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Science & Technology

Mutant plants reveal temperature sensor

In a serendipitous moment, scientists studying light sensing molecules in plants have discovered that they are also temperature sensors.The discovery may eventually allow them to design crop varieties that are better able to cope with a warming world.
Aging

Natural compound reduces signs of aging in healthy mice

Scientists at the School of Medicine have shown that supplementing healthy mice with a natural compound called NMN can compensate for a loss of energy production in aging cells, reducing typical signs of aging such as gradual weight gain, loss of insulin sensitivity and declines in physical activity.
Medicine & Health

For some COPD patients, portable oxygen treatment provides no benefit

Patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) often receive portable oxygen therapy to help raise oxygen levels and allow them to breathe easier. But a major study published Oct. 26 in The New England Journal of Medicine indicates that supplemental oxygen does not benefit a large group of patients with COPD: those with moderately low levels of oxygen in the blood.
Medicine & Health

Examining the effects of regulating tobacco sales

State actions to regulate retail sales of tobacco nearly doubled between 2012 and 2014, according to new research from the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis, but much of the activity was directed at e-cigarettes, perhaps the least harmful tobacco product.

Maxwell wins 2016 American Book Award

William J. Maxwell, professor of English and of African and African-American studies in Arts & Sciences, has won a 2016 American Book Award from the Before Columbus Foundation for “F.B. Eyes: How J. Edgar Hoover’s Ghostreaders Framed African American Literature” (2015).

Who Knew WashU? 10.25.16

Question: Where on the Danforth Campus does this gargoyle (or, more accurately, boss) appear?
Neuroscience & Memory

Brain scans of children with Tourette’s offer clues to disorder

Using MRIs, researchers at the School of Medicine have identified areas in the brains of children with Tourette’s syndrome that appear markedly different from the same areas in the brains of children who don’t have the neuropsychiatric disorder. The findings were published online Oct. 25 in the journal Molecular Psychiatry.