A video by a Northwestern University journalism student has garnered national attention for its probing look at polarizing new legislation that allows Bolivian children as young as 10 to work, sometimes in harsh conditions.
Digitizing books published before 1700 has created an aesthetic as well as quite pragmatic “black-dot problem” in translated texts, with the word “love,” for example, showing up as “lo•e.”
A brain region controlling whether we feel happy or sad, as well as addiction, is remodeled by chronic pain, reports a new study. And in a significant breakthrough, scientists have developed a new treatment that restores this region and dramatically lessens pain symptoms in an animal model. The new treatment combines two FDA-approved drugs: a Parkinson’s drug, L-dopa, and a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug. These drugs target affected brain circuits and completely eliminate chronic pain behavior.
Northwestern pediatric audiologist Jennifer Phelan can comment on whether parents should buy volume-reducing headphones for their kids. Phelan specializes in the evaluation, diagnosis, and treatment of hearing loss in children. She has a particular interest in serving people with special needs.
A team of scientists from Argonne National Laboratory, Northwestern University and Stony Brook University has, for the first time, created a two-dimensional sheet of boron -- a material known as borophene. It is an unusual material because it shows many metallic properties at the nanoscale even though three-dimensional, or bulk, boron is nonmetallic and semiconducting. No bulk form of elemental boron has this metal-like behavior. Borophene, both metallic and atomically thin, holds promise for possible applications ranging from electronics to photovoltaics.
Northwestern University is testing a new supplemental coaching program to provide in-depth guidance on succeeding in science careers and reduce the commonly reported feelings of pressure and isolation of Ph.D. students from underrepresented backgrounds. In the study’s paper, one African-American female student from the new coaching group said, “I’m so happy to see other people of color in one place doing the same thing that I’m doing.”
Northwestern University is opening a new space in San Francisco that will further enhance the school’s leadership at the intersection of engineering, computer science, journalism and integrated marketing communications.
Northwestern University's Nina Kraus has pioneered a way to measure how the brain makes sense of sound. Her findings have suggest that the brain’s ability to process sound is influenced by everything from playing music and learning a new language to aging, language disorders and hearing loss.
Multiple sclerosis (MS) may be triggered by the death of brain cells that make the insulation around nerve fibers, a surprising new view of the disease reported in a study. A specially developed nanoparticle prevented MS even after the death of those brain cells, an experiment in the study showed. The nanoparticles are being developed for clinical trials that could lead to new treatments -- without the side effects of current therapies.
Children with allergic disease, particularly asthma and hay fever, have about twice the rate of high blood pressure and high cholesterol, setting them on a course for heart disease at a surprisingly early age, reports a new Northwestern Medicine study.
Iris believes answers to the real policing problems often lie in the massive amounts of data law enforcement agencies collect on every aspect of their operations. Early Intervention Systems track everything from absences from work to the number of times an officer is named in a lawsuit.
Northwestern University neuroscientists now can read the mind of a fly. In a study focused on three of the fruit fly’s sensory systems, the researchers developed a new tool that uses fluorescent molecules of different colors to tag neurons in the brain to see which connections, or synapses, were active during a sensory experience that happened hours earlier. Mapping the pattern of individual neural connections could provide insights into the computational processes that underlie the workings of the human brain.
Husband-and-wife team, inspired by beauty of Lake Superior area, find ancient 2,000-mile-long underground crack formed in multiple stages.
Jewelry designer Christopher Duquet recently collaborated with Northwestern University to create a FUSE Challenge, part of a broader effort to help businesses excite young people about exploring pathways to future STEM study and careers. To date, FUSE has reached over 4,000 pre-teens and teenagers in 63 locations, including schools, libraries and youth centers in Illinois, Ohio and California. A school in Helsinki, Finland, will be the first international site to implement FUSE.
A panel of experts at Northwestern University, moderated by WBEZ’s Jerome McDonnell, will reflect on a global model to successfully respond to today’s refugee crisis. Hosted by Northwestern University’s Center for Forced Migration Studies (CFMS), the panel discussion will take place Thursday, Dec. 3, from 6 to 8:30 p.m. The event will launch the center’s Refugee Resettlement Program.
