Arts & Sciences

Rick and Ilsa, “Casablanca’s” ill-fated lovers, will always have Paris. Uncle Sam will always have Kabul. And Saigon. And Baghdad. In the long-running tragedy of American foreign entanglements, Uncle Sam has become less a hapless romantic idealist and more a cynical “love ’em and leave ’em” serial abuser, says veteran filmmaker Richard Chapman.

Jonathan Myers, associate professor of biology in Arts & Sciences, and William Farfan-Rios, a postdoctoral research fellow of the Living Earth Collaborative at Washington University, are co-authors of a study that found that trees’ fecundity — or physical potential to reproduce — peaked or plateaued as they reached an intermediate size.

Findings from the Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences in Arts & Sciences and the School of Medicine suggest cannabis use disorder should be added to the list of COVID-19 risk factors.

Without international pressure, the power-sharing agreement between Kabul and the Taliban was doomed, according to research by William Nomikos, assistant professor of political science in Arts & Sciences. But the political cost of continued occupation was too great.

Understanding how a cell commits resources to building new parts — and eventually divides into two cells — is the focus of a new grant for Shankar Mukherji, assistant professor of physics in Arts & Sciences. The research is funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Joe Rowles, a postdoctoral research associate working with Gary Patti in chemistry in Arts & Sciences, won a Molecular Oncology Training Grant to support his participation in the Siteman Cancer Center’s Cancer Biology Pathway Program.

Biologists in Arts & Sciences used statistical methods to trace the path of Pieridae family butterflies as they diversified and their plant hosts fought back, over and over again. The study also finds that butterflies often regain hosts they haven’t used for millions of years.

Himadri Pakrasi, the George William and Irene Koechig Freiberg Professor in biology in Arts & Sciences, received a $75,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) to support greenhouse gas reduction initiatives.

Researchers look at whether Ozark oases at Tyson Research Center — climate change refugia — could help species persist in spite of rising temperatures.

Research from the lab of Deanna Barch shows a lasting relationship between childhood poverty, brain development.