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Hookah use is on the rise, especially among young adults, but few consumers are aware of its potentially lethal effects

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Rutgers and Stanford researchers develop new mathematical model to explain how smartphones act as “portable funhouse mirrors”

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When Lena Struwe was hiking in the Monteverde Cloud Forest Biological Reserve in Costa Rica three years ago, she spotted a yellowish harvestman, a spider-type animal, on a hiking trail rail and took a photo with her camera. It turned out her photo of the long-legged arachnid, Eucynorta conigera, was the first ever of that species and only the third sighting of it ever reported.

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Rutgers palliative care expert Judy Barberio gives patients and their families strategies on how to ease the transition to end-of-life care

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Scientists from Rutgers University–New Brunswick and elsewhere documented fewer than 10,000 red knot shorebirds in Chile in January, down from more than 13,000 a year earlier.

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Rutgers trains correction officers to better understand substance use disorder as a treatable disease

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Hurricanes spawn most of the largest storm surges in the northeastern U.S., right? Wrong, according to a study by Rutgers University–New Brunswick scientists. Extratropical cyclones , including nor’easters and other non-tropical storms, generate most of the large storm surges in the Northeast, according to the study in the Journal of Applied Meteorology and Climatology. They include a freak November 1950 storm and devastating nor’easters in March 1962 and December 1992.

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Engineers at Rutgers University–New Brunswick and Oregon State University are developing a new method of processing nanomaterials that could lead to faster and cheaper manufacturing of flexible thin film devices – from touch screens to window coatings, according to a new study. The “intense pulsed light sintering” method uses high-energy light over an area nearly 7,000 times larger than a laser to fuse nanomaterials in seconds.

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Rutgers engineers have invented a “4D printing” method for a smart gel that could lead to the development of “living” structures in human organs and tissues, soft robots and targeted drug delivery.

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Did you know that New Jersey can expect higher temperatures, heavier rains, rising sea levels and more frequent and severe coastal flooding this century? The New Jersey Climate Adaptation Alliance – facilitated by Rutgers University–New Brunswick – has launched a social media campaign to enhance public education and to guide people to a wealth of information on climate change resilience on its website.

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Rutgers scientists have found the “Legos of life” – four core chemical structures that can be stacked together to build the myriad proteins inside every organism – after smashing and dissecting nearly 10,000 proteins to understand their component parts. The four building blocks make energy available for humans and all other living organisms, according to a study published online today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

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Facing a climate crisis, we may someday spray sulfur dioxide into the upper atmosphere to form a cloud that cools the Earth, but suddenly stopping the spraying would have a severe global impact on animals and plants, according to the first study on the potential biological impacts of geoengineering, or climate intervention.

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About 13 million years ago, a distant ancestor of modern apes and humans suffered an untimely death on the arid landscape of northern Kenya. Last year, a Rutgers scientist helped bring its tiny skull to light, filling in a huge gap in the evolutionary record. And on Saturday, members of the public are invited to come face-to-skull with that ancestor, known as “Alesi,” at the Rutgers Geology Museum’s 50th annual Open House event. The museum stands on the College Avenue Campus of Rutgers University–New Brunswick. Admission is free.

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A campaign by Rutgers University and the Tara Hansen Foundation prompts New Jersey to designate January 23 of each year as Maternal Health Awareness Day

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If you own Bitcoin or want to invest in the mercurial digital currency, which soared to more than $19,000 before plunging in value, watch out, a Rutgers University–New Brunswick professor says. Security and privacy issues, not to mention the possibility of a Bitcoin market crash, should give you pause for concern, according to Janne Lindqvist, an assistant professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering in the School of Engineering.

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From the time of Hippocrates, physicians have suspected a link between epilepsy and depression. Now, for the first time, scientists at Rutgers University–New Brunswick and Columbia University have found evidence that seizures and mood disorders such as depression may share the same genetic cause in some people with epilepsy, which may lead to better screening and treatment to improve patients’ quality of life.

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Nearly three years after the Federal Communications Commission approved “open internet” rules aimed at ensuring fair access to the web, the FCC reversed the decision last month, saying it was “restoring internet freedom.” Rutgers Today asked Richard E. Howard, a research professor at the Wireless Information Network Laboratory (WINLAB) at Rutgers University–New Brunswick, to discuss net neutrality. Howard is former vice president for wireless research at Bell Labs.

