Newsroom Stories

In March 2010, the ice sheets in Antarctica vibrated a bit more than usual as a surface wave from an 8.8-magnitude earthquake in Chile 3,000 kilometers away passed through the ice. Powerful earthquakes were known to trigger secondary quakes along faults in land; this was the first observation of triggered quakes in the ice. Washington University in St. Louis seismologist Doug Wiens says the finding is one of several discoveries made possible by POLENET, an array of seismic stations that reaches for the first time into the interior of Antarctica.

As chair of the Architectural Association in London, Alvin Boyarsky was among the most influential figures in 20th-century design education. This fall, the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum will present “Drawing Ambience: Alvin Boyarsky and the Architectural Association,” the first public museum exhibition of drawings from Boyarsky’s private collection.

The population of bacteria in premature infants’ guts may depend more on the babies’ biological makeup and gestational age at birth than on environmental factors, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have found. They discovered that bacterial communities assemble in a choreographed progression, with the pace of that assembly slowest in infants born most prematurely.

Women tend to outperform men when it comes to collaboration and creativity in small working groups, but force teams to go head to head in highly competitive environments and the benefits of a female approach are soon reversed, suggests new research from Washington University in St. Louis.

The electric car charging station in front of Brauer and Whitaker halls on the Washington University in St. Louis campus is now getting a boost from the sun after workers installed solar panels atop the structure July 30. In addition to bolstering the university’s commitment to sustainability, the station is connected to research in its School of Engineering & Applied Science.​

​The CNBC RQ50 ranking is based on the research quotient (RQ), developed by Anne Marie Knott, PhD, professor of strategy at Washington University in St. Louis’ Olin Business School. RQ is a measure of firms’ research and development (R&D) productivity. It captures the expected increase in revenue from a 1 percent increase in R&D.​​​

​The Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum will launch its fall season Friday, Sept. 12, with “Drawing Ambience: Alvin Boyarsky and the Architectural Association,” the first public museum exhibition of drawings from the private collection of one of the 20th century’s most influential design educators. Also opening Sept. 12 will be “Encountering the City: The Urban Experience in Contemporary Art” and “Picturing Narrative: Greek Mythology in the Visual Arts.”

A new study suggests uric acid may play a role in causing metabolic syndrome, a cluster of risk factors that increases the risk of heart disease and type 2 diabetes. The work also demonstrates the importance of the intestine in removing uric acid from the body, opening the door to potential therapies for preventing or treating type 2 diabetes and metabolic syndrome.

The Lofts of Washington University, a new $80-million mixed-use development, brings green architecture, new residents and, at last, a grocery store to the Delmar Loop. On Saturday, Aug. 23, some 400 Washington University in St. Louis undergraduates will move into The Lofts’ 167 fully furnished three-bedroom, two-bedroom and efficiency apartments.

Federal funding for the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) is set to expire Oct. 1, 2015, unless Congress intervenes — a move that is essential for millions of Amerian children, says a Washington University in St. Louis faculty expert on child well-being.