MSN Health & Fitness
Health highlights: Exercise tied to lower risk of colon cancer death
01/03/2011
Exercise may decrease your risk of dying from colon cancer, according to a new study in the journal Cancer Epidemiology. Many people wonder whether exercise will help them stay healthy, said researcher Kathleen Wolin, of the Siteman Cancer Center at Washington University School of Medicine and Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis. “It’s never too late to start exercising, but it’s also never too early to start being active,” Wolin said. Link to Article
Related news release http://news.wustl.edu/news/Pages/21683.aspx
Yahoo! Shine
Seven troubling youth trends
01/04/2011
Preschoolers? Depressed? Impossible! Well, don’t be too sure. A recent study, funded by the National Institute of Mental Health, found that depression in young children is real and can be identified as young as two years of age. Though once thought to be an impossible ailment for young children, longitudinal studies conducted by Joan Luby, a psychiatrist at Washington University at St. Louis, proved otherwise. Link to Article
The Daily Caller
Who’s who of liberals lead anti-filibuster effort
01/04/2011
A myriad of liberal organizations is plotting to rewrite Senate rules to limit the power of Republicans. Last month, a group of academics wrote a letter to the Senate to clarify misperceptions about the filibuster and Rule XXII. The letter is heavy on facts and light on political posturing, but it clearly supports elimination of the filibuster. The academics hail from the Brookings Institution, University of California at Berkeley, University of California at Los Angeles, Columbia University, Washington University and the University of Miami. Link to Article
The Scientist
Casey Dunn discusses diversity
01/04/2011
The switch from single-celled organisms to ones made up of many cells has evolved independently more than two dozen times. What can this transition teach us about the origin of complex organisms such as animals and plants? The story includes a graphic by evolutionary developmental biologist David Kirk of Washington University in St. Louis detailing 12 steps key to the transition of volvox algae from unicellular to multicellular varieties. Link to Article
SPACE.com
Spirit rover remains silent as Mars mission begins 8th year
01/04/2011
NASA’s mired Spirit rover remains in a nine-month slumber as it begins the eighth year of its Mars mission, but its twin, Opportunity, keeps chugging along. Researchers are keeping close tabs on the slumbering rover, checking it daily. They’re hopeful, if not necessarily confident, that the rover will wake up. “It’s total guesswork,” MER deputy principal investigator Ray Arvidson, of Washington University in St. Louis, told SPACE.com. “People who’ve bet against it have always lost so far. But it’s your great granddad of rovers.” Link to Article See also Yahoo News
Registrarism
New Green World University ranking
01/04/2011
The University of Indonesia is promoting efforts to build sustainable campus environments through publication of the UI Green Metric Ranking of World Universities 2010, which measures each university participant on its commitment in developing an ‘environment friendly’ infrastructure. Based on research and surveys conducted on thousands of universities, the study ranked Washington University in St. Louis as the seventh best university in the world based on its environment policy. The criteria are not entirely clear. Link to Article
VentureBeat
Is mobile payments start-up Square worth $200M?
01/04/2011
Square, the mobile payments service led by Twitter cofounder Jack Dorsey, is raising a new funding round that values the company at an impressive $200 million. Square may be facing some legal challenges, because Washington University professor Bob Morley, who says he developed the technology with Square’s founders, was recently granted a patent that’s key to Square’s business. Link to Article
Her Campus
How to clean up your Facebook before you apply for a job or internship
01/04/2011
it’s as important to clean up your Facebook as it is to pick out a killer outfit for your interview. With 45 percent of employers using Facebook as a means to screen possible interns and employees it’s important to be as conscientious as possible. “The most important thing to portray through your Facebook page when applying for jobs is professionalism,” says the Washington University in St. Louis Career Center. Link to Article
Cleveland Plain Dealer
HPV vaccines shouldn’t ease our concerns about diseases
1/03/2011
Not long ago, the mere mention of
HPV — human papillomavirus — was met with confusion and anxiety. Today, two highly publicized preventive vaccines have made discussion of the sexually transmitted disease more commonplace. A study by researchers at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis showed that only 34 percent of girls ages 13 to 17 have received the Gardasil vaccine. They found that girls who lived in counties with higher poverty and lower family-income levels were more likely to get the vaccine than their more well-off peers. Link to Article
St. Louis Beacon
Everyday addictions: DNA and brain changes may sabotage New Year’s resolutions
1/03/2011
If you’re having trouble keeping your New Year’s resolutions, it may be your mother’s fault. Or your grandfather’s. It’s not a blame game. It’s a relatively new science called epigenetics that may help explain why you blew your diet, sneaked a cigarette or fell off the wagon a short time after vowing to stop on Jan. 1. “The data that seem to be emerging are that addiction changes the way genes are permanently expressed,” said Theodore Cicero, professor of psychiatry at Washington University School of Medicine. Link to Article
News in Higher Education
Washington Post
Video essays are a hot topic in college admissions as more schools allow them
1/03/2011
Videos have been a small part of the admissions process for years, especially for students applying to arts programs. But as cameras and editing software get cheaper and easier to use, the videos have become more technically sophisticated and feature clips spliced from a number of scenes, voice-overs, music and simple special effects. And increasingly, it’s not just arts students participating. Link to Article
Al Jazeera
US students drown in sea of debt
1/02/2011
American university students are beginning the new year with a mountain of debt. There is now $850 billion owed in outstanding tuition costs and paying back the money is an ongoing challenge. Two in every three American students graduate with loans outstanding and the current debt is 11 times the total it was just two decades ago. Experts say a college degree is an important investment, but in a difficult job market it is an investment that could take a lifetime to pay off. Al Jazeera’s Tom Ackerman reports (online video). Link to Online Video
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