The Indiana Geological Survey, a research institute of Indiana University, is a member of a large, new U.S. Department of Energy project to assess the geothermal potential of most American states. The IGS, along with 40 other state geological surveys, have formed a coalition to populate a new National Geothermal Data System with relevant, state-specific geothermal data. Over the three-year life of the project, the Geothermal Data Consortium will receive $17.79 million from the DOE with the IGS receiving $300,000.

Not only does Vera Bradley make popular handbags, but it also fights against breast cancer. The Vera Bradley Foundation for Breast Cancer announced today (Nov. 12) that it is committing $10 million to breast cancer research at the Indiana University Melvin and Bren Simon Cancer Center.

Indiana University's Innovation Center, a new $10 million home to university researchers and private start-up companies, was formally dedicated today (Nov. 9) by IU President Michael A. McRobbie.

Indiana University's $10 million Innovation Center will be formally dedicated by IU President Michael McRobbie in a 10 a.m. ceremony on Monday (Nov. 9).

Evoking Indiana University's late president Myles Brand as one of the first to "clearly see the emerging importance of information technology for higher education," IU President Michael McRobbie today (Nov. 5) formally dedicated IU's new $32.7 million Data Center.

The Indiana University Innovation Center, a new $10 million home to university researchers and private start-up companies, will be formally dedicated Monday, Nov. 9, by IU President Michael A. McRobbie. The facility is a key component of the President's Innovate Indiana initiative.

Indiana University sociologist Stephen Benard is co-recipient of a new National Science Foundation award to study how dominant members of groups behave when a group is facing threats. The grant, which Benard shares with principal investigator Patrick Barclay of the University of Guelph, is part of a joint NSF/Department of Defense program supporting research that explores the social and behavioral dimensions of national security, conflict and cooperation.

The Indiana University Nanoscience Center is sponsoring a workshop on advanced battery technologies from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 13, in the IU Bloomington Chemistry Department. The workshop is an outgrowth of a major two-day Energy Conference held at IU Bloomington and Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis in August.

The Indiana University Data Center, a $32.7 million facility designed to ensure the safety and security of IU's most prized networking, computer processing and data storage equipment, will be formally dedicated on Thursday, Nov. 5, with a ceremony that will include remarks by IU President Michael McRobbie.

Contrary to what many observers think, findings from a national study released today (Oct. 26) show that gathering information about what undergraduates learn during their studies is commonplace in most U.S. colleges and universities. However, the results are not always used and reported in ways that could improve student accomplishment and inform the public about institutional performance.

Indiana University has received more than $1.8 million from the National Institutes of Health to collaborate on a $12.2 million, seven-university project designed to network researchers around the country.

If "surgical manipulation of body parts . . . resurrection of life . . . the ethical consequences of engaging powers we've yet to morally know how to use" reads like a lead-in for a Halloween movie marathon then the public can expect much more next week when biologist David Stocum presents on the seasonally-timed topic of "The Legacy of Frankenstein: Regenerative Biology and Medicine."

Indiana University dignitaries dedicated Multidisciplinary Science Building Phase II, the Bloomington campus's newest science building, in a special ceremony on Thursday. The dedication was part of October's month-long Celebrate IU initiative. IU President Michael A. McRobbie led a platform party that included members of the IU Board of Trustees, Provost Karen Hanson, College of Arts and Sciences Dean Bennett Bertenthal, School of Public and Environmental Affairs Dean John Graham, and Provost's Professor of Geological Sciences Lisa Pratt, who has also been chair of the MSB II Design and Oversight Committees. David Johnson, president and CEO of BioCrossroads, was the event's keynote speaker.

David Rollo, an Indiana University Bloomington biologist and Bloomington city council member, has been invited to Washington, D.C., to participate in a U.S. Department of Commerce forum on energy. The "Clean Energy Economy Forums" panel includes Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke, Secretary of Energy Steven Chu, and Under Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere Jane Lubchenco, among others. The two-hour forum begins at 12:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 22, in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, across the street from the White House.

A presentation on Saturday (Oct. 24) will examine how combining traditional arts and crafts such as embroidery with new technologies can spark creativity and learning for students. Leah Buechley, the "High-Low Tech Group" director at the Media Lab of Massachusetts Institute of Technology, will give a free program called "How will Technological Artifacts Impact Society?" from 10-11 a.m. in room 102 of the School of Fine Arts, 1201 E. Seventh St., in Bloomington.

What is beauty? Is it really only in the eye of the beholder? How do we decide what is beautiful, and what is not? The fall 2009 issue of Indiana University's award-winning Research & Creative Activity magazine reflects on the art and artifice of beauty, from makeover shows to music to what makes Cindy Crawford attractive.

An Indiana University associate professor in the Department of Speech and Hearing Sciences has received $467,071 from the National Science Foundation to further her research into the word retrieval processes of children.

An Indiana University School of Optometry researcher and the IU spinout company she formed to develop a new diagnostic camera have both received grants from federal agencies to advance work toward preventing vision loss in diabetes patients.

Indiana University's Karl MacDorman, director of the IUPUI Android Science Center, has been to the valley -- the uncanny valley of virtual humans so lifelike they give us real humans the creeps. What he's found is that things don't look so bad after all.

A record number of 43 freshmen Cox Research Scholars will begin their college careers at Indiana University Bloomington this fall. The 2009 freshman class joins 49 Cox Research Scholars already on campus who are in their sophomore, junior and senior years. The entering class includes 14 National Merit scholars.

The National Endowment for the Humanities' "We the People" project has awarded a group of Indiana University anthropologists $250,000 to transcribe, translate and publish the oral literature of the Assiniboine, a northern Plains Indian tribe with only about 50 living members still fluent in the tribal language of Nakota.

Research published by a team of Indiana University bioinformaticists has shown quantitatively the influence of small sequence changes and environmental conditions on the disordered regions of a protein.

An astronomer who came to Indiana University-Bloomington two years ago to study the formation and evolution of galaxies has received the National Science Foundation's most prestigious award for early career, tenure-track teachers and scholars.

Following a widely attended two-day conference, Indiana University researchers and research administrators are organizing to take advantage of extraordinary opportunities for energy research. More than 200 registrants gathered on Aug. 6-7, first at IU Bloomington and then at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, to consider the pressing challenges associated with energy acquisition and use.

What do flocks of birds have in common with trust, monogamy, and even the release of breast milk? According to a new report in the journal Science, they are regulated by virtually identical neurochemicals in the brain, known as oxytocin in mammals and mesotocin in birds. Perhaps most striking is the fact that none of the treatments affect males -- only females.