Arts & Sciences

The American Library Association and its Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Round Table has selected Jeffrey Q. McCune Jr.’s book, “Sexual Discretion: Black Masculinity and the Politics of Passing” for its 2015 “Over the Rainbow” list.

Kevin Herbert, professor emeritus of classics in Arts & Sciences, died Tuesday, Feb. 10. He was 93.

Ampersand Week, the first weeklong celebration of the liberal arts at Washington University in St. Louis Feb. 21-28, includes a presentation by the popular duo known as Radiolab. Jad Abumrad and Robert Krulwich will appear at 4:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 26, in Graham Chapel on the Danforth Campus for the Assembly Series. The program is free and open to the public but tickets are required.

Beavers don’t brush their teeth, and they don’t drink fluoridated water, but a new study reports beavers do have protection against tooth decay built into the chemical structure of their teeth: iron. The research team, which was led by scientists from Northwestern University, included Jill D. Pasteris, PhD, professor of earth and planetary sciences in Arts & Sciences.

Bill McKinnon, PhD, professor of earth and planetary sciences in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, received the 2014 G.K. Gilbert Award from the Geological Society of America. The award recognizes outstanding contributions to the solution of a fundamental problem of planetary geology.

It’s been more than 40 years since astronauts returned the last Apollo samples from the moon, and since then those samples have undergone some of the most extensive and comprehensive analysis of any geological collection. A team of scientists has now refined the timeline of meteorite impacts on the moon through a pioneering application of laser microprobe technology to Apollo 17 samples.

While measles and the human papillomavirus (HPV) are vastly different diseases, failing to get vaccinated against them can have equally serious consequences, suggests Bradley Stoner, PhD, a medical anthropologist who studies infectious disease transmission at Washington University in St. Louis.

The killing is not in doubt: A black man is dead; a white man pulled the trigger. The only real question is why. James Baldwin wrote “Blues for Mr. Charlie”  in 1964. But today, the echoes of Ferguson are impossible to ignore. The production of the Performing Arts Department in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis runs Feb. 20 through March 1 in Edison Theatre.

Sarah Negron, a 2014 Arts & Sciences graduate of Washington University in St. Louis, is the recipient of the Regional Arts Commission’s prestigious Katherine Dunham Internship.

Pathogens, pesticides and nutritional deficits have previously been identified as stressors linked to colony collapse disorder, but it was a mystery why bee colonies sometimes collapsed so rapidly, leaving bee keepers with an empty hive box. A new study suggests that when a colony is stressed, young bees are forced to become foragers much sooner than they otherwise would and this accelerated development leads to their early death.