For the third straight year, The Source has asked some first-year students at Washington University in St. Louis to capture a second of video every day as they begin their college careers. The project began Aug. 17, the day they moved in to the South 40.

In the past two years, five students kept a video diary of their first days as first-year students. Find out what has changed for them in the past year.

Washington University in St. Louis is partnering with area organizations to offer more affordable solar panel installation for homeowners in several St. Louis areas. Learn more during a “Solar Power Hour” Oct. 23 in Schnuck Pavilion.

Jill Biden (left), wife of former Vice President Joe Biden and a lifelong educator, will deliver the keynote address of “She Leads,” a two-day event organized by the Olin Fellowship featuring female leaders in technology, public service, medicine and other fields. Alumna Brittany Packnett’s talk Oct. 24 in Graham Chapel will kick off the conference.

A new study from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis suggests the gut microbiome has an impact on how the body breaks down processed foods, such as cereals, pastas, chocolate and soda. The new knowledge could help in the development of healthier, more nutritious processed foods.

A longtime leader in microbiome research, the School of Medicine plans to expand research into the microbiome with a new mouse facility that will further enable researchers to understand how microbes influence health and disease. The facility will be funded with an $8 million grant from the National Institutes of Health and an additional $2.8 million from the School of Medicine.

The Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts at Washington University in St. Louis will present “Decoys & Depictions: Images of the Digital,” a symposium exploring how digital images are constructed and operate, Oct. 24-26.

The fifth annual Olin Sports Business Summit convenes Oct. 18 in Knight Hall’s Emerson Auditorium. The 2019 lineup features numerous presentations from industry executives at professional basketball, football and soccer teams.

Himadri B. Pakrasi, professor of biology in Arts & Sciences and director of InCEES, was recently awarded a $1.2-million grant for a collaborative study of cyanobacteria with the ultimate purpose of producing nitrogen-fixing crop plants.

New research from Washington University in St. Louis confirms that the brain tunes itself to a point where it is as excitable as it can be without tipping into disorder, similar to a phase transition. The new research from Keith Hengen, assistant professor of biology in Arts & Sciences, is published Oct. 7 in the journal Neuron.