What’s the science of what makes humans special? Neil deGrasse Tyson, Chuck Nice, and Gary O’Reilly explore how we evolved to be different from each other, what's up with Neanderthal DNA, and humanity's superpower with evolutionary anthropologist, Herman Pontzer. read more » about The Power of Adaptability with Herman Pontzer
When we think about ‘misinformation,’ we usually think about phony or misleading news stories. But what about people who take real new stories and use those to spread phony or misleading narratives? Aaron welcomes Duke political scientist Jon Green to discuss a new study he co-wrote, which finds that that’s a pervasive issue as well – and one that’s not easy to combat. read more » about On Air: Duke’s Jon Green on Using Real News Stories to Push False Narratives
We think of friendship as offering people we meet in the course of our lives our support without strings – not stemming from family ties, sexual attraction, personal gain or duty. Friendship works on an emotional level to enhance our lives in ways that cannot always be quantified. read more » about Duke Study Explored the Social Lives of 37 Female Chimpanzees to See if Sisterhood Exists in the Animal World – with Amazing Results
“Afterlives of the Plantation: Plotting Agrarian Futures in the Global Black South,” was released by Columbia University Press in May 2025. Jarvis McInnis, associate professor of English, is an interdisciplinary scholar of African American and African Diaspora literature and culture. His first book, “Afterlives of the Plantation: Plotting Agrarian Futures in the Global Black South,” was released by Columbia University Press in May. In it, McInnis rethinks the plantation in the late… read more » about Looking South for the Roots of the Harlem Renaissance: Jarvis McInnis Examines “Afterlives of the Plantation”
A newly released study from Duke University’s Pontzer Lab, housed in the Department of Evolutionary Anthropology in Trinity College of Arts & Sciences, looks at the correlations between economic development, daily energy expenditure and the rise in a country’s obesity level. While many experts have offered that rising obesity rates are due to declining physical activity as societies become more industrialized, the findings show that people in wealthier countries expend just as much — or even more — energy daily. In… read more » about New Duke Study Finds Obesity Rises with Caloric Intake, Not Couch Time
Each year, the Duke Dance program presents awards to undergraduate students in the arts. These awards highlight students with outstanding leadership, artistic and technical growth and potential, writing and research skills in the arts. Learn more about these exceptional students. The Julia Wray Memorial Dance Award 2025: Kayla LihardoThe Julia Wray Memorial Dance Award celebrates the memory of Prof. Julia Wray who for many years was the leader and passionate protagonist for dance at Duke and in North Carolina. The 2025… read more » about 2025 Undergraduate Dance Award Winners
Karin Shapiro, associate professor of the practice in African and African American Studies and History, is now an award-winning filmmaker. Her powerful documentary, A Road Out, just earned Best Historical Film at the Toronto International Women Film Festival. Uncovering a surprising connection between rural South Africa and the American South, the film traces how community health models that were developed during the 1940s and early 1950s helped lay the groundwork for public health efforts in the United States… read more » about Award-Winning Film Traces Global Roots of Southern Healthcare
Two Computer Science faculty are receiving inaugural Google Machine Learning and Systems Junior Faculty Awards.Assistant Professor Pardis Emami-Naeini and Assistant Professor Lisa Wu Wills will each receive an unrestricted gift of USD $100K to support their future research and will be invited to participate in a symposium with fellow awardees. They were selected in recognition of the significance and promise of their work in security & privacy and hardware acceleration, respectively. read more » about Computer Science Faculty Receive Google Machine Learning and Systems Awards
As mental health challenges surge on college campuses, a new study led by Duke University researchers finds that peer support programs—initiatives where students provide emotional support to fellow students—are rapidly expanding at colleges and universities across the country. The study, published in the Journal of American College Health, offers the most comprehensive look to date at the availability, structure, and quality of these programs. Researchers reviewed the websites of 776 institutional members of… read more » about Study Shows More Colleges Are Embracing Peer Support — Just Not in the Same Way
Obesity is uncommon among Hadza hunter-gatherers in Tanzania, Tsimane forager-farmers in Bolivia, Tuvan herder-farmers in Siberia and other people in less-developed nations. But it’s widespread among those of us in wealthy, highly industrialized nations. Why? A major study published this week in PNAS brings surprising clarity to that question. Using objective data about metabolic rates and energy expenditure among more than 4,000 men and women living in dozens of nations across a broad spectrum of socioeconomic… read more » about What Causes Obesity? A Major New Study from Duke Researchers Is Upending Common Wisdom
