Science & Technology

Physicists studying the brain at Washington University in St. Louis have shown how measuring signals from a single neuron may be as good as capturing information from many neurons at once using big, expensive arrays of electrodes. The new work continues the discussion about how the brain seems to function in a “critical” state. The research was reported in the Journal of Neuroscience.

New research by biologists in Arts & Sciences reveals the molecular machinery behind the high-intensity sweetness of the stevia plant. The results could be used to engineer new non-caloric products without the aftertaste that many associate with the sweetener marketed as Stevia.

Researchers at Washington University in St. Louis will now be able to more rapidly study cilia and their dysfunctions thanks to an “acoustic trap” that holds cilia in place without damaging them.

Undergraduate students interested in learning more about thermal management research will have the opportunity to participate in a new summer research program at the McKelvey School of Engineering beginning in the summer of 2019.

William B. McKinnon, professor of earth and planetary sciences in Arts & Sciences, is a co-investigator on the NASA New Horizons team that published the first comprehensive profile of Ultima Thule in the May 17 issue of the journal Science.

Michael Bloomberg announced the formation and convening of the Midwestern Collegiate Climate Summit, to be held in early 2020, to focus on mitigating the effects of climate change. Washington University in St. Louis will serve as its anchor.

A native mosquito in Missouri has fewer parasites when it shares its waters with an interloper, according to new research from biologists at Tyson Research Center, the environmental field station for Washington University in St. Louis.

Astronauts currently aboard the International Space Station have begun an experiment that will allow them to ignite a flame and observe and study its properties. If the experiments — directed by a McKelvey School of Engineering faculty member — show what researchers expect they will, they could lead to a new, fundamental understanding of the properties of combustion.

The university’s interdisciplinary Center for Quantum Sensors aims to harness the power of quantum mechanics to detect and decipher some of the universe’s greatest mysteries. The effort is timely as Congress recently approved a federal program supporting the development of quantum technologies.

New research from Washington University in St. Louis finds that women and mice both shift their daily schedules earlier by up to a few hours during the first third of their pregnancy. The new study shows how impending motherhood induces changes in daily timing of a mother which, when disrupted, may put a pregnancy at risk, as reported in the Journal of Biological Rhythms.