Research

Geoff Wehmeyer wins CAREER Award

Mechanical engineer Geoff Wehmeyer wins an NSF CAREER Award to study nanoscale heat transfer.

Now you don’t see it … and now you do

Scientists and engineers from Rice University and the Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research discover fluorescence from silicon nanoparticles in cement and show how it can be used to reveal early signs of damage in concrete structures.

Acting like an expert even without experience can help secure venture capital funding, study finds

A report from Alessandro Piazza, assistant professor of strategic management at Rice University's Jones Graduate School of Business; Brian Chung, doctoral candidate at Rice Business; and Dortmund University’s Daniel Reese analyzed data on 4,190 new ventures and their founders. They found that “expertise signaling” by founders — self-presentation that might not align with reality when it comes to their experience, skills or background — played a significant role in their companies' success.

‘Lefty’ tightens control of embryonic development

A protein known as Lefty pumps the brakes as human embryos begin to differentiate into the bones, soft tissues and organs that make us.

Antibody with engineered peptide targets bone metastasis

A moderate amount of a peptide-enhanced cancer drug goes a long way in treating breast cancers that metastasize to the bone.

Biologists discover new insect species at Rice University

Newly discovered insect Neuroterus valhalla is barely a millimeter long and spends 11 months of the year locked in a crypt. It’s legendary sounding name stems from where it was discovered: A tree outside Rice’s graduate student pub Valhalla.

Black and Hispanic communities bore disproportionate share of Texas’ early COVID-19 deaths

Texas state officials did not publish the race and ages of COVID-19 victims in early 2020, but a county-level statistical analysis spearheaded by Rice University undergraduates in collaboration with university faculty has found deaths statewide were disproportionately concentrated in Black and Hispanic communities.

When graphene speaks, scientists can now listen

Brothers working in a lab at Rice University discover that sound can be used to analyze the properties of laser-induced graphene in real time.

Data from beneath the South Atlantic Ocean

Rice graduate student Kevin Gaastra is in the South Atlantic Ocean this week, working to process and inspect samples on the scientific drill ship JOIDES Resolution.

New models assess bridge support repairs after earthquakes

Civil engineers develop a computational modeling strategy to help plan effective repairs to damaged reinforced concrete columns.

New book emphasizes key role social interaction plays in creativity

While some organizational decision-makers focus their attention on capital and physical resources, a new book reveals that effective people management should take center stage in the innovation process.

Halting antibiotic resistance is a little less futile

Rice University bioscientists develop a microfluidic platform for high-throughput studies of how bacteria evolve antibiotic resistance.

Rice physicist Pengcheng Dai wins superconductivity award

Rice University physicist Pengcheng Dai and two European physicists have won the 2022 Heike Kamerlingh Onnes Prize, one of the leading awards for experimental research in superconductivity.

NSF funds Rice effort to measure, preserve quantum entanglement

Rice University physicist Guido Pagano has won a prestigious CAREER award from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to study quantum entanglement and develop new error-correcting tools for quantum computation.

Lost birds and mammals spell doom for some plants

In one of the first studies of its kind, researchers have gauged how biodiversity loss of birds and mammals will impact plants’ chances of adapting to human-induced climate warming.