Pastoralist animal herders in northern Kenya endure some of the harshest conditions on the planet. But efforts to improve their health may be undermining their most successful survival strategies. read more » about Health Lessons From Animal Herders in Kenya
What can lemurs tell us about inflammation and aging, aka “inflammaging” in humans? That’s the question Elaine Guevara, a biological anthropologist who studies the evolution of life history and aging in primates, set out to understand.In newly published research on age-related inflammation in ring-tailed and sifaka lemurs, Guevara discovered that perhaps we should rethink the inevitability of inflammaging in humans.Although similar in many ways, ring-tailed and sifaka lemurs show differences in life pacing and lifespan,… read more » about Study Suggests Lemurs Age Differently Than Humans
What’s on summer reading lists for Duke professors? As the campus quiets down and the days stretch longer, faculty are diving into books that inspire, challenge and entertain. Whether it’s exploring new ideas, escaping into gripping stories or coming back to classics with fresh eyes, these picks reveal a lot about what’s sparking curiosity and conversation behind the scenes at Duke. From sharp literary fiction to provocative nonfiction, here’s a glimpse at what some of Duke faculty are reading this summer. Grab your… read more » about Dear Reader: Here’s What Duke Faculty Are Reading This Summer
RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C. (July 16, 2025) — A report released today by a coalition of North Carolina institutions outlines a plan to establish an agricultural technology (agtech) innovation corridor across 42 counties in North Carolina, with a vision of connecting the state’s technology, research and agricultural sectors in ways that broaden how farmers participate in and benefit from agtech innovation.The corridor would connect small farms to the state’s technology and… read more » about Experts Propose Plan to Establish 42-County AgTech Innovation Corridor in North Carolina
Mine Çetinkaya-Rundel, professor of the practice and the director of undergraduate studies in Statistical Science, has been appointed director of the First-Year Experience in Trinity College of Arts & Sciences.Çetinkaya-Rundel will play a pivotal role in overseeing the launch of the First-Year Experience, a signature component of the new Arts & Sciences curriculum being implemented in Fall 2025. All incoming first-year students will participate in the experience through either the longstanding FOCUS program or the… read more » about Mine Çetinkaya-Rundel Appointed Director of the First-Year Experience in Trinity College of Arts & Sciences
DURHAM, N.C. -- Any high school reunion is a sharp reminder that some people age more gracefully than others. Some enter their older years still physically spry and mentally sharp. Others start feeling frail or forgetful much earlier in life than expected.“The way we age as we get older is quite distinct from how many times we’ve traveled around the sun,” said Ahmad Hariri, professor of psychology and neuroscience at Duke University.Now, scientists at Duke, Harvard and the University of Otago in New Zealand have developed a… read more » about Scientists Can Tell How Fast You’re Aging From a Single Brain Scan
Edward Triplett is an assistant professor of the practice of Art, Art History & Visual Studies. (Photo courtesy of Triplett) When Edward Triplett first stood among the ruins of a Spanish medieval fortress, he wasn’t just looking at weathered stone. He was looking for a story.And he found one. Using tools such as drone photography and procedural 3D modeling to virtually reconstruct historic fortifications around Spain and Portugal, the assistant professor of the practice of Art, Art… read more » about Castles Crumbling: Using the Digital Humanities to Reimagine Medieval Iberia
Tyson Brown, a professor of sociology and associate professor in medicine, has been appointed director of the Samuel DuBois Cook Center on Social Equity at Duke University effective July 1, Provost Alec D. Gallimore announced.Brown succeeds the Cook Center’s founding director, William A. (“Sandy”) Darity Jr., the Samuel DuBois Cook Distinguished Professor of Public Policy and professor of African & African American studies and economics.Established in 2015, the Cook Center is a scholarly collaborative that studies the… read more » about Tyson Brown Named Director of Cook Center
In chimpanzee communities, strong social ties can be a matter of life and death not just for the adults who form them, but for their kids, too.A new federally-funded study of wild eastern chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii) from Gombe National Park shows that female chimpanzees who were more socially integrated with other females in the year before giving birth were more likely to raise surviving offspring.The findings, published online on June 18 in iScience, show that these survival… read more » about It Takes a Village: Chimpanzee Babies Do Better When Their Moms Have Social Connections
In 1947, the sweet crack of a bat connecting with a baseball was amplified in ballparks big and small when Jackie Robinson crossed major league baseball’s color line and the national pastime truly became America’s game. June 19 is the date of Juneteenth, an earlier milestone along the arduous journey toward freedom and equality in America.The holiday commemorates the arrival in 1865 of the Union Army in Galveston, Texas, to enforce the 1863 Emancipation Proclamation barring the odious institution of slavery in the… read more » about A Duke Professor’s Play on Jackie Robinson Is a Hit for Clayton’s Juneteenth Celebration
