Science & Technology

Fuzhong Zhang, an expert in synthetic biology at the McKelvey School of Engineering, is investigating how genetically identical cells manage to act so differently. The answer may have implications for antibiotic persistence.

Anthropologist T.R. Kidder in Arts & Sciences contributed to one of the first “big data” studies in archaeology to tackle broader questions of how humans have reshaped landscapes, ecosystems and potentially climate over millennia. The analysis published Aug. 30 in the journal Science challenges conventional ideas that man’s impact has been “mostly recent.”

As researchers probe smaller parts of our world, a “picture” is not always showing what it may seem to show. One researcher at the McKelvey School of Engineering at Washington University in St. Louis has uncovered a fundamental limit to our ability to trust what we see when it comes to images of molecular motion.

A global study comparing 2,062 birds finds that, in highly variable environments, birds tend to have either larger or smaller brains relative to their body size. New research from Carlos Botero, assistant professor of biology in Arts & Sciences, finds birds with smaller brains tend to use ecological strategies that are not available to big-brained counterparts.

New Arts & Sciences research from Washington University in St. Louis shows that invasive mosquitoes at the northern limit of their current range are surviving conditions that are colder than those in their native territory. This new evidence of rapid local adaptation could have implications for efforts to control the spread of this invasive species.

The NSF Center for Sustainable Polymers (CSP) has been awarded a $20 million grant renewal from the National Science Foundation in support of its research. The CSP, based at the University of Minnesota, partners with researchers from around the country, including William Tolman in Arts & Sciences.

Arts & Sciences researcher Kun Wang studies the melted rock that cools into tektites after a meteorite strikes Earth to gain insights into the giant impact event that formed the moon. His latest research was published Aug. 15 in the journal Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta.

In a survey of adults from the countries that comprised the World War II alliances known as the Allies and the Axis, respondents overestimate the importance of their country to the war effort. A new Arts & Sciences study shows how.

Researchers from the Tyson Research Center at Washington University in St. Louis and St. Louis College of Pharmacy have set up 34 motion-activated cameras to capture images of wildlife in area parks and green spaces. Students and volunteers help identify the species in an effort promote local biodiversity and improve the coexistence of humans and wildlife.

When it comes to plant growth and development, one hormone is responsible for it all: auxin. New Washington University in St. Louis research has uncovered a mechanism by which it can affect a plant in a myriad of ways.