Science & Technology

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.

The sudden shortage of a nuclear weapons production byproduct that is critical to industries such as nuclear detection, oil and gas, and medical diagnostics was the focus as a House Science and Technology panel heard testimony today from a physics professor at Washington University in St. Louis.

Richard E. Norberg, PhD, retired professor and longtime chair of physics in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis and a pioneer in using nuclear magnetic resonance as a practical analysis tool, died April 20, 2010, at Bethesda Dilworth in St. Louis. He was 87.

Genetic variations among moray eels don’t show any geographic patterning, apparently because a long-lived larval form called a leptocephalus maintains gene flow among populations. With geographic isolation off the table, it is difficult to understand how the morays diversified into many species.

A class at Washington University taps directly into the astonishing motivational power of the mashup of computers, gaming and popular culture. In the class, the students develop applications, popularly known as “apps,” for the iPhone and iPad, the digital tablet that was released to consumers April 3.

Nearly all animals make sounds instinctively, but baby songbirds learn to sing in virtually the same way human infants learn to speak: by imitating a parent. Now, an international team of scientists, led by the School of Medicine, has decoded the genome of a songbird — the Australian zebra finch — to reveal intriguing clues about the genetic basis and evolution of vocal learning. 

A team of psychologists at Washington University that include graduate student Jonathan Jackson have found an intriguing possibility that personality and brain aging during the golden years may be linked.

Outgoing, gregarious people who fill their lives with deep, meaningful conversations may have found at least one key to a happier life, suggests research from Washington University in St. Louis and the University of Arizona.