Newsroom Stories

Either physical therapy or arthroscopic surgery can relieve pain and improve mobility in patients with a torn meniscus and arthritis in the knee, according to researchers from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and six other centers. But the results are not simple because many of the patients assigned to physical therapy eventually had surgery.

The next generation science standards have been released and Washington University in St. Louis is playing significant roles. Michael Wysession, PhD, an associate professor in the Department of Earth & Planetary Sciences in Arts & Sciences, was among the 41-member writing team who helped write the standards. And WUSTL’s Institute for School Partnership (ISP) is poised to help schools implement them in the St. Louis region.

Multicultural Celebration Weekend, April 11-13, welcomes admitted students for a campus visit focused on diverse student life and learning opportunities. Freshman Lela Prichett shows off one of the shirts marking the weekend.

Acclaimed architect Daniel Libeskind discusses the role of drawing in his practice. The conversation centers on a pair of artist’s books he created in the early 1980, which are now in the collection of WUSTL’s Kranzberg Art & Architecture Library.

Born in 1819, Clara Wieck was a musical prodigy and one of Europe’s most successful concert pianists. Though long over-shadowed by her husband, Robert Schumann, recent years have brought renewed attention to Wieck-Schumann’s own compositions. On April 12, the Eliot Trio will perform one of her best-known works, along with compositions by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Johannes Brahms.

With springtime temperatures and warm weather approaching, the inclination to spend time outdoors is a strong one – especially for children who have been cooped up all winter. But parents should be vigilant about sunscreen. And teenage girls might want to rethink springtime tanning and tanning beds. A new study out of the Brown School, led by senior author Kimberly J. Johnson, looks at the increase of melanoma in children and adolescents and what those trends might be telling us.

Washington University in St. Louis will host its 11th annual Relay For Life, the signature fundraising event for the American Cancer Society, from 6 p.m. Saturday, April 13, to 6 a.m. Sunday, April 14, on Francis Field. The 12-hour, overnight walk-a-thon is symbolic: cancer doesn’t sleep — and neither will participants working to combat the disease. The WUSTL event is entirely organized by the student-led Relay For Life Steering Committee.

Medical history, gender studies and comedy: Sarah Ruhl’s acclaimed In the Next Room (or the vibrator play) has it all. WUSTL’s Performing Arts Department will present an all-new staging of Ruhl’s Pulitzer and Tony-nominated play April 19-28 in Edison Theatre.

​Two prominent environmental thinkers and activists will address climate change, biodiversity and pollution during a lecture at 7 p.m. April 10 in Whitaker Hall Auditorium at Washington University in St. Louis. The lecture titled “To Hell in a Handbasket?: The Global Environment and Sustainability” is free and open to the public. The primary sponsors are University College — the adult, evening and continuing education division in Arts & Sciences — and the International Affairs program in University College.

Scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have shown they can coax cells to move toward a beam of light. The feat is a first step toward manipulating cells to control insulin secretion or heart rate using light.