Latest News

• share
• favorite_border

By: Bill Wellock | Published: August 25, 2021 | 3:27 pm | SHARE: The federal government is debating billions of dollars of investment in infrastructure that would develop roads, bridges, public transit, high-speed internet and more.Eren Ozguven, an associate professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering, researches how infrastructure contributes to communities’ abilities to respond to emergencies in his role as the director of the Resilient Infrastructure and Disaster Response (RIDER) Center.

• share
• favorite_border

Waves breaking and hitting the shore are a familiar sight to any beachgoer, but these powerful acts of nature play a big role in whether sea turtle nests thrive in their coastal surroundings.  Researchers from the Florida State University Department of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Science have found that powerful ocean waves pose a significant threat to sea turtle nests, with wave exposure potentially affecting egg incubation and hatchling productivity.

• share
• favorite_border

New research from Florida State University and Rice University is providing a better estimate of the amount of carbon in the Earth’s outer core, and the work suggests the core could be the planet’s largest reservoir of that element.

• share
• favorite_border

A Florida State University researcher is leading a $4.4 million Department of Energy project to help create software that can take advantage of supercomputer capabilities and advance quantum information science. 

• share
• favorite_border

Getting a full understanding of how genes are regulated is a major goal of scientists worldwide. Now, a Florida State University professor and his research partners have developed a technique that can map out nearly all of the likely regulatory switches across a genome.

• share
• favorite_border

By: Bill Wellock | Published: August 10, 2021 | 1:00 pm | SHARE: In 1941, the United States and the United Kingdom were already preparing for the aftermath of World War II.In August of that year, U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill met in Canada for a series of discussions. Those talks became the basis of the Atlantic Charter, a statement from the two nations issued on Aug.

• share
• favorite_border

By: Nathan Archer | Published: August 5, 2021 | 10:50 am | SHARE: As children across the country prepare to go back to the classroom — some for the first time since the COVID-19 global pandemic began — the Florida Center for Reading Research (FCRR) at Florida State University has launched a resource section specifically for families navigating those crucial early years of learning.

• share
• favorite_border

Florida State University researchers have found that the extinction at the end of the Permian period coincided with a sudden spike and subsequent drop in the ocean’s oxygen content. Their findings were published in Nature Geoscience.

• share
• favorite_border

When La Niña brings unusually warm waters and abnormal air pressure to the Pacific Ocean, the resulting weather patterns create an increase in the carbon export from the Amazon River, new research from Florida State University has found.

• share
• favorite_border

Over the past 100 years, plastics and polymers have changed the way the world operates, from airplanes and automobiles to computers and cell phones — nearly all of which are composed of fossil fuel-based compounds. A Florida State University research team’s discovery of a new plastic derived from pine sap has the potential to be a gamechanger for new sustainable materials.

• share
• favorite_border

Florida State University researchers are helping to write the “cookbook” describing the properties of vitrimers, a promising material that combines the benefits of different types of polymers.

• share
• favorite_border

By: Kathleen Haughney | Published: July 12, 2021 | 3:40 pm | SHARE: After a year’s delay due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Tokyo Olympics will commence at the end of July to much fanfare, but with no actual fans in the stands.  The games begin July 23 and run through Aug. 8.  Florida State University researchers are available to assist reporters who are covering the Summer Olympics.

• share
• favorite_border

Almost all of the nitrogen that fertilizes life in the open ocean of the Gulf of Mexico is carried into the gulf from shallower coastal areas, researchers from Florida State University found.

• share
• favorite_border

University of Alaska Fairbanks and Florida State University scientists have found that nearly all types of Arctic dinosaurs, from small bird-like animals to giant tyrannosaurs, reproduced in the region and likely remained there year-round. The findings counter previous hypotheses that the animals migrated to lower latitudes for the winter and laid their eggs in those warmer regions. It’s also compelling evidence that they were warm-blooded.

• share
• favorite_border

Peatlands, which make up 3 percent of Earth’s total land area, are known by a number of names — moors, mires, bogs, swamps and portions of permafrost tundra. They also store a significant amount of the Earth’s carbon. A research team from Florida State University and Georgia Institute of Technology are paying close attention to these complicated systems because they’ve found that the warming Earth is stimulating complex ecosystem changes with the end result of even more greenhouse gases being released into the air.

• share
• favorite_border

By: Mark Blackwell Thomas | Published: June 11, 2021 | 2:29 pm | SHARE: In the past year, high-profile incidents of police brutality, protests and mass marches have broadened the national dialogue on race and raised the profile of Juneteenth, a holiday which commemorates the end of slavery in the United States. Union troops arrived in Galveston, Texas, on June 19, 1865, to announce that the Civil War had ended, and all enslaved people were to be freed.

• share
• favorite_border

By: Kathleen Haughney | Published: June 10, 2021 | 1:06 pm | SHARE: Recent moves by the Biden administration to prohibit health care discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity were widely applauded by civil rights groups. But health officials are still fighting a battle when it comes to making sure all LGBTQ individuals receive adequate health care.

