Newsroom Stories

Sona Haydon, a longtime lecturer in piano for the Department of Music in Arts & Sciences, died of complications stemming from leukemia at Barnes-Jewish Hospital on Saturday, October 29. She was 73. A memorial service will be held at 10:30 a.m. Wednesday, Nov. 2, at the Richmond Heights Presbyterian Church, 1430 Silverton Pl., 63117. Plans for an on-campus memorial service will be announced.

Sonograms show mouse tune.Research by Timothy Holy showing that mice sing in the presence of mates was picked up by news organizations around the globe. Click here to see a sampling of the media coverage.

Remembering Einstein’s “miracle year.”The United Nations has declared 2005 the International Year of Physics — and there’s a very good reason why this particular year was chosen to raise worldwide public awareness of physics. It is also the 100th anniversary of physicist Albert Einstein’s miraculous year in which he wrote five — or three depending on whom you ask — of his most famous scientific papers. Also known as the World Year of Physics, 2005 will feature worldwide events of interest not only to physicists, but also to the general public. Two physicists from Washington University in St. Louis who are both known for their ability to speak and write clearly about physics to the layperson will be giving talks throughout 2005 about Einstein’s ideas and their impact on science and society 100 years later.

Researchers studying a mouse model of neurofibromatosis 1 (NF1), a genetic condition that causes childhood brain tumors, have found their second new drug target in a year, a protein called methionine aminopeptidase-2 (MetAP2).

Scientists have known for decades that female lab mice or their pheromones cause male lab mice to make ultrasonic vocalizations. But a new paper from researchers at the School of Medicine establishes for the first time that the utterances of the male mice are songs.

At the Founders Day celebration on Nov. 5, four faculty members will receive Distinguished Faculty awards. In addition, Adele Dilschneider and Doris I. Schnuck will receive the Robert S. Brookings Award by the Board of Trustees for their extraordinary commitment to building bridges between Washington University and the St. Louis region.

The six alumni to be honored Nov. 5 are James F. Barker, John Gianoulakis, Leonard Jarett, Stanley I. Proctor, Susan S. Stepleton and James M. Talent. The event also features a keynote address by former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani.

David Kilper/WUSTL Photo Services*Escape from Happiness*Drugs and alcohol, anger and insanity, police corruption and (semi-) organized crime. Welcome to Escape from Happiness, a darkly comic portrait of a highly idiosyncratic family by Canadian playwright George F. Walker. In November, the Performing Arts Department (PAD) in Arts & Sciences will present six performances in the A.E. Hotchner Studio Theatre.

“Challenges to Public Education Financing Facing Missouri and the Nation” is the topic of a one-day public forum to be held Nov. 4. Co-sponsored by the Weidenbaum Center and the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, the event features discussions by nationally recognized academic experts, state legislators and school superintendents. Free and open to the public; reservations required.

Soon it will be possible for twice as many underserved women to be screened for breast cancer because of a grant to Dione Farria, M.D., and Katherine Jahnige Mathews, M.D., of the Siteman Cancer Center at the School of Medicine.