Field Notes: South Pacific
WashU earth scientists in Arts & Sciences are mapping Earth’s interior and analyzing lava rocks from a volcanic hotspot near the islands of Samoa.
National Academies report highlights high magnetic field science
Sophia Hayes, in Arts & Sciences, co-authored a study on strategic directions guiding high magnetic field science with pursuits in chemistry, medical MRI, low-temperature physics, superconducting materials and fusion. Challenges to the helium supply figured prominently throughout.
Heemstra speaks about elevating scientific discovery at chemistry meeting
Jennifer M. Heemstra, the Charles Allen Thomas Professor of Chemistry and chair of chemistry in Arts & Sciences at WashU, delivered a keynote address at the American Chemistry Society fall meeting in Denver.
Turning bacteria into bioplastic factories
Biologists in Arts & Sciences have found new ways to encourage the plastic-producing power of purple microbes.
Reichhardt wins NIH MIRA award
Courtney Reichhardt, an assistant professor of chemistry in Arts & Sciences, has been awarded a prestigious Maximizing Investigators’ Research Award from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to pursue several projects on fibrillar adhesins, the proteins bacteria use to stick to each other and surfaces.
Patty Jo Watson, professor emerita in anthropology, 92
Patty Jo Watson, a professor emerita in anthropology in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, died Thursday, Aug. 1, 2024, in Arlington, Mass. Watson was one of the world’s leading experts on cave archaeology and agricultural origins.
Ornamented dragonflies better equipped to survive human threats
A study by Kim Medley, director of Tyson Research Center, and others found that dragonflies with dark wing markings have a lower risk of extinction.
Daily rhythms depend on receptor density in biological clock
Tweaking the numbers of receptors in a key brain area changes the daily rhythms of rest and wake in mice, according to research led by Daniel Granados-Fuentes in Arts & Sciences, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Chemists develop test to track crucial edits to RNA
A team of WashU chemists led by graduate student Alex Quillin in Arts & Sciences has developed a test that makes it possible to precisely track edits in cells, an advance that could lead to a new understanding of the origins of many illnesses.
Tikhonov wins NSF CAREER award
Mikhail Tikhonov in Arts & Sciences has won a prestigious National Science Foundation award for a project that will apply the statistical approaches of physics to the complicated world of microbial ecology.
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