When it comes to communication in the brain, more is usually better. But now scientists, including Maurizio Corbetta, MD, have linked increased communication in a network of brain regions to more severe mental impairment in patients with early-stage multiple sclerosis (MS).
On Wednesday, Jan. 18, Edward E. Curtis IV, an expert on US-Muslim relations, opens the spring 2012 lecture series sponsored by the John C. Danforth Center on Religion & Politics. The lecture series, which is free and open to the public, also features Parker Palmer, Melani McAlister, Jonathan Walton and Andrew Preston.
Six staff members soon will be packing their bags for Shanghai or Paris, as winners of the Global Diversity Overseas Seminar program. The intent of the new program is to encourage a fuller appreciation of diversity on campus by introducing select faculty and staff members to dramatically different cultural contexts.
Student groups at Washington University in St. Louis will usher in the Year of the Dragon and celebrate one of Asia’s most important holidays — Lunar New Year — beginning with a fireworks show Sunday, Jan. 22, and concluding with a two-night, high-spirited performance Jan. 27-28 in Edison Theatre. Events are open to the public. Benefit proceeds will help support victims of the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami that devastated the northeastern region of Japan.
In the case currently before the U.S. Supreme Court, Texas is contesting a federal court’s redrawing of the state’s electoral district lines for the upcoming primary election. Under Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act, Texas must get preclearance from the U.S. Department of Justice before it can institute any voting changes. “This case gives the Supreme Court an opportunity to weaken or even strike down Section 5,” says Gregory Magarian, JD, election law expert and professor of law at Washington University in St. Louis. “If Texas wins, even if the Court stops short of striking down Section 5 altogether, it will mark a major change in the law. The Supreme Court will essentially be saying that racial voting discrimination by state officials is no longer a problem that justifies a federal remedy.”
Senior Dylan Richter scored 20 points and sophomore Tim Cooney tied a career-high with 19 points as the men’s basketball team opened University Athletic Association (UAA) play with a 79-72 victory over the University of Chicago Jan 7. at the WU Field House. Update also included on women’s basketball.
NASA has just funded Henri Krawczynski and his colleague Matthias Beilicke, to launch a balloon-borne telescope sensitive to the polarization of light that will float at an altitude of 130,000 feet for a day. During that time, the balloon will stare fixedly at two black holes in our galaxy, an accreting neutron star, the Crab nebula, an extragalactic black hole and other targets yet to be chosen. One of the first instruments of its type, it should be able to make the first direct measurements of the spin rate of black holes, among other advancements.
A biology lab at Washington University in St. Louis has successfully cracked the structure of an enzyme made by Plasmodium falciparum, the parasitical protozoan that causes the most lethal form of malaria. Plasmodium cannot live without the enzyme, which is uses to make cell membrane. Because people don’t make this enzyme, it is an ideal target for an anti-malarial drug. Such a drug might kill Plasmodium but have minimal side effects for people.
A new study shows that annual prostate cancer screening does not reduce deaths from the disease, even among men in their 50s and 60s and those with underlying health conditions.
The study was published online Jan. 6 in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.
U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill will participate in a roundtable discussion with Washington University in St. Louis administrators and energy researchers, and the region’s energy leaders on the nation’s urgent energy needs. The roundtable energy discussion will be held at noon Monday, Jan. 9, at Washington University’s Brauer Hall, Room 3015, followed by a tour of WUSTL’s Ultrafast Laser Facility.