Newsroom Stories

Scientists at Washington University in St. Louis discovered that under Mars-like conditions, manganese oxides can be readily formed without atmospheric oxygen. The study from the laboratory of Jeffrey Catalano in Arts & Sciences was published Dec. 22 in Nature Geoscience.

A team of scientists including physicist Johanna Nagy at Washington University in St. Louis successfully launched a balloon-borne experiment studying the early universe on Dec. 21. The instrument, called SPIDER, was carried aloft by a scientific balloon from its launch pad in Antarctica.

A proposed federal commercial surveillance rule would be an important and overdue change in U.S. consumer protection, said Neil Richards, a privacy law expert at the Washington University School of Law.

The Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum has acquired a major recent work by artist and activist Ai Weiwei. Titled “Illumination” (2019), the piece reconstructs, in colorful Lego blocks, an iconic selfie the artist took during his 2009 arrest in Chengdu, China.

A new grant from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) will support research at the School of Medicine to investigate the real-world effectiveness of COVID-19 and influenza vaccines.

The School of Medicine and pharmaceutical company Eisai Co. Ltd. have formed a research collaboration aimed at developing new treatments for Alzheimer’s disease and other neurodegenerative conditions.

Fangqiong Ling at the McKelvey School of Engineering and Likai Chen in Arts & Sciences developed a machine learning model that uses the assortment of microbes found in wastewater to tease out how many individual people they represent. Their study was published in PLOS Computational Biology.

High school senior Marye’ Jones got two big surprises Monday: a letter of admissioon to WashU, her dream school, and a WashU Pledge scholarship award, which will cover tuition, housing, books and more. Jones, of St. Louis, was among 700 students admitted through the early decision process.

Abhinav Jha, at the McKelvey School of Engineering, wants to use novel imaging to better understand how people absorb radiation therapy. His team won a four-year $2.2 million National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant for the study, which aims to guide treatment decisions.

A large study conducted in part by School of Medicine researchers focused on whether exercise and mindfulness training could boost cognitive function in older adults. The study found no such improvement following the interventions.