Since Facebook started giving out customized Web addresses last Friday, some 9.5 million people have rushed to grab their top choice. But for people signing up for these accounts, the battle over domain names is taking place in murky waters. WUSTL student Jeremy Fancer comments.

References:

1. June 18, 2009 — Keeping a True Identity Becomes a Battle Online in the The New York Times

and 3 others.

If at first you don't succeed, tell the world about it -- because Web culture has become obsessed with "failure videos," mostly on YouTube. Whatever the reason, the sharing of personal missteps has become a part of today's e-culture. WUSTL psychology professor Don Fitz comments.

References:

1. May 30, 2009 — The culture of failure in the The Boston Globe

WUSTL engineers led by computer science professor William Richard have created a USB-based ultrasound probe that can connect to a smartphone, creating a low-cost ultrasound imaging platform.

References:

1. May 12, 2009 — What's Next: Ultrasound Images Via Cellphone in the The Washington Post

WUSTL computer scientists William Richard and David Zar have developed a USB Ultrasound probe that works with Windows Mobile smartphones, giving doctors a medical imaging device that they can carry with them wherever they go.

References:

1. April 23, 2009 — Scientists Develop USB Ultrasound for Phones in the PC Magazine

WUSTL computer science and engineering professors William Richard and David Zar have made commercial USB ultrasound probes compatible with Microsoft Windows mobile-based smartphones.

References:

1. April 22, 2009 — Soon, smartphones to provide ultrasound imaging in the Hindustan Times (India)

and 10 others.

A Web site funded by a grant from the state of Texas, allows people around the world to watch the U.S./Mexico border for illegal activity. WUSTL immigration law professor Stephen Legomsky comments.

References:

1. March 12, 2009 — Guarding the U.S.-Mexico border, live from suburban New York in the CNN.com

and 1 others.

An overview of health related Web sites, including YourDiseaseRisk.com, a service of the WUSTL medical school that helps patients determine their risk for various problems.

References:

1. Sept. 29, 2008 — Logging On for a Second (or Third) Opinion in the The New York Times

and 8 others.

Robots are increasingly taking over more soldier duties in Iraq and Afghanistan, with predictions that as much as 30 percent of the U.S. Army will be robotic by 2020. Two WUSTL scientists, Bill Smart and Doug Few, are on the cutting edge of this new wave of technology.

References:

1. Aug. 4, 2008 — Military use of robots increases in U.S. in the Xinhua News Agency (China)

and 2 others.

Researchers on Tuesday launched an effort to create a library of human genetics using the online encyclopedia Wikipedia in hopes it could spur widespread discussion about thousands of individual genes.
Authors of the "gene wiki" group outlined its lofty aims in a paper published on the Public Library of Science's online journal, PLoS Biology. The eight authors are from the Genomics Institute of the Novartis Research Foundation in San Diego, San Diego State University and Washington University in St. Louis.

References:

1. July 9, 2008 — Edit your DNA: 'Gene wiki' to debut on Wikipedia in the The Associated Press State & Local Wire

and 29 others.

Researchers are beginning to understand how mobile phones can cut costs, help solve rural health-care problems, and even reduce medical errors.
Of some 30 health-care-related projects at various universities recently funded by Microsoft Research, 17 involve cell phones. One team, at WUSTL, is attempting to take ultrasound readings using a cell phone and a TV.

References:

1. April 30, 2008 — Medical Advances -- Through Your iPhone? in the BusinessWeek.com

and 30 others.

WUSTL law professor Scott Kieff writes a commentary about regulating Microsoft.
He is also a research fellow at Stanford University' s Hoover Institution, where he runs the Hoover Project on Commercializing Innovation, which studies the law, economics and politics of innovation.

References:

1. March 11, 2008 — Commentary: Let The Markets Regulate Microsoft in the Forbes.com

Article on the efforts of WUSTL chancellor emeritus William Danforth and civic leader John Dubinsky to reorient the business climate in St. Louis. St. Louis has great research institutiions like WUSTL, but "we have not done so well with the commercialization of that science."
In 2001, Danforth -- along with a number of other business and civic leaders -- founded the Coalition for Plant and Life Sciences, a nonprofit group. The goal was to jump-start St. Louis' nascent biotechnology industry by providing both new and mature companies with increased access to financing and up-to-date facilities.

