Florida State University officials have launched an emergency fundraising effort aimed at helping students struggling due to financial fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic. The FSU Foundation, the university’s academic fundraising arm, unveiled two emergency funds that are accepting donations — one addressing the needs of those affiliated with FSU in Tallahassee, the other for those from FSU Panama City.

The Black Death looms large in the history of infectious disease. The pandemic — an outbreak of bubonic plague which was probably spread predominantly by rats and fleas — struck Italy in 1347. Recent evidence on mortality suggests that in just a few years, the disease killed around 60 percent of the population in Europe, the part of the world from which historians have the most information. As the world deals with the outbreak of COVID-19, Florida State University Associate Professor of History Ben Dodds, a specialist in medieval England as well the Black Death, discussed life in the 14th century and lessons we can take from that moment in time.

In the fight against this new coronavirus, some of the most effective tools are a couch and a television in your own home. Public health officials are asking people to avoid socializing with others to mitigate the spread of COVID-19. That means people often have to make tough decisions about how to respond. It’s this kind of moral decision-making that Paul Conway studies. Conway, an assistant professor of psychology at Florida State University, investigates the psychology of morality and justice. His work examines how people think about good and bad, whether to help or harm others and the complex ways that a person’s self-perception influences their behavior.

When it comes to finding a mate, male guppies rely on their brothers to ward off the competition.

Men are more prone to competitive risk taking and violent behavior, so what happens when the number of men is greater than the number of women in a population? According to research by Florida State University Professor of Psychology Jon Maner, the answers might not be what you expect. 

Florida State University’s graduate programs are among the nation’s best, according to U.S. News & World Report’s 2021 edition of “Best Graduate Schools.” 

Did you know Florida State University students can receive tutoring and get feedback on projects online?

Roderick Meyer is pursuing a bachelor’s degree in the Department of Biological Sciences, part of the College of Arts and Sciences. In addition to his studies, Meyer served as team lead for Florida State University’s International Genetically Engineered Machine (iGEM) team, the premier international competition for synthetic biology, a multidisciplinary area of research that seeks to create new biological parts, devices and systems or to redesign systems already found in nature. Meyer was part of the team whose research on citrus greening helped it become the first gold-medal winner from the state of Florida.

Parkinson’s disease takes a lot from its victims.Patients often notice its onset as a tremor in one of their hands. As it progresses, it can impair balance, change speech patterns, alter thinking and dramatically affect movement. There is no cure, but there are ways to improve symptoms. Researchers from Florida State University suggest practicing the Argentine tango could provide useful relief.

Florida State University researchers working in an international collaboration have identified new genetic variants that cause heart disease in infants, and their research has led to novel insights into the role of a protein that affects how the heart pumps blood. It is a discovery that could lead to new treatments for people suffering from heart disease.

As the ice sheet covering most of Greenland retreats, Florida State University researchers are studying the newly revealed landscape to understand its role in the carbon cycle.

Florida State University physicists believe they have an answer to unusual incidents of rare decay of a subatomic particle called a Kaon that were reported last year by scientists in the KOTO experiment at the Japan Proton Accelerator Research Complex.