Newsroom Stories

Children can protect their bones against the inevitable bumps that come along with being active by getting enough calcium in their diets. Calcium is essential for the growth and repair of bones and teeth in children. According to the National Institutes of Health, more than 60 percent of boys and 85 percent of girls between the ages 9 to 18 don’t get enough calcium, which helps develop strong bones.

Photo by David Kilper

As part of Washington University’s celebration of the Danforth Campus dedication, and to underscore the important role of higher education in society, a lecture series will debut on October 3. The first presentation, “Medicine & Society,” will feature Chancellor Emeritus William H. Danforth, M.D. He will be joined by leading St. Louis medical and health policy experts at 4 p.m. Tuesday, October 3, in Graham Chapel. The event is free and open to the public, and will conclude with a reception in the Women’s Building Lounge.

Many parents have no idea that their teenage children use drugs or alcohol. In fact, about half of the parents surveyed during a recent School of Medicine study didn’t realize that their children were using alcohol, marijuana or tobacco. Even fewer – 28 percent – are aware that their teens have used cocaine or other illicit drugs.

Kay Henry joins the Olin School of Business as the new associate dean and director of Executive M.B.A. programs. She comes with a wealth of experience in executive and business education. Henry recently returned from Dubai, United Arab Emirates, where she spent two years as assistant dean at Zayed University’s College of Business Sciences. She spent seven years at Rice University where she developed and then directed the M.B.A. for Executives program. Henry also spent several years in Boston where she taught management communication at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Sloan School of Management and ran executive programs at Harvard University’s Institute for International Development.

Courtesy photoMarshall KlimasewiskiMarshall Klimasewiski, writer-in-residence in The Writing Program in Arts & Sciences, will read from The Cottagers, his debut novel, at 8 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 5, for The Writing Program Reading Series.

The flow of copper in the brain has a previously unrecognized role in cell death, learning and memory, according to research at the School of Medicine. The researchers’ findings suggest that copper and its transporter, a protein called Atp7a, are vital to human thinking.

The 2007 Social Entrepreneurship and Innovation Competition (SEIC) will kickoff its second year on Thursday, September 28 at 5:30 p.m. The celebration will take place on the Danforth Campus of Washington University in Uncas A. Whitaker Hall, and will feature a presentation by Timothy Hanser, vice-president of community outreach and director of Cardinals Care, the team’s community foundation. The SEIC is helping people in St. Louis cause social change. It provides funding and education for social entrepreneurs who develop solutions that solve social issues. Awards totaling more than $100,000 are available to winners under a variety of categories.

Photo by Noah Devereau, Post-DispatchSleeping fruit flies pictured through a microscopeMuch like humans, fruit flies sleep at night and take midday naps. They also respond to stimulants like we do, and their young sleep a lot more than adults. A new study, using fruit flies as test subjects, shows that sleep is important for learning and memory and that the need for sleep is tied to memory genes.

Below is a link to the Washington University news release about the U.S. News & World Report undergraduate rankings for 2004-05: http://news-info.wustl.edu/news/page/normal/3627.html To view a full listing of U.S. News magazine, book and Web-only rankings for 2004-05, please visit the U.S. News & World Report site: http://www.usnews.com/usnews/edu/college/rankings/rankindex_brief.php