Amazon drones: Technology almost there, insurance and regulation still far off

For Amazon’s recently announced drone delivery system to get off the ground, the company will have to solve numerous difficult technological challenges. Chief among them will be increasing battery life, getting the drones to work without a central command and to “think” on their own, and determining what kind of navigation sensors they will use. As complicated as those tasks may be, says a WUSTL robotics expert, they will be much more easily solved than the seemingly more simple issues of regulation and insurance.
Tyson designated an Earth Observatory

Tyson designated an Earth Observatory

A 60-acre plot in Washington University in St. Louis’ Tyson Research Center has been named a Forest Global Earth Observatory, or ForestGEO. The oak-hickory forest in the rolling foothills of the Ozarks joins a network of 51 long-term forest study sites in 23 countries, including eight others in the United States. Together, the forests, containing roughly 8,500 species and 4.5 million individual trees, comprise the largest, systematically studied network of forest-ecology plots in the world.

Listeners can distinguish voices of tall versus short people, study finds

A new study by researchers at Washington University in St. Louis, University of California, Los Angeles, and Indiana University found that listeners can accurately determine the relative heights of speakers just by listening to them talk. The key clue may be contained in a particular type of sound produced in the lower airways of the lungs, known as a subglottal resonance.
Scientists stitch up photosynthetic megacomplex

Scientists stitch up photosynthetic megacomplex

In Science, scientists at Washington University in St. Louis report on a new technique that allowed them to extract a photosynthetic megacomplex consisting of a light antenna and two reaction centers from the membrane of a cyanobacterium. This is the first time an entire complex has been isolated and studied as a functioning whole.
Environmental politics and climate change​​​

Environmental politics and climate change​​​

Political scientist William Lowry has paid close attention to environmental issues for 25 years, marshaling what he learns each year and testing it in front of a class of critical students. He has honed his class “Environmental and Energy Issues” to the point where it is a white-water ride down a river of arguments and counterarguments that puts everything in context and lays out the facts — but skips the lecturing and fearmongering that characterize this debate. There can be no better guide to the perplexed.

Two WUSTL faculty named AAAS fellows

Two faculty members from Washington University in St. Louis have been named fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the world’s largest general scientific society. They are Michael J. Holtzman, MD (left), and Rohit V. Pappu, PhD.

Scientist helps kids — through turtles — connect with nature

Visiting scientist Stephen Blake has traveled the world trying to protect endangered species, including forest elephants and giant tortoises. Lately he and his wife veterinarian Sharon Deem have put increasing emphasis on trying to restore another endangered species: kids who care about nature. They’ve started the St. Louis Box Turtle Project as a kid-friendly way to re-introduce kids to the woods.

Swarming insect provides clues to how the brain processes smells

Our sense of smell is often the first response to environmental stimuli. Odors trigger neurons in the brain that alert us to take action. However, there is often more than one odor in the environment, such as in coffee shops or grocery stores. How does our brain process multiple odors received simultaneously? Barani Raman, PhD, of the School of Engineering & Applied Science, is using locusts to help find the answer.

Climate Change Initiative: A conversation

Himadri Pakrasi, PhD, director of the International Center for Advanced Renewable Energy and Sustainability, sat down recently with Peter Raven, PhD, the George Engelmann Professor of Botany Emeritus in Arts & Sciences and president emeritus of the Missouri Botanical Garden, for a conversation about the Washington University Climate Change Initiative.
Volcano discovered smoldering under a kilometer of ice in West Antarctica

Volcano discovered smoldering under a kilometer of ice in West Antarctica

A temporary seismic array in Marie Byrd Land in West Antarctica recorded two bursts of activity in 2010 and 2011. Careful analysis of the events shows they originate from a subglacial volcano at the leading end of a volcanic mountain chain. The volcano is unlikely to erupt through the kilometer of ice that covers it but it will melt enough ice to change the way the ice in its vicinity flows.
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