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Washington University in St. Louis News & Information > News Topics >
Science & Technology
'We must succeed in meeting this challenge'
Top officers of energy companies meet in St. Louis Nov. 2 to discuss the National Research Council's roadmap for the energy future
Oct. 27,
2009 --
America has the potential to solve its energy crisis over the next decade, but doing so will require immediate investment in clean energy technologies, says Mark S. Wrighton, chancellor of Washington University in St. Louis and vice chair of a National Resource Council report on America's energy challenges. The report will be the topic of a symposium to be held from 12:30 to 5:30 p.m. Monday, Nov. 2, in the May Auditorium in Simon Hall on the Danforth Campus of Washington University in St. Louis.
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Pickled in Brine
Mars may once have been awash in water but the water was very salty
Oct. 26,
2009 -- Andrew H. Knoll, Ph.D., Fisher Professor of Natural History and professor of earth and planetary sciences at Harvard University, will discuss the evidence for life on Mars at 7 p.m. Oct. 30 in Room 300, Laboratory Sciences Building, on the Danforth Campus of Washington University in St. Louis.
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See science in a new way
SciFest brings world-class scientists to St. Louis
Oct. 9,
2009 --
SciFest 09 is festival where everyone can engage in science. The St. Louis Science Center's SciFest 09, which runs through Oct. 11, brings together world-renowned scientists and experts to help participants see science in a new way. Washington University students and faculty will present sessions exploring everything from the science of baseball and the healing power of puppies to images of a brain at work and the bionics of hip replacements.
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St. Louis Science Center presents SciFest
SciFest brings world-class scientists to St. Louis
Oct. 1,
2009 -- The St. Louis Science Center's SciFest 09 brings together world-renowned scientists
and experts - including those from Washington University - to help participants see science in a new way. There are hundreds of science experiences, including presentations and hands-on exhibits.
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Cloudy with a chance of pebble showers
Simulation suggests rocky exoplanet has bizarre atmosphere
Sept. 29,
2009 --
Intrigued by the discovery last February of Corot-7b, a rocky exoplanet, Washington University in St. Louis scientists set out to investigate its atmosphere the only way so-far possible: mathematically and by simulation. Tidally locked with its star and orbiting very close to it, the planet is hot enough to melt rock on its star-facing side. Its atmosphere consists of the components of silicate rocks in gaseous form and, the simulation suggests, periodically rains pebbles or grains of sand onto the molten surface below.
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'McDonaldization' of frogs
Frog fungus hammering biodiversity of communities
Sept. 22,
2009 --
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| Photo by Roberto Brenes |
| Tiny frog killed by invasive fungus. |
Everyone knows that frogs are in trouble. But a recent analysis by Washington University in St. Louis researchers of data on Central American frogs collected by a University of Maryland colleague shows the situation is worse than had been thought. Under pressure from an invasive fungus, the frogs in this biodiversity hot spot are undergoing "a vast homogenization" that is leaving behind simpler communities that increasingly resemble one another. "We're witnessing the McDonaldization of the frog communities," comments Kevin G. Smith, Ph.D., the lead author of the analysis and associate director of Washington University's Tyson Research Center, a site the fungus has also reached.
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The future of news
WUSTL joins university research news site, Futurity.org
Sept. 21,
2009 --
Washington University in St. Louis has joined a group of leading research universities in launching Futurity (futurity.org), an online research channel covering the latest discoveries in science, engineering, the environment, health, and more.
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O'Ceallaigh Medal winner
Cowsik receives award for 'outstanding contributions to cosmic ray physics'
Sept. 14,
2009 --
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| Cowsik |
Ramanath Cowsik, Ph.D., professor of physics and director of the McDonnell Center for the Space Sciences in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, received the 2009 O'Ceallaigh Medal for his "outstanding contributions to cosmic ray physics." Cowsik, whose scientific contributions span over four decades, received the award during the opening ceremony of the 31st biennial International Cosmic Ray Conference, held in Lodz, Poland.
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20,000 neurons keep steady time when working together
WUSTL research finds individual cells isolated from the biological clock can keep daily time, but are unreliable
Sept. 9,
2009 --
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| An isolated nerve cell busy keeping time. |
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Researchers at Washington University in St. Louis have shown that individual cells isolated from the biological clock can keep daily time all by themselves. However, by themselves, they are unreliable. The neurons get out of synch and capriciously quit or start oscillating again. The biological clock, a one-square millimeter area of the brain just above the roof of the mouth and atop the crossing of the optic nerves, comprises about 20,000 neurons. These cells, remarkably, contain the machinery to generate daily, or circadian, rhythms in gene expression and electrical activity. But the individual cells are sloppy and must communicate with one another to establish a coherent 24-hour rhythm.
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Extremely high energy
Pinpointing origin of gamma rays from a supermassive black hole
July 2,
2009 --
An international collaboration of 390 scientists reports the discovery of an outburst of very-high-energy gamma radiation from the giant radio galaxy Messier 87 (M 87), accompanied by a strong rise of the radio flux measured from the direct vicinity of its supermassive black hole. The combined results give first experimental evidence that particles are accelerated to extremely high energies in the immediate vicinity of a supermassive black hole and then emit the observed gamma rays. The gamma rays have energies a trillion times higher than the energy of visible light. Washington University in St. Louis physicists helped coordinate this cooperative project, the results of which appear in the July 2 Science Express, the advance online publication of the journal Science.
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