Newsroom Stories

Cinderella wishes for festivals. Jack wishes for food. The baker and his wife wish for a child. The storybook world is filled with longing and magic and the happiest of ever afters. For a while, at least. But what happens once the wishes have all come true?

Washington University School of Medicine faculty members Opeolu M. Adeoye, MD, Farshid Guilak, PhD, David H. Gutmann, MD, PhD, and Jonathan Kipnis, PhD, have been elected to the National Academy of Medicine, a part of the National Academy of Sciences. Membership is considered one of the highest honors in the health and medicine fields.

“Lest We Forget,” a public art installation by noted Italian-German photographer Luigi Toscano, will open Oct. 20 in WashU’s Ann and Andrew Tisch Park. The exhibition will feature nearly 100 contemporary, large-scale portraits of Holocaust survivors — including 12 survivors now living in St. Louis.

The university has begun using a new admissions system, Slate, for most of its graduate-level programs. The move is part of Student Sunrise, a multiyear initiative to consolidate and update WashU’s various student information systems.

Research from the lab of Brian Carpenter, in Arts & Sciences, suggests older adults understood that sometimes-unflattering COVID-19 messaging came from a place of caring and compassion.

New School of Medicine research provides clues to falling fast asleep — or lying wide awake. Studying fruit flies, the researchers found that brain neurons adapt to help the flies stay awake despite tiredness in dangerous situations and help them fall asleep after an intense day.

Research from the lab of Fangqiong Ling at the McKelvey School of Engineering finds SARS-CoV-2 material in wastewater reflects illnesses in communities. It also helps establish guidance for future studies.

Paul Byrne, associate professor of earth and planetary sciences in Arts & Sciences, is a science collaborator for a prototype aerial robotic balloon, or aerobot, built by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the Near Space Corp.

Public dissatisfaction with the Supreme Court’s rulings and its performance has been growing. New research by political scientist James Gibson in Arts & Sciences suggests the controversial Dobbs decision may have been the straw that broke the camel’s back.

Senior Otto Brown wants to do everything he can to help students exercise their right to vote Nov. 8. And by everything, Brown means everything.