Connecting Research and Experts with Journalists

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Dan Brabander wants to put the green in "“ and take the lead out of "“ urban gardens. As associate professor of geosciences at Wellesley College, his focus is on environmental geochemistry and public health. To that end, he has received funding from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and has formed a partnership with Boston's Food Project, a nonprofit organization that helps foster organic urban gardens. For the past five years, Brabander and his Wellesley College student researchers have been testing for lead contamination in urban backyard gardens in Boston neighborhoods.

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When the stock market and the housing market plummeted, many thought that decimated retirement accounts and lower home equity would force older workers to delay retirement. Instead, the economy may actually force many into retirement, say two Wellesley College economics professors.

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A new study by Wellesley College neuroscientists is the first to directly compare brain responses to faces and objects with responses to colors. The paper reveals new information about how the brain’s inferior temporal (IT) cortex processes information.

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The U.S. teen birth rate fell rapidly between 2008 and 2012. The Great Recession played the biggest role in the decline, explaining more than half of the drop, but a new study shows that that the timing of the introduction of MTV’s 16 and Pregnant also had a significant impact on the staggering drop in teen birth rates.

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Wellesley scientists find that the teeth of the nerpa seal may hold the strongest evidence of the effects of decades of environmental pollution, nuclear testing, and climate change on Russia's Lake Baikal.

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A new study demonstrates that the immune system can produce cells with stem cell properties. The study was conducted on crayfish, but the mechanism proposed may also be applicable in evolutionarily higher organisms, perhaps even humans.

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A new study out of Wellesley College sheds light on the role of beliefs about the value of diversity in fostering attitudinally diverse friendships. Led by professor and social psychologist Angela Bahns, the study demonstrates that people who place a higher value on diversity are more likely to have friends of different races, religions, and/or classes, as well as friends with different sociopolitical views.

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New study shows poor nutrition for honey bee larvae leads to compromised pollination capabilities as adult bees; possible link to Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD)

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A new study coauthored by Wellesley economist, Professor Daniel E. Sichel, reveals that innovation in an important technology sector is happening faster than experts had previously thought, creating a backdrop for better economic times ahead.

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When people feel or act negatively toward a group, they may explain their feelings or behavior by saying, “I felt threatened.” However, new research reveals how easily people can be conditioned to feel prejudice -- and that unrecognized prejudice can be the source of a perceived threat. The study by Angela Bahns, a social psychologist and professor at Wellesley College, is published this month in the journal Group Processes and Intergroup Relations.