Newsroom Stories

Image courtesy of Karin Peyer, 2001*Postosuchus*, the “alligator on stilts,’ was quite a mover in its day.How much different do the bones of similar animals have to be for the classification of a new species? That is the question that drove Stephanie Novak, a new doctoral candidate in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, to develop a novel model to determine classification of a new species. Novak presented details of her model at the annual meeting of the Geological Society of America, held Nov.2-5 in Seattle.

Courtesy of Monterey Bay Area Research InstituteA fish on the ocean floor off California gazes at a sight no human has seen first-hand: a modified Raman spectrometer gathering data on a carbon dioxide sample.In collaboration with oceanographers from the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI), a team of geologists at Washington University in St. Louis is using a rare instrument on the ocean floor just west of California. One of their earliest projects was to see if it’s possible to capture carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and store it on the ocean floor. It’s the first deployment of the Raman spectrometer on the ocean floor.

A new book by botanists at Washington University in St. Louis enlightens both consumers of natural products and herbs and traditional physicians. Medical Botany, Plants Affecting Human Health, is the second edition of a 1977 book, Medical Botany, published by Walter Lewis, Ph.D., professor emeritus of biology, and Memory Elvin-Lewis, Ph.D., professor of microbiology and ethnobotany in biomedicine in Arts & Sciences at Washington University.

Chest x-ray of a lung affected by pneumoniaMany medical advances involve complicated new technologies or procedures. But Linda Mundy, M.D., associate professor of medicine and an infectious diseases specialist at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, recently reported good results with a new pneumonia treatment that can be summed up in a single sentence: Get patients up out of bed earlier and more often, and they check out of the hospital an average of one day sooner. Mundy says the high volume of U.S. pneumonia hospitalizations could make the new treatment a potent cost-saver, but added that a second study of the approach, known as early mobilization, is needed to confirm the beneficial effects.

Image courtesy of Cindy LustigParts of the brain involved in a “resting network” show large differences between young adults, older adults, and people with Alzheimer’s disease.Researchers tracking the ebb and flow of cognitive function in the human brain have discovered surprising differences in the ability of younger and older adults to shut down a brain network normally active during periods of passive daydreaming. The differences, which are especially pronounced in people with dementia, may provide a clear and powerful new method for diagnosing individuals in the very early stages of Alzheimer’s disease.

Image courtesy of William C. Chapman, M.D.William Chapman monitors his surgical instrument’s position on corresponding CT scans during liver surgery.Despite being the largest vital organ in the body, the liver has very few identifiable landmarks to help guide a cancer surgeon around its surface. Two-dimensional ultrasound images currently are the standard navigational tool, making it difficult to discern depth and location in the liver during surgery to remove tumors. That’s why a research team led by William C. Chapman, M.D., professor of surgery and chief of the Abdominal Transplantation Section at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis plans to launch trials examining the use of three-dimensional imaging techniques to complement ultrasound during liver surgery. The research team will investigate standard three-dimensional imaging techniques like MRI, CT scanning and PET for guiding surgeons during tumor removal surgery.

The mind and the body are intimately linked, but although more and more research is demonstrating that the mind plays a role in sickness and in health, little is understood about how a person’s mental health affects physical health. A Washington University team of investigators led by Ray E. Clouse, M.D, professor of medicine and psychiatry, and Patrick J. Lustman, Ph.D., professor of psychiatry, hopes to change that by launching a new Center for Mind/Body Research that will focus specifically on ways that mental health affects heart disease, diabetes, cancer and other illnesses. New research has shown, for example, that although women are at a lower risk for heart attacks than men, the risk for women with diabetes and depression is virtually identical to what’s seen in men. The investigators believe that depression is the main cause of that increased risk, but they hope that by focusing more closely on mind/body interactions they will be able to understand more about the relationship between mental health and physical well being.

WeidenbaumThe economic power of American businesses is playing a key role in the war on terrorism: helping cut off the flow of money to terrorist groups, producing anti-terrorist equipment, screening employees and visitors entering company facilities, manufacturing the medicines to respond to biological and chemical attacks, and making the weapons used by our armed forces in the fight. Nevertheless, such responses often raise the cost of production and act like a new tax on private enterprise, suggests Washington University in St. Louis economist Murray Weidenbaum.

Bracey”The Court’s decision is a tremendous victory for law enforcement officers,” says Christopher Bracey, an expert in the fields of American race relations and criminal procedure and an associate professor of law at Washington University in St. Louis. “The 9th Circuit decision, which was reversed by the Supreme Court, would have required officers to consider a multitude of factors when deciding how long to delay execution of a search warrant following the initial knock on the door.” According to Bracey, the only problematic portion of the opinion is the large exception that allows “no knock” forced entries by law officers. “‘No knock’ policies have been controversial for years in part because, historically, ‘no knock’ entries lead to increased claims of police brutality and unnecessary property damage.”

The recent ruling by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court allowing same-sex marriages relied on the state constitution’s guarantees of both individual liberty and equality to conclude that no rational basis supports the exclusion of same-sex couples from civil marriage and its benefits, according to Susan Appleton, a family law expert at Washington University in St. Louis. “Although the court took a bold step, the outcome follows unremarkably from a number of contemporary legal developments,” says Appleton, the Lemma Barkeloo & Phoebe Couzins Professor of Law.