Arts & Sciences

Children as young as 3 already are beginning to recognize and follow important rules and patterns governing how letters in the English language fit together to make words, suggests new research from Washington University in St. Louis.

Robyn S. Klein, MD, PhD, a physician-scientist recognized internationally for her work on the brain’s immune system, has been named vice provost and associate dean for graduate education for the Division of Biology & Biomedical Sciences. She will begin her new post Jan. 1.

New Horizons team members just pulled off “eclipse” observations of a body at the far outer reaches of the solar system, showing August eclipse tourists how it’s done.

Ali Taheri Araghi, a Washington University in St. Louis PhD student in comparative literature in Arts & Sciences, has received Prairie Schooner’s Virginia Faulkner Award for Excellence in Writing for his story “Snow,” published in the journal’s fall 2016 issue.

Changes in a liquid as it becomes a glass are related to repulsion between its atoms as they are crowded together. Although scientists have long believed the poorly understood glass transition must have atomic underpinnings, this is the first time they have been demonstrated experimentally.

Using modern, high-tech analysis tools, anthropologist Michael Frachetti is leading groundbreaking research on an ancient city high in the Uzbekistan mountains. The site may hold clues to how medieval civilizations changed when diverse communities integrated — and even suggest how we might consider our own current initiatives of global community-building.

Gary J. Patti, associate professor of chemistry in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, has received a 2017 Agilent Early Career Professor Award. The honor includes a $100,000 research award and is given to those who have made “significant original research contributions” and have “outstanding potential for future research.”

Communicating well across different cultures, backgrounds and experiences is an important skill. Here, experts from across campus give tips on how to navigate these sometimes fraught conversations.

Why does biodiversity grade from exuberance at the equator through moderation at mid-latitudes toward monotony at higher ones? Data from an international network of long-term forest dynamics research sites is finally providing an answer.

Just as people endlessly calculate how to upsize or downsize, bacteria continually adjust their volume (their stuff) to fit inside their membrane (their space). But what limits their expansion? The answer will surprise you.