It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Friday, May 09, 2025
New research forecasts the spread of invasive snail Physella acuta in China: risks to ecosystems and economy
“It is estimated that Physella acutacurrently affects 10.22% of China’s land area,” said Dr. Xuerong Li, “Our findings show targeted northern monitoring could reduce future invasion risks by up to 30%.”
A new study led by researchers at Sun Yat-sen University has mapped the current and future potential distribution of Physella acuta, an invasive freshwater snail threatening China’s ecosystems, public health, and agriculture. Using advanced climate modeling, the team predicts that while southern China may see shrinking suitable habitats for the snail, northern regions could face increased invasion risk, underscoring the need for targeted monitoring and control strategies.
“Physella acuta is a global invader with severe ecological and economic impacts, and China has seen its range expand rapidly since its first detection in 1993,” said Dr. Xuerong Li, corresponding author of the study published in Science in One Health, “Our findings provide a critical roadmap for managing this species amid climate change, helping authorities prioritize areas for intervention.”
Unraveling the Snail’s Habitat Drivers
Using the MaxEnt species distribution model, the researchers analyzed 2,012 global distribution points and key environmental variables—including temperature in the coldest season and precipitation in specific months—to predict suitable habitats. The model, validated with an AUC score of 0.918, identified warm, humid environments as critical for the snail’s survival.
Currently, Physella acuta thrives in southern and central China, particularly in Guangxi, Guizhou, Yunnan, Chongqing, and the Yangtze River Basin, occupying 10.22% of China’s land area. These regions face risks like water pollution, biodiversity loss, and increased disease transmission, as the snail serves as an intermediate host for pathogens like Angiostrongylus cantonensis, causing human meningitis.
Under future climate scenarios (SSPs 126, 245, 370, 585), the study predicts a northward shift in the snail’s distribution center. Southern low-latitude areas, such as Guangxi, will likely see significant habitat shrinkage due to rising temperatures and extreme weather, while northern regions like Shaanxi and Henan may experience stable or slightly expanded suitable habitats.
“While the overall suitable area in China is projected to decline, the northward shift signals new invasion frontiers,” explained Dr. Yinjuan Wu, co-corresponding author, “This emphasizes the need for coordinated monitoring across both current hotspots and emerging risk areas.”
Implications for Invasion Management
The study highlights that Physella acuta’s high reproductive capacity and adaptability to polluted waters make it a formidable invader. Without intervention, it could disrupt freshwater ecosystems, harm agricultural productivity, and exacerbate public health burdens.
“Our model-based predictions can guide policymakers to implement targeted control measures, such as biosecurity protocols in waterways and early detection systems in northern provinces,” said Yingxuan Yin, first author, “Climate change adds complexity, so adaptive strategies that account for shifting habitats are essential.”
Limitations and Future Directions
While the research focuses on climatic factors, the team acknowledges the need to integrate human activity impacts and water body characteristics in future studies. Ongoing work will explore how land use change and pollution interact with climate to influence the snail’s spread.
Publication Details
The study, “Modeling the distribution of the invasive snail Physella acuta in China: Implications for ecological and economic impact,” appears in Science in One Health (DOI: 10.1016/j.soh.2025.100107). It was funded by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (grant number 2020YFC1200100) and the Guangdong Natural Science Foundation (grant numbers 2023A1515010955, 2025A1515012017).
A maximum of six centimeters long and weighing two grams: Despite its inconspicuous appearance, Antarctic krill plays a central role for life in the Southern Ocean.
Individually, Antarctic krill (Euphausia superba) do not make much of an impression. With a maximum body length of six centimetres, a weight of just two grams and its transparent skin, it does not look very spectacular. Yet krill play a central role for life in the Southern Ocean. Billions of these small crustaceans form huge swarms that can extend over several square kilometers and are the most important food source for many predators.
A research team from Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg (JMU), in cooperation with the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI), the Helmholtz Institute for Functional Marine Biodiversity (HIFMB) in Oldenburg and the National Oceanography Institute in the UK, has now taken a closer look at the behavior of this marine inhabitant. The group was particularly interested in its “daily vertical migration in the water column”, according to the study now published in the journal eLife.
