Owen J. Sexton, professor emeritus of biology in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, died May 31 at his home in St. Louis County from complications of dementia, which he had battled for years. He was 91. Sexton was a key advocate for the purchase of the 2,000-acre Tyson Research Center property in 1963.
Using a new approach, researchers from Colorado State University and Washington University have uncovered evidence that underscores one long-debated theory about the origins of agriculture.
Natural selection acts on behavioral traits, says evolutionary biologist Jonathan Losos, who helped lead a replicated field experiment with anole lizards on eight small islands in the Caribbean, as reported in the June 1 issue of Science
Emily Haussler has been awarded the 2018 Harrison D. Stalker Award from the Department of Biology in Arts & Sciences. The award is given annually to a graduating biology major whose undergraduate career combines outstanding scientific scholarship with significant contributions in the arts and humanities.
Three scientists at Washington University in St. Louis were elected to the National Academy of Sciences (NAS): Sarah C.R. Elgin, Jonathan B. Losos and Richard D. Vierstra, all members of the Department of Biology in Arts & Sciences. Election to the academy is considered one of the highest honors accorded a U.S. scientist or engineer.
Each year, the Department of Biology in Arts & Sciences awards a prize to a graduating senior in memory of Marion Smith Spector, a 1938 graduate who studied zoology under the late Viktor Hamburger. This year’s recipient is Jordan Shaker, who worked in the laboratory of Michael R. Bruchas at the School of Medicine.
Warmer summer and fall seasons and fewer winter freeze-thaw events have led to changes in the relative numbers of different types of bugs in the Arctic, says Amanda Koltz, a postdoctoral fellow in Arts & Sciences. The study relies on the longest-standing, most comprehensive data set on arctic arthropods in the world today: a catalogue of almost 600,000 flies, wasps, spiders and other creepy-crawlies collected at the Zackenberg field station on the northeast coast of Greenland from 1996-2014.
In a growing plant cell, motor proteins called kinesins work as transporters that haul materials built in one part of the cell to the place where they are needed. Now, biologists at Washington University in St. Louis have discovered the molecular brakeman that holds kinesins in check until their cargo is needed.
Using new gene sequencing techniques, Washington University biologists are taking a closer look at the behavior of the social amoeba Dictyostelium discoideum, or Dicty for short.
