Newsroom Stories

Image courtesy of NASAThe Earth’s orbital behaviors are responsible for more than just presenting us with a leap year every four years. According to Michael E. Wysession, Ph.D., associate professor of earth and planetary sciences in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, parameters such as planetary gravitational attractions, the Earth’s elliptical orbit around the sun and the degree of tilt of our planet’s axis with respect to its path around the sun, have implications for climate change and the advent of ice ages.

Preventing Alzheimer’s disease is a goal of Raphael Kopan, Ph.D., professor of molecular biology and pharmacology at the Washington University School of Medicine. The moss plant Physcomitrella patens, studied in the laboratory of Ralph S. Quatrano, Ph.D., the Spencer T. Olin Professor and chair of the biology department on WUSTL’s Danforth Campus, might inch Kopan toward that goal.

David Kilper/WUSTL PhotoRobert Blankenship, professor of biology and chemistry at Washington University in St. Louis, holds the cyanobacteria *Acaryochloris marina*, a rare bacterium that uses chlorophyll d for photosynthesis.Researchers at Washington University in St. Louis and Arizona State University have sequenced the genome of a rare bacterium that harvests light energy by making an even rarer form of chlorophyll, chlorophyll d. Chlorophyll d absorbs “red edge,” near infrared, long wave length light that is invisible to the naked eye. In so doing, the cyanobacterium Acaryochloris marina, competes with virtually no other plant or bacterium in the world for sunlight.

A review of epidemiological data has found evidence that people who spend fewer years in school may experience a slight but statistically significant delay in the realization that they’re having cognitive problems that could be Alzheimer’s disease. School of Medicine scientists at the Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center (ADRC) reviewed data on 1,449 Alzheimer’s patients from […]

Tonya GilmoreFrom Scott Joplin and Chuck Berry to Tina Turner, Nelly and Wilco, St. Louis has long boasted a rich and widely influential musical scene. This spring the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum will launch a new concert series designed to highlight the talents and diversity of contemporary St. Louis musicians. The free Friday evening concerts — titled Kemper Presents — will feature close to a dozen local artists working in a variety of genres, from ambient jazz and electronica to experimental rock and American roots music.

Release embargoed until 9 p.m. Feb. 7, 2008. Two student-owned business startups won the top honors at the Olin Cup Competition award ceremony Thursday, Feb. 7. The first place award of $50,000 went to Is That One Good? an internet web site where consumers can compare notes on goods and services. The second place, $25,000 prize went to MedExceed, a medical device company. The awards were announced at a ceremony on Feb. 7 at Washington University in St. Louis. Arnold W. Donald, former chairman of Merisant and current president and chief executive officer of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation International was the keynote speaker.

David Kilper/WUSTL Photo Services*She Stoops to Conquer*Class, courtship and dysfunctional families all collide in She Stoops to Conquer, the classic 18th century comedy-of-errors by Irish author Oliver Goldsmith. This month, the Performing Arts Department in Arts & Sciences will present a new production of this prototypical “situation comedy” in the A.E. Hotchner Studio Theatre.

When the winter sky washes the campus in ochres and grays, the student Arts Commission hosts its annual exhibition featuring works by students, faculty and staff of Washington University School of Medicine (WUSM). The event promotes a passion for creativity in a community devoted to science and medicine. More entries, more variety, and a high level of craft combined to make this year’s show remarkable.

WUSTL has moved up three spots on this year’s Peace Corps’ top 25 list of medium-sized schools producing Peace Corps volunteers. With 22 alumni currently serving as Peace Corps volunteers, the University is now ranked 20th overall.

A symposium to honor the career of Eugene M. Johnson Jr., Ph.D., will be held Feb. 29 at the Eric P. Newman Education Center,