Science & Technology

Florida State University already has an excellent reputation for its various efforts to design, prepare and characterize new materials for research and commercial uses. Now that reputation is about to be burnished even further as scientists at the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory ramp up a program for forming exotic crystals that possess unique properties. […]

A study co-authored by a Florida State University scientist and published in the Sept. 7 issue of the journal Nature has found that as the permafrost melts in North Siberia due to climate change, carbon sequestered and buried there since the Pleistocene era is bubbling up to the surface of Siberian thaw lakes and into […]

In a landmark study, biologists at Florida State University have uncovered a specific genetic and molecular mechanism that causes cell polarity—the asymmetric shape or composition critical to a cell’s proper functioning. Their findings in fruit fly eggs may help to clarify how muscular dystrophy and some cancers develop in humans. That’s because many of the […]

A microscopy technique pioneered with the help of Florida State University’s National High Magnetic Field Laboratory has led to the development of a new light microscope capable of looking at proteins on a molecular level. The new light microscope is so powerful it allows scientists to peer deep inside cells to see the fundamental organization […]

When a hurricane strikes, authorities are increasingly turning to satellite images and computer-based maps to tell them everything from where the most vulnerable people live to where the closest supply of food, water and ice is located. While these maps can be beneficial in planning response and recovery, their imprecise nature can result in people […]

David Zierden, climate scientist at Florida State University’s Center For Ocean Atmospheric Prediction Studies (COAPS), has been named state climatologist of Florida. Zierden, who has served as assistant state climatologist since 1999, succeeds Robert O. Lawton Professor of Meteorology and Oceanography James J. O’Brien. O’Brien is now the climatologist emeritus. The state climatologist is a […]

Florida State University and the Scripps Research Institute are taking steps to streamline scientific collaborations between the two organizations as they work together on biomedical research that could lead to treatments for a variety of diseases. A joint cooperation agreement signed recently by officials from FSU and Scripps Florida will encourage and support research collaborations […]

Florida State University has named renowned fish biologist Robert Warner as its William R. and Lenore Mote Eminent Scholar in Fisheries Ecology and Enhancement for 2006-07. Warner, a marine biology professor at the University of California-Santa Barbara, becomes the sixth consecutive visiting professor to serve as FSU’s Mote Eminent Scholar. His one-year appointment will begin […]

Florida State University does not have a crystal ball, but it is developing a new tool that could possibly see the strength of future hurricane seasons. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has awarded the FSU Center for Ocean-Atmospheric Prediction Studies (COAPS) a $6.2 million, five-year grant to support the development of a model […]

Digging on a remote hilltop in Italy, a Florida State University classics professor and her students have unearthed artifacts that dramatically reshape our knowledge of the religious practices of an ancient people, the Etruscans. "We are excavating a monumental Etruscan building evidently dating to the final years of Etruscan civilization," said Nancy Thomson de Grummond, […]

The first images of a live specimen of a small, furry animal once believed to have gone extinct more than 11 million years ago have been captured during a Southeast Asian expedition led by a retired Florida State University researcher. The remarkable video and photos shot by David Redfield, a professor emeritus of FSU’s science […]

The number is staggering: Approximately 2 billion of the world’s people—nearly one-third of the human population—have no access to electricity. Consequently, they do without many of the amenities that people in the developed world take for granted—everything from air conditioning and refrigeration to television, indoor lighting, and pumps that supply drinking water. And without electricity […]