Information For:

News and Events

Student volunteers promote health in a city of need

Each semester scores of undergraduate volunteers provide services such as free health screenings, health-related social work, and high-school sexual education across Providence. Student volunteers talk about the CareFree Clinic, Clinica Esperanza, HealthLeads, and SHAPE. (Distributed February 21, 2012)   Read the story

Researchers make living model of brain tumor

A natural assembly: The 3-D glioma model, developed at Brown University, allows the glioma and the supporting endothelial cells to assemble naturally, just as they would in real life.
Researchers have created a living 3-D model of a brain tumor and its surrounding blood vessels. In experiments, the scientists report that iron-oxide nanoparticles carrying the agent tumstatin were taken by blood vessels, meaning they should block blood vessel growth. The living-tissue model could be used to test the effectiveness of nanoparticles in fighting other diseases. Results appear in Theranostics. (Distributed February 16, 2012)

Teaching science to the religious? Focus on how theories develop

‘Believe’ in evolution?: “To me the word ‘believe’ means to accept something beyond question,” says Ken Miller. “In science there are no facts or theories that are beyond question.”
Brown biology Professor Ken Miller understands that most students are religious. He is too. The way to teach science to religious students is to show how scientific ideas come to be, he says. Students can learn that religious people engage in scientific explorations of nature, and that theories are based on observation and logic, not some anti-religious agenda. (Distributed February 18, 2012)
Debra L. Lee Lecture on Slavery and Justice

Michelle Alexander to deliver Lee Lecture Feb. 28

Michelle Alexander: Civil rights advocate and author of The New Jim Crow will present the Debra L. Lee Lecture on Slavery and Justice Feb. 28.
Civil rights lawyer, advocate, and legal scholar Michelle Alexander will deliver the 2012 Debra L. Lee Lecture on Slavery and Justice on Tuesday, Feb. 28, 2012, at 6 p.m. in Granoff Center for the Creative Arts, Martinos Auditorium. Her lecture, titled “The New Jim Crow,” is free and open to the public. (Distributed February 16, 2012)

Genes may travel from plant to plant to fuel evolution

Lateral gene transfer: New research shows genes can travel from plant to plant between distant cousins, not just from one generation to the next. This “short cut" could be a mechanism for rapid evolution.
Evolutionary biologists at Brown University and the University of Sheffield have documented for the first time that plants swap genes from plant to plant to fuel their evolutionary development. The researchers found enzymes key to photosynthesis had been shared among plants with only a distant ancestral relationship. The genes were incorporated into the metabolic cycle of the recipient plant, aiding adaptation. Results appear in Current Biology. (Distributed February 16, 2012)
Questions for ...

Kevin McLaughlin: The Humanities Initiative

Announced in 2010 with a $3-million gift, Brown's Humanities Initiative aims to strengthen the distinctiveness of the humanities at Brown and to extend the impact of the humanities across campus and beyond. Dean of the Faculty Kevin McLaughlin recently updated the faculty on how the initiative is progressing. (Distributed February 16, 2012)

Building Brown, Building Futures

Building Futures, Building Buildings: Marc Nixon earned his GED and a place in Laborers Local 271 through the Building Futures program. He’s been working on construction downtown and at Brown, including the new aquatics and fitness center.
Marc Nixon, a construction laborer working on Brown's new aquatics and fitness center, is in the spotlight as a career success story. Brown is one of Rhode Island’s biggest participants in Building Futures, an initiative that helps workers like Nixon move into careers in the construction trade. (Distributed February 15, 2012)

When nerve meets muscle, biglycan seals the deal

Segmented synapses: Synaptic structures in mice engineered to lack the protein biglycan (bottom row) appear discontinuous compared to the synaptic structures in normal mice (top).
In the absence of the protein biglycan, synapses at neuromuscular junctions in mice began to break up about five weeks after birth, according to a new study led by Brown University researchers. Reintroducing byglycan helped fix the loss of synaptic stability in cell culture. The research may be relevant to efforts to treat motor neuron diseases, such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS, Lou Gehrig’s Disease) and spinal muscular atrophy. (Distributed February 14, 2012)
Op-Ed

Ken Miller: America’s Darwin Problem

Charles Darwin: According to a 2009 Gallup poll taken on the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin’s birth, fewer than 40 percent of Americans are willing to say that they “believe in evolution.”
Significant numbers of Americans now regard the scientific enterprise as a special interest group that rejects mainstream American values. “You might think that since Americans are a practical, pragmatic people, this is an issue that would turn on the weight of the evidence,” writes Ken Miller. “It’s not.” This essay first appeared in the Huffington Post. (Distributed February 14, 2012)

Aquatics center: Brown dives into solar energy

More heat and light: The 168 hybrid solar panels installed on the roof of the new aquatics center provide both electricity for the building and heat for the pool. It is the largest hybrid solar installation in the country and the first on a college campus.
The 168 rectangular panels on the roof of the Katherine Moran Coleman Aquatic Center will generate  enough power to keep the lights on and enough thermal energy to heat the million-gallon pool. The center, due to open April 13, will be Rhode Island’s first hybrid (heat and power) solar installation — also the largest in the nation and the first on a college campus. (Distributed February 10, 2012)
Noah Krieger ’93 Memorial Lecture

DOT Sec. LaHood to deliver Krieger Lecture

Ray LaHood: U.S. Secretary of Transportation
Ray LaHood, U.S. secretary of transportation, will deliver the annual Noah Krieger ’93 Memorial Lecture on Wednesday, Feb. 29, at 4 p.m. in the Salomon Center for Teaching, De Ciccio Family Auditorium. LaHood will discuss “The View from President Obama’s Cabinet.” Sponsored by the Taubman Center for Public Policy and American Institutions, the lecture is free and open to the public. (Distributed February 13, 2012)
Meeting of the Corporation

Corporation approves 2013 budget, sets tuition, increases financial aid

The College Green: In the context of continuing national and global economic difficulties, Brown will increase scholarship aid for students and invest in the quality of its education and research.
At its regular February meeting today, the Corporation of Brown University approved a 3.2-percent increase in the University’s consolidated operating budget for the 2013 fiscal year. Total tuition and fees will rise 3.5 percent. The financial aid budget will reach an all-time high. (Distributed February 11, 2012)
Slavery and Justice

Martin Puryear to design slavery memorial

Slavery and Justice: Among the report’s recommendations endorsed by the Corporation was the creation of a “living site of memory, inviting reflection and fresh discovery without provoking paralysis or shame.”
Acclaimed American artist Martin Puryear has been commissioned to design and create a memorial on the Front Campus commemorating the University’s historic ties to the slave trade. (Distributed February 11, 2012)
View more news