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Biology

Hormone alters electric fish’s signal-canceling trick

Electric fish
New research from Washington University in St. Louis shows that testosterone — which naturally triggers male electric fish to broadcast slightly different signals during the breeding season — also alters a system in the fish’s brain that enables the fish to ignore its own signal. The study by biologists Matasaburo Fukutomi and Bruce Carlson in Arts & Sciences is published in Current Biology.
Space

Chun wins NASA FINESST grant

Sohee Chun
Sohee Chun, a graduate student in physics in Arts & Sciences, was awarded a Future Investigators in NASA Earth and Space Science Technology grant to optimize the shield inside a crysostat and around a gamma ray detector.
Awards & Notables

Samuels nominated for book award

“Infrastructural Optimism” by Linda C. Samuels, a professor of urban design at the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts, has been long-listed for the inaugural Pattis Family Foundation Global Cities Book Award.
Engineering

Good smells, bad smells: It’s all in the insect brain

locust
Barani Raman and his lab at the McKelvey School of Engineering studied the behavior of the locusts and how the neurons in their brains responded to appealing and unappealing odors to learn more about how the brain encodes for preferences and how it learns.
Law

Trump indictment does not violate First Amendment

Donald Trump at 2016 rally.
Former President Donald Trump was indicted this month over his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election. He plans to fight the charges by claiming in part that the prosecution would violate his right to freedom of speech. Not so, says First Amendment expert Greg Magarian.
Climate & Environment

Fanning the flames

View of wildfire smoke from plane
Research from Rajan Chakrabarty and Rohan Mishra at the McKelvey School of Engineering reveals an unexpected impact of wildfires on climate change.