• share
• favorite_border

By: Bill Wellock | Published: June 7, 2021 | 2:14 pm | SHARE: Sea turtles have existed on Earth for more than 100 million years.But today, most species of these oceangoing reptiles are threatened or endangered. Scientists and resource managers are working to better understand and manage their populations, and they’re using work like that led by Mariana Fuentes, an associate professor in the Department of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Science at Florida State University.

• share
• favorite_border

By: Bill Wellock | Published: June 2, 2021 | 1:16 pm | SHARE: Rollout of the COVID-19 vaccine is continuing, but some people are hesitant to get vaccinated against the disease.Dr. Christie Alexander, an associate professor in the Department of Family Medicine and Rural Health in the Florida State University College of Medicine and a past president of the Florida Academy of Family Physicians, recently participated in an expert panel about how to win over vaccine skeptics.

• share
• favorite_border

New research from Florida State University shows that concentrations of the toxic element mercury in rivers and fjords connected to the Greenland Ice Sheet are comparable to rivers in industrial China, an unexpected finding that is raising questions about the effects of glacial melting in an area that is a major exporter of seafood. 

• share
• favorite_border

By: Anna Prentiss | Published: April 23, 2021 | 12:56 pm | SHARE: With a 94-1 vote, the U.S. Senate passed the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act Thursday, a bill that would expedite the Justice Department’s review of hate crimes related to COVID-19 and designate an official at the department to oversee the effort, as well as issue new guidance to state and local law enforcement for online reporting.

• share
• favorite_border

Florida State University researchers have more insight into salps — a strange sea creature found in oceans around the world — and what their presence means for the health of a marine ecosystem.

• share
• favorite_border

That neutron star is the densest celestial body that astronomers can observe, with a mass about 1.4 times the size of the sun. However, there is still little known about these impressive objects. Now, a Florida State University researcher has published a piece in Physical Review Letters arguing that new measurements related to the neutron skin of a lead nucleus may require scientists to rethink theories regarding the overall size of neutron stars. In short, neutron stars may be larger than scientists previously predicted.

• share
• favorite_border

By: Bill Wellock | Published: May 7, 2021 | 11:55 am | SHARE: President Joe Biden has expressed his support for a World Trade Organization proposal to waive intellectual property rights for COVID-19 vaccines.Florida State University law professor Frederick Abbott, the Edward Ball Eminent Scholar Professor of International Law, is available to comment on international intellectual property rights and global economic issues around the proposal.

• share
• favorite_border

Each year, many shark species migrate hundreds of miles, traversing ocean waters to return to the same spot year after year. Now, Florida State University researchers have found that sharks likely use the Earth’s magnetic fields to help guide them on these long-distance journeys.

• share
• favorite_border

By: Mark Blackwell Thomas | Published: April 30, 2021 | 2:13 pm | SHARE: Heavy workloads and high employee turnover are simply part of business for most auditing firms — but successfully managing these dynamics is key to maintaining quality audits, a Florida State University researcher has found. Nate Newton, assistant professor of accounting in the College of Business, studied one of the top global accounting firms, investigating two key elements of audit teams: workloads and staffing continuity.

• share
• favorite_border

By: Kathleen Haughney | Published: April 29, 2021 | 10:30 am | SHARE: All eyes are on Louisville, Kentucky, this weekend for the annual Run for the Roses. The 147th Kentucky Derby will take place Saturday, May 1, at the famed Churchill Downs with 20 horses competing for the first leg of the Triple Crown.Kendrick Carmouche will be riding the horse Bourbonic.

• share
• favorite_border

In an effort to fight the millions of tons of marine litter floating in the ocean, Florida State University researchers have developed a new virtual tool to track this debris. Their work, which was published in Frontiers in Marine Science, will help provide answers to help monitor and deal with the problem of marine litter.

• share
• favorite_border

A Florida State University researcher will lead a study into how bacteria can be used to remove carcinogens from groundwater thanks to a $1.4 million grant from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences.

• share
• favorite_border

By: Bill Wellock | Published: April 20, 2021 | 3:15 pm | SHARE: Florida State University faculty are among the world leaders in the study of hurricanes.From forecasting to insurance to ecological aftermath, FSU experts are available to discuss the many ways these storms impact people, property and the environment.These faculty members are available to answer media questions and provide perspective for news stories throughout the 2021 hurricane season, which runs from June 1 through Nov.

• share
• favorite_border

By: Bill Wellock | Published: April 20, 2021 | 5:23 pm | SHARE: Florida State University has experts available to offer context on topics related to the Derek Chauvin trial and verdict.POLICING AND POLICE REFORMEmma E. Fridel, assistant professor, College of Criminology and Criminal Justice (201) 452-0384; [email protected] researches violence and aggression with a focus on homicide, including school violence, homicide-suicide, serial and mass murder and fatal officer-citizen encounters.

