Scientists recovered a 5,500-year-old genome of Treponema pallidum, the bacterium behind syphilis and related diseases, from human remains in Colombia. The findings, published in Science, expand what we know about this pathogen's history in human populations. 🧪🌎 www.smu.edu/news/researc...

Quan Xie, a digital advertising researcher at SMU, collaborated with an international team to develop two frameworks that use digital marketing strategies to help academics expand their reach beyond scholarly circles and amplify their works' societal impact. www.smu.edu/news/researc...

With a $5 million grant from the NSF, SMU is leading an initiative to enhance how science and engineering are taught in Texas elementary and middle schools. 🧪 www.smu.edu/news/researc...

When COVID shut labs, SMU doctoral student Juliana Antonio pivoted to computer modeling—reshaping her career. Her latest research in Pure and Applied Chemistry's quantum science issue shows how fine-tuning proteins could lead to more efficient treatment development. 🧪 www.smu.edu/news/researc...

Why do we love being scared? Dean Bryan Stone (Perkins School of Theology) and film professor Rick Worland (Meadows School of the Arts) unpack our fascination with horror films at SMU's G. William Jones Film & Video Collection. Happy #Halloween! 😱🎃

SMU computer scientists have discovered that even with cameras turned off and virtual backgrounds in use, attackers can actively and covertly probe a user’s physical location by exploiting the two-way audio channels of video conferencing apps. www.smu.edu/news/researc... 💻👀

Smithsonian's "Sea Monsters Unearthed" is going on a road trip. A collaboration between Angolan, American, Portuguese and Dutch paleontologists excavated and studied the fossils, which were then prepared for the exhibition by a team of SMU scientists and students.🦕🦖🧪 www.smu.edu/news/researc...

Mitch Thornton, Executive Director of the Darwin Deason Institute for Cybersecurity, has been awarded $2.7 to lead research in autonomous systems testing, establishing SMU as a leader against emerging cybersecurity threats in a rapidly evolving digital landscape. 💻👨‍💻👩‍💻 www.smu.edu/news/researc...

"I truly believe that it's only when head and heart work in harmony that we can achieve our true human potential." ~Jane Goodall

Toxic wastewater from dormant West Texas oil wells has alarmed residents. A @bloomberg.com investigation found that the reasons for the leaks may jeopardize fossil fuel development across the Permian basin. Heather DeShon , professor of geophysics at SMU, was one of the experts interviewed. 🧪🌎

Jacobs is emeritus professor in the Roy M. Huffington Department of Earth Sciences at SMU. He studies the fossils of animals with backbones to understand their evolution & how it fits together with the Earth & the environment, presenting a holistic picture of our world. 🦕🦖 🌍🧪@pbtscience.bsky.social

Asking people to imagine future regret could be a tool for increasing flu vaccination rates, according to new research from SMU. The research suggests the technique could apply to other preventive health behaviors involving single decisions, such as cancer screenings. 🧪🩺 www.smu.edu/news/researc...

The roar of a T. rex, made iconic by Jurassic Park, has become the soundtrack of prehistory. In reality, no one — not even paleontologists — can say for certain what dinosaurs sounded like, though there have been plenty of guesses.

SMU PhD student Jake Klinkert is testing LLMs to create non-playable characters that act and respond more like real people. Klinkert and colleagues found GPT-4 achieved 73.98% accuracy in maintaining consistent personality traits. www.smu.edu/news/researc...

If wine adjectives feel like riddles, you’re not alone. It's why SMU researchers turned to a technique called sentiment analysis — using AI to bring clarity to the tasting-note chaos for everyday wine drinkers.

Research shows small, frequent #fires by Western Apache mobile hunter-gatherer groups controlled landscape-scale fire activity and and increased resiliency in their homelands. The study, published in @pnas.org by Southern Methodist University: cires.colorado.edu/spotlights/i...

In a breakthrough that could significantly improve medical imaging techniques used to detect cancer and monitor treatments, SMU researchers have solved a decades-long puzzle about why certain light-producing molecules glow brighter in thicker solutions. 🧪⚕️ www.smu.edu/news/researc...

With fossils and seismic images, a team led by SMU paleontology researchers has chronicled the history of Louisiana in the interval leading up to, during and soon after the dinosaur-killing asteroid hit Earth roughly 66 million years ago.🧪🦖🌎 www.smu.edu/news/researc...

A new study led by SMU fire scientist Christopher Roos reveals that Western Apache communities had far greater control over fire patterns across Arizona than scientists previously believed possible. 🧪🌎 www.smu.edu/news/researc...

SMU researchers explore "sandbox" solutions to Affordable Housing Crisis https://www.cbsnews.com/texas/news/smu-compressed-earth-bricks-affordable-housing-texas/

Dinosaurs were singers. That revelation struck SMU faculty member Courtney Brown during a cross-country road trip, inspiring her to spend over a decade recreating the voices of creatures that went silent millions of years ago. 🧪🦕🎶 www.smu.edu/news/researc...

Recent research reveals how AI is revolutionizing the centuries-old practice of wine evaluation, with implications for the industry and consumers alike. SMU researcher Jing Cao has been conducting research in wine economics since the early 2010s. www.smu.edu/news/researc...

An SMU-led research team has developed a more cost-effective, energy-efficient material called high-entropy oxide (HEO) nanoribbons that can resist heat, corrosion and other harsh conditions better than current materials. www.smu.edu/news/researc...

