Newsroom Stories

Asthma is the No. 1 cause of hospitalizations among children, but with proper management, children can have full participation in school and sporting events. Experts estimate nearly 20 million Americans have asthma, ranging from 7 percent to 12 percent of children. Among African-Americans the rate of asthma is even higher.

Listed below are this month’s featured news stories. • Rotator cuff repair (week of Aug. 1) • Better treatment for itching (week of Aug. 8) • New risk factor for diabetes (week of Aug. 15) • Filtering out side effects (week of Aug. 22) • Treating post-partum depression (week of Aug. 29)

Caves are in trouble, at least in St. Louis County, Missouri, says Robert Criss, Ph.D., professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, co-author of a scholarly paper that documents, archives and describes the status of all the known 127 caves found in the 508 square mile county.

Image courtesy of NASAThe Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) taking pictures of Mars.A software program developed by researchers at Washington University in St. Louis is allowing access to planetary data and early images from the most powerful spectral camera ever sent to Mars. The information is now available on NASA’s online planetary data archive.

Two recently discovered control networks that govern voluntary brain activity in adults start life as a single network in children, report neuroscientists at the School of Medicine. Researchers previously showed the networks supervise most goal-oriented brain activity, enlisting the specialized talents of multiple brain regions for goal-oriented tasks as diverse as reading a word, listening to music or searching for a star. They were surprised to find the two networks merged together in children.

GibsonA 2002 U.S. Supreme Court decision protecting the right of judicial candidates to speak freely about controversial issues opened the door for state judicial election campaigns to become increasingly nasty, bitter and politicized. However, the Court’s decision has not directly damaged the court system’s legitimacy in the eyes of citizens, suggests a new study from Washington University in St. Louis.

The next generation of consumers will be the true beneficiaries of the promise of genomics. But how will they make informed choices in a world resplendent with genomics products, including tools to predict disease and the engineered drugs to treat those diseases? The answer, says Sarah C.R. Elgin, Ph.D., WUSTL professor of biology in Arts & Sciences, is more genetics and genomics at every level of American education.

CoburnThink you know your daughter’s potential college roommate for her freshman year? Think again. Not to imply that your daughter will be rooming with an alien being, but as Facebook.com continues to gain popularity, it’s become easier for students to post information that may or may not always be true, which can pose problems for professors, friends and future employers. Students need to remember that a Facebook.com posting becomes public information. And the persona they create online may be hard to maintain once they arrive on campus, says a leading expert on the college experience.

NASA/JPL-Caltech/E.Churchwell (U. of WisconsinThe nebula RCW49 is a nursery for newborn stars and exists in circumstellar space, where chemistry is done for the very first time.Picture a cool place, teeming with a multitude of hot bodies twirling about in rapidly changing formations of singles and couples, partners and groups, constantly dissolving and reforming. If you were thinking of the dance floor in a modern nightclub, think again. It’s a description of the shells around dying stars, the place where newly formed elements make compounds and life takes off, said Katharina Lodders, Ph.D., research associate professor of earth and planetary sciences in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis.

Photo by Jason MerrillWashington University Orthopedics and Barnes-Jewish Hospital have completed construction of a new $13 million outpatient orthopedic facility. The new Washington University Orthopedics and Barnes-Jewish Hospital Outpatient Orthopedic Center opens with its first full clinic day July 30. The first surgical procedure took place on July 25.