Website features daily menus for new cafes​

Want to find out today’s specials at the medical school cafes? A website features daily menus for the Shell Café in the McDonnell Sciences Building, the Farrell Café in the Farrell Learning and Teaching Center, and Café Expresso at the Orthopaedic Center in Chesterfield.

Can large introductory science courses teach students to learn effectively?

In the past 10 years an active-learning course, called “Active Physics,” has gradually displaced lecture-based introductory courses in physics at Washington University in St. Louis. But are active-learning techniques effective when they are scaled up to large classes? A comprehensive three-year evaluation suggests that “Active Physics” consistently produces more proficient and confident students than the lecture courses it is replacing.

2010 Chilean earthquake triggered icequakes in Antarctica

In March 2010, the ice sheets in Antarctica vibrated a bit more than usual as a surface wave from an 8.8-magnitude earthquake in Chile 3,000 kilometers away passed through the ice. Powerful earthquakes were known to trigger secondary quakes along faults in land; this was the first observation of triggered quakes in the ice. Washington University in St. Louis seismologist Doug Wiens says the finding is one of several discoveries made possible by POLENET, an array of seismic stations that reaches for the first time into the interior of Antarctica.

‘Drawing Ambience: Alvin Boyarsky and the Architectural Association’ ​

As chair of the Architectural Association in London, Alvin Boyarsky was among the most influential figures in 20th-century design education. This fall, the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum will present “Drawing Ambience: Alvin Boyarsky and the Architectural Association,” the first public museum exhibition of drawings from Boyarsky’s private collection.

Preemies’ gut bacteria may depend more on gestational age than environment

The population of bacteria in premature infants’ guts may depend more on the babies’ biological makeup and gestational age at birth than on environmental factors, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have found. They discovered that bacterial communities assemble in a choreographed progression, with the pace of that assembly slowest in infants born most prematurely.

Electric car charging station driven partly by sun​​

The electric car charging station in front of Brauer and Whitaker halls on the Washington University in St. Louis campus is now getting a boost from the sun after workers installed solar panels atop the structure July 30. In addition to bolstering the university’s commitment to sustainability, the station is connected to research in its School of Engineering & Applied Science.​

Peipert receives award from reproductive health association

Jeff Peipert, MD, the Robert J. Terry Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology, will receive the Alan F. Guttmacher Lectureship Award at the 2014 Reproductive Health conference of the Association of Reproductive Health Professionals.