Natural Sciences

Films made of highly aligned nanotubes like those developed at Rice in 2016 will be part of advanced tissue imaging systems. (Credit: Jeff Fitlow/Rice University)

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.

Chemists at Rice University have discovered a second level of fluorescence in single-walled carbon nanotubes. The fluorescence is triggered when oxygen molecules excited into a singlet state interact with nanotubes, prompting excitons to form triplet states that upconvert into fluorescing singlets. (Credit: Illustration by Ching-Wei Lin/Rice University)

Chemists get peek at novel fluorescence

Rice chemists find a second level of fluorescence in single-walled carbon nanotubes. The phenomenon may be useful in solar energy and optoelectronic applications.

A colorized image of Jezero Crater, the target for NASA’s Perseverance rover. Kirsten Siebach, a Martian geologist at Rice University, is one of 13 scientists selected to help operate the rover. (Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS/JHU-APL)

Rice scientist joins next Mars adventure

A Rice University geologist is one of 13 scientists recently selected to operate the Mars rover Perseverance and analyze samples for an eventual return to Earth.

Thomas Killian

Thomas Killian named dean of Wiess School of Natural Sciences

Rice University has named physicist Thomas Killian dean of the Wiess School of Natural Sciences, effective Jan. 1.

Atom-scale models by Rice University scientists based on those used to predict how proteins fold show a strong correlation between minimally frustrated binding sites and drug specificity. The funnel, a visual representation of the protein’s energy landscape as it folds, helps locate those frustrated sites. Such models could lead to better-designed drugs with fewer side effects. (Credit: Illustration by Mingchen Chen/Rice University)

Understanding frustration could lead to better drugs

Atom-scale models of proteins that incorporate ligands, like drug molecules, show a strong correlation between minimally frustrated binding sites and drug specificity. Such models could lead to better-designed drugs with fewer side effects.

Michael Stern and James McNew

Study: Early, late stages of degenerative diseases are distinct

Rice University biochemists have proposed that degenerative diseases as varied as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and muscle atrophy occur in two distinct phases marked by protein signaling changes that could result in patients responding differently to the same treatment.

The CanadArm2, a robotic manipulator, has been an essential component of the International Space Station since it was launched in 2001. The successor to the CanadArm that flew on the space shuttle is used to manipulate payloads, including satellites, docking capsules and astronauts. (Credit: NASA)

Rice Space Institute, Canada agree to collaborate

Rice Space Institute and the Consulate General of Canada in Dallas agree to collaborate on science and technology related to the space industry.

A view showing how the Jupiter-Saturn conjunction will appear in a telescope pointed toward the western horizon at 6 p.m. CST, Dec. 21, 2020. The image is adapted from graphics by open-source planetarium software Stellarium. (This work, "jupsat1," is adapted from Stellarium by Patrick Hartigan, used under GPL-2.0, and provided under CC BY 4.0 courtesy of Patrick Hartigan)

Christmas week: Worlds will align for spectacular heavenly sight

Early in the evening of Dec. 21, people the world over will get a chance to see Jupiter and Saturn line up closer together in Earth's night sky than they have been since just before daybreak on the morning of March 4, 1226.

IDEA awards

Rice names new round of IDEA winners

Six teams of Rice researchers have won backing from the InterDisciplinary Excellence Awards.

Image from a seismic study in northeastern China that shows both the top and bottom boundaries of a tectonic plate that formerly sat at bottom of the Pacific Ocean.

Former piece of Pacific Ocean floor imaged deep beneath China

In a study that gives new meaning to the term "rock bottom," seismic researchers have discovered the underside of a rocky slab of Earth's lithosphere that has been pulled more than 400 miles beneath northeastern China by the process of tectonic subduction.

The painless defibrillation project co-led by Texas Heart Institute and Rice won the Medical division of the Create the Future contest. Courtesy of Texas Heart Institute

Rice researchers top two categories in ‘Create the Future’ contest

Rice University was a double winner in the annual Create the Future Design Contest, an international competition in its 19th year.

Flash Joule

VIPs help open national security research accelerator labs

U.S. Army Futures Command Lt. Gen. Thomas Todd III and U.S. Rep. Dan Crenshaw, R-Texas, joined Rice President David Leebron, Provost Reggie DesRoches and Army and Rice dignitaries for the Oct. 30 opening ceremony of the Rice University National Security Research Accelerator (RUNSRA) laboratories in Dell Butcher Hall.

Rice University scientists develop cHAT to simplify the reduction of alkenes to more useful intermediate molecules for drugs and other useful chemical compounds. (Credit: West Laboratory/Rice University)

In a hurry to develop drugs? Here’s your cHAT

Rice University scientists develop cHAT to simplify the reduction of alkenes to more useful intermediate molecules for drugs and other useful chemical compounds.

Flash graphene made from plastic by a Rice University lab begins as post-consumer plastic received from a recycler. It is then mixed with carbon black and processed into turbostratic graphene via timed pulses of AC and DC electricity. (Credit: Tour Group/Rice University)

Flash graphene rocks strategy for plastic waste

Rice scientists advance their technique to make graphene from waste with a focus on plastic.

Allorhogas gallifolia is a new species of wasp discovered in live oak trees at Rice University

Discovery adds new species to Rice lab's ghoulish insect menagerie

A horrifying insect soap opera with vampires, mummies and infant-eating parasites plays out on oak trees every day.