News highlights for February 14, 2011

BBC | Earth News Prairie dogs kiss and cuddle for an audience 2/14/2011 A prairie dog kiss may be a form of social reassurance, much like a human kiss. It seems humans are not the only animals that change their behaviour when they are being watched. Captive prairie dogs — large and very sociable rodents— […]

A Midsummer Night’s Dream Feb. 25 to March 6

City versus forest. Apollonian rationality versus Dionysian subconscious. Wayward lovers and working-class thespians versus the regal, glittering world of the fairies. William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream is a study in contrasts, joining elegant verse and bawdy humor with cruel punishments and magical enchantments “past the wit of man.” This month, the Performing Arts Department will present the Bard’s most popular comedy — arguably the most popular ever written — as its spring Mainstage production.  

Guide star lets scientists see deep into human tissue

Focusing light into a scattering medicum such as tissue has been a dream since the beginning of biomedical optics, according to Lihong Wang, PhD, WUSTL biomedical imaging expert. Previous techniques allowed light to be focused only within a millimeter of the skin. Now Wang has invented a technique called “TRUE”  that uses an ultrasound guide star to allow scattered optical light to be focused deep within tissue.    

RecycleMania 2011 begins

WUSTL’s top 11 percent finish in last year’s RecycleMania competition was impressive, but the Office of Sustainability is challenging WUSTL to finish even higher in the 2011 RecycleMania contest, which lasts eight weeks and ends Saturday, April 2. RecycleMania 2011 pits WUSTL against other colleges and universities to see which campus can keep the greatest amount of waste materials from landfills.

Notables

D. Craig Allred, MD, professor of pathology and immunology, has received a one-year, $24,000 grant from the Longer Life Foundation for research titled “Predicting Prognosis in Invasive Breast Cancer by Genetic Instability.” … Tamara Burlis, DPT, assistant professor of physical therapy and associate director for clinical education in physical therapy, has been appointed by Missouri […]

News highlights for February 11, 2011

Chronicle of Higher Education Dumped on by data: Scientists say a deluge Is drowning research 02/10/2011 The Human Connectome Project will allow researchers to navigate freely available data to come up with new ideas about the brain. “The insights emerge from comparing across a whole collection of studies looking at similar, but not identical, questions,” […]
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