Science & Technology

Most bird families have adapted to changes in ambient temperature by changing both their bodies and their bills simultaneously, according to biologist Justin Baldwin in Arts & Sciences, first author of a new study in Nature Communications.

Researchers led by physicist Henric Krawczynski in Arts & Sciences received $1.5 million from NASA to fund a new flight of XL-Calibur, a balloon-borne telescope built to examine the most extreme objects in the universe. XL-Calibur will be launched from Esrange Space Center in Sweden, north of the Arctic Circle, in May 2024.

Fangqiong Ling, an assistant professor of energy, environmental and chemical engineering in the McKelvey School of Engineering, has been awarded the Best Emerging Investigator Series Paper in 2022 from the Royal Society of Chemistry.

In a paper published in IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Circuits and Systems, researchers at Washington University describe a portable uterine-contraction tracker: a cheap-to-make, flexible electrode patch.

Srikanth Singamaneni, an internationally renowned materials scientist, has been named the Lilyan and E. Lisle Hughes Professor in the McKelvey School of Engineering.

Quing Zhu, a renowned biomedical engineer who has developed advanced imaging techniques to diagnose cancers of the reproductive system and in other areas, has been named the Edwin H. Murty Professor of Engineering in the McKelvey School of Engineering.

Raymond Arvidson, the James S. McDonnell Distinguished University Professor Emeritus in Arts & Sciences, has been awarded an Outstanding Public Leadership Medal from NASA. The honor — his fourth service medal from the space agency — marks the culmination of a storied career in planetary exploration that goes back to the first Viking Mars landers in the 1970s.

A new analysis of fine particulate matter exposure led by researchers in Randall Martin’s lab in the McKelvey School of Engineering illuminates ways to improve health in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, Sri Lanka and Myanmar.

Proof-of-concept device could also monitor for flu, RSV, other respiratory viruses.

For the first time, a study by researchers including biologist Susanne Renner in Arts & Sciences helps solve the mystery of the timing of falling leaves in autumn by revealing the pivotal role of the summer solstice.