• share
• favorite_border

Pollution from miniscule pieces of plastic, or microplastics, have been a growing concern for scientists, public health advocates and environmentalists as these nondegradable items have increasingly made their way into waterways and even the air we breathe. Now, scientists are showing that they might be altering cellular function.

• share
• favorite_border

Florida State University researchers have discovered a novel way to improve the performance of electrical wires used as high-temperature superconductors (HTS). Researchers used high-resolution scanning electron microscopy to understand how processing methods influence grains in bismuth-based superconducting wires (known as Bi-2212).

• share
• favorite_border

New research from the Florida State University College of Medicine has found that the personality trait neuroticism is consistently associated with a higher risk of developing the brain disorder Parkinson’s disease. The research by Professor of Geriatrics Antonio Terracciano and team, published in Movement Disorders, found that adults in the study who scored in the top quartile of neuroticism had more than 80% greater risk of Parkinson’s, compared to those who scored lower on neuroticism.

• share
• favorite_border

• share
• favorite_border

In a new study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Florida State University researchers managed to visualize the vortex tubes in a quantum fluid, findings that could help researchers better understand turbulence in quantum fluids and beyond.

• share
• favorite_border

By: Bill Wellock | Published: March 31, 2021 | 1:55 pm | SHARE: The Autism Society of America celebrates April as Autism Acceptance Month as part of the organization’s efforts to build a better awareness of the signs, symptoms and realities of autism.Autism, or autism spectrum disorder (ASD), refers to a broad range of conditions characterized by challenges with social skills, repetitive behaviors, speech and nonverbal communication.

• share
• favorite_border

By: Kathleen Haughney | Published: March 26, 2021 | 10:41 am | SHARE: A controversial measure in Georgia signed into law by Gov. Brian Kemp would put in place requirements that critics say curtail access to the ballot box.Florida State University Associate Professor of Law Michael Morley is available to provide commentary to reporters covering this story.

• share
• favorite_border

By: Kathleen Haughney | Published: March 23, 2021 | 1:13 pm | SHARE: As the nation grapples with the second mass shooting in a month, criminologists are examining the patterns behind these horrific events.Florida State University Associate Professor of Criminology Jill Turanovic is available to speak to reporters about the deadly shooting in Boulder, Colorado, and the issue of mass shootings.

• share
• favorite_border

By: Kelsey Klopfenstein | Published: March 22, 2021 | 3:26 pm | SHARE: English writer Adeline Virginia Woolf is considered to be one of the most important modernist 20th-century authors and a pioneer in the use of stream of consciousness as a narrative device. She published more than 45 works, including various novels, essays and short stories.

• share
• favorite_border

By: Mark Blackwell Thomas | Published: March 17, 2021 | 3:09 pm | SHARE: It’s been seven years since the city of Flint, Michigan responded to a budget shortfall by switching its water source from Detroit, which draws from Lake Huron, to the Flint River. That move set off a years-long health crisis that has devastated lives and led to the indictment of the state’s former governor and eight other public officials.

• share
• favorite_border

Certain brightly colored coral species dotting the seafloor may appear indistinguishable to many divers and snorkelers, but Florida State University researchers have found that these genetically diverse marine invertebrates vary in their response to ocean warming, a finding that has implications for the long-term health of coral reefs.

• share
• favorite_border

A Florida State University professor’s research could help quantum computing fulfill its promise as a powerful computational tool. William Oates, the Cummins Inc. Professor in Mechanical Engineering and chair of the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering, and postdoctoral researcher Guanglei Xu found a way to automatically infer parameters used in an important quantum Boltzmann machine algorithm for machine learning applications.

• share
• favorite_border

When news started circulating early last year about a virus in China that was spreading like wildfire, faculty researchers found themselves evaluating their projects and wondering how they could contribute their skills and knowledge to this global problem.

• share
• favorite_border

• share
• favorite_border

• share
• favorite_border

A team of international researchers led by a Florida State University assistant professor has analyzed reams of data from the Neolithic to Late Roman period looking at migration patterns across the Mediterranean and found that despite evidence of cultural connections, there’s little evidence of massive migration across the region.

• share
• favorite_border

A Florida State University research team has developed a way to use a material found in plants to help create safer batteries. Using the organic polymer lignin — a compound in the cell walls of plants that makes them rigid — the team was able to create battery electrolytes.

• share
• favorite_border

As many areas of the country grapple with extreme winter weather, scientists are  examining the root causes of these conditions.  Florida State University experts are available to provide context for these news stories.  Brad Johnson, Department of Geography, College of Social Sciences and Public Policy Bdjohnson@fsu.

• share
• favorite_border

Stephen Chelko, an assistant professor of biomedical sciences at the Florida State University College of Medicine, has developed a better understanding of the pathological characteristics behind arrhythmogenic cardiomyopathy, as well as promising avenues for prevention.