Our graduating @SMU Master's students will exhibit their Thesis work in game development on May 9th from 11am-2:30pm. Come visit us to see the inspiring work they have completed in game art, design, production, programming, applied technologies, and gamification. RSVP: conta.cc/4cIdQRD

DNA from ancient and present-day members of Picuris Pueblo confirm oral histories linking the tribe to the famed Chaco Canyon centre. https://go.nature.com/42ZHm0P

Picuris tribal leadership reached out to SMU researchers Michael Adler and David Meltzer to initiate conversations with geneticist Eske Willerslev at Globe Institute at the University of Copenhagen and Department of Genetics at University of Cambridge. 🧪

A recent study by SMU researchers reveals that glaciers don't necessarily erode mountains faster now than in the past. Instead, glacial erosion occurs in episodic bursts followed by periods of minimal activity. 🧪⛰️❄️ www.smu.edu/news/researc...

Tony Award-winning set designer and SMU alumnus John Arnone has donated his archives to the university! 🎭 The collection spans 40+ years of groundbreaking designs, sketches, and papers and is a treasure trove of theatrical innovation for researchers and artists. www.smu.edu/news/latest/...

SMU and George Washington University have created a magnetic tweezer system that could one day make it possible for doctors to do remote, non-invasive, highly precise medical procedures on their patients using a microrobot. www.smu.edu/news/researc... 🧪🤖⚕️

SMU nanotechnology expert MinJun Kim is working with Applied Research Associates, Inc. to create tiny robots that could offer a less invasive way to treat vitreous hemorrhage. 🧪 🤖⚕️ www.smu.edu/news/researc...

SMU professor Leanne Ketterlin-Geller was awarded a $14 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education to nationally scale a math intervention designed to help students improve their fraction skills. The five-year project will provide support to 4th and 5th graders. www.smu.edu/news/researc...

MinJun Kim, Robert C. Womack Endowed Chair Professor in Engineering at SMU, has been named a Senior Member of the National Academy of Inventors. He is internationally known for his contributions to the development of nano- and microbiotics. www.smu.edu/news/researc...

“I give full credit to our world-class faculty and students who push the envelope on groundbreaking research every day.” - Suku Nair, Vice Provost for Research and Chief Innovation Officer at SMU

Sudden unexpected death in epilepsy #SUDEP is the leading cause of epilepsy-related mortality. Although the underlying mechanisms have historically remained shrouded in mystery, new findings from the lab of SMU biology professor Edward Glasscock are beginning to provide valuable clues. 🧪 #epilepsy

A new $100,000 grant awarded to SMU engineering professors J.-C. Chiao and Ali Beskok will assist in their development of a fast, portable tool for point-of-care medical diagnoses. 🧪 www.smu.edu/news/researc...

It takes practice to manage children in a classroom. SMU has created a virtual space where student teachers learn with teen avatars (Ava, Dev, Ethan, Jasmine and Savannah) how to navigate tough conversations and turn controversy into meaningful learning moments.

SMU mechanical engineering graduate student has figured out a way to enhance the sensitivity of nanopores for early detection of diseases. 🧪

Reporters, looking for experts? SMU has a list of folks who can speak on MANY topics. 👩‍💻 High performance computing, AI, cybersecurity 🌎 Earthquakes, sinkholes, geothermal energy, wildfires 🧪 Nanobiotechnology, machine learning ⚕️Mental health, worldwide healthcare 🎮Gaming in research And more.

DFW Clean Ports Project: As a key center for national transportation and logistics, the DFW Metroplex’s intermodal terminals drive economic expansion, creating jobs and fostering business growth. However, heavy truck traffic in these areas poses air quality challenges for nearby communities.

SMU's Barbara Minsker and a multidisciplinary team of researchers received a National Science Foundation Planning Grant to revolutionize how weather warnings are issued in the U.S. and improve safety of communities. 🧪

SMU engineer and his research team have found a way to make lithium-sulfur batteries last longer, with higher energy, than existing renewable batteries. 🔋🚗🔌

A synthetic molecular switch lets you 'paint' with natural light. Chemists created an imprintable screen with liquid crystals—potentially paving the way for new lasers, display screens, and microscopic tags. 🧪

An international team of winter lake researchers provides a simple answer to a profound question in a new synthesis study published in the journal Science: “Yes, it matters that lakes are losing ice.” 🧪

SMU researchers are speeding up drug discovery through development of SmartCADD, an open-source virtual tool that accelerates the screening of chemical compounds. SmartCADD combines artificial intelligence, quantum mechanics and Computer Assisted Drug Design (CADD) techniques. #AcademicSky 🧪

New physics needed? Maybe. A surprising finding about how the universe we live in seems to have been formed is again raising that question. 🧪🔭

SMU researcher Alexander Chase looks at the ocean and sees the potential for medical breakthroughs. Chase and colleagues are collecting samples using SMIRC, which could be the first step in uncovering new compounds. 🧪

A team of researchers, led by #SMU paleontologist Louis L. Jacobs, has found matching sets of dinosaur footprints on what are now two different continents. The 120-million-year-old footprints were discovered in Brazil and Cameroon. 🧪 #academicsky #dinosaurs #naturalhistory

A new report in the journal Chem by researchers at #SMU and #Dartmouth outlines a technical breakthrough that could enable three-dimensional projections of medical scans. 🧪

A new study by #SMU seismologists reexamines earthquakes in the Permian Basin. There’s an important dividing line in the history of recent TX earthquakes – those before and after 2017, when the establishment of TexNet introduced the ability to monitor seismic events to much lower magnitude. 🧪

As our planet continues to experience record-breaking temperatures, we earthlings need to consider how extreme heat impacts our well-being. SMU experts are available to comment, here's a list of topics. www.smu.edu/news/experts... 🧪 #heat