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It may take until the 2060s to know how much the sea level will rise by the end of this century, according to a new Rutgers University–New Brunswick-led analysis. The study is the first to link global and local sea-level rise projections with simulations of two major mechanisms by which climate change can affect the vast Antarctic ice sheet.

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Using light-emitting nanoparticles, Rutgers University-New Brunswick scientists have invented a highly effective method to detect tiny tumors and track their spread, potentially leading to earlier cancer detection and more precise treatment. The technology, announced today, could improve patient cure rates and survival times.

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Rutgers University-New Brunswick Professor Mark Croft began giving physics demonstrations for students and outside groups 40 years ago, but the demos required lots of heavy lifting and he later stopped giving them. But stopping the shows made Croft feel guilty. So, 20 years ago, he asked Rutgers physics support specialist Dave Maiullo – star of Off-Broadway’s “That Physics Show” at The Elektra Theatre in New York City – to help him stage holiday physics shows for the public. Maiullo obliged, and an estimated 25,000-plus children and adults have since seen the annual Rutgers Faraday Holiday Children's Lecture and shows during Rutgers Day at Rutgers University-New Brunswick. Inspiration for the shows came from England’s Michael Faraday, a famous physicist and chemist who began presenting annual Christmas Lectures at the Royal Institution in London in 1825.

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There are out-of-the-way places. There are remote places. Then there are places like the Trans-Antarctic Mountains, where the nearest human being – possibly, the nearest living organism – is at least 150 miles away. That’s where Rutgers University-New Brunswick planetary geologist Juliane Gross will spend six to eight weeks, beginning in December. An associate professor of earth and planetary sciences in the School of Arts and Sciences, she will recover meteorites for the Case Western Reserve University's Antarctic Search for Meteorites (ANSMET) program, funded by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).

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If you’re sitting around the holiday table and one of your curmudgeonly uncles says something unintentionally bigoted, your inclination may be to ask for more mashed potatoes and get on with the feast. But Rutgers University-New Brunswick researchers say that might be a mistake.

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Slowly but steadily, an enormous mass of warm rock is rising beneath part of New England, although a major volcanic eruption isn’t likely for millions of years, a Rutgers University-led study suggests. The research is unprecedented in its scope and challenges textbook concepts of geology.

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More than 20 leaders at Rutgers University, including Rutgers University–New Brunswick Chancellor Deba Dutta, will join Governor-elect Philip D. Murphy’s Transition2018 committees to undertake policy analysis and recommendations on a host of state issues and new initiatives as the new gubernatorial administration prepares to take office.

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Four Rutgers University professors have been named fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), an honor bestowed by their peers for scientifically or socially distinguished efforts to advance human knowledge. The honorees, representing Rutgers University-New Brunswick and Rutgers Biomedical and Health Sciences (RBHS), will be presented with official certificates and gold and blue rosette pins – the colors representing science and engineering – at the Feb. 17 AAAS Annual Meeting in Austin, Texas.

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Inside cells, protein “motors” act like trucks on tiny cellular highways to deliver life-sustaining cargoes. Now a team led by Rutgers University–New Brunswick researchers has discovered how cells deploy enzymes to place traffic control and “roadway under construction” signs along cellular highways.

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The Climate Science Special Report, released last week by the U.S. Global Change Research Program, details the science behind global warming and its current and potential impacts on the American economy, communities, public health and infrastructure. One of the report’s lead authors is Robert E. Kopp, a professor in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Rutgers University–New Brunswick, director of Rutgers’ Institute of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences (EOAS) and co-director of Rutgers’ Coastal Climate Risk and Resilience Initiative.

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Want to restore hearing by injecting stem cells into the inner ear? Well, that can be a double-edged sword. Inner ear stem cells can be converted to auditory neurons that could reverse deafness, but the process can also make those cells divide too quickly, posing a cancer risk, according to a study led by Rutgers University–New Brunswick scientists.

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The director of peer support network Vets4Warriors discusses challenges veterans face after leaving service – and how the public can help