Science & Technology

St. Louis’ hazy summers can sometimes be too hot to handle for people with respiratory issues; increased ozone levels can make the air tough to breathe. A team of engineers at Washington University collaborated on a study of St. Louis’ late-summer air quality. They found that naturally occurring compounds processed in the night sky can have a big impact on ozone levels the next day.

A lab at Washington University in St. Louis is one of the first in the world to look at spontaneous emission with an instrument sensitive to the wave rather than the particle nature of light. Because the light is entangled with the atom that emitted it, this kind of detection may provide a way to control the quantum state of the atom.

Researchers in the School of Engineering & Applied Science at Washington University in St. Louis have discovered a novel route to encode chaos on light in an optomechanical microresonator system.

Biomedical engineer Lori Setton’s collaborative research is pioneering new ways of providing relief to those who suffer neck and back pain.

Engineers at Washington University in St. Louis are using nanoparticle technology in an effort to meet the ever-increasing demand for food. Their innovative technique boosts the growth of a protein-rich bean by improving the way it absorbs nutrients, while reducing the need for fertilizer.

This spring, theory-heavy Washington University in St. Louis geology students went on a field trip to southeastern Spain with field-trained students from Trinity College, Dublin. What they learned from each other transcended earth — and time.

Most of the galactic cosmic rays reaching Earth come from nearby clusters of massive stars, according to new observations from NASA’s ACE spacecraft. The distance between the cosmic rays’ point of origin and Earth is limited by the survival of a radioactive isotope of iron, Fe-60, which has a half life of 2.6 million years. These tiny clocks indicate there was a source within spitting distance of Earth within the past few million years.

The social amoeba Dictyostelium discoideum can farm symbiotic bacteria for food by carrying them from generation to generation. New research shows that these bacteria can also protect the amoeba from environmental toxins.

The six Washington University students who went to the Conference of the Parties (COP21) climate negotiations in Paris are well prepared, resilient, tough-minded and in this fight for the duration.

A team of researchers from Washington University in St. Louis have helped discover a new chemical method to immobilize uranium in contaminated groundwater, which could lead to more precise and successful water remediation efforts at former nuclear sites.