Author: Diana Lutz

In the famous Robert Frost poem “The Road Not Taken,” the narrator, forced to travel one of two roads, takes the one less traveled by, and “that has made all the difference.” Chemists at WUSTL and Stanford University, in kinship with Frost, have modified a key protein in a bacterium to move electrons along a […]

“Recognizing Karen Wooley’s outstanding career by associating it with the McDonnell legacy at Washington University couldn’t be more appropriate,” Edward Macias says.

Robert Morley & Ed Richter investigated static electricity buildup from sliding down a plastic slide, which can temporarily silence the world to cochlear implantees.

She was named a “Howard Hughes Medical Institute Professor” in 2002 and is now one of eight scientists to have their original grant funding renewed in 2006.

And James Wang has won the Stalker Prize, given for undergraduate career marked by outstanding scientific scholarship as well contributions to WUSTL.

Courtesy image/WUSTL PhotoFor some deaf children, a plastic slide is a more formidable foe than the school wedgie-giver. Static electricity buildup from sliding down a plastic slide — instant summertime fun for those with normal hearing — can temporarily silence the world to cochlear implantees. Two electrical engineers at Washington University in St. Louis tested static electricity buildup — which can zap a cochlear implant — on sliding children to quantify the sparks. Thanks to some publicity and increased awareness, their research has inspired the St. Louis County Parks and Recreation Department to consider the problem, and an anti-static coating company to try to solve it. More…

David Kilper/WUSTL PhotoChristine Kirmaier (left) and Dewey Holten making adjustments in their sophisticated laser laboratory. Their findings advance the understanding of photosynthesis.In the famous Robert Frost poem, “The Road Not Taken,” the persona, forced to travel one of two roads, takes the one less traveled by, and “that has made all the difference.” Chemists at Washington University in St. Louis and Stanford University, in kinship with Frost, have modified a key protein in a bacterium to move electrons along a pathway not normally traveled by. They got this to happen 70 percent of the time. That yield “makes all the difference.” More…

Olga Pontes & Craig PikaardThe protein HDA6 shows up as a red stain in this Arabidopsis leaf cell nucleus.A team of researchers, including biologists at Washington University in St. Louis, has discovered the key role one protein plays in a major turn-off — in this case, the turning off of thousands of nearly identical genes in a hybrid plant. Studying the phenomenon of nucleolar dominance, in which one parental set of ribosomal genes in a hybrid is silenced, Craig Pikaard, Ph.D., Washington University professor of biology in Arts & Sciences and colleagues have identified the protein HDA6 as an important player in the silencing. More…

David Kilper/WUSTL PhotoMemory Elvin-Lewis in the Goldfarb Greenhouse inspects a kava plant. Elvin-Lewis has written a chapter in a new book that is critical of the unregulated U.S. herbal trade.Ginsengs, echinaceas, and ephedras, oh my! These herbs sound innocuous enough, however, according to Memory Elvin-Lewis, Ph.D., professor of microbiology and ethnobotany in biomedicine in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, Americans are unaware of the dangers inherent in these herbal supplements. More…

A WUSTL team of Jon Pinyan, Huajia Wang and Eric Wofsey ranked 32 out of approximately 400 teams registered at the 2005 Putnam Competition.