News highlights for August 31, 2010

US News & World Report Beyond college immunizations: How students can avoid getting sick8/30/2010Any college student knows close contact isn’t really optional. When you’re sleeping inches away from a roommate (or two or three), and sharing restrooms, showers, desks, and dining space—and sometimes even swapping spit—germs are bound to spread. Indeed, bugs like upper-respiratory infections, […]

A friendly face

Each year, first-year medical students are matched with a second-year medical student, usually based on similar interests, undergraduate school, hometown or personality, who acts as a mentor, or “big sib,” to help them get adjusted.

Reminder: WUSTL campuses are tobacco-free as of July 1

Washington University campuses became tobacco-free this past July, which means smoking and tobacco use now is prohibited on all university-owned and -managed properties. The university will continue to work with community members to support tobacco-cessation efforts.

The range of human experience

From mordant humor and exuberant defiance to love and war and existential anguish, the Performing Arts Department in Arts & Sciences will scale the heights and plumb the depths of our shared mortal coil with its 2010-11 season.

News highlights for August 30, 2010

MSN Health & Fitness Concussion rates soar among younger kids 08/30/2010 High school-age athletes are more likely than younger kids to have sports-related concussions, but the rate of such injuries in both groups is on the rise, a new U.S. study suggests. Awareness of concussions is increasing, according to Dr. Mark Halstead, who co-wrote the […]

Dehner enjoys life ‘peppered’ with surprise

When he returned from Vietnam and service at the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology in Washington, D.C., Louis “Pepper” Dehner, MD, set out to make himself into a pediatric surgical pathologist.

New dining facility opens on the South 40

With the opening of the new dining facility at Washington University in St. Louis Aug. 26, students can feast on food from around the globe, grown in the Midwest. The state-of-the-art facility offers a plethora of food options to the increasingly diverse university community.

The 24/7 Brain

FOR DECADES, neuroscientists were like mental drill sergeants, always directing volunteers to do some-thing: read this word, listen for that sound, add these numbers, tap your finger, and so forth. As volunteers worked, scanners tracked changes in their brain’s blood flow and oxygen use, which increase when neurons in a brain region become more active. […]