Science & Technology

As part of the Human Microbiome Project (HMP), scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and their colleagues have decoded the genomes of 178 microbes from the human body, they report in the journal Science.

At last count there were three physics PhDs in Congress, five science PhDs total, and 228 senators and congressmen with law degrees. WUSTL postdoctoral fellow in physics Chris Spitzer, who has just been named a Congressional Science Fellow for 2010-2011, is off to Washington to learn and observe but also to do what he can to make sure national policy in areas such as energy and the environment reflects current scientific understanding.

The International Center for Advanced Renewable Energy and Sustainability (I-CARES) has awarded 11 faculty members — university professors undertaking innovative and collaborative research in the broad areas of bioenergy and sustainability — grants totaling nearly $300,000.

Sally Elgin wins award for her commitment to finding new, more powerful ways to teach science and to support teachers in the biological sciences.

The decoding  of the Neandertal genome, which suggested modern humans interbred with Neandertals, followed hard on the heals of a WUSTL professor’s critique on mathematical and logical grounds of a gene analysis that suggested no interbreeding.

A groundbreaking ceremony for Preston M. Green Hall was held Friday, April 30, in Uncas A. Whitaker Hall. The building, which will house the School of Engineering & Applied Science, is being named in honor of the late Green, a WUSTL alumnus and benefactor. It will turn the corner at Skinker Boulevard and Forest Park Parkway, connecting on its western edge to the recently completed Brauer Hall.

WUSTL students from the Department of Mathematics in Arts & Sciences recently distinguished themselves in two competitions: A trophy from the 15th annual Missouri MAA Collegiate Mathematics Competition and more than respectable scores at the William Lowell Putnam Mathematics Competition, a difficult and prestigious national contest.

This year’s Spector Prize — awarded by the Department of Biology in Arts & Sciences in memory Marion Smith Spector, a 1938 WUSTL graduate who studied zoology under the late Viktor Hamburger, PhD, — is being shared by two graduating seniors, Rebecca Krock and Olga Minkina.

Three Washington University biologists are being honored this year by the American Society of Plant Biologists, two for sustained achievement in their careers, and the third for a promising beginning.

Whether it’s for money, marbles or chalk, the brains of reward-driven people keep their game faces on, helping them win at every step of the way, even when there is no reward at stake, suggests a surprising Washington University in St. Louis brain scan study published online today by the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Science.