While Christianity has been growing in China, religious practices still are tightly controlled. So Dr. Alan Raines, director of choral activities at Baylor University, was surprised and thrilled when he was invited to conduct an Easter Sunday performance of Handel's Messiah at the opening of a large new church in Suzhou.

Men who channeled positive thoughts into a five-week writing assignment about their testicular cancer showed signs of improved mental health afterward, in contrast to men who wrote negatively or neutrally about their condition, according to results of a Baylor University pilot study.

Jesus Wars, a new book by Dr. Philip Jenkins, Distinguished Senior Fellow of Baylor's Institute for Studies of Religion, explores how the world view of Jesus Christ was shaped.

When a martyr for Allah takes his place in Paradise, he will "marry beautiful-eyed young women," according to the Quran. It's a heady prospect for young men with slim chances of marriage, and recruiters use it to lure potential suicide bombers, said Dr. Brad Thayer, a Baylor University professor of political science. His research shows "defeating by domestication" -- turning the young men into husbands and fathers -- could be a powerful tool to fight terrorism.

A Baylor University researcher, who has conducted extensive research on how couples can best resolve relationship conflicts, has created a conflict resolution web site for couples totally based on his research.

If you smoked cigarettes when you were a teen, new research indicates you might be more susceptible to the negative effects of alcohol withdrawal later in life.

Baylor University researchers have received a $250,000 grant from the Texas Environmental Health Institute to study water pollution from the San Jacinto River waste pits near the Houston Ship Channel. The Baylor researchers will study how the pollution, including cancer-causing compounds known as dioxins and furans, spread from the soil into the fish and ecosystem.

The Baylor University Libraries' Black Gospel Music Restoration Project, a popular download among the university's content available on iTunes U, is a digital record and catalog of the most at-risk music from the black gospel music tradition from the 1940s to the 1980s. Sixteen songs from the project are available as a free download on iTunes U, a dedicated area within the iTunes U Store.

The National Weather Service has issued a Winter Storm Warning, effective at 3 a.m. Tuesday, for McLennan and surrounding counties. While the university does not presently anticipate any disruption to regular business operations or class schedules, Baylor officials will monitor the weather during the overnight and late morning hours and will make a decision accordingly. Please continue to monitor the Baylor web site for more information.

The National Science Foundation awarded a $394,654 Innovation and Organizational Sciences Program Grant to Baylor University to fund research that explores the impact of religious communities on entrepreneurial behavior.

Baylor University's school psychology program has received national approval from the National Association of School Psychologists (NASP), one of the specialized professional associations of the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) that conducts national program reviews.

Baylor University researchers along with ecologists from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County have developed a new method that measures the impact of human-caused environmental degradation on environmental biodiversity.

Dr. Morris George, assistant professor of marketing at Baylor University's Hankamer School of Business, has received the 2010 William R. Davidson Award for Best Article in the Journal of Retailing 2008. The award will be presented at the winter conference of the American Marketing Association Feb. 19-21 in New Orleans.

A Baylor University researcher has used a new search method that he adapted for use on the seafloor to find a potentially massive source of hydrocarbon energy called methane hydrate, a frozen form of natural gas, in a portion of the Gulf of Mexico.

The 2010 State of the Union address may be THE most important speech of President Barack Obama's career. The reason is simple - his presidency hangs in the balance, says Dr. Martin J. Medhurst, co-director of www.PresidentialRhetoric.com and Distinguished Professor of Rhetoric and Communication at Baylor University in Texas.

Two Baylor University researchers have received a $200,000 grant from the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT) to study a series of compounds that could be toxic against human cancer cells.

Baylor University has named Dr. Edward B. Burger, Distinguished Professor of Mathematics and Gaudino Scholar at Williams College in Massachusetts, as the 2010 recipient of the Robert Foster Cherry Award for Great Teaching, the only national teaching award - with the single largest monetary reward of $200,000 - presented by a college or university to an individual for exceptional teaching.

A new Baylor University study funded by the Environmental Protection Agency has found that concentrations of phosphorus above 20 parts per billion (ppb) are linked to declines in water quality and aquatic plant and animal life.

With 2009 in the rearview mirror, Americans are making resolutions for the New Year. Getting physically fit may top the list, but a Baylor University consumer behavior expert suggests that Americans resolve to get in good financial shape in the coming year.

Teen-aged boys are more likely to use tanning booths, take diet pills and have their bodies waxed -- even if they think those activities are unhealthy -- if they are influenced by their peers, according to research by a Baylor University assistant professor of fashion merchandising.

Baylor University has been chosen by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) to join the Science Education Alliance, which will engage Baylor students in scientific discovery on a national scale.

Researchers with Baylor University's Institute for Studies of Religion have received a two-year, $992,000 grant from the John Templeton Foundation for a first-ever series of studies examining the impact of Scouting in fostering positive youth development and healthy, virtuous behaviors--termed "prosocial behavior."

Christmas offers a golden opportunity to go green -- and save a little green -- when decorating your home. "The idea is to focus on going local and natural with decor and to emphasize family togetherness," said Dr. Suzy Weems, chair of the department of Family and Consumer Sciences at Baylor University.

The City of Waco, Baylor University and the Waco Mammoth Foundation are proud to announce the grand opening of the Waco Mammoth Site. A public ribbon-cutting with U.S. Rep. Chet Edwards will take place at 1 p.m., Saturday, Dec. 5, at the site, located at 6220 Steinbeck Bend Rd.

Baylor University researchers have identified a key component that increases the toxicity of golden algae (Prymnesium parvum), which kills millions of fish in the southern U.S. every year.

A symbolic shift from 20th century manufacturing to 21st century technology took place Oct. 23 with the announcement of plans to turn a long-shuttered manufacturing plant into a modern research collaborative. A group of state, county and city governments and organizations and higher educational institutions in Central Texas announced the creation of the Central Texas Technology and Research Park, and the park's first project, the Baylor Research and Innovation Collaborative (BRIC) to be housed in the former General Tire facility on South Loop Drive in Waco.

Dr. Paul Froese, associate professor of sociology at Baylor University, was awarded the 2009 Distinguished Book prize on Friday from the Society for Scientific Study of Religion for his book about religious repression in the Soviet Union.

Baylor University researchers are seeking to improve the effectiveness of the techniques marriage counselors use, and they need the community's help.