Newsroom Stories

Last year, the National Collegiate Athletic Association required all aluminum bats used in college play to meet a new performance standard designed to limit the exit speed of the ball off the bat. This year, the National Federation of State High School Associations also has implemented the new standard. With spring training beginning at all levels this month, a WUSTL professor and WUSTL baseball coaches comment on the new bats and how they have affected play.

The American public exhibits deep partisan divisions about the direction that federal fiscal policy should take, finds a new national survey from the Weidenbaum Center at Washington University in St. Louis. The American Panel Survey will take place monthly, and will measure shifts in attitudes over time.

Peter Gizzi’s poetry practically vibrates with tensions — between the lyrical and the abstract, joy and grief, interior and exterior. In Threshold Songs, his fifth and most recent collection, the writer is at once elegiac and experimental, building poems and shaping meanings from the rhythms and collisions of words and language even as he mourns a string of personal losses. On Thursday, Feb. 23, Gizzi, the Visiting Hurst Professor of Poetry, will read from his work as part of The Writing Program’s spring Reading Series.

Researchers have found significant differences in brain development in infants as young as six months old who later develop autism, compared to babies who don’t develop the disorder. The new research, which relied on brain scans acquired at night while infants were naturally sleeping, suggests that autism doesn’t appear abruptly, but instead develops over time during infancy.

Many children with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) can benefit from medication for related disorders such as attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). “Unfortunately, there is very poor understanding of overall medication use for kids with autism,” says Paul T. Shattuck, PhD, assistant professor at the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis. As a step toward improving the situation, Shattuck and colleagues studied psychotropic medication use compared across individuals with an ASD, ADHD and both an ASD with ADHD. “Observations from the present study reinforce the complexity of pharmacologic treatment of challenging behavior in kids with ASDs and ADHD. There needs to be a clearer guide for treating kids with both an ASD and ADHD,” he says.

Deanne Bell, an alumna of Washington University in St. Louis and host of popular science and technology-themed television shows, will share her love for a profession that she finds fun, creative, and critical to innovation, in an Assembly Series presentation at 7 p.m. Friday, Feb. 24.

Chen Li, from Wenzhou, China, has been named a McDonnell International Scholar at Washington University in St. Louis. Chen earned degrees from the National University of Singapore and Chinese University of Hong Kong, which are two of the 27 premier universities from around the world partnered with Washington University in the McDonnell International Scholars Academy.

Leandro Medina de Oliveira, from São Paulo, Brazil, has been named a McDonnell International Scholar at Washington University in St. Louis. Medina de Oliveira earned a degree from the State University of Campinas, which is one of 27 premier universities from around the world partnered with Washington University in the McDonnell International Scholars Academy.

Li Weijie, from Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, China, has been named a McDonnell International Scholar at Washington University in St. Louis. Li earned a degree from Fudan University, which is one of 27 premier universities from around the world partnered with Washington University in the McDonnell International Scholars Academy.

Li Yunzi, from Guangzhou, China, has been named a McDonnell International Scholar at Washington University in St. Louis. Li earned a degree from the University of Hong Kong, which is one of 27 premier universities from around the world partnered with Washington University in the McDonnell International Scholars Academy.