Arts & Sciences

The Washington University Choirs will host open auditions today through Monday, Jan. 25, for the 2016 Chancellor’s Concert. Presented by the Department of Music in Arts & Sciences, the Chancellor’s Concert is among the university’s largest annual events.

While an adverse ruling for unions would certainly be bad news for organized labor, the expected setback need not be as dire as some are predicting, suggests Jake Rosenfeld, a labor union expert.

Given that antibiotics are losing effectiveness faster than we are finding replacements for them, chemist Timothy Wencewicz in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis suggests a new approach. Drugs that hobble the production of virulence factors — small molecules that help bacteria to establish an infection in a host — would put much less selective pressure on bacteria and delay resistance.

The husband-and-wife team of violinist Joo Kim and cellist James Czyzewski will join pianist Patti Wolf to launch the Danforth University Center’s spring Chamber Music Series Jan. 20.

Many negative consequences are linked to growing up poor, and researchers at Washington University St. Louis have identified one more: altered brain connectivity.

Genes inherited from mothers (matrigenes) and fathers (patrigenes) usually work harmoniously in the offspring. However, kin selection theory predicts these genes may be in conflict in interactions among relatives in which they are unequally represented (half-siblings). In honey bees, patrigenes are predicted to favor daughters that lay eggs themselves rather than remaining sterile and rearing their half-sisters’ offspring. An experimental test bears out this prediction.

Daniel J. Leopold, PhD, research associate professor of physics in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, died Dec. 10, 2015, after a battle with pancreatic cancer. He was 61.

Richard W. Davis, PhD, professor emeritus of history in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, died Friday, Dec. 25, 2015, in hospice care at Laclede Groves in St. Louis. He was 80.

L. Lewis Wall, MD, DPhil, has been named the inaugural Selina Okin Kim Conner Professor in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis. He was installed Oct. 21. Wall is also professor of anthropology in Arts & Sciences and professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

Even before they can read, children as young as three years of age are beginning to understand how a written word is different than a simple drawing — a nuance that could provide an important early indicator for children who may need extra help with reading lessons, suggests new research from Washington University in St. Louis.