Changing words in Mark Twain’s classic book Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is fine as long as the original version still is easily available for readers, says Gerald L. Early, PhD. “We change texts all the time,” Early says. “For instance, we make children’s versions of the Bible, Homer and Shakespeare.” FULL STORY

URL: http://news.wustl.edu/news/Pages/21706.aspx

Scientists, including Gerald W. Dorn, MD, the Philip and Sima K. Needleman Professor of Medicine, have identified the first DNA sequence variant common in the population that is not only associated with an increased risk of heart failure, but appears to play a role in causing it. FULL STORY

URL: http://news.wustl.edu/news/Pages/21746.aspx

The Department of Music in Arts & Sciences will launch its spring Danforth University Center Chamber Music Series with a concert titled “Music from Spain and the Middle East” at 7:30 p.m. tonight. The series will continue throughout the spring semester, including a performance by soprano Stella Markou (right) with pianist Martin Kennedy April 7. FULL STORY

URL: http://news.wustl.edu/news/Pages/21748.aspx

The Administrative Conference of the United States (ACUS) has commissioned Kathleen Clark, JD, professor of law, to evaluate the extent of ethics restrictions on government contractor employees. An independent agency, ACUS functions as a government think tank and commissions legal experts to examine how federal agencies can improve operations. FULL STORY

URL: http://news.wustl.edu/news/Pages/21749.aspx

Faculty and graduate students from St. Louis-area universities with an interest in labor, households, health care, law and social welfare are invited to take part in a series of Monday brown-bag luncheon seminars to be held biweekly through April 18 on the Danforth Campus. The series begins Monday, Jan. 24, with a lecture by Juan Pantano, PhD, assistant professor of economics in Arts & Sciences, on “C-Sections and Fertility.” FULL STORY

URL: http://news.wustl.edu/news/Pages/21740.aspx

F. Edmund Hunter Jr., professor emeritus of developmental biology and a faculty member for 43 years, died Sunday, Jan. 2, 2011, of natural causes in St. Louis. He was 94. FULL STORY

URL: http://news.wustl.edu/news/Pages/21715.aspx

• 4 p.m. Dept. of Physics Joint Condensed Matter/Materials, Biological Physics Seminar and St. Louis NMR Discussion Group. “NMR at Highest Pressures and Magnetic Fields.” Jurgen Haase, U. of Leipzig, Germany. Coffee at 3:45 p.m. precedes lecture. Compton Hall, Rm. 241. (314) 935-6276.

• First deadline to apply for Social Change grants Jan. 24. The Community Service Office is providing six social change grants this year totaling $32,000. WUSTL students are invited to build proposals for full-time summer work in the development and implementation of an innovative community project. The intent to apply deadline is Monday, Jan. 24, and proposals are due Friday, Feb. 11.

• Jackson breaks school record in indoor track meet. Junior track athlete Tyler Jackson began the year with an all-time great performance in the 60-meter hurdles at the Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology Double Dual Meet Jan. 15. Jackson finished first with a time of 8.32, eclipsing the 2011 NCAA provisional qualifying standard and setting a WUSTL school record in the process.