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BTUs Behaviors, Technologies, and Underlying Principles — should frame the energy debate A major restructuring of global energy markets is underway, challenging all to think about energy in new ways, yet the United States is at risk of being left behind because the nation lacks a comprehensive global energy security roadmap, warned the former chairman of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission in a speech to the Commonwealth Club of San Francisco on Tuesday. 

Since the idea of using DNA to create faster, smaller, and more powerful computers originated in 1994, scientists have been scrambling to develop successful ways to use genetic code for computation. Now, new research from a professor at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute suggests that if we want to carry out artificial computations, all we have to do is literally look around.

Researchers at Rensselaer discovered a new method to create “branched” nanorods, as seen in this scanning electron microscope image.

Growing evidence indicates that exposure to irregular patterns of light and darkness can cause the human circadian system to fall out of synchrony with the 24-hour solar day, negatively affecting human health — but scientists have been unable to effectively study the relationship between circadian disruptions and human maladies.

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute has received a gift of $1 million to establish the Paula and Jeffrey R. Gural ’64 Scholarship for undergraduate students in civil engineering. The endowment supports the $1.4 billion Renaissance at Rensselaer: The Campaign for Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

The normal nematodes in Fern Finger’s lab move in beautiful S-shaped curves across their Petri dish. In fact, it was these elegant movements that gave the tiny, clear worms the Latin name Caenorhabditis elegans. But the dish also contains worms with a very specific genetic defect, a mutant unc-85 gene, which are easily identified as the clumsiest dancers on the tiny dance floor.

Modeling, design, and controls expert B. Wayne Bequette, professor of chemical and biological engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, was recently elected a fellow of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE).

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute President Shirley Ann Jackson issued the following statement, regarding the announcement by New York State Senate Majority Leader Joseph L. Bruno of his plan to retire from the State Senate:

An internationally renowned economist with a 25-year history at one the country’s leading Federal Reserve Banks will join Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute as the new head of the department of economics.