The National Endowment for the Arts has awarded the University a $20,000 grant to support the Music in the American Wild project. Over the summer, seven Eastman musicians will perform the music of 11 Eastman composers in seven national parks.

As commencement ceremonies approach later this week, meet some of the students who have earned awards and scholarships in recognition of their academic achievements.

“The Blues: Understanding an American Art Form,” a free course on the online learning platform Coursera, is taught by Dariusz Terefenko, pianist and associate professor of jazz studies.

A new study by Maiken Nedergaard, co-director of the University’s Center for Translational Neuromedicine, reveals that our sleep-wake state appears to be dependent upon the concentration and balance of ions in the cerebral spinal fluid.

Thomas Tavolara (T5) models Memvi, a wearable camera that automatically records what interests you. He and his team presented their design at the annual Design Day, a day for graduating seniors in the Hajim School of Engineering and Applied Sciences to present their capstone projects. (University photo / J. Adam Fenster)

Are humans unique and alone in the vast universe? This question– summed up in the famous Drake equation–has for a half-century been one of the most intractable and uncertain in science. But a new paper shows that the recent discoveries of exoplanets combined with a broader approach to the question makes it possible to assign a new empirically valid probability to whether any other advanced technological civilizations have ever existed.

In this time of global economic uncertainty, economics professor Narayana Kocherlakota argues that the U.S. government should be issuing more debt in order to strengthen the domestic economy. / Bloomberg View

The Eastman Philharmonia returns to New York City for first time in more than 25 years this November with a concert featuring a new composition by Pulitzer Prize–winning alumnus Kevin Puts ’99E and soprano Renée Fleming ’83E (MM).

The Kavli HUMAN Project holds great promise for putting big data to the test. But as astronomy professor Adam Frank argue, “with great promise comes great responsibility.” / NPR

Yeates Conwell, co-director of Rochester’s Center for Study and Prevention of Suicide talks about the “four D’s” that contribute to suicide risk in older adults. / Washington Post