Science & Technology

Biologists have long thought that body size is correlated with temperature zone: larger animals live in colder regions and smaller ones in warmer ones. Newly compiled physiological data allowed this rule to be put to the test. Animals adapt by coordinated changes in their metabolic rates and “insulation.” Body size plays only a minor role.

An outburst from a distant quasar known as PKS 1441+25 in April of this year gave astronomers at the gamma-ray telescope VERITAS an opportunity to measure the density of the optical “fog” that lies between the quasar and Earth and to deduce the surprising separation of the high-energy emission from the black hole that drives it.

After a nearly 10-year wait, planetary scientist William McKinnon, PhD, provides an inside look at New Horizons’ spectacular flyby of Pluto and its first discoveries coming into focus.

Scientists were able to deploy ruggidized seismometers that could withstand intense cold in Antarctica only recently. A line of seismometers strung across the West Antarctic Rift Valley and the Marie Byrd Land have given geologists their first good look at the mantle beneath the ice and rocks, revealing areas of hot rock that might affect the behavior of the overlying ice sheet.

Henric Krawczynski, PhD, professor of physics in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, has won a $1.3 million NASA grant to develop semiconductor detectors and their readout electrons for the next generation of  X-ray telescopes.

Genetic variation within the endocannabinoid system may explain why some survivors of childhood adversity go on to become dependent on marijuana, while others are able to use marijuana without problems, suggests new research from Washington University in St. Louis.

​At team at Washington University’s School of Engineering & Applied Science found tomato plants that received zinc oxide and titanium dioxide nanoparticles better absorbed light and minerals, and the fruit had higher antioxidant content.

A study in the Nov. 2 issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences is the first to fully document the demographic impacts of West Nile virus on North American bird populations. Data from bird-banding stations shows more species were hit than suspected, and half of those have yet to recover.

One of the more unbelievable things they tell you in school is that if you drop two objects of different weights they will hit the ground at the same time. Is that really true? Michael Abercrombie, PhD ’16, explains.

Ever wonder where we really come from? Washington University graduate student Cole D. Pruitt explains the connection between the stuff we’re made of, burping stars and nuclear pasta.