Newsroom Stories

Jennifer K. Lodge, PhD, associate dean for research and professor of molecular microbiology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, has been appointed vice chancellor for research for the university, according to Chancellor Mark S. Wrighton; Larry J. Shapiro, MD, executive vice chancellor for medical affairs and dean of the School of Medicine; and H. Holden Thorp, PhD, university provost and executive vice chancellor for academic affairs.

Washington University in St. Louis postdoctoral research associate Aubreya Adams went to Antarctica in January and February 2014 to help with routine maintenance of seismic stations on the West Antarctic ice shelf. But nothing in the southern continent is ever routine. In her short stay, she experienced extreme weather, saw a rare mirage, visited bizarre ice vents on the volcanic Mount Erebes and saw first hand the effects of the warming that recently made front page news in The New York Times.

1 | 2 | 3  One day, I got to tag along with another team to do a test installation of posthole seismometers (seismometers directly buried in the snow with no vault). This involved taking a piston-bully (a huge beast of a machine with big tracks instead of tires that travels at whopping speeds of […]

1 | 2 | 3 Feb. 4, 2014: Each year during the summer, the ice near the bases melts away, but how quickly this happens varies from year to year. Scott Base, which it lies just seaward of the boundary between the transient ice shelf and the permanent ice, claims to be 98 percent iced-in. […]

Children with newly identified rare mutations in two genes are about four times more likely to develop severe scoliosis than their peers with normal versions of the genes, scientists have found.

A recent internal investigation of the Veterans Affairs Department has alleged that supervisors got bonuses partly by reporting low wait times for veterans waiting for care. Lamar Pierce, PhD, an expert on compensation and incentive conflict at Olin Business School, says that while employers frequently use financial incentives to motivate employees, the VA should have thought more about unintended consquences.

Chairs provide great support during long meetings, but they may also be holding us back. Standing during meetings boosts the excitement around creative group processes and reduces people’s tendencies to defend their turf, according to a new Washington University in St. Louis study that used wearable sensors to measure participants’ activity levels.

Jeffrey I. Gordon, MD, has been elected to the American Philosophical Society, founded in 1743 by Benjamin Franklin for the purpose of “promoting useful knowledge.”

A provocative study links prolonged episodes of sepsis — a life-threatening infection and leading cause of death in hospitals — to the reactivation of otherwise dormant viruses in the body. Pictured is the Epstein-Barr virus.

A Belgian company was so impressed with the efforts of a group of Olin Business School students at Washington University in St. Louis, the CEO traveled 4,300 miles to campus this spring for further interaction with the students, marking the first time an international practicum partner has visited the school.