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Tablet Discovery

7:45 am

Wed March 30, 2011

UMSL archeologists discover continental Europe's earliest-known written record

Credit (Christian Mundigler)

This is the back of the 2x3 inch tablet that was discovered in Iklaina, Greece.

By Véronique LaCapra

Archeologists from the University of Missouri-St. Louis have discovered continental Europe’s earliest known written record.

The clay tablet fragment dates back to between 1490 and 1390 BC – at least 100 years before any other known writings from mainland Europe.

HIV Photography Project

6:15 am

Thu March 24, 2011

Photography project gives women new perspective on living with HIV

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Credit (Véronique LaCapra/St. Louis Public Radio)

Tamika Taylor Jackson decided to participate in Michelle Teti’s photography project to show how she has transformed her life since her HIV diagnosis.

Credit (Tamika Taylor Jackson)

“I took this picture because this is a hole in the street. Deep, sunken in, broken, and it need to be repaired. When I looked at this, it made me think about how I looked and how I felt when I was diagnosed.”

Credit (Tamika Taylor Jackson)

“I collect shoes, because they are…my step-by-step process. Every time I achieve an accomplishment or a goal, I buy me a shoe. I take it one day at a time, and every time I progress, I say, let me go find me a shoe somewhere.”

Credit (Tamika Taylor Jackson)

“This little raggedy apartment - is where I [lived when I] was first diagnosed in 2001. I lost my house. And I had to move out and find myself something just to stay off the streets. So, me, my kids, moved into this little thing.”

Credit (Tamika Taylor Jackson)

“Then I moved into the next house. I was like, ‘This is progression ‘cause I'm doing it on my own.’”

Credit (Tamika Taylor Jackson)

“That [last] house is where I reside now. I don't have no rent assistance from anybody now. I'm thankful. I'm blessed. I went from being out on the street to my house going to me owning – owning my own house.”

Credit (Tamika Taylor Jackson)

“I read My [Daily] Bread every morning. I read health, I read wealth, I read wisdom, I read spiritual healing. It makes me feel good. It makes me feel more confident and stronger about myself.”

Credit (Tamika Taylor Jackson)

“I have to take 17 pills every day. And I get tired of taking medication. But…you got to do what you’re supposed to do: you got to take your medicine, you got to live a healthy life…you got to communicate, you got to interact.”

By Véronique LaCapra

More than a million Americans are living with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. About a quarter of them are women, and in St. Louis and throughout the country, African-American women are disproportionately affected.

An HIV diagnosis can lead not just to debilitating medical problems, but to social stigma and isolation. But as St. Louis Public Radio’s Véronique LaCapra reports, a photography project is giving some HIV-positive women a new way to look at their disease and its challenges.

Health Research

5:48 pm

Mon March 21, 2011

Lab-grown gut microbes could help combat malnutrition, gastrointestinal diseases

Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis were able to grow and manipulate individual collections of human intestinal microbes, like these E. coli, in the laboratory. (Wikimedia Commons/Rocky Mountain Laboratories/NIAID/NIH)

By Véronique LaCapra

Scientists have taken another step toward understanding human nutrition.

Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine have shown they can grow entire collections of human intestinal microbes in the laboratory.

Washington University microbiologist Dr. Jeffrey Gordon says his team then transplanted the bacterial communities into previously germ-free mice, to see how the lab-grown bacteria would respond to a human diet.

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