The Planet Hunters

From Gáspár Bakos’ desk at Princeton, he can see everything that happens at his telescopes on three continents. He can see wild burros nuzzle at the cables in Chile, warthogs wander by in Namibia, and Continue Reading →

Italian Master Drawings: Exhibition goes beneath the surface

A new exhibition, 500 Years of Italian Master Drawings from the Princeton University Art Museum, on view from Jan. 25 through May 11, 2014, explores the mental process behind creation through nearly 100 rarely seen Continue Reading →

Globalization raises new ethical questions

As strangers become more accessible to us through global markets and new media, so too do questions of our obligations to them. For Eric Gregory, who examines religious and philosophical ethics, our ever-growing connectedness to Continue Reading →

Small RNAs fight cancer’s spread

Cancer patients may benefit from a dual strategy for tackling their disease in a class of molecules called microRNAs. Molecular biology graduate student Brian Ell has revealed that microRNAs — small bits of genetic material Continue Reading →

Fragile families, fragile children

Relationships are complicated in the best of times, but even more so for unmarried parents and their children. Children born to unmarried parents encounter considerable instability in their family life when their biological parents end Continue Reading →

Green roofs’ energy savings hinge on climate

Urban planners who want green roofs in their cities need to remember that the roofs may not work the same way in different climates. Green roofs, which are covered with a layer of a vegetation Continue Reading →

Secrets of the Southern Ocean

Marine geochemistry specialist Robert Key doesn’t consider himself particularly prone to depression. Yet emails to his wife from a research vessel on the freezing waters of the Southern Ocean depicted an emotional slump amid harsh Continue Reading →

Telescopes take the universe’s temperature

Two telescopes on a Chilean mountaintop are poised to tell us much about the universe in its infancy. They are surveying the faint temperature fluctuations left over from the explosive birth of the universe, with Continue Reading →

Manuscripts spark dialogue on authorship

Hundreds of early Chinese bamboo, silk and wood manuscripts excavated in the last 40 years are challenging the idea of the author as the sole creator of literary work. Not one of the manuscripts, which Continue Reading →

A. M. Homes wins Women’s Prize for Fiction

The 2013 Women’s Prize for Fiction was awarded to A.M. Homes, a lecturer in creative writing and the Lewis Center for the Arts, for her novel May We Be Forgiven. The £30,000 ($46,000) prize rewards Continue Reading →

Found in translation: Scholar locates source of 18th-century Quran

In a London archive, Alexander Bevilacqua found it: a medieval copy of the Muslim holy book, the Quran. Its aging pages, Bevilacqua knew, contained the original source for a highly influential 18th-century English translation of Continue Reading →

Collective behavior could help animals survive a changing environment

For social animals such as schooling fish, the loss of their numbers to human activity could eventually threaten entire populations, according to a finding that such animals rely heavily on grouping to effectively navigate their Continue Reading →

Inventions Bridge the Gap between lab and marketplace

The college experience often involves at least one road trip, but most students do not bring along their faculty adviser. But last spring, two graduate students crammed into a rented Chevy Impala with Professor Mark Continue Reading →

Annual Research Report

The Office of the Dean for Research supports Princeton’s role as one of the world’s leading research universities by uniting people, resources and opportunities for the creation, preservation and transmission of knowledge. The dean administers Continue Reading →

The rising cost of health care: Students examine policy solutions

With health care costs soaring, opinions abound on the best way to control costs without sacrificing patient outcomes. This past academic year, as part of their senior thesis research, several top students from the Department Continue Reading →

Afterlives of Confinement: Spatial transition in post-dictatorship Latin America by Susana Draper

During the age of dictatorships, Latin American prisons became a symbol for the vanquishing of political opponents, many of whom were never seen again. In the post dictatorship era of the 1990s, a number of Continue Reading →

After the Music Stopped: The financial crisis, the response, and the work ahead by Alan Blinder

Many fine books on the financial crisis were first drafts of history — books written to fill the need for immediate understanding. Alan Blinder, the Gordon S. Rentschler Memorial Professor of Economics and Public Affairs Continue Reading →

Activism Shapes Africa Scholar

Leonard Wantchekon’s education began  as a young child in his home village of Zagnanado, in the West African nation of Benin, where elementary school classes gave way to long soccer games and evenings of storytelling Continue Reading →

Race and incarceration rates: Student researcher explores solutions

African Americans made up 40 percent of incarcerated individuals in the United States in 2012, despite being only 13 percent of the American population, according to the United States Census Bureau. Danielle Pingue, Class of Continue Reading →

The social network: Program combats bullying

New laws and policies to address harassment and intimidation in schools are sprouting up in every state. But can laws and polices put a stop to bullying, or do students play a role? Psychologist Elizabeth Continue Reading →

Explain me something: How we learn what not to say

Explain me something. She considered to go. The asleep dog snored. We have learned to avoid using these phrases although it is difficult to say exactly why explain me is not allowed but tell me Continue Reading →

Far from random, evolution follows a predictable pattern

Evolution, often perceived as a series of random changes, might in fact be driven by a simple and repeated genetic solution to an environmental pressure, according to new research. “Is evolution predictable? To a surprising Continue Reading →

Site-specific shades offer sun protection

Children exposed to a lot of sunlight have a higher chance of developing skin cancer as adults, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. With this in mind, structural designer and assistant professor Continue Reading →

Princeton establishes strategic partnerships with three universities

Princeton has established strategic partnerships with the University of Tokyo, the University of São Paulo and Humboldt University in Berlin. The agreements expand upon the many institutional partnerships already in place including faculty fellowships, student Continue Reading →

Quantum computing moves forward

New technologies that exploit quantum behavior for computing and other applications are closer than ever to being realized due to recent advances. These advances could enable the creation of immensely powerful computers as well as Continue Reading →

Princeton role in federal BRAIN initiative

Princeton neuroscientists are poised to play a leading role in revolutionizing our understanding of the human brain as outlined in President Barack Obama’s BRAIN Initiative, announced in April 2013. David Tank, co-director of the Princeton Continue Reading →

Immigration policy is ripe for reform

Family unification provisions enacted in the 1960s have contributed to population aging in the United States, according to an analysis by Marta Tienda, an immigration and policy expert at Princeton’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public Continue Reading →

Big hair brings to life a 17th-century satire

Extravagant wigs and sumptuous costumes serve as metaphors that breathe life into the social satire of Der Bourgeois Bigwig, a new adaptation of a 17th-century comedy by Molière that pokes fun at both the pretentious Continue Reading →

First Princeton-Fung Global Forum held in Shanghai

Architects, engineers and other scholars gathered in February in Shanghai for the inaugural Princeton-Fung Global Forum to discuss population growth, social trends, climate change and other factors determining “The Future of the City.” A $10 Continue Reading →

Planck mission brings universe into sharp focus

Princeton researchers contributed extensively to the Planck space mission that earlier this year released the most accurate and detailed map ever made of the oldest light in the universe, revealing new information about its age, Continue Reading →