Science & Technology

A Washington University physicist practiced at finding tiny diamonds in stardust from the pre-solar universe has repeatedly failed to find them in Younger Dryas sedimentary layers, effectively discrediting the hypothesis that an exploding comet caused the sudden climate reversal at the end of the last Ice Age.

Pluto is thought to possess a subsurface ocean, which is not so much a sign of water as it is a tremendous clue that other dwarf planets in deep space also may contain similarly exotic oceans, naturally leading to the question of life, said one co-investigator with NASA’s New Horizon mission to Pluto and the Kuiper Belt.

The island of Madagascar off the coast of Africa was largely unexplored seismically until recently. The first broadband seismic images of the island help solve a longstanding mystery: why are there volcanoes far from any tectonic boundary?

Plant scientists at Washington University in St. Louis have isolated an enzyme that controls the levels of two plant hormones simultaneously, linking the molecular pathways for growth and defense. Plant scientists have long known that distinct plant hormones can interact in complex ways, but how they do so has remained mysterious.

A mechanical engineer at Washington University in St. Louis discovered that a cell-transitioning process implicated in tumor metastasis is influenced by the mechanics of the cells’ environment.

On Nov. 4-6, Washington University hosted Field of Dreams, the annual conference of the Math Alliance, an organization dedicated to increasing the number of traditionally underrepresented groups in doctoral programs in the mathematical sciences.

If a Trump administration follows his campaign rhetoric and advisers, then his most immediate and far-reaching environmental target will be domestic and international efforts to address climate change. Maxine Lipeles, director of the Interdisciplinary Environmental Clinic at the Washington University School of Law, offers her thoughts on Trump’s expected policies toward the environment.

Gabriela González, the spokesperson for the  science collaboration that  detected gravitational waves in spacetime passing over Earth for the first time this year, will deliver the ninth annual Robert M. Walker Distinguished Lecture at 7 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 17. The talk, hosted by the McDonnell Center for the Space Sciences, will take place in Whitaker […]

During his campaign, President-elect Trump publicly stated that he would cut back the Environmental Protection Agency and also vowed to eliminate other federal regulations in place to protect the environment. Brent Williams, the Raymond R. Tucker Distinguished I-CARES Career Development Associate Professor, shares his views on what would happen should those changes take effect.

At a transformative moment in our nation’s history, when America’s “Brexit vote” came to pass, where better than Washington University to bring together the thought leaders and experts from disparate fields covering the littered landscape that was, is and forever will be Election 2016?