President Bush’s call this week for Congress to end its decades-old ban on offshore oil and gas drilling has highlighted key differences in the big-oil platforms of presumptive Republican and Democratic presidential nominees Barak Obama and John McCain, suggests William Lowry, an expert on the politics of environmental and energy issues at Washington University in St. Louis.
A set of promising new anticancer agents could have unforeseen risks in individuals with heart disease, suggests research at the School of Medicine. The anticancer drugs — which go by the strange name of hedgehog antagonists — interfere with a biochemical process that promotes growth in some cancer cells. But the researchers showed that interfering with this biochemical process in mice with heart disease led to further deterioration of cardiac function and ultimately death.
As if the emotional and financial impact of flood damage isn’t bad enough, floodwaters can also bring health problems. H. James Wedner, professor of medicine and chief of the Division of Allergy and Immunology at the School of Medicine, says after the water recedes, damp homes and businesses are fertile grounds for mold growth, which can cause allergic reactions and asthmatic symptoms in sensitive people.
SadatThe Supreme Court’s recent ruling giving the Guantanamo Bay detainees the right of habeas corpus “underscores the commitment of the United States to be governed by the rule of law even during times of national stress, and is a courageous response to the overreaching policies of the executive branch, buttressed by a compliant Republican Congress, that have caused world-wide criticism of U.S. interrogation and detention policies,” says Leila N. Sadat, expert on international law and professor of law at Washington University in St. Louis. Sadat, the director of the Whitney R. Harris World Law Institute, is the author of the leading treatise on the international criminal court, “The International Criminal Court and the Transformation of International Law: Justice for the New Millennium,” and is closely following the status of the detainees at Guantanamo.
James RichardsThe Gateway Festival Orchestra begins its 45th season of free Sunday-evening performances July 6 with a program of American music designed to celebrate the Independence Day weekend. The concert — featuring works by Samuel Barber, Leonard Bernstein, Henry Mancini, John Williams and John Philip Sousa — begins at 7:30 p.m. in Washington University Brookings Quadrangle.
A group of steroids found in female mouse urine goes straight to the male mouse’s head, according to researchers at the School of Medicine. They found the compounds activate nerve cells in the male mouse’s nose with unprecedented effectiveness.
The Big Read is a national program designed to encourage literary reading by helping communities come together to read and discuss a single book. In January 2009 Washington University in St. Louis — supported by a $20,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts — will coordinate a St. Louis Big Read focusing on Harper Lee’s 1960 classic To Kill a Mockingbird. The month-long series of community-based events will include a wide variety of reading programs, read-a-thons, book discussions, lectures, performances, movie screenings and other activities.
Nutrition researchers at the School of Medicine have identified five common genetic variations that increase the risk of metabolic syndrome, a group of factors linked to heart disease and diabetes. Another variant they found appeared to protect against the condition.
Karl Benjamin, *Black Pillars,* 1957.From retail furnishings to international auction houses, recent years have seen a resurgence of interest in midcentury modernism, an influential design aesthetic that flourished between the mid-1930s and the mid-1960s. During the 2008-09 academic year the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum at Washington University in St. Louis will host two major exhibitions exploring both the breadth and the cultural impact of midcentury modernism, through such mediums as painting, sculpture, architecture, interior design, film, music and the graphic arts.
Childhood lead poisoning has been a sizable problem in the city of St. Louis for many years due to deteriorating lead paint in older homes and rental units. In 2000, 31 percent of children tested in the city of St. Louis were poisoned, according to Daniel Berg, M.D., assistant professor of medicine.