Food on the surface, protection from predators in the depths
“Antarctic krill use the cover of darkness at night to feed on microscopic algae on the sea surface. During the day, the animals then seek shelter from predators in deeper, darker layers,” says Lukas Hüppe, describing the periodic ups and downs in the Southern Ocean. Hüppe is the first author of the study and a doctoral student at the JMU Department of Neurobiology and Genetics. He was supervised by Bettina Meyer (AWI and HIFMB) and Charlotte Förster, the former holder of this chair and now a senior professor. Internal clocks have been a focus of Förster's research for many years. Accordingly, this project focused on the question of the extent to which krill migrations are determined by internal clocks.
Although krill exert considerable influence on the mixing of the water column and the transport of carbon into the deep sea with their daily migration, and despite decades of observations, the exact mechanisms of this migration behavior are not yet fully understood. For their study, the research team has therefore now for the first time examined individual wild-caught animals over different seasons in a special activity monitor.
Observations with a newly developed technology
Researchers first developed this monitor in 2024. The new device makes it possible to record the swimming activity of individual creatures in tubes filled with seawater. For his experiments, Hüppe caught krill from the Southern Ocean on a commercial fishing vessel. On board, he was able to use the new technology to study the movements of wild-caught krill under different light conditions and at different times of the year.
His observations showed that the crustaceans were most active at night, which corresponds to their natural migration patterns in the wild. These nocturnal activity patterns adapted to the changing length of the night throughout the seasons. In addition, the krill maintained a daily rhythm of activity even when kept in constant darkness for several days.
Typical rhythm even in complete darkness
The results are clear: “Antarctic krill show a daily rhythm with increased swimming activity at night, which fits very well with vertical migration in nature,” explains Lukas Hüppe. Even in complete darkness, the animals maintained this rhythm over several days - proof that they use an internal clock to adapt their ups and downs to the day-night rhythm. The experiments also showed that krill can flexibly synchronize their behaviour with very long or short days, which only occur in polar regions.
It is therefore clear: “Krill do not only react to external environmental influences such as light or food with their behavior. It also uses its internal clock to adapt to the extreme conditions of its polar environment,” says Charlotte Förster, summarizing the key finding of the study.
Significance for the ecosystem and the climate
Even if the study is primarily concerned with physiological processes inside small sea creatures, the significance of its findings goes far beyond this. “As a carbon sink, the Southern Ocean plays a central role in regulating the global climate. This function is based on a functional, productive ecosystem, at the center of which is the Antarctic krill,” explains Bettina Meyer. The optimal adaptation of krill to its environment is a basic prerequisite for healthy krill stocks.
As changes in krill populations can have far-reaching consequences for the entire ecosystem of the Southern Ocean, a better understanding of the adaptation mechanisms is crucial in order to make predictions about the future development of the populations, the research group concludes.
In their next project, the scientists therefore want to investigate the internal clock in more detail. “We want to understand where the clock ticks in the krill brain and how the mechanism works at a neuronal level,” says Charlotte Förster. This will also focus on the question of how the internal clock influences other important processes in krill - such as reproduction and its hibernation strategies.
A circadian clock drives behavioral activity in Antarctic krill (Euphausia superba) and provides a potential mechanism for seasonal timing
Protecting Iceland’s towns from lava flows – with dirt
It's not easy to build earthen dams in the vicinity of lava pouring out of an active volcano. But a field test of the approach, used to protect vulnerable towns, showed it can work
It had been dormant for 800 years, but in March 2021, the Fagradalsfjall volcano in Iceland came to life. While the eruption was ongoing, large-scale field experiments were conducted to build defensive earthen barriers aimed at slowing down the molten lava flow.
Building defensive barriers to slow down the lava flowing from craters and fissures in the Earth’s crust is something of a race against time. The excavator and bulldozer operators had to work around the clock, shovelling dirt and rocks to build dams and barriers as the glowing hot lava from the eruption crept ever closer.
Delayed lava flow for 16 days
The speed of lava flows is determined by the viscosity of the lava and the slope of the terrain. When an eruption threatens civil society and infrastructure, the most important goal is to gain as much time as possible by delaying and potentially diverting the lava flows.