A new Northwestern University meta-analysis (an integration of a large number of studies addressing the same question) shows that even today leadership continues to be viewed as culturally masculine. Thus, women suffer from two primary forms of prejudice. Women are viewed as less qualified or natural in most leadership roles, the research shows, and secondly, when women adopt culturally masculine behaviors often required by these roles, they may be viewed as inappropriate or presumptuous.
“An Example for All the Land: Emancipation and the Struggle Over Equality in Washington, D.C.,” a recent book by a Northwestern University professor, places the capital at the center of a fresh analysis of Reconstruction and the debate over the meaning of equality in the period after slave emancipation. The author shows how the issues still haunt America today.
Do those lightening fast disclaimers at the end of radio and television advertisements scare you away or simply seem like white noise required by regulatory agencies? According to Northwestern University and Wake Forest University research now online in the Journal of Consumer Research, fast disclaimers can give consumers the impression that an advertiser is trying to conceal information. However, trusted brands (versus trust-unknown or not-trusted brands) are immune to the adverse effects of fast disclaimers.
It doesn’t matter if you’re black or white. If you’re interested in celebrity and entertainment news, you’re more likely to start using Twitter, according to a new Northwestern University study. But, African Americans in general report more interest in celebrity and entertainment news and were found to be more likely than whites to start using Twitter.
In a large multi-center clinical trial, a new PSA test to screen for prostate cancer more accurately identified men with prostate cancer -- particularly the aggressive form of the disease -- and substantially reduced false positives compared to the two currently available commercial PSA tests, according to newly published research from Northwestern Medicine.
Tweets from popular news organizations have a major influence on hot Twitter topics, but a Northwestern University analysis of the Top Twitter Trends in 2010 shows that celebrities, such as Adam Lambert and Conan O’Brian, sometimes beat out news organizations and reigned as Twitter’s top influencers on big news stories.
Americans' danger detectors are cranked up way too high these days, but we don't have to be held hostage by our anxiety, according to a new book on coping with stress by a Northwestern Medicine psychologist.
George W. Bush’s decision to invade Iraq following the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, arguably was the most important decision of his presidency. That momentous decision also is central to understanding the psychological makeup of one of the most polarizing figures in American history, according to a new book by Dan McAdams, chair and professor of psychology in the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences at Northwestern University.
A new book by a Northwestern University School of Law professor tells the stories of three dramatic fugitive slave trials of the 1850s. Each of the trials underscores the crucial role runaway slaves played in building the tensions that led to the Civil War, and the three trials together show how “civil disobedience” developed as a legal defense. “Fugitive Justice: Runaways, Rescuers and Slavery on Trial” (Harvard University Press, November 2010) also highlights the role of the lawyers who took on these cases and pioneered the idea of civil rights litigation.
Northwestern University Library has launched a Web-based catalog of rare Arabic-script materials from West Africa that not only will increase awareness of its rich holdings but - with their use -- are expected to reshape our understanding of Islam, Africa and African history.
In the 1950s, U.S. schoolchildren learned to protect themselves from nuclear attack with help from Bert the Turtle in the film "Duck and Cover." FEMA's Herman the Crab today helps protect them from terrorism and other disasters. A book by a noted theatre historian presents a cross-cultural study of how disaster is rehearsed in the U.S., U.K. and Canada.
"Through the Labyrinth: the Truth about How Women Become Leaders" (Harvard Business School Press) argues the glass ceiling metaphor - that subtle barrier blocking women from leadership's highest positions - no longer applies. There's no absolute barrier stopping progress for women today but, instead, a progressive falling away of women at all levels.
A new book chronicles the "unscientific" way that revisions to psychiatry's bible, "The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders," were made. Using social anxiety disorder and antidepressant Paxil as examples, it shows how the creation of new mental disorders opened the door to the drug industry and "pathologized" normal behavior.
Julia Louis-Dreyfus to address graduates, parents and guests and receive an honorary doctor of arts degree.
A study suggests Mom was right when she insisted you take music lessons -- even when it was clear a professional music career wasn't in your future. The study is the first to provide concrete evidence that music training significantly enhances the brainstem's sensitivity to speech sounds -- a finding with implications for language as well as music learning.
