Science & Technology

Washington University in St. Louis has licensed a system developed by Washington University engineers that is meant to detect counterfeit credit cards by reading a unique magnetic “fingerprint” on the stripes of credit cards and other objects that carry magnetic information. The system — called Magneprint — was invented by Ronald Indeck, Ph.D., Das Family Distinguished Professor of Electrical Engineering at Washington University.

To operate a nuclear power plant like Three Mile Island, hundreds of highly trained employees must work in concert to generate power from safe fission, all the while containing dangerous nuclear wastes. On the other hand, it’s been known for 30 years that Mother Nature once did nuclear chain reactions by her lonesome. Now, researchers at Washington University in St. Louis have analyzed the isotopic structure of noble gases produced in fission in a sample from the only known natural nuclear chain reaction site in the world in Gabon, Wes Africa, and have found how she does the trick.

Six WUSM researchers have been named fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the world’s largest general scientific society. AAAS awards the rank of fellow — the highest honor it confers — to researchers who have made scientifically or socially distinguished efforts to advance science.

NorbergRichard E. Norberg, Ph.D., professor of physics in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, has been named a co-recipient of the 2004 ISMAR Prize, the highest honor the International Society of Magnetic Resonance awards.

Henric S. Krawczynski, Ph.D., assistant professor of physics in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, received the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Outstanding Junior Investigator Award in high-energy physics, one of eight scientists in the country to receive the prestigious recognition in 2004.

Henric S. Krawczynski, Ph.D., assistant professor of physics in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, received the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Outstanding Junior Investigator Award in high-energy physics, one of eight scientists in the country to receive the prestigious recognition in 2004.

Robert Richards, a prominent expert on Darwin and evolutionary theory, will present a lecture titled “Did Ernst Haeckel Commit Fraud in Defending Darwin’s Theory,” on Oct. 21 as part of the Assembly Series. Richards conducts research and teaches in the history and philosophy of biology and psychology.

CiechanoverAaron Ciechanover, M.D., D.Sc., visiting professor of pediatrics at the School of Medicine and Research Distinguished Professor of Biochemistry at Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel, was selected Oct. 6 to receive the 2004 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

Eric C. Leuthardt, M.D., a Washington University neurosurgeon at Barnes-Jewish Hospital, has been named one of this year’s Top Young Innovators by Technology Review, MIT’s Magazine of Innovation. The distinction is awarded each year to 100 individuals under age 35 whose innovative work in technology has a profound impact on the world.

A biomedical engineer at WUSTL has determined love taps are better than love jolts in addressing defibrillation.When it comes to affairs of the heart, love taps are preferred over love jolts. That is the result of a team of heart researchers including Igor Efimov, Ph.D., associate professor of biomedical engineering at Washington University in St. Louis, trying to effect a better implantable heart defibrillator. Efimov and his colleagues have modeled a system where an implantable heart defibrillator focuses in on rogue electrical waves created during heart arrhythmia and busts up the disturbance, dissipating it and preventing cardiac arrest.