Fjola Gudrun Sigtryggsdottir is a professor at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU). Her field experiment in Fagradalsfjall in 2021 showed that the dams delayed the lava flow by up to 16 days. They also succeeded in building effective barriers that diverted the glowing stream of lava in a safe direction.
The lessons learned would prove useful when the small town of Grindavík found itself in the danger zone of a new volcanic eruption just a couple of years later.
High risk – possible to control
“The main lesson we learned from that field experiment was that it is possible to control lava flows – to some extent. And it is certainly worth trying when it comes to protecting civil society and critical infrastructure,” said Sigtryggsdottir, who closely followed the field experiment.
Sigtryggsdottir is a researcher at NTNU’s Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, and an expert in safety in relation to embankment dams, infrastructure and geohazards. When the Fagradalsfjall volcano came to life, she was on a research sabbatical in Iceland and was already involved in the lava control project.
Over 40,000 earthquakes
“The project also showed what it is like to work in close proximity to an active volcano and flowing lava. We confirmed that it is possible to work under such challenging conditions, and that the risks can be minimized if we take specific safety measures,” she said.
In the period before the eruption, Icelandic authorities recorded more than 40,000 earthquakes.
The Icelandic Department of Civil Protection and Emergency Management already had a working group in action. They were tasked with mapping areas threatened by lava flows and proposing measures to protect critical infrastructure. Sigtryggsdottir was a participant in the group along with engineers from the consulting firms Verkis and Efla, as well as researchers from the University of Iceland and the Icelandic Meteorological Office.
A tourist destination during the pandemic
“The eruption had not started when the working group was established. At that time, it was not even certain that there would be an eruption,” Sigtryggsdottir said.
But the eruption did come – a fissure opened in Geldingardalir valley on the evening of 19 March 2021. The COVID-19 pandemic was still ongoing. The lava flowed across the landscape, and people flocked to witness the volcanic forces being unleashed.
Major road under threat
Fagradalsfjall is located on the Reykjanes Peninsula, 8-10 kilometres from the nearest settlement in Grindavík. At first, neither civil society nor infrastructure was at risk. However, after a few weeks, the red-hot lava had moved through yet another valley and were threatening an important national road.
At that point, the Department of Civil Protection and Emergency Management decided to build barriers to delay or divert the lava flow away from the road.
“At that moment, our work was effectively transformed into a large-scale field experiment,” Sigtryggsdottir said.
Tested different barriers
The Fagradalsfjall volcano continued erupting for six months before settling down in September 2021. This gave the researchers time and opportunity to test different construction methods and types of barriers in an area that was not as directly at risk of infrastructure damage, such as Grindavík and the Blue Lagoon.
This was the first eruption in the area in 800 years. Occasionally, the lava started flowing unexpectedly into new areas. When that happened, they were able to test the differences in strength between the massive main barriers and temporary measures, where bulldozers piled up embankments of earth, sand and stone as the red-hot lava crept ever closer.
Built an 8-metre-high embankment
Protecting civil society and infrastructure from volcanic eruptions is about gaining as much time as possible by delaying or diverting the lava flows. In total, three embankment dams of earth and stone were built during the field experiment. The highest was 8 metres tall, and two 300 and 35 metre-long barriers were also constructed to guide the lava in a different direction.
The researchers have summarized their experiences and the lessons learned in the article ‘Experience in diverting and containing lava flow by barriers constructed from in situ material during the 2021 Geldingardalir volcanic Eruption’, which has recently been published in the Bulletin of Volcanalogy.
Created a guide for the authorities
Sigtryggsdottir has also created a barrier construction guide for the Icelandic authorities. It is based on research literature on lava control and her own area of expertise, which is embankment dam safety.
The document describes how different barriers can be built using locally available materials and how they should be positioned to withstand and control lava flows.
Used to protect Grindavík
The experience gained from the field experiment proved useful when the authorities later built a lava barrier to protect Grindavík and a geothermal power plant on the outskirts of the town. The work began before the first eruption in December 2023 and continued as it progressed throughout the winter of 2024.
Sigtryggsdottir was only involved in the phase before and during the first eruption in 2021.
