Author: Talia Ogliore

Researchers from Washington University in St. Louis will develop and deploy a new telescope designed to measure the linear polarization of X-rays arriving from distant neutron stars, black holes and other exotic celestial objects. The instrument will be flown on a minimum of two scientific balloon launches as early as summer 2021. The NASA-funded effort builds on promising results from a previous balloon-borne mission known as X-Calibur and is dubbed XL-Calibur.

In a Dec. 10 briefing on Capitol Hill, chemist Sophia Hayes of Washington University in St. Louis and an expert on helium testified that steep price increases and “supply shocks” threaten basic research in academic settings. Shortages will also lead to broader health and industry applications, she said.

RIP Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity. But the geosciences data they collected will live on at Washington University, under the care of a team of archivists in Arts & Sciences. The data includes details about both rovers’ every move as well as many images that helped this space mission capture the public’s imagination.

Six faculty members of Washington University in St. Louis have been honored with 2019 Emerson Electric Co. “Excellence in Teaching” awards.

Want to help stop the decline of our insect friends? A new publication from Brett Seymoure in Arts & Sciences shows how artificial light at night negatively impacts thousands of species that have evolved to use light levels as cues for courtship, foraging and navigation.

In Bolivia, a tangled election mess seems to have reaffirmed the popularity of leader Evo Morales. A Washington University in St. Louis faculty member says the country has propped up a new leader in what amounts to a military coup.

Under a five-year, $7 million cooperative agreement led by Jeffrey Gillis-Davis, research associate professor of physics in Arts & Sciences, researchers will investigate fundamental questions at the intersection of space science and human space exploration.

Undergraduates in the Medicine and Society program in Arts & Sciences are helping St. Louis veterans create a version of their life story to be included in their official medical file. The innovative program is taking off around the nation.

Washington University in St. Louis climate change experts react to the Trump administration decision to withdraw from the Paris Agreement on climate change.

Arpita Bose, assistant professor of biology in Arts & Sciences, has published new work that reveals how one kind of bacteria “eats” electricity by pulling in electrons straight from an electrode source. The research is published Nov. 5 in mBio.