2004 Homepages

The poppy-seed bagel theorem

Vanderbilt mathematicians have invented a new way to spread points uniformly on various types of surfaces: a procedure with a surprising number of applications.

November 30, 2004 - December 16, 2004

Testing the fitness of biological clocks

Researchers discover that the benefits of biological clocks are directly tied to environments with regular day/night cycles and totally disappear in constant illumination.

October 12, 2004 - November 30, 2004

Researchers determine structure of secret hormone that hardens insect's outer shells

Biologists have discovered the structure of the hormone that insects need to harden their hard outer shells and spread their wings during molting.

August 10, 2004 - October 12, 2004

Genetic model for devastating form of paraplegia suggests new treatments

Thousands of people are confined to wheelchairs by a disorder caused by instability in the microscopic scaffolding within a key set of nerve cells.

July 21, 2004 -August 10, 2004

Dark matter and dark energy may be different aspects of a single unknown force

Robert Scherrer has developed a model explaining dark matter and dark energy – the mysterious elements that make up 98 percent of the universe – as two aspects of a single unknown force.

July 1, 2004 -July 20, 2004

Pushing back Maya Origins

The latest discoveries from the 2,500-year-old ruins of a neglected site deep in the Guatemalan jungle are shedding new light on the origins of Maya civilization.

June 10, 2004 -June 30, 2004

Following complex motions

A brain-imaging study supports the idea that our ability to see complex motion dates back to our early primate ancestors.

April 14, 2004 - June 9, 2004

Molly Miller's Adventures in Antartica

Molly Miller has been a professor of geology at Vanderbilt for more than 20 years. Every four or five years, she sheds her lab coat to don insulated fleece and windproof survival jackets for her trips to the ultimate geologic laboratory: Antarctica. In this land of extremes she looks for the margins of life. Miller studies animal burrows and fossils in the southern-most rocks on the planet and is convinced that this forbidding land contains important clues about the early evolution of mammals.

November 21, 2003 - April 13, 2004

2001 Homepages 2002 Homepages 2003 Homepages