“But my colleagues have all been actively involved in the barriers built for the later eruption in Grindavík and were able to apply the experience from our study to that work,” she said.
Houses would have been buried
If authorities had not followed Sigtryggsdottir’s recommendations, things might have turned out differently in Grindavík in 2023–2024.
“If the barriers had not been built, several of the houses there would now be under lava,” Sigtryggsdottir said.
She said each volcanic eruption will provide new understanding and new experiences, which means Iceland’s officials will be better prepared the next time something happens.
A fissure on the wrong side of the barrier
In spring 2025, as this article is being written, significant volcanic activity is once again taking place beneath Grindavík. The town was re-evacuated on 31 March, and Sigtryggsdottir just happened to be in Iceland when Norwegian SciTech News reached out to her. She described intense earthquake activity with rumbling from the ground, movement and new fissures where lava may begin to flow out.
“It was also concerning when a volcanic fissure recently opened directly through and downstream of the barrier on the outskirts of Grindavík. Fortunately, it was just a brief eruption this time, and the lava did not cause any destruction,” she said.
Many uncertain factors
The volcanic landscape is unpredictable – there are so many things you can’t control.
“Much is unpredictable, such as how much time there is to warn people about the eruption, exactly where the volcanic fissure will open, how large it will be, how much lava will come and how fast it will flow. The challenge is always having enough time to evacuate at-risk areas,” Sigtryggsdottir said.
Lava types behave differently
To add to the complexity, there are two main types of lava, which behave quite differently, and researchers never know which type will appear where.
Pahoehoe lava flows easily and tends to spread out in thin layers. It can accumulate in layers behind a defensive barrier until there is a risk of overtopping. Less robust barriers can be used to divert or hold back pahoehoe lava compared to the more coarse and bulky block lava.
Bulldozer effect
Block lava moves more slowly and builds up beneath the solidifying crust. Sigtryggsdottir compares it to a cream bun. The hot, sticky lava is like the cream inside a bun – until the top layer of hardened chocolate, or lava, is pushed upwards.
When block lava meets a barrier like an embankment dam, it is pushed upwards and can remain several metres above the top of the embankment. This increases the pressure, and eventually, the block lava can push the embankment dam away like a bulldozer.
“That is why block lava barriers must be extra strong and massive,” she explained.
Must believe protection is possible
But is it feasible to actually protect civil society and infrastructure in Iceland against eruptions like those that have happened recently?
“Although there’s a lot of uncertainty regarding the development of the eruption itself, it is fully possible to delay and divert lava flows. There are many challenges, but civil society and infrastructure can be protected, and when we can, we must seize the opportunity and believe it will work,” she said.
Simulating changing terrain
Recording earthquakes and measuring movements in the Earth’s crust are important in Iceland. There are also computer simulations that show how lava flows move and spread.
Since the first eruption in 2021, Hörn Hrafnsdottir, one of the co-authors of the new study, has conducted simulations of lava flows and how they spread. These types of simulations must take many factors into account.
The researchers must input a lava source that flows with a certain volume per hour. In addition, the viscosity must be assessed, as this affects how far and how quickly the lava will flow. The simulation must also include information about . The latter is challenging because flowing and solidifying lava creates a new landscape and topography that must constantly be updated.
Safer volcanic communities
When asked whether the fieldwork from 2021 helps make Iceland – and other volcanic communities – safer, Sigtryggsdottir responds:
“Our work from 2021 showed that it was possible to delay and divert lava flows in the Reykjanes area. The barriers that my colleagues have subsequently built have made this even clearer. However, we cannot consider a protected area to be completely safe. Vulnerable areas must be evacuated regardless. The barriers protect houses and infrastructure if they are built high enough, as long as the volcanic fissures remain behind the barriers – so we can certainly say that our work contributes to safer volcanic communities.”
The volcanic eruption transformed the area around Fagradalsfjall into a tourist attraction. Fjóla Guðrún Sigtryggsdóttir seen here with her daughter Þorbjörg Gróa Eggertsdóttir.
