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Science & Technology

Stressed bees die sooner, leading to abrupt collapse of colonies

Pathogens, pesticides and nutritional deficits have previously been identified as stressors linked to colony collapse disorder, but it was a mystery why bee colonies sometimes collapsed so rapidly, leaving bee keepers with an empty hive box. A new study suggests that when a colony is stressed, young bees are forced to become foragers much sooner than they otherwise would and this accelerated development leads to their early death.
Medicine & Health

New approach to childhood malnutrition may reduce relapses, deaths

Children treated for moderate acute malnutrition experience a high rate of relapse and even death in the year following treatment and recovery. A new study led by School of Medicine researchers has found that target weights and measures of arm circumference used in assessing the health of malnourished children are insufficient and that raising these thresholds could significantly lower the rate of relapse.
Campus & Community

Up next for Assembly Series: religious extremism and the case for reparations

Topics both timely and thought-provoking will be covered in back-to-back Assembly Series lectures. At 6 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 17,  eminent religious scholar and bestselling author Reza Aslan will address “Faith, Extremism, and Democracy: Examining the Parallels of Religious Fundamentalism at Home and Abroad.” At 7 p.m. the next evening, Feb. 18, writer Ta-Nehisi Coates will explore one of the most enduring and controversial issues of race in “The Case for Reparations.”
Medicine & Health

Understanding how connections rewire after spinal cord injury

​Restoring function after spinal cord injury, which damages the connections that carry messages from the brain to the body and back, depends on forming new connections between the surviving nerve cells. With a five-year, nearly $1.7-million grant from the National Institutes of Health, Shelly Sakiyama-Elbert, PhD, professor of biomedical engineering in the School of Engineering & Applied Science, is using novel methods to study how these nerve cells grow and make new connections to reroute signals that could restore function and movement in people with these debilitating injuries.
Campus & Community

‘Day of Discovery and Dialogue’ over; next steps continue​

The discovery was an important first step; the dialogue continues. That’s the takeaway more than 600 participants from within the Washington University in St. Louis community heard in a unique, universitywide forum called “Race & Ethnicity: A Day of Discovery and Dialogue” that took place Feb. 5 and 6.

Kulkarni receives excellence award, grants

Shashikant Kulkarni, PhD, of Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, has received an award from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry for excellence in partnering in “Next Generation Sequencing — Standardization of Clinical Testing.”

Duncan/Newstead intersection to close Feb. 25

Starting Feb. 25 and continuing for about two months, the intersection of Duncan and Newstead avenues will close as a Metropolitan Sewer District storm sewer line upgrade continues. Sections of Duncan east of Newstead have been closed during the project but will reopen when the intersection closes. Boyle is expected to reopen this spring.
Campus & Community

Washington People: Josh Whitman​

Seven things you should know about the energetic and driven Josh Whitman, the John M. Schael Director of Athletics at Washington University in St. Louis, who is six months into the job and working nonstop to build an already-successful athletics department into the best in NCAA Division III.