Science & Technology

America has the potential to solve its energy crisis over the next decade, but doing so requires immediate investment in the development and deployment of clean energy technologies, says Mark S. Wrighton, chancellor of Washington University in St. Louis and vice chair of a new National Resource Council report on America’s energy challenges.

Traditional rice cultivation methods practiced in the isolated hillside farms of Thailand are helping preserve the genetic diversity of rice, one of the world’s most important food crops, according to a new study by researchers at Washington University in St. Louis and Chiang Mai University in Thailand.

Data collected during two close flybys of Saturn’s moon Enceladus by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft add more fuel to the fire about the Saturnian ice world containing sub-surface liquid water, according to a report in the July 23 issue of the journal Nature that is co-authored by a planetary researcher from Washington University in St. Louis.

Photo by Randy KorotevLunar geochemist Randy Korotev, Ph.D., a research professor in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences in Arts & Sciences, said that there are still many answers to be gleaned from the moon rocks collected by the Apollo 11 astronauts on their historic moonwalk 40 years ago July 20. And he credits another WUSTL professor for the fact that the astronauts even collected the moon rocks in the first place.

An international collaboration of scientists discovers an outburst of very-high-energy gamma radiation from the giant radio galaxy Messier 87, accompanied by a strong rise of the radio flux measured from the direct vicinity of its supermassive black hole. The findings shed new light on the understanding of gamma rays in black holes.

The School of Engineering & Applied Science at Washington University in St. Louis has developed a highly personalized one-year master of engineering in computer science and engineering designed to provide students computing skills and a competitive edge to meet the demands of modern industry. The program is specially tailored for individuals who plan to change careers and enter the computer science and engineering (CSE) profession, for international students seeking to establish U.S. credentials in computing, and for current CSE professionals who wish to advance their skills and education.

An international collaboration of 390 scientists reports the discovery of an outburst of very-high-energy gamma radiation from the giant radio galaxy Messier 87 (M 87), accompanied by a strong rise of the radio flux measured from the direct vicinity of its supermassive black hole. The combined results give first experimental evidence that particles are accelerated to extremely high energies in the immediate vicinity of a supermassive black hole and then emit the observed gamma rays. The gamma rays have energies a trillion times higher than the energy of visible light. Washington University in St. Louis physicists helped coordinate this cooperative project, the results of which appear in the July 2 Science Express, the advance online publication of the journal Science.

WUSTL Photo ServicesWUSTL’s ExxonMobil Bernard Harris Summer Science CampWashington University in St. Louis will host its third ExxonMobil Bernard Harris Summer Science Camp June 14-26. The Danforth Campus will welcome 48 middle schoolers from traditionally underrepresented populations who are academically qualified, recommended by their teachers and genuinely interested in math and science. The free residential camp gives students a first-hand experience with experiments, role models and innovative programs to encourage their continued participation in math and science courses in school. A special “ExxonMobil Media Day” will be held from 9:30-11:30 a.m. June 17 at the Mallinckrodt Center, lower level. Campers will work side by side with scientists to complete an engineering challenge.

If you’re clueless about petrology, paleobiology and plate tectonics, the National Science Foundation and the Earth Science Literacy Initiative (ESLI) have just released a free pamphlet offering a concise primer on what all Americans should know about the Earth sciences. “The Earth Science Literacy framework document of ‘Big Ideas’ and supporting concepts was a community effort representing the current state-of-the-art research in Earth sciences,” said Michael E. Wysession, Ph.D., chair of ESLI and associate professor of earth and planetary sciences in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis.

Joe Angeles/WUSTL Photo The Living Learning Center An opening ceremony for what could be one of North America’s greenest buildings — a flagship building on the cutting edge of sustainable design and energy efficiency — was held May 29 at Washington University in St. Louis’ new Living Learning Center at the university’s Tyson Research Center. The Living Learning Center is a 2,900-square-foot facility built to meet the Living Building Challenge — designed to be the most stringent green building rating system in the world — of the Cascadia Region Green Building Council (CRGBC). No building has met its standard yet, but the Living Learning Center is in the running to be the first in North America.