Newsroom Stories

President Barack Obama this week announced his intention to close the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The decision to open the facility in the first place was a bad idea in theory, made even worse in practice, said Leila Sadat, professor of law and renowned expert on international criminal law.

In a unique material investigation, architecture students from the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts have constructed a prototype watercraft that incorporates expanding polyurethane spray foam — a commercial product typically used for home insulation.

Cyclists traveling near the Delmar Loop are encouraged to avoid the recently installed Loop Trolley tracks and take a newly marked bike route. The route will be marked in the upcoming weeks with signs and painted sharrows.

Using a laser probe, neurosurgeons at the Medicine have opened the brain’s protective cover, enabling them to deliver chemotherapy drugs to patients with a form of deadly brain cancer called glioblastoma.

John P. Grotzinger, the scientist who led the Mars Rover Curiosity mission that discovered evidence of water in 2012, will deliver the McDonnell Distinguished Lecture on Wednesday, March 2, at Washington University in St. Louis.

A team of researchers led by senior author Mark J. Manary, MD, at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, has found that inadequate dietary intake of essential amino acids and the nutrient choline is linked to stunting. That knowledge may unlock the door to new approaches to treat the debilitating condition.

New research from the School of Medicine shows that a natural sugar called trehalose prevents the sugar fructose — thought to be a major contributor to nonalcoholic fatty liver disease — from entering the liver and triggers a cellular housekeeping process that cleans up excess fat buildup inside liver cells.

Award-winning journalist Maria Hinojosa will be the keynote speaker at the campus-wide Day of Discovery & Dialogue, to be held Feb. 24-25 at Washington University. Her talk, titled “Inclusion: Finding New Ways of Thinking, Inspiring Action,” will take place at 5 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 24, in the Eric P. Newman Education Center on the Medical Campus.

Scientists solve the world’s greatest challenges and are paid well to do so. Yet the gender gap persists in engineering, computer science and other fields. Women in STEM Day at Washington University in St. Louis welcomes high school girls into the community of female scientists and introduces them to cutting-edge research. Hosted by undergraduate female science students, the event features demonstrations, top speakers and a sleepover.

Tumbleweeds drift past clapboard buildings. A lone rider crosses dusty mountains. A woman waits by a cabin door. In “American Night” (2009), which opens March 4 at the Kemper Art Museum, German artist Julian Rosefeldt turns an amused yet critical eye to the motifs and conventions of the Western film.