Research Stories

Public health officials have to make daunting decisions about disease epidemics. Who should get limited supplies of vaccine? What is the cost of closing schools, businesses or transportation networks? Fortunately, a group of researchers working behind-the-scenes offers some answers. --by Diane Boudreau

Want to suggest places on Mars for ASU's THEMIS camera to photograph? Want to see the very latest infrared images being beamed back from the Red Planet? Now you can, through two new features of Google Earth 5.0. (image courtesy of NASA) --by Robert Burnham

Students who have ideas for improving health care technology now have a way to make them reality. --by Joe Kullman

"Smart" nanomaterials allow scientists to investigate biological interactions within the body's cells at the molecular level. This could lead to new diagnostic tools and customized therapy and prevention. (part 3 of 3) --by Joe Kullman

ASU professor Mark Robinson is sending his work to the moon this afternoon aboard the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter.

Phoenix in the summer is hot all around. But low-income neighborhoods are even hotter than wealthy enclaves. How can this be? --by Diane Boudreau

Engineers are looking to schools of fish and flocks of birds to help develop better machines. Robustness, scalability, and the ability to function without complex central control are desirable features of artificial systems, and they can be found all over the natural world. --by Margaret Coulombe

Were Europeans solely to blame for decimating the American Indian population, or did weather help? Why do cocaine harvests decrease during rainy seasons? A new book from an ASU climatologist offers answers to some of weather's greatest mysteries. --by Diane Boudreau

Scientists are taking high-speed motion pictures of photosynthetic reactions that happen in a millionth of a millionth of a second. Their results have revealed a surprising twist to photosynthesis. --by Joe Caspermeyer

The world can get fantastically bizarre when you wander mentally out to the edge of the theoretical dimensions of physics. In fact, thinking about the nanoscale universe is mind bending. (part 2 of 3) --by Joe Kullman