science wire

Law School Study Suggests Wrongful Execution of Texas Man
A fresh look at the evidence used to convict and justify the execution of Carlos DeLuna more than 20 years ago reveals that there is more to his story than meets the eye Has Texas executed an inno

Columbia Faculty Join Co-founder Brian Greene as Participants in the 2012 World Science Festival
The World Science Festival, cofounded by Brian Greene , professor of mathematics and physics, returns to New York City May 30 – June 3 offering a dynamic set of lectures and programs that bring cutting-edge science to a broader audience.

Journalism School Celebrates 50 Great Stories From Trotsky to Tahrir Square
As Leon Trotsky gave a speech in 1917 as commissar of foreign affairs for the new Bolshevik government, a Columbia journalist sat among the spectators.

Prof. Stuart Firestein Explains Why Ignorance Is Central to Scientific Discovery
Stuart Firestein , a professor and chair of the biological sciences department, is a connoisseur of ignorance.

The Age of Insight: Nobel Laureate Explains How Our Brain Perceives Art
Many strands of Eric Kandel 's life come together in his latest work, The Age of Insight: The Quest to Understand the Unconscious in Art, Mind, and Brain, from Vienna 1900 to the Present .

Journalism School Graduate Brings Comedy to Politics and the News
In Travis Irvine's application to Columbia's Graduate School of Journalism , he wrote that he wanted his career to include travel, filmmaking, comedy, politics and, oh yes, journalism.

Searching for the Elusive Higgs Particle
Watch video of the World Leaders Forum event. (1:00:06) Click here to watch President Lee C. Bollinger's introduction. (10:17) The world of physics has its mysteries, but one of its biggest—whether the elusive Higgs boson actually exists—is closer to a resolution, of sorts. Researchers first theorized the Higgs boson in the 1960s.

History Professor Uses Lillian Hellman as Lens to Study 20th Century
Lillian Hellman—playwright, memoirist, accused liar, communist, muse to mystery writer Dashiell Hammett—never wanted biographies written about her.

Faculty Q&A With Susan Sturm
Professor Susan Sturm 's path to the law wound through work she did long before she got to law school—in the Head Start program, at a school for disabled kids and in a foster home.

World Leaders Forum: Searching for the Higgs Particle
In anticipation of the potential for experimental verification of the existence of the Higgs boson—a long-hypothesized particle thought responsible for endowing other elementary particles with

The X-Men Come Home to New York
When Chris Claremont began writing the Uncanny X-Men in 1975, he didn't think the assignment would last very long.

Geophysicist Sean C. Solomon Named New Director of Columbia’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory
Columbia University President Lee C. Bollinger and Provost John H. Coatsworth have named Sean C. Solomon, a leading geophysicist whose research has combined studies of the deep eart

Earth Institute Develops Interactive Map of NYC’s Energy Use
To use the above map: Zoom in and out using the +/- buttons; click and drag to find a neighborhood; zoom in further to pinpoint a building lot. As you cursor touches the lot, a box will appear for that address showing estimated energy use (based on ZIP code-wide data), and a breakdown of how it's used.

Claude Lanzmann Talks About de Beauvoir, Shoah and His Memoir With Charlie Rose
In completing his critically acclaimed memoir, French filmmaker Claude Lanzmann eschewed chronological order.

World Leaders Forum Looks at U.S. Foreign Policy in Afghanistan and Pakistan
The United States faces few good choices in its dealings with Afghanistan and Pakistan, says a longtime expert in the region, and must take a “longer view” than what has been exhibited in a decade plus of conflict.

"First Person Plural" Reading Series Launches in Harlem
Amy Benson , a writer and faculty member at the School of the Arts , was tired of always going to downtown Manhattan for literary events.

Professor Pablo Piccato Takes a Closer Look at Mexico
When Pablo Piccato was a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Texas at Austin, a professor suggested he look at crime and public health in Mexico City in the early 20th century for his dissertation.

Thomas Jessell Receives 2012 Gairdner Award for Groundbreaking Insights on Nervous System
Thomas Jessell, Ph.D., Receives 2012 Gairdner Foundation Award The Gairdner Foundation has announced the recipients of the 2012 Canada Gairdner Awards.

Key to Good Health? A Proper Diet for the Brain
When a psychiatrist sets out to write a diet book, he doesn't have a slimmer waistline in mind.

Engineer Sets Aside One Distinguished Career to Plunge Into Cancer Research
People often say that a book changed their lives—for some it might be To Kill a Mockingbird , for others it's Plato's The Republic . For Dimitris Anastassiou , it was a biology textbook. Professor Dimitris Anastassiou stands next to a high-performance computer cluster that was instrumental for his latest research in cancer biology.

Potential Role for Gut Cells in Treating Type I Diabetes
New Approach to Treating Type I Diabetes? Columbia Scientists Transform Gut Cells into Insulin Factories (NEW YORK, NY, March 11, 2012) - A study by Columbia researchers suggests that cells in the patient's intestine could be coaxed into making insulin, circumventing the need for a stem cell transplant.

Ripple Effect: The Japanese Disaster One Year Later
Tsunami devestation in Japan's Miyagi prefecture (left). One year later in March 2012, a washed-up boat remains on shore.

