Latest Boston College Stories
Credit card users are likely to pay less toward their debt if their monthly bills display information about the minimum amount required, according to an international team of researchers including Boston College Carroll School of Management Accenture Professor of Marketing Kay Lemon and Assistant Professor Linda Salisbury. For many debt-laden consumers, including the minimum required payment information on their account statements can reduce the amount they pay each month by as much as 24%...
International team led by Boston College researchers uses new catalyst to synthesize two potent anti-cancer molecules Research carried out at Boston College, in collaboration with scientists at MIT and the University of Oxford, has led to the development of an efficient and highly selective catalyst for ring-closing olefin metathesis, one of the most widely used reactions in chemical synthesis, the team reports in this week's issue of the journal Nature. The team used the new catalyst,...
Tangled early-stage tube growth yields to orderly alignment of nanoscale structures Boston College researchers have discovered two early-stage phases of carbon nanotube growth during plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition, finding a disorderly tangle of tube growth that ultimately yields to orderly rows of the nanoscopic tubes, according to a report in the latest edition of the journal Nanotechnology. By using a thin layer of catalyst, Professor of Physics Zhifeng Ren and researcher...
Research conducted by Boston College neuroscientist Sean MacEvoy and colleague Russell Epstein of the University of Pennsylvania finds evidence of a new way of considering how the brain processes and recognizes a person’s surroundings, according to a paper published in the latest issue of Nature Neuroscience. For the study, MacEvoy and Epstein used functional magnetic resonance image (fMRI) to help them identify how the brain figures out where it is in the world (scene recognition)....
Efficient, economical molecule could speed evaluation of some anti-cancer treatments Researchers from Boston College have developed a new class of small molecule receptors capable of detecting a lipid molecule that reveals the telltale signs of cellular death, particularly cancer cells targeted by anti-cancer drugs, the team reports in the current electronic edition of the Journal of the American Chemical Society. Researchers led by Assistant Professor of Chemistry Jianmin Gao...
Hovering helicopter parents who restrict their kids’ unstructured play may actually harm, rather than help, children according to the latest issue of the American Journal of Play, a scholarly journal which has gathered a distinguished group of experts to probe the near-extinction of free play and its effects on children and society. “Remarkably, over the last 50 years, opportunities for children to play freely have declined continuously and dramatically in the United States and other...
Throughout the ages, fine art has been accorded a special significance and recognized as a powerful communication tool. Art has been used to sell everything from products to politics to religion. But art can be stripped of its special status if used carelessly by advertisers, according to a new study by researchers from Boston College and the University of Houston. If the artwork is viewed as a product-relevant illustration, then consumers no longer view it as art. Suddenly, they can...
Boston College researchers' designer material has potential applications for thermophotovoltaicsA designer metamaterial has shown it can engineer emitted "blackbody" radiation with an efficiency beyond the natural limits imposed by the material's temperature, a team of researchers led by Boston College physicist Willie Padilla report in the current edition of Physical Review Letters.A "blackbody" object represents a theorized ideal of performance for a material that...
According to a multidisciplinary team of researchers, American artist Jackson Pollock's paintings do not defy the laws of physics. The researchers from Boston College and Harvard believe Pollock was an intuitive master of laws that govern the flow of liquids under gravity. "In order to understand what is taking place with Pollock, it's essential to understand the laws of physics and the dynamics at play under the laws of gravity," Claude Cernuschi, a professor of art history at...
Carbon found within ancient rocks has played a crucial role developing a time line for the emergence of biological life on the planet billions of years ago. But applying cutting-edge technology to samples of ancient rocks from northern Canada has revealed the carbon-based minerals may be much younger than the rock they inhabit, a team of researchers report in the latest edition of the journal Nature Geoscience.The team "“ which includes researchers from Boston College, the Carnegie...
