A new garden on campus

Volunteers plant a rain garden on the south side of Eads Hall on the Danforth Campus of Washington University in St. Louis April 24. As part of Earth Day week activities, university staff, faculty and students were invited to help plant a rain garden (or bioswale) next to Eads Hall.

Religion & Politics goes live May 1

Religion never has been more central or more polarizing in U.S. politics. To help provide informed context around the religious and political issues that clash, converge and shape everyday public life, a new national online journal, Religion & Politics, from the John C. Danforth Center on Religion & Politics at Washington University in St. Louis went live May 1.​

2012 MFA Thesis Exhibition opens at Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum May 4

Washington University’s Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts will present its annual MFA Thesis Exhibition in the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum May 4 to Aug. 6. Curated by Meredith Malone, associate curator at the Kemper Art Museum, the exhibition will feature projects by 23 graduating master of fine arts candidates in the Sam Fox School’s Graduate School of Art.

Surveys guide doctors about when to test teens for STIs

Adolescents visiting a pediatric emergency department are willing to disclose information about their sexual activity when filling out a computerized questionnaire, and this information can be used to determine whether they should be tested for STIs, a new study by Fahd A. Ahmad, MD, shows.

Washington People: Guillermo Rosas

Guillermo Rosas, PhD, an associate professor of political science, is developing sophisticated statistical models to examine complicated questions in a credible way. Much of his research hearkens back to his homeland in Mexico City, as he strives to infuse thoughtful analysis into the public dialogue.

Frederick Hartt and American Abstraction in the 1950s at Kemper Art Museum May 4

During World War II, young lieutenant Frederick Hartt was assigned a jeep and a driver and charged with locating, securing and repatriating hundreds of works of art. Later, as a curator at Washington University from 1949-60, the famed Renaissance scholar helped to build one of the nation’s finest university collections of 20th-century modernism. This summer, the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum will present 27 of those works in Frederick Hartt and American Abstraction in the 1950s.

Dynamo Theatre at Edison May 5

Covered in both graffiti and secrets, a simple brick wall alternates between playground and refuge from the world. On Saturday, May 5, Montreal’s Dynamo Theatre will return to St. Louis with Mur-Mur (The Wall), an acrobatic exploration of friendship and young love, as part of Edison’s ovations for young people series.

Bear Cub grants awarded

Washington University in St. Louis has awarded five Bear Cub fund grants totaling $190,000 to support innovative research that has shown commercial potential. Jerry Morrissey (right), PhD, received one of the grants to develop rapid tests for the early development of kidney cancer.

Genes that promote cartilage healing protect against arthritis

New research from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis shows that the same genes that promote healing after cartilage damage also appear to protect against osteoarthritis, a condition caused by years of wear-and-tear on the cartilage between joints. Although the research was conducted in mice, the genes are likely to be important in people, too.