Newsroom Stories

Todd Decker and Kelly Daniel-Decker launched the Department of Music’s new “Musical Postcards” video series with an intimate living room performance of the Gershwin classic “Love is Here to Stay.”

As the coronavirus continues to spread across the nation, a number of false conclusions and rumors have spread with it. Three epidemiologists in public health at Washington University in St. Louis separate the truth from myth.

FUSE, our website for innovation and entrepreneurship, is highlighting examples of WashU faculty, alumni and students who are doing what they can to help and serve those directly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Feng Sheng Hu, the Harry E. Preble Dean of the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, has been appointed dean of the faculty of Arts & Sciences and professor of biology and of earth and planetary sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, effective July 1, according to Chancellor Andrew D. Martin.

Many countries reacted slowly and inadequately to the spread of COVID-19. Some critics have said this is due to initial reports of the disease, which indicated that it mainly affected older populations. “Older adults are not some kind of expendable commodity,” said Nancy Morrow-Howell, the Betty Bofinger Brown Distinguished Professor of Social Policy at the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis and an international leader in gerontology.

Lack of sleep could help promote the development of Alzheimer’s disease, according to two studies from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. The studies could help identify people at high risk of developing Alzheimer’s dementia and point to strategies for prevention.

At a time when the world is focused on a global health pandemic, Brian Carpenter, a professor of psychological and brain sciences in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, says it may be difficult to grieve for and memorialize an individual. But we must.

The $2 trillion plan to prop up a pandemic-reeling United States, amid the news that there were 3.3 million unemployment claims lodged in the previous week, is expected to pass the House on March 27. An array of Washington University in St. Louis experts offer perspectives on the plan.

Weedy rice is a feral form of rice that infests paddies worldwide and aggressively outcompetes cultivated varieties. A new study led by biologists at Washington University in St. Louis shows that weed populations have evolved multiple times from cultivated rice, and a strikingly high proportion of contemporary Asian weed strains can be traced to a few Green Revolution cultivars that were widely grown in the late 20th century.

The task was as Herculean as it was heartbreaking: Pack and ship some 2,000 boxes of books, computers, medications and other essentials to Washington University students across the globe.