Science & Technology

Mice missing a specific protein from their brains react to stress differently. The genetically engineered mice develop an imbalance in a hormone involved in stress responses, and during stressful situations, they behave as if they are depressed. Genetic variations in the same protein may be a significant cause of human depression, according to researchers at the School of Medicine.

Chimpanzees don’t need haircuts.Mammals have fur over most of their bodies, but at some point during evolution, we humans lost that fur covering. Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis argue that hair on the head is somehow different from fur because fur stops growing when it reaches a certain length, but our head hair continues to grow.

Jupiter: a core of tar.After eleven months of politics, now it’s time for some real “core values” – not those of the candidates but those of the great gas giant planet, Jupiter. Katharina Lodders, Ph.D., Washington University in St. Louis research associate professor in Earth and Planetary Sciences in Arts & Sciences, studying data from the Galileo probe of Jupiter, proposes a new mechanism by which the planet formed 4.5 billion years ago.

Rendering of the new CORTEX buildingEfforts to develop a significant biotechnology industry in St. Louis got a major boost with the groundbreaking for a new laboratory and office building that will provide space for growing companies. The new building at 4300 Forest Park Avenue in midtown St. Louis is being developed by CORTEX, the Center of Research, Technology & Entrepreneurial Exchange.

Bobtail squidA molecule that triggers damaging changes in the lungs of children with whooping cough lets a bobtail squid living off the coast of Hawaii acquire the ability to glow, scientists have discovered.

He was named an assistant professor in 1951 and promoted to associate professor in 1957; he retired as emeritus in 1987.

Salmonella entericaEvery year in developing nations, typhoid fever infects more than 16 million people and kills more than half a million. Researchers hoping to reduce this heavy toll have an important new tool: completed genomes for the two bacteria that are the leading causes of typhoid fever.

Remembering Einstein’s “miracle year.”The United Nations has declared 2005 the International Year of Physics — and there’s a very good reason why this particular year was chosen to raise worldwide public awareness of physics. It is also the 100th anniversary of physicist Albert Einstein’s miraculous year in which he wrote five — or three depending on whom you ask — of his most famous scientific papers. Also known as the World Year of Physics, 2005 will feature worldwide events of interest not only to physicists, but also to the general public. Two physicists from Washington University in St. Louis who are both known for their ability to speak and write clearly about physics to the layperson will be giving talks throughout 2005 about Einstein’s ideas and their impact on science and society 100 years later.

Red jungle fowlThe first detailed analysis of the chicken genome has identified a chicken counterpart to an important human immune system protein, revised scientists’ assessment of the chicken’s sense of smell, and suggested that the chicken, long used to study gene activity in the earliest stages of life, may provide a good model for studying changes in DNA linked to aging and death.

Originating in Washington University research laboratories, St. Louis-based biotechnology company Apath has generated enough profit in just seven years to contribute $1 million in royalty payments back to the School of Medicine.