Newsroom Stories

A major U.S. study shows that annual chest X-rays to screen for lung cancer do not reduce the risk of dying from the disease, even in smokers or former smokers. More than 150,000 older Americans were involved in the clinical trial, funded by the National Cancer Institute, with about 16,000 enrolled at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. Results of the study will be published Nov. 2 in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

A cold, wet day wasn’t enough to keep Henry S. Webber, executive vice chancellor for administration, from riding his bicycle through a ribbon dedicating the new bicycle path through the Danforth Campus Oct. 19. Partners from the Great Rivers Greenway District, the City of St. Louis and St. Louis County, and Clayton and University City participated in the celebration. The ribbon-cutting event was part of Campus Sustainability Week.

From gleaming skyscrapers to humble market stalls, modern India is a world of crowded contradiction, a world of iPhones and ancient gods, of rickshaws and SUVs, of causal corruption and slumdog millionaires. In The Guru of Chai —  presented Nov. 4 and 5 as part of the Edison Ovations Series — Jacob Rajan, co-founder of New Zealand’s India Ink Theatre Company, gives voice to the world’s largest democracy through a series of indelible characters: the poor chaiwallah (tea seller), the lovelorn policeman, the protection racketeers, the abandoned girl whose singing stops crowds in their tracks.

Robert D. Putnam, PhD, the Malkin Professor of Public Policy at the Harvard University John F. Kennedy School of Government, will present a lecture on his latest work, American Grace: How Religion Divides and Unites Us, at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 2, in Graham Chapel. He is the author or co-author of more than a dozen books, including Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community.

Amal Al-Lozi, senior environmental biology major in Arts & Sciences, presents her work on temperate Oak-Hickory forests to Kelsey Brod, a junior in printmaking and environmental studies, at the Fall 2011 Undergraduate Research Symposium Oct. 22. The event, showcasing the summer projects of more than 150 undergraduates, was held during Parent & Family Weekend.

On the heels of the St. Louis Cardinals’ appearance in the World Series, one of baseball’s greatest fans will give the keynote address to the annual Founder’s Day celebration at Washington University in St. Louis. In addition to the Pulitizer Prize-winning historian’s remarks, Founders Day 2011 will feature the presentation of the Distinguished Faculty Awards, the Distinguished Alumni Awards and the Robert S. Brookings Awards.

Junior quarterback Dan Burkett threw for two touchdowns and ran for another score as the WUSTL football team posted a 24-21 win at Oberlin College Oct. 22. Updates also included on men’s and women’s soccer.

At the bottom of plants’ ability to sense touch, gravity or the proximity of a nearby trellis are mechanosensitive channels, pores through the cells’ plasma membrane that are opened and closed by the deformation of the membrane. Elizabeth Haswell, PhD, a biologist at Washington University in St. Louis, is studying the roles these channels play in Arabidopsis plants by growing mutant plants that lack one or more of the 10 possible channel proteins in this species.

From its humble beginning as a mimeographed, five-page news-sheet to today’s four-color, 36-page, high-quality glossy magazine and multimedia online presence, Outlook magazine has long been the featured source of information about the people and events of Washington University School of Medicine. Now complete issues of Outlook, from 1964-2011, are available in PDF format.

A string quartet from the St. Louis Symphony will join pianist Seth Carlin, professor of music in Arts & Sciences, and mezzo-soprano Debra Hillabrand, teacher of applied music, for a free concert featuring the music of Johannes Brahms (1833-97). Sponsored by the Department of Music and the St. Louis Symphony Community Partnership program, the performance will begin at 7:30 p.m. in the E. Desmond Lee Concert Hall.