References:

1. Feb. 7, 2007 — Keeping the Fruits of Research Close to Home in St. Louis in the The New York Times

Eager to tap into China's pool of dirt-cheap engineers and technical employees who earn $5,000 to $10,000 a year, hundreds of European and U.S. companies have opened research centers throughout China in the last two years.
WUSTL political science professor Andrew Mertha warns that companies should be careful because of the seriouis problem of intellectual property piracy.

References:

1. Nov. 5, 2006 — U.S. research making great leap in the Philadelphia Inquirer

A U.S. boy has become the first teenager to play a two-dimensional video game using only the signals from his brain to make movements.
WUSTL researchers led by neurological surgery professor Eric Leuthardt and biomedical engineering professor Daniel Moran say the boy's achievement might lead to creation of biomedical devices that can control artificial limbs, enabling the movement of a prosthesis by just thinking about it.

References:

1. Oct. 11, 2006 — Teenager moves video icons by imagination in the United Press International

and 2 others.

The Department of Homeland Security today awards a multi-billion dollar contract to beef up border security. The anticipated winner is Boeing. Despite the aerospace giant's background, Boeing's border security plan is less high tech than you might expect.
WUSTL computer science professor Robert Pless comments on surveillance technology. He is assistant director of WUSTL's Center for Security Technologies.

References:

1. Sept. 21, 2006 — U.S. to Deploy Proven Technology on Borders in the NPR - Morning Edition

Article on a library-scanning project that brings public-domain materials online and offers an alternative to Google's model.
Internet Archive, is guiding a mass-digitization project called the Open Content Alliance, which was announced in October and is rapidly gaining partners. The alliance plans to take carefully selected collections of out-of-copyright books from libraries around the world and turn them into e-books that will be available free to scholars and anyone else who wants to view them, print them, or even download them to their own computers.
WUSTL recently joined. Shirley Baker, vice chancellor for information technology and dean of university libraries, comments.

References:

1. Jan. 27, 2006 — Scribes of the Digital Era in the Chronicle of Higher Education

Article on new observing tools scientists can use to study interstellar dust. Astronomers know that interstellar dust illuminates the erratic deaths of stars, and it traces a direct link from stars to the birth of our solar system — and ultimately, to Earth. WUSTL physicist and cosmochemist Ernst Zinner comments.

References:

1. Oct. 28, 2005 — Astronomers Sweep Space for the Sources of Cosmic Dust in the Science Magazine online

The creators of robot-assisted surgery hope that the remote-controlled surgeons are a step towards a time when traditional open surgery is a thing of the past.
The devices were invented by a team of engineers and doctors from U. Nebraska Medical Centre, Omaha, and U. Nebraska in Lincoln.
In 2000, surgeons at the WUSTL School of Medicine conducted the first pilot trial of robot-assisted heart surgery, and a wide range of procedures now use mechanized instruments.

References:

1. Oct. 27, 2005 — Robot surgeons scrub up in the Nature Magazine (UK)

WUSTL is one of seven university consortia selected by the National Cancer Institute to spearhead research hubs called Centers of Cancer Nanotechnology Excellence, which will bring together academic laboratories and private firms to develop anti-cancer products.
The research involves the use of molecular-scale nanotechnology devices to detect and destroy tumor cells.
From the Post-Dispatch article -- the WUSTL center will be headed by Samuel Wickline.
In April, WUSTL got another grant, worth $12.5 million, for a separate nanotechnology center headed by chemist Karen Wooley.

References:

1. Oct. 4, 2005 — Universities selected for nanotech research in the San Francisco Chronicle
2. Oct. 4, 2005 — WU gets grant to work on anti-cancer particles in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch

and 10 others.

Missouri Gov. Blunt has shot back at his Illinois counterpart's effort to attract scientists and institutions involved in embryonic stem cell research to Illinois.
Blunt said in a letter to life sciences companies that he opposes the "prohibition and criminalization" of stem cell research. The letters were sent to U. Missouri, WUSTL and the KC Stowers Institute for Medical Research, among others.

References:

1. Sept. 13, 2005 — Blunt counters Blagojevich's courting of stem cell researchers in the Associated Press

and 4 others.