Polyploidal cancer cells—cells that have more than two copies of each chromosome—are much larger than most other cancer cells, are resistant to chemotherapy and radiation treatments and are associated with disease relapse. A new study by Brown University researchers is the first to reveal key physical properties of these 'giant' cancer cells.

Researchers from Brown University and MIT have developed a method for helping robots plan for multi-step tasks by constructing abstract representations of the world around them. Their study, published in the Journal of Artificial Intelligence Research, is a step toward building robots that can think and act more like people. Planning is a monumentally difficult thing for robots, largely because of how they perceive and interact with the...

For a brain-computer interface (BCI) to be truly useful for a person with tetraplegia, it should be ready whenever it’s needed, with minimal expert intervention, including the very first time it’s used. In a new study in the Journal of Neural Engineering, researchers in the BrainGate* collaboration demonstrate new techniques that allowed three participants to achieve peak BCI performance within three minutes of engaging in an easy, on...

Even as autonomous robots get better at doing things on their own, there will still be plenty of circumstances where humans might need to step in and take control. Software developed by Brown University computer scientists enables users to control robots remotely using virtual reality, which helps users to become immersed in a robot's surroundings despite being miles away physically.

Finding out which neurons are connected with which others, and how they act together, is a huge challenge in neuroscience, and it’s crucial for understanding how brain circuits give rise to perception, motion, memory, and behaviour. A Brown University-developed technology called “trans-Tango" allows scientists to exploit the connections between pairs of neurons to make such discoveries in neuroscience.

Multiplexing, the ability to send multiple signals through a single channel, is a fundamental feature of any voice or data communication system. An international research team has demonstrated for the first time a method for multiplexing data carried on terahertz waves, high-frequency radiation that may enable the next generation of ultra-high bandwidth wireless networks.

Scientists report in a new study that by imitating a natural process of cells, they prevented the formation of protein clumps associated with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and frontotemporal dementia. In lab cultures of human and yeast cells, the scientists stopped the harmful clumping of FUS proteins by exposing them to phosphorylation, a process that makes precise changes to the amino acid building blocks of proteins, increasing thei...

Robotics researchers from Brown University have now developed an algorithm that lets robots ask for clarification when they're not sure what a person wants. The research, which will be presented this spring at the International Conference on Robotics and Automation in Singapore, comes from Brown's Humans to Robots Lab led by computer science professor Stefanie Tellex. Her work focuses on human-robot collaboration—making robots that can...

Researchers from Brown University have demonstrated an unusual method of putting the brakes on superconductivity, the ability of a material to conduct an electrical current with zero resistance. The research shows that weak magnetic fields—far weaker than those that normally interrupt superconductivity—can interact with defects in a material to create a "random gauge field," a kind of quantum obstacle course that generates r...

Polylactic acid, or PLA, is a biodegradable polymer commonly used to make a variety of products from disposable cups to medical implants to drug delivery systems. A team of Brown University researchers has shown that by treating PLA at various temperatures and pressures, they can induce a new polymer phase in the material - one that could possibly decrease the rate at which it degrades.

Software created by Brown University computer scientists could help website owners and developers easily determine what parts of a page are grabbing a user's eye. The software, called WebGazer.js, turns integrated computer webcams into eye-trackers that can infer where on a webpage a user is looking. The software can be added to any website with just a few lines of code and runs on the user's browser.

Researchers at Brown University developed a composite catalyst using nitrogen-rich graphene dotted with copper nanoparticles. A study, published in the journal Nano Energy, showed that the new catalyst can efficiently and selectively convert carbon dioxide to ethylene, one of the world's most important commodity chemicals. Ethylene is used to make plastics, construction materials and other products. Chemical companies produce it by the millions o...

Terahertz radiation is a relatively unexplored slice of the electromagnetic spectrum, but it holds the promise of countless new imaging applications as well as wireless communication networks with extremely high bandwidth. The problem is that there are few off-the-shelf components available for manipulating terahertz waves. Now, researchers from Brown University's School of Engineering have developed a new type of lens for focusing terahertz radi...

The Large Underground Xenon (LUX) dark matter experiment is the most sophisticated dark matter detector in the world, and now a new set of calibrations has dramatically improved its sensitivity. LUX is looking for weakly interactive massive particles (WIMPs), particles which have many times the mass of a proton but hardly interact with other matter.