Science & Technology

That FOX Broadcasting Company has a conservative slant and MSNBC skews liberal may reflect widespread opinion, but a Washington University in St. Louis study suggests that news networks’ biases can be measured. Published in March 2011 in the journal Behavioral Research Methods, the findings are important in their validation of a new research tool developed by Washington University psychologists, according to lead author Nicholas Holtzman, a graduate student in psychology in Arts & Sciences at the university.

The Department of Mathematics in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis has announced the results of two competitions, the national William Lowell Putnam Mathematics Competition and the Missouri Collegiate Math Competition. The WUSTL team placed 19th out of  442 teams from 546 colleges and universities in the Putnam, and two teams finished first and third in the state contest.

For his dissertation Brad Oberle delved into the post-Pleistocene history of two rare species of shootingstars (Dodecatheon), thinking that their response to post-glacial warming might provide clues to the response of plants to global warming. He found that one rare species was a glacial relict that had gradually retreated to a refuge habitat near limestone cliffs. The second rare species was not a species at all but instead an ecotype, or variant, of a widespread species that had adapted to the cooler cliff habitat. The glacial relict is the species most at risk as the climate warms.

WUSTL physics professors will explore “Nobel Laureates Whom We Have Known: Scientists and Citizens” during the 2011 Saturday Science seminar series. The 2011 Saturday Science seminar series — sponsored by the Department of Physics and University College, both in Arts & Sciences — begins Saturday, April 16. The lectures are free and tailored for the general public.

Students, faculty and staff hosted aspiring scientists March 26, April 2 and April 9 during “Catalysts for Change” workshops aimed at introducing female high school students to science, technology and engineering fields. Workshop students launch containers — designed using straws, cotton balls, rubber bands and tape — outside of the Lab Sciences Building. They competed to see who could launch their container the farthest without breaking an egg protected inside.

Yan Yi “Anny” Chung is the winner of the 2011 Stalker Award. The award is given to the graduating senior in biology whose undergraduate career was marked by outstanding scientific scholarship as well as contributions to the university in areas of artistic expression and/or community service.

The National Research Council is conducting a series of “Town Hall” meetings across the country to roll out the Planetary Science Decadal Survey 2013-2022 Wednesday, April 6, and the McDonnell Center for Space Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis will be hosting one of the events at 7 p.m. Wednesday, April 6, in Room 201, Crow Hall. It will consist of a one-hour presentation by Amy Simon-Hall of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, who was a member of the survey’s steering committee, followed by a one-hour question-and-answer period.  

The premise behind Tom Bernatowicz’s innovative introductory physics course is that students should understand — even if they sometimes can’t fully share — the enthusiasm physicists feel their work. “We love physics, and we want our students to love it, too,” says Bernatowicz, PhD. “We’re not saying we’ll make it easy just so that they’ll love it, but we do want them to understand because it’s something we ourselves cherish and we want them to see how great it is.”

Tom Bernatowicz, PhD, professor of physics in Arts & Sciences, began at WUSTL studying stardust, tiny crystals of material that formed around dying red giant stars or in exploding supernovae. While he remains interested in these tiny grains, lately he has been devoting much of his time to creating an introductory physics course that is so lively and engaging the students leave understanding why physicists are so passionate about their work.

In Counting from Zero a computer security expert named Mick O’Malley must track down and thwart an enormous botnet, or network of zombie computers organized to receive commands over the Internet and perform the hacker’s bidding. The novel, by Alan B. Johnston, who teaches engineering courses at Washington University in St. Louis, is both a fast read and a chilling tutorial on the the increasingly serious threats to computer security.