Arts & Sciences

Dave Kilper/WUSTL Photo ServicesSenior Dave Carp as Yang Sun in Bertolt Brecht’s “The Good Person of Szechwan.”In an unjust world, is it possible to be good? Such is the dilemma posed by The Good Person of Szechwan, Bertold Brecht’s provocative modern parable about the tensions and alliances between virtue and ruthlessness. Washington University’s Performing Arts Department in Arts & Sciences will present the show as its spring MainStage production April 16-18 and 23-25.

Image courtesy of the Cellar Store, San Bernardino, CA.A new book is persuading ecologists to think “outside the helmet”.An ecologist at Washington University in St. Louis has co-authored a new book that is forcing the pith helmet set to “think outside the helmet.” Jonathan M. Chase, Ph.D., assistant professor of biology in Arts& Sciences at Washington University and Mathew A. Leibold, Ph.D.,associate professor of integrative biology at the University of Texas at Austin, take on one of the tenets of ecology, niche theory, which holds that species evolve and thrive because of their particular environment and what activities they do to shape that environment, providing them their niche, if you will.

BlankCarrine Blank, Ph.D. , assistant professor of earth and planetary sciences in Arts & Sciences, has found that the currently accepted dates for the appearance of oxygen-producing bacteria and sulfur-producing bacteria on the early earth are not correct. She believes that these bacteria appeared on earth much later than is now believed.

The Sacagawea Golden DollarAs the nation commemorates the 200th anniversary of the 1804-06 Lewis and Clark Expedition, the explorers’ journals, which offer a veritable treasure trove of information, are being scrutinized as never before. Two historians at Washington University in St. Louis say, however, that most scholars studying the journals aren’t familiar with the literature of the time, and therefore don’t thoroughly understand the content. For example, Lewis writes that Sacagawea, the only woman on the expedition, became extremely ill due to her “taking could” (sic). Most reading that passage interpreted it as “taking a cold. The Washington University researchers think that actually she was pregnant again and had a miscarriage because “taking a cold” was a euphemism for pregnancy back then.

Photo courtesy U.S. Army Corps of EngineersBarge traffic makes its way through a lock on the Upper Mississippi.”Our Rivers: A Sustainable Resource?” is the focus of a public education forum that four Washington University faculty will lead as part of a community-wide symposium being held in conjunction with the 5th annual St. Louis Earth Day Celebration, April 22-23. The sustainable rivers program will be held April 22 from 10:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. and will feature Washington University faculty Charles Buescher, professor of environmental engineering, Robert Criss, Ph.D., professor of earth and planetary sciences in Arts & Sciences and William Lowry, Ph.D., professor of political science in Arts & Sciences. The colloquium will provide a background history of the rivers in our region and their various uses in transportation, agriculture, power production, recreation and public water supply.

U.S. Poet Laureate Louise Glück will present a pair of events April 6 and 8 for the Spring Reading Series 2004, offered by The Writing Program and the Department of English in Arts and Sciences at Washington University.

The Performing Arts Department in Arts & Sciences will present a “Young Choreographers Showcase” April 2-4 in the Annelise Mertz Dance Studio in Mallinckrodt Student Center. The lineup will feature an eclectic collection of works by eight student choreographers from the PAD’s Dance Program. All works were selected by a jury of dance faculty. Styles […]

The new center aims to support the study, research and teaching of ethics in areas ranging from medicine to business to architecture.

He was a medical technician in the pathology department and a teacher in the School of Medicine from 1934-1941.

What are the origins of intolerance and prejudice? How are intolerance and prejudice similar, and how are they different? Are there certain people who are more intolerant or more prejudiced than others? How can the social problem of intolerance and prejudice be solved? These are among the questions to be addressed by a panel of […]