Boston University

Natural Sciences

Photo: Chuanfei Dong, a Southeast Asian man wearing glasses and a dark blue-gray collared shirt, smiles and poses next to a a wall hanging explaining the workings of a planet.

Accolades

BU Astronomer Wins Department of Energy Early Career Research Award

August 17, 2023

Photo: a woman walks with her dogs at Newcomb Hollow Beach in Wellfleet, Mass., where a boogie boarder was bitten by a shark in 2018 and later died of his injuries. Recent shark bites in Florida and Hawaii and a suspected case in New Jersey have peaked interest in the age-old summer question of whether it's safe to go in the water. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa, File)

Swimming

Sharks, Bacteria, No Lifeguards: Is This the End of Swimming in New England?

August 1, 2023

Photo: Ruslan Afasizhev (left), a tall whie man with a balding, shaved grey hair and wearing a light blue collared shirt and dark grey jeans, and Inna Afasizheva, a white woman with short grey-brown hair and wearing a black short-sleeved shirt and white jeans, pose in a brightly lit lab. Ruslan leans slightly back against a lab worktop while Inna poses with one hand one the same worktop behind Ruslan.

Molecular Biology

They Fell in Love with Each Other, Then with the Same Science

July 18, 2023

Photo: A group of people pose in font of a building with glass doors. Pictured (from left): Saylor Williams, Manpreet Singh (GRS’24), Gloria Waters, Rebecca Pearl-Martinez, Golden (CAMED’27); Angie Serrano, a BU medical school assistant professor of vascular biology; Dennis Carlberg, and Greg Miller.

Sustainability

How to Make Research Labs More Sustainable

June 20, 2023

Photo: Pedestrians pass the One World Trade Center, center, amidst a smokey haze from wildfires in Canada. Scene is tinted a sepia-orange as masked pedestrians walk in and around the city.

Wildfires

The Impact of Wildfires on Climate Change and Air Quality

June 8, 2023

Photo: Mature woman is feeling bad during the heat wave in city

Climate and Health

Human Health Is Suffering Because of Climate Change

May 31, 2023

Photo: A man in a suit stands in front of a podium with a washed out white background and sun shining in through nearby windows

Fighting Climate Misinformation

Tweets, Ads, and Lies: Researchers Are Fighting against Climate Misinformation

May 23, 2023

Photo: Isabel Novick, a white woman with wavy brown hair and wearing a cream long sleeved blouse smiles as she peers out from the other side of a clothes rack. She pushes aside a set of clothes and poses from in between them.

Ecology

Elevating the Clothes-Eating Moth from Pest to Evolutionary Marvel

May 3, 2023

Photo: Iceland’s Fagradalsfjall volcano erupts in the background as Peter Schroedl, a person wearing black clothes, a face mask, orange neon vest collects specimens from volcanic rocks in the foreground.

Microbes

What Microbes Can Tell Us about Life on Earth and in Space

April 24, 2023

Photo: An Ecologist in a yellow raincoat Taking a Water Sample in the Forest

Expert Take

Women, LGBTQ+ Biologists Are Twice as Likely to Face Hostile Behavior at Work

April 6, 2023

Photo: To the far left, Andrew Reid Bell, a white man wearing a green cap, looks on as a small group of dark-skinned Black women and men look to tablets on a multi-colored, checkered long table. They are in a small wooden dwelling with an open doorway and cross-patterned open windows letting light in.

Conservation

How Do We Make Farming Better for the Planet? Ask Women

March 16, 2023

Image: Concept illustration of Advanced Air Mobility, with its many vehicle concepts and potential uses in both local and intraregional applications. Mockup of multiple types of aircrafts are depicted flying over urban, suburban and rural areas.

NASA

Delivery Drones and Rotor-Powered Rideshares Sound Great—and Noisy

March 14, 2023

Photo: Zoomed in macro shot of brown ants on a green leaf in front of a bright white background.

Ants

BU’s “Ant Man” Studies Ant Brains

February 16, 2023

Photo: A birds-eye view of the destruction from the earthquake in Turkey. Mass rubble from a fallen structure is scattered everywhere.

Earthquakes

Why Were the Two Earthquakes That Struck Turkey and Syria So Catastrophic—and Could They Have Been Predicted?

February 9, 2023

Catherine Espaillat, Vivek Goyal, and Malika Jeffries-EL were all honored by the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Photos by Cydney Scott

Accolades

These BU Researchers Were Just Named AAAS Fellows

January 31, 2023

Photo: Close-up side-view shot of a cooking pot on a gas stove. Various kitchen appliances can also be seen on the counter in the background.

Gas stoves

Should You Replace Your Gas Stove?

January 26, 2023

Collage: (left) Ji-Xin Cheng poses against a blue background. An Asian man wearing a light blue checkered collared shirt smiles and poses with arms crossed. (right) Lei Tian stands and poses in his lab. An Asian man wearing glasses and a gray collared shirt smiles and poses with one arm resting on top of a microscope.

Accolades

Two BU Researchers Receive over $1 Million Each in Funding from the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative

January 24, 2023

Collage: (From left to right, top down) Photo: Bruce Willis at a speaking engagement wearing a blue collared shirt with a white undershirt, Photo of BU Medical student, Molly Jia Yong Zhao gives a flu shot to a patient during a clinic on September 29, 2020, vector illustration of a brain pixelating and dissolving from left to right, and Photo of Clinical Assistant Professor in Health Science, Hagere Yilma, posing for a photo. A Black woman with shoulder-length black hair styled in a twist-out hairstyle wearing a black, tunic-style blouse stands in front of a brick wall and smiles to the camera.

2022 in Review

Best of The Brink 2022: BU’s Most-Read Science and Research Stories

December 13, 2022

NSF CAREER Awards

BU’s 2022 NSF CAREER Award Winners Are Innovating Data Systems and Single-Molecule Circuits

December 13, 2022

Image: A Modern wire frame mesh design vector illustration of the year "2022". Numbers are depicted with glowing neon blue low polygonal digits on dark blue background. .

2022 in Review

Best of The Brink 2022: 10 Amazing Discoveries and Mind-Blowing Facts

December 12, 2022

Best of The Brink 2022: 10 Amazing Discoveries and Mind-Blowing Facts