Arts & Sciences

This summer, Christopher Stark, assistant professor of music in Arts & Sciences, presented two world-premiere compositions at major venues for contemporary classical music.

Police violence is a leading cause of death for young men in the United States, finds a new study from Washington University in St. Louis. Over the life course, about 1 in every 1,000 black men can expect to be killed by police.

A long-term study of western gorillas in Gabon has revealed an unexpected behavior: they use their teeth to crack open and eat nuts. New research by Adam van Casteren, lecturer in biological anthropology in Arts & Sciences, may have important implications for the way researchers predict the diet of human ancestors based on the shape of their teeth.

Jeffrey Q. McCune Jr., associate professor of women, gender and sexuality studies and of African and African-American studies, both in Arts & Sciences, has been named co-editor of the inaugural “New Sexual Worlds” book series.

In a meta-analysis of published research, psychologist Calvin Lai of Washington University in St. Louis teases out how changes in implicit bias do — and do not — appear to lead to changes in behavior. And why that might be.

Clarissa Rile Hayward of Washington University in St. Louis is part of a new, all-women, racially and ethnically diverse editorial team that will lead her discipline’s flagship journal, the American Political Science Review (APSR). The American Political Science Association’s announcement of the new team comes at a time when diverse voices are underrepresented in both the authorship and editorship of many academic journals.

Researchers from Arts & Sciences have solved the X-ray crystal structure of the enzyme that makes obafluorin — a broad spectrum antibiotic agent made by a fluorescent strain of soil bacteria. This new class of antibiotics might provide a powerful antidote to the growing scourge of antibiotic resistance.

Julie Bugg, associate professor of psychological and brain sciences in Arts & Sciences, was elected a fellow of the Association for Psychological Science. 

Biologist Lucia Strader in Arts & Sciences discovered a cellular transporter that links two of the most powerful hormones in plant development — auxin and cytokinin — and shows how they regulate root initiation and progression. Understanding why and how plants make different types of root architectures can help develop plants that better cope with distinct soil conditions and environments.

In September 1969, Washington University in St. Louis scientists were among the first to receive samples collected from the historic Apollo 11 moon mission. At this year’s Lunar and Planetary Science Convention, a student, a faculty member and an alum remind us of the value of these samples and share cutting edge research on decades-old rocks.