Casey Shearer Memorial Lecture

Curt Ellis, food activist and filmmaker, to deliver Shearer Lecture

March 31, 2011
Curt Ellis, FoodCorps founder and documentary filmmaker, will deliver the 11th annual Casey Shearer Memorial Lecture at Brown University on Friday, April 8, 2011. His talk, titled “Ask Not What Your Country Can Feed You — Ask What You Can Feed Your Country,” will begin at 6:30 p.m. in Stuart Theatre.

Brown admits 2,692 for Class of 2015

March 30, 2011
Tonight, 2,692 students from across the country and around the world will learn they have been accepted to Brown’s Class of 2015. They represent 8.7 percent of a 30,948-member applicant pool, Brown’s largest ever.

Like products, plants wait for optimal configuration before market success

March 29, 2011
An international research team led by Brown University has amassed the largest evolutionary tree (phylogeny) for plants. It has learned that major groups of plants tinker with their design and performance before rapidly spinning off new species. The finding upends long-held thinking that plants’ speciation rates are tied to the first development of a new physical trait or mechanism. Results are published in the American Journal of Botany.

Federal grant supports development of containerized housing

March 25, 2011
Sen. Jack Reed was in town Friday, March 25, to announce a $150,000 federal grant to explore the use of shipping containers as energy-independent, sustainable housing. RISD students are developing designs, while the Brown-affiliated Rhode Island Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship will investigate the commercial potential.
Taubman Center Public Opinion Survey

Poll finds mixed support for Chafee’s new tax proposal

March 24, 2011
A new survey of Rhode Island voters gauges public opinion on Gov. Lincoln Chafee’s new tax proposals, Providence Mayor Angel Taveras’s plan to close some public schools, collective bargaining rights, and job performances of federal, state, and local officials.

BrainGate neural interface reaches 1,000-day milestone

March 24, 2011
An investigational implanted system being developed to translate brain signals toward control of assistive devices has allowed a woman with paralysis to accurately control a computer cursor at 2.7 years after implantation, providing a key demonstration that neural activity can be read out and converted into action for an unprecedented length of time.
Stephen A. Ogden Jr. ’60 Memorial Lecture

Colombian President Santos to deliver Ogden Lecture

March 23, 2011
Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos will deliver a Stephen A. Ogden Jr. ’60 Memorial Lecture on International Affairs on April 5, 2011, at 6:30 p.m. in the Salomon Center for Teaching, De Ciccio Family Auditorium.

Nanomodified surfaces seal leg implants against infection

March 22, 2011
Researchers at Brown University have created nanoscale surfaces for implanted materials that mimic the contours of natural skin. The surfaces attract skin cells that, over time, are shown to build a natural seal against bacterial invasion. The group also created a molecular chain that allows an implant surface to be covered with skin cell-growing proteins, further accelerating skin growth. Results are published in the Journal of Biomedical Materials Research A.
Questions for ...

Terry Tullis: A better understanding of earthquake processes

March 21, 2011
Better earthquake prediction is not so much a matter of new tools as of improved understanding about the earthquake processes, according to Terry Tullis, professor of geological sciences emeritus. At 4 p.m. Tuesday, March 22, in MacMillan 115, Tullis will join a faculty panel to discuss the Japanese earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear reactor damages. Other faculty include Karen Fischer, professor of geological sciences; George Seidel, professor of physics emeritus; and Kerry Smith, associate professor of history.

Mutant prions help cells foil harmful protein misfolding

March 20, 2011
Misfolded proteins are implicated in many incurable neurological diseases. A new and improved understanding of how naturally occurring variants keep proteins from bunching up and spreading provides more options for developing a treatment than scientists had realized.

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