Author: Diana Lutz

Image courtesy of NASAThe Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) taking pictures of Mars.A software program developed by researchers at Washington University in St. Louis is allowing access to planetary data and early images from the most powerful spectral camera ever sent to Mars. The information is now available on NASA’s online planetary data archive.

The next generation of consumers will be the true beneficiaries of the promise of genomics. But how will they make informed choices in a world resplendent with genomics products, including tools to predict disease and the engineered drugs to treat those diseases? The answer, says Sarah C.R. Elgin, Ph.D., WUSTL professor of biology in Arts & Sciences, is more genetics and genomics at every level of American education.

NASA/JPL-Caltech/E.Churchwell (U. of WisconsinThe nebula RCW49 is a nursery for newborn stars and exists in circumstellar space, where chemistry is done for the very first time.Picture a cool place, teeming with a multitude of hot bodies twirling about in rapidly changing formations of singles and couples, partners and groups, constantly dissolving and reforming. If you were thinking of the dance floor in a modern nightclub, think again. It’s a description of the shells around dying stars, the place where newly formed elements make compounds and life takes off, said Katharina Lodders, Ph.D., research associate professor of earth and planetary sciences in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis.

Researchers at Washington University in St. Louis have discovered through genetic analyses a metabolic pathway in bacteria comprised of just three genes, all known to be players in metabolism. This pathway was previously shown to be involved in synthesizing modified membrane lipids but data from Petra Levin’s lab indicate that it also has a major role in cell division. This is the first identification of a pathway responsible for regulating bacterial cell size.

Yixin Chen, Ph.D., assistant professor of computer science and engineering, is one of five faculty nationwide to receive a 2007 Microsoft Research New Faculty Fellowship. The fellowship is one of the most prestigious awards for young computer scientists, and Chen is the first WUSTL researcher to receive the award.

Professors will show teachers how to create biodiesel and use it to race model boats. Participating teachers will be doing these labs in their classrooms during 2007-08 using equipment borrowed from the University of Missouri-St. Louis and Washington University. Funding from the National Science Foundation and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute supports the workshop and the classroom loan program.

It’s no laughing matter that older adults have a tougher time understanding basic jokes than do younger adults. It’s partially due to a cognitive decline associated with age, according to Washington University in St. Louis researchers Wingyun Mak, a graduate student in psychology in Arts & Sciences, and Brian Carpenter, Ph.D., Washington University associate professor of psychology.

Matthew Malten’s appointment marks the first time that Washington University has given a person the responsibility for campus sustainability.

Samuel Isaac Weissman, Ph.D., professor emeritus of chemistry in Arts & Sciences who worked on the Manhattan Project, died Tuesday, June 12, 2007, at 2 McKnight Place. He was 94.

Samuel Isaac Weissman, Ph.D., professor emeritus of chemistry who had worked on the Manhattan Project, died Tuesday (June 12, 2007) at 2 McKnight Place at the age of 94. He was a longtime resident of St. Louis.