Newsroom Stories

Courtesy photo*Delta Primer*Is California vulnerable to a New Orleans-style levee break? The land in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, where California’s two great rivers drain into San Francisco Bay, lies as much as 20 feet below sea level, warns Jane Wolff, author of Delta Primer: A Field Guide to the California Delta (2003). A breach on the scale of that in New Orleans would prove catastrophic for California — the world’s sixth-largest economy, home to approximately 10 percent of the U.S. population. In addition to property destruction, salt water from San Francisco Bay would migrate upstream, contaminating the water supply for much of Southern California, including major cities such as Los Angeles and San Diego.

Tasks requiring shifting of attention, like driving a car while conversing with a passenger, may be challenging for people in very early stages of Alzheimer’s disease.People in early stages of Alzheimer’s disease have greater difficulty shifting attention back and forth between competing sources of information, a finding that offers new support for theories that contend breakdowns in attention play an important role in onset of the disease. Published in a recent issue of the journal Neuropsychology, the study suggests that subtle breakdowns in attention may offer one of the earliest reliable clues that a patient is grappling with early symptoms of Alzheimer’s-related dementia.

Sona Haydon, a longtime lecturer in piano for the Department of Music in Arts & Sciences, died of complications stemming from leukemia at Barnes-Jewish Hospital on Saturday, October 29. She was 73. A memorial service will be held at 10:30 a.m. Wednesday, Nov. 2, at the Richmond Heights Presbyterian Church, 1430 Silverton Pl., 63117. Plans for an on-campus memorial service will be announced.

Sonograms show mouse tune.Research by Timothy Holy showing that mice sing in the presence of mates was picked up by news organizations around the globe. Click here to see a sampling of the media coverage.

Remembering Einstein’s “miracle year.”The United Nations has declared 2005 the International Year of Physics — and there’s a very good reason why this particular year was chosen to raise worldwide public awareness of physics. It is also the 100th anniversary of physicist Albert Einstein’s miraculous year in which he wrote five — or three depending on whom you ask — of his most famous scientific papers. Also known as the World Year of Physics, 2005 will feature worldwide events of interest not only to physicists, but also to the general public. Two physicists from Washington University in St. Louis who are both known for their ability to speak and write clearly about physics to the layperson will be giving talks throughout 2005 about Einstein’s ideas and their impact on science and society 100 years later.

Researchers studying a mouse model of neurofibromatosis 1 (NF1), a genetic condition that causes childhood brain tumors, have found their second new drug target in a year, a protein called methionine aminopeptidase-2 (MetAP2).

Scientists have known for decades that female lab mice or their pheromones cause male lab mice to make ultrasonic vocalizations. But a new paper from researchers at the School of Medicine establishes for the first time that the utterances of the male mice are songs.

At the Founders Day celebration on Nov. 5, four faculty members will receive Distinguished Faculty awards. In addition, Adele Dilschneider and Doris I. Schnuck will receive the Robert S. Brookings Award by the Board of Trustees for their extraordinary commitment to building bridges between Washington University and the St. Louis region.

The six alumni to be honored Nov. 5 are James F. Barker, John Gianoulakis, Leonard Jarett, Stanley I. Proctor, Susan S. Stepleton and James M. Talent. The event also features a keynote address by former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani.

David Kilper/WUSTL Photo Services*Escape from Happiness*Drugs and alcohol, anger and insanity, police corruption and (semi-) organized crime. Welcome to Escape from Happiness, a darkly comic portrait of a highly idiosyncratic family by Canadian playwright George F. Walker. In November, the Performing Arts Department (PAD) in Arts & Sciences will present six performances in the A.E. Hotchner Studio Theatre.