Page 290 – The Source | Washington University in St. Louis

Election Day is Nov. 8

On Election Day is Tuesday, Nov. 8, and the Athletic Complex is ready to welcome students, faculty and staff who are registered to vote in St. Louis County. Polls are open from 6 a.m.-7 p.m. Also, join in a party with live music and free food.

Medicine

Understanding, treating pain, reducing opioid use, aim of $11.7 million grant

School of Medicine scientists have received a five-year $11.7 million grant to study human genes and nerve cells to better understand how cells transmit pain and to find new ways to treat it.

Engineering

Center for Biomolecular Condensates launches

Drawing with proteins in different stages of aggregation, from single protein to oligomer to cluster to condensate

A new multidisciplinary center focused on biomolecular condensates — distinct molecular communities that make up the building blocks of life — has launched at the McKelvey School of Engineering.

Awards & Notables

Senior Miao elected to College Democrats board

Ranen Miao, a senior studying political science and sociology in Arts & Sciences, was elected to serve as national director of communications for the College Democrats of America.

Marketing

Twitter controversy highlights corporate brand risk

Twitter blue bird next to an Elon Musk tweet

If changes at Twitter conflict with businesses’ values, it’s time for companies to re-evaluate use of the social media platform, said Olin Business School marketing expert Michael Wall.

Space

Polarized X-rays reveal shape, orientation of extremely hot matter around black hole

New measurements from Cygnus X-1, reported Nov. 3 in the journal Science, represent the first observations of a mass-accreting black hole from the Imaging X-Ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) mission, an international collaboration between NASA and the Italian Space Agency. The lead author of the new study is physicist Henric Krawczynski in Arts & Sciences.

Climate & Environment

Midwest Climate Collaborative receives NSF grant

The Midwest Climate Collaborative recently received its first National Science Foundation grant to explore ways to mitigate heat islands in four Midwestern cities.

Diversity & Inclusion

Diwali outfits celebrate culture, diversity of South Asia

Presented by student group Ashoka, Washington University’s annual Diwali performance is a celebration of South Asian dance and song. It also serves as a showcase for the region’s colorful fashions.

Engineering

Machine learning generates pictures of proteins in 5D

Using machine learning with an additional processing step, researchers from the lab of Matthew Lew at the McKelvey School of Engineering can wrest a host of information from a few pixels of light.

Sociology

Worsening racial inequality in home appraisals detailed in new report

Using data from the newly released Uniform Appraisal Dataset, which includes 47.3 million home appraisals conducted over the last decade, WashU’s Elizabeth Korver-Glenn and Junia Howell of the University of Illinois Chicago demonstrate stark inequalities in appraisal values between homes in white neighborhoods and communities of color.