Many academic leaders say telephone and cable companies could soon thwart colleges’ attempts to deliver education and collaborate on research over the Internet. They are pressing Congress to approve legislation that would force telecommunications companies to keep the broadband pipes they manage open to any kind of Web content or network application - even those that compete with the companies’ own offerings Ð and would prohibit the companies from favoring certain types of network traffic with fast-lane delivery to people’s computers

One type of coral that is able to survive bleaching caused by pollution and climate change can do so because it feeds on plankton instead of the more-common algae, according to research conducted by Brown graduate student James Palardy and others. The findings were reported in Nature. This article appeared on Scientific American’s companion Web-site.

Axon Sleep Research Laboratories, launched by former Brown University students, won this year’s Rhode Island Business Plan Competition. The award was announced at the Brown Forum for Enterprise. Charles Kingdon, associate vice president of Brown Technology Partnerships, was among the leaders of the competition.

History Professor Gordon Wood’s new book, “Revolutionary Characters: What Made the Founders Different,” “elegantly examines the meaning of the Founding Fathers for our time and Ð an infinitely harder thing to discern - for their own,” according to Kirkus Reviews, which writes and distributes reviews of books three to four months in advance of publication. Wood’s new book is expected to be published by Penguin Press May 22.