Newsroom Stories

Photo by Robert BostonStephen Rogers, Ph.D., explains his poster to Solange Landreville, Ph.D., at the Fifth Annual Postdoc Scientific Symposium Feb. 24 in the Eric P. Newman Education Center.

The Washington University Opera, led by director Jolly Stewart, will present Dominick Argento’s “The Aspern Papers” at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, March 20 and 21. Written in 1987 and based on the Henry James novella published nearly a century earlier, the production is presented by the Department of Music in Arts & Sciences and will be performed in the university’s Edison Theatre, located in the Mallinckrodt Student Center, 6445 Forsyth Blvd.

Patent and copyright law are stifling innovation and threatening the global economy according to two economists at Washington University in St. Louis in a new book, Against Intellectual Monopoly. Professors Michele Boldrin and David K. Levine call for abolishing the current patent and copyright system in order to unleash innovations necessary to reverse the current recession and rescue the economy. The professors discuss their stand against intellectual property protections in a video and news release linked here.

A $4 million Era of Hope Scholar Award has been given to Jason Weber, associate professor of medicine in the Division of Oncology at the School of Medicine. Weber will study potential new ways to control breast cancer cell growth. Surprisingly, that’s an area of research that has been relatively neglected.

WUSTL will host the 2009 NCAA Division III women’s basketball tournament first and second rounds on Friday and Saturday, March 6 and 7, at the WU Field House.

Photo by Kevin LowderRaphael Njuguna, graduate student in computer science and engineering, describes his research on improving digital camera sensors with improved pixel technology during the 2009 Graduate Student Research Symposium Feb. 28 in the Lab Sciences Building.

Blue shows normal brain function, while other colors show overactivity due to depression.Neuroscientists at the School of Medicine have identified a key difference in the way the brain functions in people who are depressed compared to those who are not. The study demonstrates that brain regions, collectively known as the default mode network, behave differently in depressed people. The default network typically is active when the mind wanders. It shuts down when an individual focuses on the job at hand. But the researchers found the network stays active in people who are depressed, even when they are concentrating on specific tasks.

As the Record went to press, we were saddened to hear of the death of broadcaster and WUSTL benefactor Paul Harvey, 90. The Record will run a full obituary of Harvey in an upcoming issue.

Photo by David KilperBill Witbrodt, director of Student Financial Services, helps make it financially possible for bright, deserving students to get a WUSTL education.

The No. 8 women’s basketball team will host first- and second-round action of the 2009 NCAA Division III tournament on Friday and Saturday, March 6 and 7. Washington University (21-4) will face Capital University (22-5) in the first round Friday, March 6, at 7 p.m. The winner of that contest takes on the winner of […]