Speed daters who romantically desired most of their potential partners were rejected quickly and overwhelmingly, according to a new Northwestern University study. The more you tend to experience romantic desire for all potential romantic partners you meet, the less likely it is that they will desire you in return. (Think too indiscriminate.)
A Northwestern University shows how sustained attention literally makes the world come into sharper focus. Not only do brain cells respond more strongly to stimuli. They also synchronize as if to the cues of a symphony conductor stepping in to control a large set of unruly musicians so that they all play together.
Sibling ties that cross the socioeconomic divide significantly affect the stability and well-being of black middle-class Americans, according to a new Northwestern University study that further illustrates the fragility of the black middle class.
A new study that takes a rare look at the physiological, social and emotional dynamics of day-to-day experiences in real-life settings shows that when older adults go to bed lonely, sad or overwhelmed, they have elevated levels of cortisol shortly after waking the next morning.
A new study by Northwestern University researchers shows that the brain learns to differentiate between similar smells simply through passive experience, shedding light on how we ultimately learn to identify thousands of smells from birth. The study also revealed for the first time how and where the brain modifies and updates information about smells.
Recognized as a new species in 1937, the kouprey, an ox, has been an icon of Southeast Asian conservation and is feared extinct. Now, Northwestern University biologists and a Cambodian conservationist present compelling genetic evidence that the kouprey may never have existed as a wild, natural species.
Two Northwestern University engineers have been studying the whisker system of rats to better understand how mechanical information from the whiskers gets transmitted to the brain. Now they have developed arrays of robotic whiskers that sense in two dimensions and that can sense information about both object shape and fluid flow. The arrays could find application on assembly lines, in pipelines or on land-based autonomous rovers or underwater vehicles.
Two Africanist scholars at Northwestern University have created video about the significance of glass beads in African society to give their lectures a new dimension.
One-third of married individuals choose someone other than their spouse as a surrogate for medical decision-making. And more often than not, when adult patients chose a parent, sibling or child, they prefer their mothers, sisters and daughters to serve as medical proxies over their fathers, brothers and sons, according to a study from Northwestern University.
In the first study to look at self-assessed Internet competence and its relationship to actual online ability, women and men are found to have equal skills. Yet women rank their skills significantly lower than men do. The findings are consistent with research on math and science ability and may have serious implications for women.
A report urges educators to teach K-12 students to think spatially and use geographic information systems (GIS) to do so. Researchers have developed student-friendly GIS software giving middle and high school students a taste of real-world science inquiry.
With the world's third largest HIV-infected population, Nigeria needs effective prevention programs. A $3 million Gates Foundation grant will support community-specific, social science research to understand the social contexts that can inform more effective prevention strategies.
In a systematic analysis of 30 years of the best scientific research on child development and parenting, a developmental psychologist examines the advice of five parenting "gurus" to the research findings on topics from spanking to TV viewing and day care to sex education.
An audiologist says the "earbuds" generally used with iPod and MP3 players increase hearing loss risks. The answer: use the devices at 60 percent maximum volume no more than one hour daily. Better yet, try muff-type or noise-canceling headphones.
Circuit parties -- mammoth dance events for gay and bisexual men -- were created in the 1980s in large part to raise awareness and funding related to HIV and AIDS prevention. Today, the circuit parties -- with up to 20,000 attendees -- may be part of the problem rather than the solution, according to a Northwestern University study.
"Urban Lawyers: the New Social Structure of the Bar" not only uses American Bar Foundation data to illustrate how dramatically the Chicago bar was transformed at the end of the 20th century, it also draws on leading research to offer a sweeping look at the legal profession as a whole.
A research psychologist finds adults who score high on psychological measures of social responsibility are less depressed and more satisfied with life. He also finds they tell life stories of turning negative experiences into positive outcomes.
Northwestern University has partnered with The Art Institute of Chicago and Argonne National Laboratory on a long-term art conservation and scientific research program that recently received a three-year, $500,000 grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
The holidays are for getting together with friends and family to renew relationships and create memories. Some people, though, worry about upcoming gatherings where past hurts and arguments may loom over the proceedings. How to cope?
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