Climate change, water shortages and the loss of
farmland to pollution and urban sprawl are making it increasingly
difficult for farmers to feed the world’s growing population,
agricultural scholars from four continents said this week at an
international symposium held at Washington University in St. Louis.
The government of India’s Department of Biotechnology,
Indian corporate leaders and Washington University in St. Louis have
invested $2.5 million to launch the Indo-U.S. Advanced Bioenergy
Consortium for Second Generation Biofuels (IUABC). The goal of the center is to increase biomass yield in
plants and algae, enabling downstream commercial development for
cost-effective, efficient and environmentally sustainable production of
advanced biofuels.
School of Medicine scientists have described a way to convert human skin
cells directly into a specific type of brain cell affected by
Huntington’s disease, an ultimately fatal neurodegenerative disorder.
Unlike other techniques that turn one cell type into another, this new
process does not pass through a stem cell phase, avoiding the production
of multiple cell types.
Janet Owen, technical support specialist in the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts, recommends “Rawstock,” a film festival that highlights entertainingly offbeat materials from the University Libraries’ Film & Media Archive. The event takes place at 8 p.m. Friday, Oct. 24, at Melt, 2712 Cherokee St.
“Long tail” thinking — a strategy employed by many new businesses — might yield
greater progress the field of public health by eliminating health disparities, according to a
study from the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis led by Matthew W. Kreuter, PhD.
Why do works of art move us so powerfully? Nobel laureate Eric Kandel, MD,will share his insight as the Arthur Holly Compton Lecturer for the Washington University in St. Louis Assembly Series at 5 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 28, in Graham Chapel.
People at high risk for psychological distress respond positively to receiving results of personalized genetic testing, according to new research at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. More than 60 percent of subjects in the genetic study wanted information about their test results, and 95 percent said they appreciated receiving the information, regardless of whether the results were good or bad news.
Josiah Lewis, a graduate student in physics in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, has received a NASA Earth and Space Sciences Fellowship for 2014–15. The fellowship is for research titled “Atom-Probe Studies of the Origins of Meteoritic Nanodiamonds and Silicon Carbide.”
Social media marketing strategies present both
challenges and opportunities for public health professionals. While
misinformation can be spread, social media does provide an effective way
of reaching large audiences. Situational analysis by researchers
at the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis of a recent
social media campaign by the Chicago Department of Public Health
suggests that public health organizations need to pay close attention to
how they disseminate information, and also to the response the campaign
gets.
Clarinetist Nicolas del Grazia and St. Louis Symphony violinist Jooyeon Kong will join Washington University in St. Louis pianist Seth Carlin for works by Johann Sebastian Bach, Robert Schumann, Sergey Prokofiev and Igor Stravinksky Oct. 26.
