Newsroom Stories

Scientists at Washington University in St. Louis have discovered a previously unknown strategy photosynthetic organisms use to protect themselves from the dangers of excessive light, providing further insight into photosynthesis and opening up new avenues for engineering this process, which underlies the global food chain.

Researchers in the School of Engineering & Applied Science have found a way to give photons, or light packets, their marching orders. The researchers have capitalized on the largesse of an energy state in an optical field to make photons in their lasing system travel in a consistent mode, either clockwise or counterclockwise.

With Rio’s Olympic Games rapidly approaching, today the International Association of Athletics Federations upheld its ban on Russia’s track teams. Sports business expert Patrick Rishe says the move illustrates the economic effect and lasting impact of cheating in sports of all kinds.

Richard D. Vierstra was installed as the inaugural George and Charmaine Mallinckrodt Professorship at a ceremony held March 7 in Holmes Lounge. The professorship resides in Arts & Sciences and is designated for the field of plant biology, an area of great strength, and even greater potential, at Washington University. 

A team at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis has identified a single gene pathway that is vital for Zika and other flaviviruses to spread infection between cells.

Two dozen of the world’s best memory athletes will battle head-to-head for their share of $75,000 prize money as the Extreme Memory Tournament (XMT-2016) returns to  the headquarters of San Diego-based Dart NeuroScience June 24-26. Sponsored by Washington University in St. Louis and  Dart NeuroScience, the live-streamed competition offers the internet public a chance to […]

The city of Philadelphia on June 16 passed a 1.5 cent-per-ounce tax on soda and other sugary drinks, making it the first major city in the nation to impose such a tax. The move is poised to be a watershed event in public health policy, said a health economist at Washington University in St. Louis.

With a $5 million commitment, Washington University in St. Louis has announced it will establish the George and Carol Bauer Leadership Center at the Olin Business School. The announcement came May 10, as George Bauer, an emeritus trustee and alumnus of the university, and his wife, Carol, delivered a keynote address about values-based leadership in Knight Hall on the Danforth Campus.

New research from the School of Medicine suggests that mothers who eat high-fat, high-sugar diets can predispose multiple generations to metabolic problems, even if their offspring consume healthy diets.

As young people reach adulthood, preferences for sweet foods typically decline. But for people with obesity, research from the School of Medicine suggests that the drop-off may not be as steep and that the brain’s reward system operates differently in obese people than in thinner people. The findings are published in the journal Diabetes.