AMHERST, Mass. – Researchers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and the University of Newcastle in Australia have been awarded a two-year $110,000 grant funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Australian Research Council to develop software and to write a book on the use of computerized analysis of the writings of William Shakespeare and other authors.

AMHERST, Mass – Revolutionary sensing technology that will enable earlier and more accurate forecasts and warnings of weather emergencies will be at the heart of a new $40 million research center announced today at UMass Amherst. Funded in part by the National Science Foundation, the Engineering Research Center for Collaborative Adaptive Sensing of the Atmosphere (CASA) is expected to increase the warning time for tornadoes, flash floods, and other severe weather disturbances, and provide forecasts having far greater accuracy and timeliness.

AMHERST, Mass. - Two graduate students from the University of Massachusetts Amherst are members of a team performing hurricane reconnaissance through Hurricane Isabel, which is expected to make landfall in the U.S. later this week.

AMHERST, Mass. – Life can survive and thrive at higher temperatures than previously thought, remaining stable at 130 degrees C (266 degrees F) and reproducing at temperatures as high as 121C (250 degrees F), according to research conducted by two University of Massachusetts Amherst microbiologists. The information gathered by Professor Derek Lovley and postdoctoral researcher Kazem Kashefi has implications not only for understanding when and where life evolved on Earth and how deep in the planet’s subsurface life exists, but also for determining the potential for life on other, hotter planets, particularly Mars. Their work was funded by the National Science Foundation through a Life in Extreme Environments grant and will appear in the Aug. 15 issue of Science.