Newsroom Stories

Paul J. Goodfellow, Ph.D., is in a professional war with cancer. The professor of genetics, surgery, and of obstetrics and gynecology brings an arsenal of knowledge and passion to his research battle with the formidable adversary. “Disease is competition. In the case of cancer, it’s like Darwinian evolution: The best genetic material wins,” Goodfellow says. […]

The Department of Music in Arts & Sciences will present a symposium and concert dedicated to the work of Viennese composer Arnold Schönberg. The symposium will focus on Schönberg’s relationship with Kandinsky and the Expressionist movement, while the concert will feature a rare performance of his famously demanding Herzgewächse (Foliage of the Heart) by music students and faculty.

SYMPOSIUM: “Schönberg and the Blaue Reiter Almanac” Participants: • Gerald N. Izenberg, Ph.D., professor of history in Arts & Sciences, “Painting Like Music: How Schönberg’s Atonalism Midwifed Kandinsky’s Abstraction” • Bonny Hough Miller, Ph.D., pianist and historian, “Sounding the Soul: Schönberg, Herzgewächse and the Blaue Reiter Almanac” Time: 2:30 to 4 p.m. Friday, Feb. 24 […]

Chromosomal damage results in fusion (bottom).Inactivating a protein called mammalian Rad9 could make cancer cells easier to kill with ionizing radiation, according to research at the School of Medicine. The researchers found that Rad9, previously considered a “watchman” that checks for DNA damage, is actually a “repairman” that fixes dangerous breaks in the DNA double helix.

TiVo or tape the Academy Awards and step out to hear a unique performance of brilliant music that marked the court of Louis XIV, the Sun King. St. Louis’ own Kingsbury Ensemble will perform Music Fit for a King: Theatre Music and Cantatas from the French Baroque in Washington University’s Holmes Lounge at 7:30 p.m. Sunday, March 5.

Courtesy photoSand N. DaltonSand N. Dalton, described by CBC Radio as “one of the leading Baroque oboists in North America,” will speak on the Baroque oboe and its relationship to the mean-tone tuning systems of the 17th and 18th centuries at 4 p.m. Friday, March 3, for the Department of Music in Arts & Sciences.

The first lecture, addressing child welfare reform and child welfare services, will be presented by Richard Barth of the University of North Carolina on Feb. 23.

Harriet Stone, Ph.D., professor of romance languages & comparative literature in Arts & Sciences, will speak on “Objects for the Table: Descartes, La Bruyère and Dutch Golden Age Painters” at 4:10 p.m., Thursday, March 2. The talk, part of the Center for the Humanities’ Faculty Fellows Lecture and Workshop Series, will address the status of objects in science, literature and art as part of an inquiry into forms of knowledge that ground 17th-century European culture.

Courtesy photo*Animal Farm: The Puppet Musical*”All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others.” Such is the satiric lesson of Animal Farm, George Orwell’s cautionary parable about the uses and abuses of power. In March, New York’s acclaimed Synapse Productions will treat St. Louis audiences to Animal Farm: The Puppet Musical. This witty and visually stunning production — based on a musical adaptation by famed British director Peter Hall — re-imagines Orwell’s novel with all the wonder and grotesquerie of a childhood fairy tale.

The St. Louis region aims to become a great biotechnology hub, attracting new businesses and industry from all over the country. If that dream is to become a reality, we need people highly skilled in mathematics and science. A research project by the Center for Inquiry in Science Teaching and Learning (CISTL) at Washington University in St. Louis suggests human resources in science may not be coming from local school districts unless significant investment is forthcoming.