Arts & Sciences

Danny Kohl, a professor emeritus of biology in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, died Saturday, March 12, 2016. He was 87. A memorial service will be held April 9.

While cynics may scoff at the United Nations’ March 20 observance of International Happiness Day, a positive psychology researcher at Washington University in St. Louis says it’s high time for happiness to be taken seriously.

Washington University will pay homage to former student Tennessee Williams with a “Tennessee Williams Birthday Bash” at 7 p.m. Saturday, March 26. The event, which is free and open to the public, will feature a screening, in 35mm, of “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.”

Resident dance company The Slaughter Project will present “Caravan,” its 2016 showcase concert, March 25 and 26 in Edison Theatre.

Our experience of the world differs radically from one person to another. Some people are plant blind and others recognize plants at a glance. Some are not aware of the background music at the grocery store and others know which piece it is and who is playing it. And most of us walk blindly through the campus quadrangles seeing only one another, but a few of us see the other creatures as well, such as the songbirds that are resting for a day or two before resuming their migrations.

Who better to explain the meaning of the shamrock than an ethnobotanist born and raised in Ireland? Peter Wyse Jackson, the George Englemann Professor of Botany at Washington University in St. Louis, indulges our curiosity.

Two Washington University in St. Louis education professors, William F. Tate and Carol Camp Yeakey, have been elected as the newest members of the National Academy of Education (NAEd) for outstanding scholarship on education.

John Bowen, a sociocultural anthropologist and the Dunbar-Van Cleve Professor in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, received the Dr. Jean Mayer Global Citizenship Award from Tufts University’s Institute for Global Leadership as part of a symposium on “Europe in Turmoil,” held at Tufts Feb.17-21.

As scientists look for replacements for our dwindling stock of antibiotics, the evolution of resistance is never far from their minds. Washington University in St. Louis biologist R. Fredrik Inglis explored the ability of bacteria to become resistant to a toxin called a bacteriocin by growing them for many generations in the presence of the toxin.

The Amazing Brain Carnival, beginning at 10 a.m. Saturday, March 5, delivers a full day of brain demonstrations, experiments, puzzles and games at the Saint Louis Science Center. Visitors also will get to touch a real brain.