Credit
Photo: Eggert V. Valmundsson
The Fagradalsfjall volcano was active from March to September 2021. NTNU professor Fjóla Guðrun Sigtryggsdóttir is shown studying the lava that had begun to flow over a defensive barrier near one of the embankment dams in a unique field experiment that began in May.
Here, loose materials have been pushed up against block lava, forming a temporary defensive barrier to protect the construction work. The lava thickened beneath the cooled crust and rose 2–4 metres above the top of the barrier over the course of 8 days. NTNU’s Fjóla Guðrún Sigtryggsdóttir (front) and Emilía Sól Guðgeirsdóttir, Verkís.
Credit: Shijie Wang, Feng Chen, Youping Chen, Max C.A. Torbenson, Jan Esper, Xiaoen Zhao, Mao Hu, Heli Zhang, Weipeng Yue, Honghua Cao
Central Asia, located in the heart of the Eurasian continent, has experienced significant climatic shifts in recent decades, characterized by warming and increased humidity. This trend contrasts sharply with the global pattern of drought-induced tree growth decline, making Central Asia a unique region for studying the impacts of climate change on forest ecosystems.
Alpine forests in this region are critical for regional water reserves and ecological stability and are the origins of many inland rivers such as Amu Darya and Syr Darya. Researchers from Yunnan University, China, in collaboration with international partners, used a comprehensive tree-ring network comprising 128 conifer chronologies from Central Asian alpine forests to assess tree radial growth patterns in this region. The study, published in Forest Ecosystems, reveals a significant positive trend in tree growth since the 20th century. This growth acceleration is attributed to low-latitude warming, which enhances regional temperatures and precipitation, thereby promoting tree growth.
Dr. Feng Chen, the corresponding author, explained, "Our findings indicate that warming centers in the Indian Ocean, the central-east Pacific Ocean, and the Atlantic Ocean significantly influence atmospheric circulation patterns, leading to increased moisture transport to Central Asia. This results in higher regional precipitation and improved tree growth conditions."
The study's projections, based on the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project 6 (CMIP6) and the Vaganov-Shashkin-Lite (VS-Lite) model, suggest that tree radial growth rates will continue to rise in the future. However, the projections also reveal that climate changes could become more extreme and happen more often. "The damaging risks of severe drought cannot be ignored," the study noted. Even during periods of drought and extreme weather, trees in alpine forests still managed to grow, indicating an inherent adaptive capacity. However, damages caused by extreme droughts are irreversible. Meanwhile, whether this resilience will stay sustainable under continued climate stress remains uncertain. Particularly, more severe climate scenarios may lead to decoupling signs between warming and enhanced growth.
This study provides critical insights into the dynamic relationship between climate change and tree growth in Central Asian alpine forests, offering a unique perspective on how changes in one part of the world can have far-reaching effects on ecosystems in distant regions. For better understanding and mitigating future impacts, future studies on enhanced modeling approaches and continuous climatic monitoring are required.
This study was supported by Excellent Research Group Program for Tibetan Plateau Earth System (continuation grant NSFC project No. 41988101), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. U1803341 and 32061123008), the National Key R&D Program of China (No. 2018YFA0606401), and the National Youth Talent Support Program.
HOUSTON – (May 9, 2025) – A team of researchers at Rice University and Baylor College of Medicine has developed a new strategy for identifying hazardous pollutants in soil, even ones that have never been isolated or studied in a lab.
The new approach, described in a study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, uses light-based imaging, theoretical predictions of compounds’ light signatures and machine learning (ML) algorithms to detect toxic compounds like polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and their derivative compounds (PACs) in soil. A common by-product of combustion, PAHs and PACs have been linked to cancer, developmental issues and other serious health problems.
Identifying pollutants in soil usually requires advanced laboratories and standard physical reference samples of the suspected contaminants. However, for many environmental pollutants that pose a public health risk, there is no experimental data available that can be used to detect them.
“This method makes it possible to identify chemicals that have not yet been isolated experimentally,” said Naomi Halas, University Professor and the Stanley C. Moore Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Rice.
The new method uses a light-based imaging technique known as surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy, which analyzes how light interacts with molecules, tracking the unique patterns, or spectra, they emit. Spectra serve as “chemical fingerprints” for each compound. The technique is refined through the use of signature nanoshells designed to enhance relevant traits in the spectra.
