News

Tulane study calls for alternatives to Bonnet Carré Spillway to improve river management

In response to an unprecedented four openings of the Bonnet Carré Spillway in the last five years and with the possibility of more climate-driven river floods, a new Tulane University study has demonstrated the efficacy of upper river diversions as a means to improve river management and reduce the volume of water flowing through the spillway.

Roll over, Aristotle, nature doesn’t always hate a vacuum

Aristotle coined the phrase “nature abhors a vacuum,” but a team of Tulane University researchers says their latest study proves there are exceptions to the rule.  

The phrase expresses the idea that unfilled spaces go against the laws of nature and physics and that every space needs to be filled with something.

Nature works in strange ways: SARS-CoV-2 is a natural virus wreaking havoc around the world with COVID-19

Thomas Sherry has spent his career studying how nature works.

A Tulane professor of ecology and evolutionary biology, he concentrates on birds, especially the diversity of species of tropical birds. He’s also Siegel Professor of Social Entrepreneurship at the Taylor Center for Social Innovation and Design Thinking and president-elect of the American Ornithological Society.

Diamonds aren’t forever

Diamonds, those precious, sparkling jewels, are known as the hardest materials on Earth. They are a high-pressure form of carbon and found deep in the ground.

While diamonds are commonly thought of as hard and stable, carbon from about 100 miles beneath the African plate is being brought to shallower levels where diamond will become unstable. Molten rock (magma) brings the excess carbon towards the surface, and earthquakes open cracks that allow the carbon to be released into the air as carbon dioxide.  

Mississippi Delta marshes in a state of irreversible collapse, Tulane study shows

Given the present-day rate of global sea-level rise, remaining marshes in the Mississippi Delta are likely to drown, according to a new Tulane University study.

A key finding of the study, published in Science Advances is that coastal marshes experience tipping points, where a small increase in the rate of sea-level rise leads to widespread submergence. 

Tulane bestows 2020 teaching awards on four faculty members

Four Tulane University faculty members received university-wide teaching awards at the end of the Spring 2020 semester — two Suzanne and Stephen Weiss Presidential Fellows Awards for Undergraduate Teaching, which recognize excellence in undergraduate teaching, student advising, and instructional improvement and development; and two President’s Awards for Excellence in Graduate and Professional Teaching, given to faculty members who have a sustained and compelling record of excellence in teaching and learning and an ongoing commitment to educational excellence.

Race for COVID-19 tests, treatments, vaccine subject of Tulane Innovation series

Tulane University will hold the second in a series of virtual Tulane Innovation webinars Monday, May 18, with a discussion of its leading role in the race for COVID-19 treatments, tests and a vaccine.

Moderated by Kimberly Foster, dean of the Tulane School of Science and Engineering, the second installment of the series will feature Robert Garry, professor of microbiology and immunology, and Skip Bohm, associate director and chief veterinary medical officer of the Tulane National Primate Research Center.

Tulane launches Tulane Innovation series with Walter Isaacson and leading experts

Tulane University will kick off the virtual Tulane Innovation series Monday, May 4, with a webinar on COVID-19’s health disparities and public impacts.

Tulane to use artificial intelligence to study how nation’s schools are responding to coronavirus

The U.S. Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences has awarded the National Center for Research on Education Access and Choice (REACH) at Tulane University a $100,000 contract to collect data from approximately 150,000 school websites across the country to see how the nation’s education system is responding to the coronavirus pandemic.

Go spy a kite: a good quarantine hobby, expert says

While everyone is still isolating, quarantining or keeping socially distant, there might be enough time to fit in a new hobby, one with a Tulane connection: raptor reporting.