Newsroom Stories

Researchers have used socialization and mating among fruit flies to explore the connections between memory and sleep.A new theory about sleep’s benefits for the brain gets a boost from fruit flies in this week’s Science. Researchers at the School of Medicine found evidence that sleep, already recognized as a promoter of long-term memories, also helps clear room in the brain for new learning.

A multicenter study has found two new genetic variants associated with an increased risk of breast cancer. The study was conducted by the Cancer Genetic Markers of Susceptibility (CGEMS) initiative and reported through advance online publication this week in Nature Genetics.

PeeblesP. James E. Peebles, Ph.D., one of the world’s foremost theoretical cosmologists who played a central role in understanding the evolution and structure of the universe, will deliver two talks April 15-16 as part of the McDonnell Distinguished Lecture Series, sponsored by Washington University’s McDonnell Center for the Space Sciences.

Patients with severe heart failure can be bridged to eventual transplant by a new, smaller and lighter implantable heart pump, according to a just-completed study of the device. Results of this third-generation heart assist device were reported at the 58th annual meeting of the American College of Cardiology on March 30.

Eric Galburt, Ph.D., James Janetka, Ph.D., and Ana Ruiz Manzano, Ph.D.

Photo by Mary ButkusSimona Mirela Miculescu (left), United Nations ambassador from Romania, addresses a town hall meeting March 24 in the Bryan Cave Moot Courtroom of Anheuser-Busch Hall as Thomas Schweich, J.D., visiting professor and ambassador-in-residence at the School of Law, looks on.

Photo by Mary ButkusMarion G. Crain, J.D., was installed as the Wiley B. Rutledge Professor of Law March 30 in the Bryan Cave Moot Courtroom in Anheuser-Busch Hall.

Robert Sparks, Ph.D., professor, biomedical researcher and international consultant, died March 21, 2009, of acute leukemia. He was 78.

Ronald E. Schuchardt, retired captain and member of University Police from 1970-1996, died March 17, 2009. He was 73.

The Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore, popularly known as the Duomo, is an icon of Florence and one of Europe’s largest churches, famous for the massive domed roof designed by Filippo Brunelleschi. Yet, perhaps surprisingly, the structure — built between 1296 and 1436 — also boasts several attributes that today are associated with sustainable […]