Newsroom Stories

Carinne Blank has a method she uses to date ancient life forms that could be helpful for specimens from Mars.A geologist from Washington University in St. Louis is developing new techniques to render a more coherent story of how primitive life arose and diverged on Earth – with implications for Mars.

Mars Exploration Rover mission scientists remind us that the amazing success of the rovers *Spirit* and *Opportunity* is a harbinger for the day when humans inhabit the Red Planet.The major drawback to a human mission to Mars is preparing for the one to two years of radiation and microgravity exposure that astronauts must endure. While that is a large hurdle, enabling technologies are emerging that should be able to make this goal a reality over the next couple of decades, and America should go for it. That’s the theme of a report from NASA’s 2002 Astrobiology Academy appearing soon as a paper in Acta Astronautica.

Male Bahamas mosquitofish (left) chasing a female (right).A biologist at Washington University in St. Louis has shown that for some fish species, females prefer males with larger sexual organs, and actually choose them for mating. That does not exclude males with an average-sized sex organ, called a gonopodium. These fish out-compete the larger-endowed males in a predator-laden environment because they have a faster burst speed than the males with larger genitalia, thus avoiding predators and staying in the mating game.

GreenbaumStuart Greenbaum, dean of the Olin School of Business at Washington University in St. Louis, will deliver his annual State of the School address at the Olin School’s Century Club Speaker series on Thursday, May 12 at 8 a.m.

St. Louis is the site for the world’s premier software engineering annual conference from May 15-21 at the Adam’s Mark Hotel. The 27th International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE 2005) features the latest research in software engineering, displays, exhibits, seminars, co-located conferences, and social gatherings that bring the world’s elite together in an unprecedented hub of activity in information technology (IT) in the Gateway City. Gruia-Catalin Roman, Ph.D., Harold B. and Adelaide G. Welge Professor of Computer Science and chair of the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at Washington University in St. Louis, is the general chair for ICSE 2005 and was highly influential in bringing the conference to St. Louis,

For technicians in the Genome Sequencing Center (GSC) at the School of Medicine, work is going to go a whole lot faster — hundreds of times faster, in fact. Fast enough to sequence the entire genome of a bacterial organism in one day instead of several weeks.

Courtesy of Cell MetabolismMay ’05 coverWhere fat comes from determines whether the body can metabolize it effectively. Researchers at the School of Medicine have found that the “old” fat stored in the body’s peripheral tissues — that is, around the belly, thighs or bottom — can’t be burned efficiently unless “new” fat is eaten in the diet or made in the liver.

Listed below are this month’s featured news stories. • Autism study (week of May 4) • Low fat, not no fat (week of May 11) • West Nile virus cure (week of May 18) • Improving Crohn’s disease (week of May 25)

Washington University will bestow honorary degrees on five notable people during its 144th Commencement on May 20. The university will also bestow academic degrees on more than 2,300 students during the ceremony, which begins at 8:30 a.m. in Brookings Quadrangle. Richard A. Gephardt, former U.S. House minority and majority leader, will deliver the Commencement address.

Washington University’s Kingsbury Ensemble will conclude its 2004-05 season with works of Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741) and Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) — today’s most popular composers of the Baroque era. The performance begins at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, May 15, in Holmes Lounge, Ridgley Hall. Tickets are $5 to $15.