Smokers with a specific genetic variation are more likely to keep smoking longer than those who don’t have the gene variant. They’re also more likely to be diagnosed with lung cancer at a younger age, according to new research from Laura Jean Bierut, MD (left), and Li-Shiun Chen, MD, of the School of Medicine.

Junior Kevin Hays, a Rubik’s Cube champion, will attempt to break a Guinness World Record at 4 p.m. Sunday, April 19, at the annual Thurtene Carnival. Hays will attempt to break the record for most cubes solved underwater. Thurtene Carnival runs Friday through Sunday, April 17-19, on Brookings Drive.

Five teams focused on serving children and youth recently won the 10th annual YouthBridge Social Enterprise and Innovation Competition. The Skandalaris Center for Interdisciplinary Innovation and Entrepreneurship, in partnership with the YouthBridge Community Foundation, holds the competition.

Amy French, a junior majoring in economics in Arts & Sciences, is a goalkeeper for the Bears varsity soccer team. She is also an accomplished jazz singer, and she sometimes accompanies Provost Holden Thorp, a jazz pianist in his free time, at university events around the country.

John W. Olney, MD, the John P. Feighner Professor of Psychiatry and a professor of pathology and immunology, died Tuesday, April 14, 2015, at his home in St. Louis after a battle with lung cancer and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).