You can leave your gloves on: Rice-developed material burns viruses, safe for skin
September 11, 2023
A new material that packs deadly heat for viruses on its outer surface while staying cool on the reverse side could be used to make sustainable, multiuse personal protective equipment. Marquise Bell, a Rice graduate student who is the lead author of the research, was also part of this year’s NextProf Nexus workshop, a national, competitive faculty development program for engineering students from underrepresented groups.
Rice helps lead national quantum computing research efforts
September 8, 2023
A team of Rice University researchers have won a 4-year, $1.2 million grant from the Department of Energy to evaluate the strengths and limitations of different physical systems used to build quantum computers and inform strategies for achieving near-term advances in quantum computing.
Smart fabrics’ informed touch can tell you where to go
August 29, 2023
Rice U. engineers developed a lightweight, wearable textile-based device that can deliver complex haptic cues, enabling a user to perform open-world navigation tasks. The device is resilient to regular daily use, withstanding multiple cycles of washing and other damage and repair without loss of function.
Varied regional culture may affect individual expression of religion in US
August 22, 2023
Religious expression in the workplace — from wearing symbols of one’s beliefs to discussing faith at work — varies from geographic location to location, with Christians more likely to express their faith in the South, Jews most likely in the Northeast and Muslims most likely to do so out West, according to a new paper from researchers at Rice University’s Boniuk Institute and its Religion and Public Life Program, Purdue University, West Virginia University and Wheaton College.
Rice welcomes delegation from India
August 18, 2023
In order to deepen and broaden the partnership between Rice University and the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur (IITK), Rice Global recently welcomed a delegation from the institute to the university for a day-long meeting.
Gold buckyballs, oft-used nanoparticle ‘seeds’ are one and the same
August 14, 2023
Rice chemists have discovered that tiny gold “seed” particles, a key ingredient in one of the most common nanoparticle recipes, are one and the same as gold buckyballs, 32-atom spheres that are cousins of the Nobel Prize-winning carbon buckyballs discovered at Rice in 1985.
Weaker transcription factors are better when they work together
August 14, 2023
Rice bioengineer Caleb Bashor and colleagues have developed a generalizable method to address “off-target” gene activation, a significant problem in the field of synthetic biology. Taking a cue from nature, the researchers showed they could all but eliminate the activation of off-target genes by designing weak transcription factors that cooperatively assemble.
Cost-effective jaundice testing developed for low-resource hospitals
August 14, 2023
The Rice360 Institute for Global Health Technologies has validated the accuracy of its latest testing technology for newborn jaundice. BiliDx addresses a critical gap in the availability of accurate, affordable, point-of-care jaundice testing in low-resource hospitals.
Education program tackles race-based cancer health disparities
August 10, 2023
Rice U.’s Carolyn Nichol has won a competitive 5-year, $1,038,544 NIH Science Education Partnership Award (SEPA) award to address race-based cancer health disparities by increasing underrepresented minority student populations’ engagement and participation in biosciences education.
Tiny, flexible spinal probe system could lead to better therapies
August 7, 2023
A $6.25 million National Institutes of Health grant supports Rice U. engineers optimizing a neural probe array that can record the activity of spinal cord neurons as bodies move and behave. Scientists would also develop an integrated data-processing and stimulation-feedback system.