Sports Update August 2012: WUSTL lands 20 on UAA Presidents Scholar-Athlete Team
Washington
University had a conference-best 20 student-athletes named to the
fourth annual University Athletic Association (UAA) Presidents
Scholar-Athlete Team. The team is comprised of 74 student-athletes representing all eight
UAA member institutions across 12 men’s sports and 10 women’s sports.
Ray Arvidson offers updates on Mars rover missions
With all the fanfare about Mars rover Curiosity landing safely on the Red Planet on Aug. 6, it’s easy to forget that there’s already a rover on Mars — an older, smaller cousin set to accomplish a feat unprecedented in the history of Solar System exploration. WUSTL’s Raymond E. Arvidson is playing key roles in both Mars missions.
Vaporizing the Earth
A team of WUSTL scientists have vaporized the Earth — if only by simulation, that is, mathematically and inside a computer. They weren’t just practicing their evil overlord skills. By baking model Earths, they are trying to figure out what astronomers should see when they look at the atmospheres of super-Earths in a bid to learn the planets’ compositions.
$3.2 million to develop battery management system for electric-car batteries
The Department of Energy (DOE) announced that a
team of engineers at WUSTL will receive $2
million to design a battery management system for lithium-ion batteries
that will guarantee their longevity, safety and performance. These technologies could revolutionize the way Americans store and use energy in electric vehicles, the electrical grid and beyond.
The morality of human subject research
The federal government is in the process of revising the regulations that govern most human subject research in the United States. In a “Policy Forum” piece in the Aug. 3 issue of Science, bioethics expert Rebecca Dresser, JD, the Daniel Noyes Kirby Professor of Law and professor of ethics in medicine, weighs in with recommendations for changes in the oversight
process.
Timing of antibiotics important in reducing infections after C-section
Giving antibiotics before cesarean section surgery rather than just after the newborn’s umbilical cord is clamped cuts the infection rate at the surgical site in half, according to infection disease specialist David K. Warren, MD, and his colleagues at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and Barnes-Jewish Hospital.
Levin testifies before House subcommittee on retrospective review of rules
This summer, Ronald Levin, JD, the William R. Orthwein Distinguished Professor of Law, testified before the House of Representatives’ Subcommittee on Courts, Commercial and Administrative Law regarding the “retrospective review” process for federal agency rules.
New target for treating diabetes and obesity
Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have identified a potential target for treating diabetes and obesity. Studying mice, they found that when the target protein was disabled, the animals became more sensitive to insulin and were less likely to get fat.
Free iPad app offers personalized advice for healthy living
Zuum, a free iPad app, estimates a user’s disease risk and offers a customized plan for living a healthier life.
Brain imaging can predict how intelligent you are, study finds
New research from Washington University in St. Louis suggests that as much as 10 percent of individual differences in intelligence can be explained by the strength of neural pathways connecting the lateral prefrontal cortex to the rest of the brain. Findings establish “global brain connectivity” as a new method for understanding human intelligence.
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