Historian Richard Burkhardt to speak on the modern development of ethology for the Assembly Series

Richard Burkhardt will examine the scientific, social and political aspects in the development of ethology as a modern science in his Thomas Hall Lecture at 4 p.m. on October 25. He teaches history at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and specializes in the history of evolutionary theory and ethology, which is the study of animal behavior by means of comparative zoological methods.

Nobel Laureate Kenneth Arrow discusses economics of new malarial drugs, Oct. 21

Nobel Laureate Kenneth J. Arrow will discuss “The Economics of New Antimalarial Drugs” at 2:30 p.m. Oct. 21 in the Bryan Cave Courtroom, Anheuser-Busch Hall. Arrow, a longtime professor of economics at Stanford University, recently chaired a National Institute of Medicine committee that issued a report titled “Saving Lives, Buying Time: Economics of Malaria Drugs in an Age of Resistance.” Malaria, along with tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS, is one of the big three global killers of the world’s poorest people.

Looking for St. Louis

Forget purple mountains and fruited plains. The contemporary American landscape is more typically composed of parking lots and shopping malls, factory towns and industrial developments, argues Matthew Coolidge, founder and director of the Center for Land Use Interpretation in Los Angeles. From Oct. 26-29, Coolidge will host a number of events exploring St. Louis’ urban landscape as part of the yearlong series “Unsettled Ground: Nature, Landscape, and Ecology Now!” co-sponsored by the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts and the Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts.

WUSTL hosts political theory conference, Oct. 21-22

Religion and pluralism, natural law, feminist ethics, responding to terrorism, deliberative democracy, race and reparations, American conservatism, identities and borders, and classical critiques of democracy will be among topics explored Oct. 21-22 as the Association for Political Theory holds its 2005 meeting at Washington University.

Fish in ponds benefit flowering plants

Fish in ponds can be a flowering plant’s best friend, according to WUSTL ecologists.Fish and flowering plants would seem to have as much in common as pigs and beauty soap. But ecologists at Washington University in St. Louis and the University of Florida have found an amazing relationship between the different species that provides a new direction for understanding how ecosystems “hook up.” A team of researchers, headed by Tiffany Knight, Ph.D., Washington University assistant professor of biology in Arts & Sciences, has shown a correlation between the presence of fish in ponds and well-pollinated St. John’s wort (Hypericum fasciculatum, Hypericaceae) at a Florida research station.
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