While researchers across the University had to close their doors and hang up their lab coats for the foreseeable future on March 18, some labs have found ways to keep their doors open for the benefit of the community amid the COVID-19 crisis.

Following the University’s instruction to shut down all non-essential research in laboratories by March 18 — by which time most students had relocated off-campus — it became apparent that remote work would become the new normal for millions of people around the world. 

As researchers and academics across the globe shift their priorities, the scholarship that used to dominate their time is largely being put on hold, with consequences and personal ramifications spanning departments and fields. 

While people turn to scientists for the latest updates on COVID-19, laboratories across campus will more or less go dark after 5 pm today. The constant hum of machines mixing samples will grow quiet as equipment is shut off, new experiments are canceled and entry is limited to essential personnel only.

Onésimo Almeida, professor of Portuguese and Brazilian Studies, said he has requested a test for COVID-19 coronavirus following a trip to Portugal during which Almeida was near someone recently diagnosed with the virus.

State public health officials announced Rhode Island’s first two presumptive cases of COVID-19 coronavirus Saturday and Sunday respectively after finding out that two people who had returned from a trip to Europe Feb. 22 tested positive.

In the spirit of Valentine’s Day, the Office of Research Integrity and the University Library have organized a series of events featuring data use in research across disciplines as part of worldwide Love Data Week, which runs from Feb. 10 through 14.

As students take a step into another year and another semester, exams and busy schedules, the Mindfulness Center at Brown continues to connect University researchers from diverse areas of study.

Students have begun to indulge in scrumptious meals, bright decorations and festive jingles in the early days of this holiday season.

Identifying life on Mars may be within reach thanks to University researchers’ new findings of hydrated silica on the red planet.