Arts & Sciences

Owen J. Sexton, professor emeritus of biology in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, died May 31 at his home in St. Louis County from complications of dementia, which he had battled for years. He was 91. Sexton was a key advocate for the purchase of the 2,000-acre Tyson Research Center property in 1963.

The Curiosity Rover mission found signs of organic materials on Mars dating back about 3.5 billion years, NASA announced June 7. It could be a big deal, said Raymond Arvidson, the James S. McDonnell Distinguished University Professor in Arts & Sciences.

Gerald Early, the Merle Kling Professor of Modern Letters in Arts & Sciences, was among the honorees at the 2018 Royal Vagabonds Leadership Awards.

Using a new approach, researchers from Colorado State University and Washington University have uncovered evidence that underscores one long-debated theory about the origins of agriculture.

In a new paper in the journal Physical Review Letters, Bhupal Dev, assistant professor of Physics in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, describes how future accelerators could crash together charged particles in a new way to shed light on their behavior.

Natural selection acts on behavioral traits, says evolutionary biologist Jonathan Losos, who helped lead a replicated field experiment with anole lizards on eight small islands in the Caribbean, as reported in the June 1 issue of Science

On May 29, ABC cancelled its “Roseanne” revival after an ugly tweet from the show’s eponymous star. Film scholar Gaylyn Studlar examines the dangers of Twitter, the speed of cancellation and the influence of diversity in the boardroom.

Want to improve your attention? Arts & Sciences brain sciences researcher Richard Abrams at Washington University in St. Louis finds that our attention may be guided by the most recent interactions with our environment.

Alexander Barnes, assistant professor of chemistry in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, has been recognized with a 2018 Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award, recognizing his independent scholarship and deep commitment to education.

Philip Roth, who died May 22, was among the most influential American writers of the 20th and 21st centuries. He was also a playful yet unsparing and often provocative critic of American culture, said Matthew Shipe, lecturer in English in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis.