Rice University

One bright idea: Students choose energy-saving bulbs

How many Rice students does it take to change a lightbulb? Two: One to trash the inefficient incandescent bulb and one to provide a free, energy-saving bulb. That’s what is happening at one of Rice's residential colleges. Rice senior Jeremy Caves is convincing his peers to make the environmentally-friendly change.

Forcing a virus to evolve? It may not be science fiction

Could scientists develop a designer drug that forces a life-threatening epidemic into extinction? That idea has always been the stuff of science fiction. But that could be altered thanks to a study led by Rice’s Michael Deem. The mathematical analysis predicts exactly how evolution is affected by the exchange of entire genes and sets of genes — providing a potential blueprint for exterminating a killer virus.