Newsroom Stories

Photo by Mary ButkusRepresentatives from the University met with members of the surrounding community for a Report to the Neighbors at the Charles F. Knight Executive Education Center Nov. 1.

Scientists at the School of Medicine will use $14 million in grant funds to establish or expand facilities that provide services needed for research.

Photo by Kevin LowderA tailgating party on Parents Weekend got things roaring before the Oct. 28 Bears football game.

Aristo, the Washington University robot, uses sensor networks to avoid simulated “fire” – red cups – while navigating near “safe” areas,which are blue cups.Agent 007 is a mighty versatile fellow, but he would have to take backseat to agents being trained at Washington University in St. Louis. Computer scientist engineers here are using wireless sensor networks that employ software agents that so far have been able to navigate a robot safely through a simulated fire and spot a simulated fire by seeking out heat. Once the agent locates the fire, it clones itself – try that, James Bond — creating a ring of software around the fire. A “fireman” can then communicate with this multifaceted agent through a personal digital assistant (PDA) and learn where the fire is and how intense it is. Should the fire expand, the agents clone again and maintain the ring – an entirely different “ring of fire.” More…

Photo courtesy R. K. Henning and D1 Oils; www.jatropha.orgJatropha plantsDuring a practicum for the World Agricultural Forum, Washington University M.B.A. students realized that using ethanol as an alternative fuel in developing countries isn’t cost effective. Instead, they stumbled upon the jatropha plant, a hardy shrub with seeds that can easily produce oil to power basic generators. The students’ work demonstrated the potential for economic stability that jatropha could offer small villages. More…

Photo courtesy Muzeul Olteniei / Erik TrinkausThe early modern human cranium from the Pestera Muierii, Romania.A re-examination of ancient human bones from Romania reveals more evidence that humans and Neandertals interbred. Erik Trinkaus, Ph.D., the Mary Tileston Hemenway Professor in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, and colleagues radiocarbon dated and analyzed the shapes of human bones from Romania’s Pestera Muierii (Cave of the Old Woman). The fossils, which were discovered in 1952, add to the small number of early modern human remains from Europe known to be more than 28,000 years old. More…

The Washington University Symphony Orchestra will present “OrganFest,” a concert showcasing the university’s recently refurbished Graham Chapel organ, at 3 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 19. Dan Presgrave, instrumental music coordinator in the Department of Music in Arts & Sciences, conducts the 70-plus-member orchestra. Featured soloist are William Partridge, Jr., university organist; and Barbara Raedeke, instructor in organ.

Photo by Chris MitchellAbove is a selection of letters football coach Larry Kindbom has collected for his student-athletes since 1998 and self-published in his “Playbook of Champions.”Instead of getting his team fired up with movies or fire and brimstone, Larry Kindbom, football coach at Washington University in St. Louis, solicits motivational letters from successful people in all walks of life. He has received responses from people such as former U.S. Sen. Bob Dole, Vice President Al Gore, Southwest Airlines CEO Herb Kelleher, sportscaster Bob Costas and a host of other notables. This year, Kindbom’s taken the responses and self-published a book, “Playbook of Champions,” for his student-athletes. More…

Expectant parents eagerly await the arrival of their bundle of joy, hoping that they will have the most beautiful and intelligent baby in the world. While parents might not have direct control over brains and looks, new research from a business professor at Washington University in St. Louis finds that parents can influence their firstborn’s creativity. More…

Robert Criss, Ph.D., professor of earth and planetary sciences in Arts & Sciences, has analyzed data from the Lewis and Clark expedition and says it shows that the Missouri River today is but a shadow of what it was two hundred years ago, narrower and more prone to serious flooding.A geologist at Washington University in St. Louis and his collaborator at Oxford University have interpreted data that Lewis and Clark collected during their famous expedition and found that the Missouri River has markedly narrowed and its water levels have become more variable over the past two hundred years. This narrowing, or channeling, created by wing dikes and levees constructed mainly in the 20th century, has put the Missouri River at an increased risk of more damaging floods, the authors say. They blame the fact that the river cannot spread out as it did naturally at the turn of the 19th century, thus forcing water levels higher. More…