Study finds billions of quantum entangled electrons in 'strange metal'

Rice physicists and collaborators have observed quantum entanglement among "billions of billions" of flowing electrons in a quantum critical material.

Gasification goes green

Rice University engineers have created a light-powered nanoparticle that could shrink the carbon footprint of syngas producers.

Rice, Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur sign memorandum

Rice University and the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur (IITK) have signed a memorandum of understanding to collaborate on investing resources and research in the development of energy solutions, materials and sustainable technologies.

X-rays show how light transforms photosynthesis ‘switch’

Researchers at Rice and their colleagues get their first detailed look at how plant proteins reconfigure themselves when exposed to light.

Snake-like proteins can wrangle DNA

Theoretical simulations at Rice University suggest structural maintenance of chromosome proteins coil not only around each other but also around the strands of DNA they help manipulate. These strands are formed into loops that regulate transcription and other cellular processes.

Physicists find first possible 3D quantum spin liquid

Rice physicists show cerium zirconium pyrochlore qualifies as the first possible 3D quantum spin liquid.

Houston’s new poet laureate: ‘Rice absolutely helped me get to this place’

Nanotubes assemble! Rice introduces ‘Teslaphoresis’

Scientists at Rice University have discovered that the strong force field emitted by a Tesla coil causes carbon nanotubes to self-assemble into long wires, a phenomenon they call “Teslaphoresis.”