Newsroom Stories

Why does biodiversity grade from exuberance at the equator through moderation at mid-latitudes toward monotony at higher ones? Data from an international network of long-term forest dynamics research sites is finally providing an answer.

Elastin and collagen serve as the body’s building blocks. Any genetic mutation short-circuiting their function can have a devastating, and often lethal, health impact. For the first time, new research led by engineers at Washington University in St. Louis takes a closer look at both genetic and mechanical attributes, to better understand a disorder that affects how elastin and collagen function.

Just as people endlessly calculate how to upsize or downsize, bacteria continually adjust their volume (their stuff) to fit inside their membrane (their space). But what limits their expansion? The answer will surprise you.

Washington University’s new parking and transportation management strategy is rolling out Saturday, July 1. Stay updated on the latest about permits, accessible parking, helping visitors navigate campus and more.

Chancellor Mark S. Wrighton has announced a $20 million commitment from Life Trustee John F. McDonnell to support scholarships and fellowships as part of Leading Together: The Campaign for Washington University. This is one of the largest single scholarship gifts in the history of the university.

Most organisms share the biosynthetic pathways for making crucial nutrients because it is is dangerous to tinker with them. But now a collaborative team of scientists has caught plants in the process of altering where and how cells make an essential amino acid.

Engineers at Washington University in St. Louis and Princeton University developed a new way to dive into the cell’s tiniest and most important components. What they found inside membraneless organelles surprised them, and could lead to better understanding of fatal diseases such as cancer, Huntington’s and ALS.

The U.S. Senate’s proposed overhaul to the health-care system, released last week, will cause more than 24 million Americans to lose coverage, estimates a health economist at Washington University in St. Louis.

NASA’s senior Mars rover, Opportunity, is examining rocks at the edge of Endeavour Crater for signs that they may have been either transported by a flood or eroded in place by wind.

Washington University’s Office of Sustainability is partnering with the Danforth Campus Facilities Planning and Management to roll out a new thermostat setpoint policy, designed to take the chill out of campus office temperatures during the summer.