WUSTL researchers have shed light on one of the most important events in earth history, the conquest of land by plants. No would-be colonizer could have survived without the ability to deal with dehydration, a major threat for organisms accustomed to soaking in water. Clues to how the first land plants managed to avoid drying out are provided by the drought-tolerant moss Physcomitrella patens.

The Eiffel Tower and other world-class icons viewable online via webcams are getting a new three-dimensional look thanks to an innovative, browser-based application recently unveiled by Austin Abrams, a Ph.D. candidate at Washington University in St. Louis.

Younan Xia, Ph.D., the James M. McKelvey Professor of Biomedical Engineering, has been ranked as one of the top 10 chemists in the world by The Times Higher Education, a magazine based in London.

Robert Kranz has devoted much of his caeer to understanding cytochrome c, a little-noted molecule but one as important to life as DNA or hemoglobin. Because bacteria and people use different systems to assemble this molecule, his work may open the door to novel antibiotics and other medicinal drugs.

The Alvin J. Siteman Cancer Center and Washington University have received from Alvin J. Siteman a commitment for an endowment that will provide at least $1 million annually to advance pioneering investigations into cancer prevention, diagnosis and treatment. The new endowment establishes the Alvin J. Siteman Cancer Research Fund, which will provide support for transformational scientific contributions that address the challenges associated with overcoming cancer.