Using density functional theory ⎯ a computational modeling technique that can predict how atoms and electrons behave in a molecule ⎯ the researchers calculated what the spectra of a whole range of PAHs and PACs look like based on the compounds’ molecular structure. This allowed them to generate a virtual library of “fingerprints” for PAHs and PACs.
Two complementary ML algorithms ⎯ characteristic peak extraction and characteristic peak similarity ⎯ were used to parse relevant spectral traits in real-world soil samples and match them to compounds mapped out in the virtual library of spectra.
“We are using PAHs in soil to illustrate this very important new strategy,” Halas said. “There are tens of thousands of PAH-derived chemicals and this approach ⎯ calculating their spectra and using machine learning to connect the theoretically calculated spectra to those observed in a sample ⎯ allows us to identify chemicals that we may not, or do not, have any experimental data for.”
The method addresses a critical gap in environmental monitoring, opening the door to identifying a much broader range of hazardous compounds ⎯ including those that have changed over time. This is especially important given that soil is a dynamic environment where chemicals are subject to transformations that can render them harder to detect.
Thomas Senftle, Rice’s William Marsh Rice Trustee Associate Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, compared the process to using facial recognition in order to find an individual in a crowd.
“You can imagine we have a picture of a person when they’re a teenager, but now they’re in their 30s,” Senftle said. “In my group what we do is, on the theory side, we can predict what the picture will look like.”
The researchers tested the method on soil from a restored watershed and natural area using both artificially contaminated samples and a control sample. Results showed the new approach reliably picked out even minute traces of PAHs using a simpler and faster process than conventional techniques.
“This method can identify lesser-known and largely unstudied PAH and PAC pollutant molecules,” said Oara Neumann, a Rice research scientist who is a co-author on the study.
In the future, the method could enable on-site field testing by integrating the ML algorithms and theoretical spectral library with portable Raman devices into a mobile system, making it easier for farmers, communities and environmental agencies to test soil for hazardous compounds without needing to send samples to specialized labs and wait days for results.
Ankit Patel, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering at Rice and assistant professor of neuroscience at BCM, is a corresponding author on the study alongside Halas.
Other Rice co-authors include computer science doctoral alum Yilong Ju; doctoral students Sarah Denison, Peixuan Jin and Andres Sanchez-Alvarado; Peter Nordlander, the Wiess Chair in Physics and Astronomy and professor of electrical and computer engineering and materials science and nanoengineering; and Pedro Alvarez, the George R. Brown Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering.
The research was supported by the National Institutes of Health (P42ES027725-01), the Welch Foundation (C-1220, C-1222) and the Carl and Lillian Illig Fellowship (Smalley-Curl Institute, H20398-239440). The content herein is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the funding organizations and institutions.
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This news release can be found online at news.rice.edu.
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Peer-reviewed paper:
In silico Machine Learning-Enabled Detection of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons from Contaminated Soil | Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences | DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2427069122
Authors: Yilong Ju, Oara Neumann, Sara Denison, Peixuan Jin, Andres B. Sanchez-Alvarado, Peter Nordlander, Thomas P. Senftle, Pedro J.J. Alvarez, Ankit Patel and Naomi J. Halas
Located on a 300-acre forested campus in Houston, Texas, Rice University is consistently ranked among the nation’s top 20 universities by U.S. News & World Report. Rice has highly respected schools of architecture, business, continuing studies, engineering and computing, humanities, music, natural sciences and social sciences and is home to the Baker Institute for Public Policy. Internationally, the university maintains the Rice Global Paris Center, a hub for innovative collaboration, research and inspired teaching located in the heart of Paris. With 4,776 undergraduates and 4,104 graduate students, Rice’s undergraduate student-to-faculty ratio is just under 6-to-1. Its residential college system builds close-knit communities and lifelong friendships, just one reason why Rice is ranked No. 1 for lots of race/class interaction and No. 7 for best-run colleges by the Princeton Review. Rice is also rated as a best value among private universities by the Wall Street Journal and is included on Forbes’ exclusive list of “New Ivies.”
