Science & Technology

A team of engineers from Washington University in St. Louis is turning to small sensors and cloud computing for a smarter self-monitoring solution that can better sound the alarm in specific cases of infrastructure failure. It’s a solution that will get its first test Sept. 21 when it’s installed on Michigan’s Mackinac Bridge.

On Sept. 19, Washington University scientist Henric Krawczynski, announced that the X-Calibur X-ray telescope had landed safely near the border between Arizona and New Mexico, completing a long stratospheric balloon flight with disks full of data about neutron stars and black holes.

What gives Mordor Macula, the red dusted polar region of Pluto’s moon Charon, its color? New Horizons scientists, including Washington University’s Bill McKinnon, answer the question in the current issue of Nature.

What have plant scientists learned in the laboratory in the past three to five years that could be used to reduce inputs of water, chemical fertilizers and herbicides to agricultural fields?

A simple experiment, originally undertaken to test a new methodology, unexpectedly disproved the prevailing notion of cancer metabolism.

The leading theory for the moon’s formation got in trouble recently when it was revealed that the moon and Earth are isotopic twins. Now highly precise measurements of the isotopes of an element that was still condensed at the “cut off” temperature when material started to fall back to Earth suggest a dramatic solution to the problem.

X-Calibur, a novel telescope that sees polarized X-rays rather than visible or infrared light, is preparing to launch from the Columbia Scientific Balloon Facility in Fort Sumner, N.M. The telescope’s scientific team is led by Henric Krawczynski, professor of physics in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis.

Researchers from Washington University in St. Louis are using science and engineering to fight the heinous crime of sex trafficking. By targeting places where the crimes usually occur, the high-tech approach is as simple as snapping photos on your cellphone and uploading them to a database.

Moving beyond the bench, alumna Tina Hesman Saey turned a strong interest in science and a love of language into a new career: science writing.

Botanists have organized to try to stem the frightening loss of plant species across the globe. How well are they doing? They recently met in St. Louis to exchange stories from the botanical front lines.