Newsroom Stories

Scientists have decoded the genome of the western painted turtle, one of the most abundant turtles on Earth, finding clues to their longevity and ability to survive without oxygen during long winters spent hibernating in ice-covered ponds.

More than 175 WUSTL volunteers recently did prep work at Gateway STEM High School — priming and taping walls, organizing supplies and competing other tasks. They cleared the way for an even larger undertaking this weekend during the Clinton Global Initiative University meeting. Approximately 800 conference delegates will perform service projects at the school. ​

Named one of the 100 most influential people in the world by TIME Magazine, Cory A. Booker, the mayor of Newark, N.J., has been selected to give the 2013 Commencement address at Washington University in St. Louis, according to Chancellor Mark S. Wrighton. The university’s 152nd Commencement ceremony will begin at 8:30 a.m. Friday, May 17, in Brookings Quadrangle.​

A team of four WUSTL students, including sophmores, Grace Kuo and Amy Patterson, shown to left accepting a trophy, won the College Nationals in the Rube Goldberg Machine Contest on March 30. Click here for a video of a rolling ball bearing setting off a chain reaction in “Rube Goldberg’s office” that eventually drop a hammer on a nail–the assigned task.

Why is it so hard for some people to resist the least little temptation, while others seem to possess incredible patience, passing up immediate gratification for a greater long-term good? The answer, suggests a new study from Washington University in St. Louis, is that patient people focus on future rewards in a way that makes the waiting process seem much more pleasurable.

A new study raises the intriguing possibility that drugs prescribed to lower cholesterol may be effective against macular degeneration, a blinding eye disease. Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have found that age-related macular degeneration shares a common link with atherosclerosis. Both problems have the same underlying defect: the inability to remove a buildup of fat and cholesterol.

As the U.S. Supreme Court hearings on the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) conclude, it looks like the justices are ready to strike down the law, says Gregory P. Magarian, JD, constitutional law expert and professor of law at Washington University in St. Louis. “The crucial thing about this case is that the Court can strike down DOMA without impacting the right or lack thereof of someone to marry,” he says.

Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis is playing a leading role in one of the National Institutes of Health’s first clinical trials to improve treatments for rare and neglected diseases. In this case, the disease is Niemann-Pick Type C, a disorder that causes excess cholesterol to accumulate in the brain, liver and spleen. It affects about 500 children worldwide, leads to neurodegeneration, and usually causes death in the first two decades of life.

Linda Babcock, co-author of “Women Don’t Ask: Negotiations and the Gender Divide,” will discuss that topic during a public lecture at 9 a.m. April 12 in Simon Hall, Room 106. The lecture is part of the “Distinguished Women in Economics and Strategy” series sponsored by WUSTL’s Center for Research in Economics and Strategy, housed in Olin Business School.

Despite a snow storm, students came out for Hoops Day March 24, sponsored by Thurtene Junior Honorary, a lead-up event to the annual carnival. Organizers offered a youth basketball clinic and a 3-on-3 tournament at the Athletic Complex.