Science & Technology

A team of researchers led by Young-Shin Jun at the McKelvey School of Engineering analyzed how light breaks down polystyrene, the plastic from which packing peanuts and disposable utensils are made. They found that small plastic particles interact with neighboring substances more easily than previously thought, including with things like heavy metals and organic contaminants.

Models based on an average cell are useful, but they may not accurately describe how individual cells really work. Molecular biologists use actual single-cell data to update the framework for understanding the relationship between cell growth, DNA replication and division in a bacterial system.

Far from orderly “brick-by-brick” assembly, the internal structures of cells are grown in stochastic bursts, according to physicist Shankar Mukherji in Arts & Sciences, author of a Jan. 6 study in Physical Review Letters.

A team of researchers, led by Rohit Pappu at the McKelvey School of Engineering at Washington University in St. Louis, focused on defining the features of condensate boundaries. They found that within condensates — molecular communities that make up the building blocks of life — the molecules’ organization resembles the hub-and-spoke structure of airports.

Scientists at Washington University in St. Louis discovered that under Mars-like conditions, manganese oxides can be readily formed without atmospheric oxygen. The study from the laboratory of Jeffrey Catalano in Arts & Sciences was published Dec. 22 in Nature Geoscience.

A team of scientists including physicist Johanna Nagy at Washington University in St. Louis successfully launched a balloon-borne experiment studying the early universe on Dec. 21. The instrument, called SPIDER, was carried aloft by a scientific balloon from its launch pad in Antarctica.

Ganesh Chelluboyina, a doctoral student at the McKelvey School of Engineering, received a 2023 Quad Fellowship. Chelluboyina studies light-absorbing aerosols, particularly organic aerosols that result from wildfires.

Jessica Wagenseil, at the McKelvey School of Engineering, plans to take a closer look at the mechanics on smooth muscle cells in the aortic wall with a four-year $1.6 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Results may help to identify new drug strategies.

Christopher Gill, a professor at the McKelvey School of Engineering, has been named a Distinguished Member of the Association for Computing Machinery for his contributions to the field.

Yixin Chen, a professor of computer science and engineering at the McKelvey School of Engineering, has been named an IEEE Fellow in the Class of 2023.