Biologist Kim Lewis of Northeastern University, who has studied antibiotic development, sees the primary problem as the lack of any method for finding promising compounds. All the amazing progress a half century ago came when U.S. biochemist Selman Waksman developed a technique to systematically screen soil bacteria. This is how he discovered streptomycin, the first treatment […]

In January, scientists discovered a potential new class of antibiotic — by digging through dirt. Soil microorganisms secrete much-desired antimicrobial compounds that yield novel drugs, but they’re fickle: Ninety-nine percent of microbial species won’t grow in labs. So Kim Lewis’ team at Northeastern University in Boston devised a method to isolate microbes in their natural […]

For the past several months, Erika Koss at Northeastern University has been doing a lecture series called “The World in Your Cup: Conversations on the Politics & Culture of Coffee.” The whole series — which is co-sponsored by the NU Consortium of Food Sustainability, Health, & Equity; the School of Public Policy & Urban Affairs; […]

“The defense is urging that the (Supreme Court) decision should be a catalyst to reopening the entire penalty phase. The argument is that these convictions are in jeopardy and that those counts somehow clouded the jury’s judgment on the death-eligible sentences, therefore, all of the sentences should be looked at again,” said Daniel Medwed, a […]

For starters, “there is absolutely no precedent for this,” said Alan Schroeder, a journalism professor at Northeastern University and the author of a 2008book about presidential debates, which he is currently updating during a sabbatical. “One of the things about debates that’s a positive is they’ve always been separate from the whole financial aspect of […]

Grad school can be a lonely place. While we enter with a cohort with whom we take classes in our first years of study, eventually we begin to specialize and the sense of community that might have once felt strong dissipates. But we needn’t go it alone; opportunities to collaborate are abundant, if only we […]

So what might those NAACP lawyers who won and lost 40 years ago have to say to their counterparts in the anti-death-penalty movement today? Would they recommend bringing a case? We went to Michael Meltsner, a law professor at Northeastern University in Boston and one of the last professionally active members of the cohort of […]

The Reverends Emmett G. Price III and Irene Monroe were back on Boston Public Radio for their regular Monday feature, “All Revved Up.” Lets start with this Laquan McDonald shooting out in Chicago—this is a young man who was shot a year ago, and the video was just released, it showed him moving away from […]

When Massachusetts’ child deaths are ruled homicides, police do a pretty good job of closing cases, records show. According to criminologist James Alan Fox of Northeastern University, state police solve 90 percent of homicides involving children under 11 years old, a much higher clearance rate than for murder cases involving older children and adults, according […]

Everyone loves a good argument and few questions are more likely to start one right now than “should we allow Syrian refugees into the United States?” Answering the question requires balancing competing concerns. First and foremost is the moral imperative of protecting American citizens versus the humanitarian concerns of providing for refugees. But that isn’t […]

Carole Bell, a professor of communication studies at Northeastern University, estimates that Carson could attract as much as 25 percent of the African-American vote if he’s the GOP candidate. “That would be a tremendous accomplishment for the GOP at this stage,” she said. Carson is better known by African-American voters than were other black Republicans […]