Duke University faculty member Jonathan Mattingly, the Kimberly J. Jenkins Distinguished University Professor of New Technologies in the Department of Mathematics, has been chosen to serve as interim director of the Rhodes Information Initiative at Duke (Rhodes iiD).Mattingly’s work centers on models of phenomena where randomness plays a significant role, such as air turbulence or Monte Carlo algorithms for Bayesian sampling. He has also worked on biological problems related to cellular metabolism, infectious diseases and… read more » about Jonathan Mattingly Named Interim Director of Rhodes Information Initiative at Duke
The richness of Duke’s intellectual communities and its deep commitment to interdisciplinarity are major draws for top scholars who are leaders in their fields. To help recruit these academic stars, Duke leveraged the university-wide institutes, initiatives and centers (UICs) to create the Provost’s School-UIC Joint Hiring Program and to offer starting support from UICs. Donors’ generous gifts helped make these programs possible.Duke was able to recruit more than 40 faculty members through these mechanisms between 2006 and… read more » about Nine Reasons Stellar Interdisciplinary Faculty Choose Duke
Duke’s football stadium scoreboard is accustomed to displaying impressive images. On June 23rd, however, it had the privilege of displaying images unlike any other before: the cosmos, as seen in the first photographs released by the NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory. From the identification of its ideal site on a Chilean mountaintop 8,684 feet above sea level to the fine-tuning of its software, thousands of researchers have played a role in ensuring that the Rubin Observatory’s extraordinarily ambitious goal — to… read more » about When a Picture Is Worth a Billion Worlds: Duke Cosmologists Celebrate the Rubin Observatory’s First Images
Tucked into an old brick building near the Eno River, which once housed a textile manufacturing business, is Quadridox — a company whose founders want to change the future of airline travel, while also making health care diagnostic testing more accurate. Quadridox uses X-rays, but not the way doctors detect broken bones. Those X-rays make pictures by passing straight through objects. Quadridox’s X-ray diffraction imaging, on the other hand, is used to analyze the structure of materials by observing how X-rays bounce… read more » about Hate Airline Security Lines? A New Technology May Ease Your Pain
A Los Alamos collaboration with Duke researchers has replicated an important but largely forgotten physics experiment: the first deuterium-tritium (DT) fusion observation. As described in Physical Review C, the reworking of the previously unheralded experiment confirmed the role of University of Michigan physicist Arthur Ruhlig, whose 1938 experiment and observation of deuterium-tritium fusion likely planted the seed for a physics process that informs national security work and nuclear energy research to… read more » about Duke Physicists Part of Team Recreating Forgotten Experiment Observing Fusion
Duke faculty members Denise Comer, Saskia Cornes, Shai Ginsburg, Candis Watts Smith and Norbert Wilson spent last year serving as fellows in the Atlantic Coast Conference Academic Leaders Network (ACC ALN).“Being part of the ACC ALN was incredibly energizing and inspiring,” said Comer, who is professor of the practice and director of the Thompson Writing Program. “It connected me with a thoughtful community of peers and gave me practical tools and fresh perspectives that continue to shape how I lead and collaborate.”… read more » about A Year of Faculty Leadership Development With the ACC
Duke faculty member Jean-Philippe Gibert is the Joanne W. Markman and A. Morris Williams Jr. Associate Professor of Biology and a Simons Foundation Early Career Fellow in Microbial Ecology and Evolution. He and his lab study how climate change affects living things and the way organisms depend on others to survive and reproduce.We caught up with Gibert to ask a few questions about his research. Below are excerpts from the conversation. read more » about Food Webs, Climate Change and One Equation to Rule Them All
Kerry L. Haynie, Trinity’s dean of Social Sciences and professor of Political Science and African & African American Studies, recently received the Mac Jewell Enduring Contribution Award from the American Political Science Association. Honoring scholarly contributions to U.S. state politics or policy that continue to shape the field more than a decade after publication, the award was presented to Haynie and co-author Kathleen Bratton of Louisiana State University for their influential 1999 Journal of… read more » about Enduring Impact: A Seat at the Table Still Matters
A multidisciplinary team across Duke University is developing a promising new approach to pain management using adenosine, a naturally occurring compound in the human body that can help regulate pain, inflammation and seizure activity. Seok-Yong Lee, PhD, George Barth Geller Distinguished Professor of Molecular Biology and professor of biochemistry; Ru-Rong Ji, PhD, William Maixner Professor of Anesthesiology; and Jiyong Hong, PhD, professor of chemistry, developed a non-opioid pain-relieving compound that inhibits… read more » about A New Painkiller Offers Alternative to Opioids