Journalism School Announces Renaming of Building for Founder, Joseph Pulitzer
The Columbia Graduate School of Journalism announced today that it will rename the Journalism building “Pulitzer Hall,” after its founder, Joseph Pulitzer.

Attorney General Eric Holder Discusses Financial Fraud at World Leaders Forum
Attorney General Eric H. Holder, Jr. (CC'73, Law'76), speaking Feb. 23 at a World Leaders Forum at Columbia, said that the Obama Administration has aggressively investigated the fraud and corruption that fueled the 2008 economic crisis.

Psychology Professor Studies Science of Motivation
Forget carrots and sticks, the widely used catch phrase suggesting people are motivated by the desire to seek pleasure and avoid pain.

New Book Ponders Ethical Issues of Genetic Testing
A patient who tested positive for the gene that leads to Huntington's disease wrestled with a host of questions.

Professor Timothy M. Frye Discusses the Russian Political Scene
In the late 1980s, Timothy Frye , a recent Middlebury College graduate with a B.A. in Russian language and literature, went for the first time to the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, where Mikhail Gorbachev had just come to power.

Foreclosed: Architecture Center Reimagines Suburbia After Housing Crisis
Columbia faculty talk about the Foreclosed exhibit and the mission of the Temple Hoyne Buell Center for the Study of American Architecture.

Online Archive Explores One Man’s Scrapbooks of African American Life
L.S. Alexander Gumby may be one of the most influential historians of early 20th century African American life in New York—even though he never wrote a traditional volume of history.

Former Haverford President Stephen G. Emerson Appointed Director of the Herbert Irving Cancer Center
Stephen G. Emerson Former President of Haverford College Appointed Director of the Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center NEW YORK (Feb.

A Study on the Impact of Good Teachers Sparks National Attention
Teachers who succeed in raising standardized test scores have a lasting influence on their students' lives, helping them avoid teenage pregnancy, go to college and earn more money as adults, accordin

Watching the Engine of Life, in Real Time, to Understand How Things Go Wrong
Ruben Gonzalez views ribosomes—the minute particles in cells that make proteins—as the “machines” of life. Naturally, the associate professor of chemistry is interested in watching these little protein-producing factories in real time, especially when they malfunction and cause disease.

David and Helen Gurley Brown Gift to Create Institute for Media Innovation at Columbia and Stanford
J-School and Stanford Engineering announce joint gift from David and Helen Gurley Brown Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism and Stanford University's School of Engineering today

Durst Gift Helps Launch New Center on Urban Real Estate
Vishaan Chakrabarti, Carole Ann Fabian and Helena Durst talk about the Durst gift and the new Center for Urban Real Estate.

Pulitzer’s New York World Reborn as Online News Site
Last fall, a private bus company operating under a city contract permitted its passengers, primarily Orthodox Jews, to enforce a religious tradition—in order to prevent physical between the sexes, women were required to sit in the back of the bus.

Death Valley Crater May Be Younger and More Active Than Previously Thought
Death Valley's half-mile-wide Ubehebe Crater turns out to have been created 800 years ago—far more recently than generally thought.

Origins of Esophageal Cancer
VIDEO: Richard Mayeux discusses ongoing Alzheimer's Disease research.

New Study Identifies Ways to Slow Global Warming
Eliminating leaks from energy-producing facilities would remove large amounts of the greenhouse gas methane from the air. Here, natural gas explodes from a pipe in Middletown, Conn., January 2010 (U.S. Chemical Safety Board) Click to view a NASA slideshow illustrating the story. A study by a large international team of scientists says that relatively cheap, simple measures to cut two common pollutants could substantially reduce global warming and improve human health and agriculture in coming decades.

Law Prof. Nate Persily to Oversee Connecticut Redistricting Process
State Legislature Failed to Reach Agreement; State Supreme Court Has New Deadline of Feb. 15 Media : Public Affairs, 212-854-2650 or publicaffairs [a] law.columbia (p) edu New York, Jan.

FCC Names Engineering Prof. Schulzrinne Chief Technology Officer
Columbia Engineering School Professor Henning Schulzrinne has been appointed as Chief Technology Officer by FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski.

FCC Names Engineering Prof. Henning Schulzrinne Chief Technology Officer
Columbia Engineering School Professor Henning Schulzrinne has been appointed as Chief Technology Officer by FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski.

Curator in the Classroom: The Artistic Eye of Prof. Kellie Jones
Kellie Jones talks about her new book, EyeMinded: Living and Writing Contemporary Art . (4:27) It's been a busy year for Kellie Jones.

Understanding the Mechanical Biology of Life’s Bonds
Julio Fernandez talks about creating a new field, mechanical biology, to further study protein dynamics.

Journalism Professor Adds Up the High Cost of "Zero-Sum Politics"
Tom Edsall has covered every presidential campaign since 1968. He has reported on politics from more than 30 states and written five books on the subject.

Acquired Traits Can Be Inherited via Small RNAs
VIDEO: Richard Mayeux discusses ongoing Alzheimer's Disease research. MEDIA INQUIRIES Main number: (212) 305-3900 cumcnews [a] columbia (p) edu Acquired Traits Can Be Inherited via Small RNAs Published: December 5, 2011 New York, NY (December 2, 2011) - Columbia University Medical Center (CUMC) researchers have found the first direct evidence that an acquired trait can be inherited without any DNA involvement.