Author: Gerry Everding

Costas Azariadis, professor of economics in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, comments on the passing of Milton Friedman, a path-breaking conservative economist who passed away Nov. 16 at age 94.

Steven SmithIf Democrats want to expand their House and Senate majorities, they need to protect new members who were elected from Republican-leaning districts while showing they can govern by passing a limited popular agenda: “Satisfying the base while appealing to moderates is squarely the central strategic problem for both parties in the new Congress,” suggests Steven S. Smith, a congressional expert at Washington University in St. Louis.

Did the Soviets collude to win chess championships?As allegations of cheating dominate news from the current World Chess Championships in Russia, new research from economists at Washington University in St. Louis offers strong evidence that Soviet chess masters in the Cold War era very likely engaged in collusion to gain an unfair advantage and dominate key international chess championships held from 1940 to 1964.

Washington University Chancellor Mark S. Wrighton and Chancellor Emeritus William H. “Bill” Danforth spoke in Graham Chapel Sept. 17 as part of an official ceremony dedicating the University’s main Hilltop Campus as the Danforth Campus. Click on the links below to download an mp3 audio recording of comments made during the ceremony by Wrighton and Danforth.

Map of the I-64 reconstruction projectHelping St. Louis residents and businesses cope with commuting challenges posed by the planned reconstruction of Interstate 64 (Highway 40) is the goal of a Weidenbaum Center community forum to be held on campus 7:45 – 10:45 a.m. Sept. 22. Free and open to the public, the event kicks off with a presentation by MoDot Director Peter Rahn.

Albert Pujols took part in laboratory tests similar to those conducted on Ruth in 1921.

Daniel Stier / GQ, September 2006El Hombre vs. The BabeBaseball purists, especially those of Yankee allegiance, might argue that St. Louis Cardinals homerun-hitting superstar Albert Pujols is simply not in the same league as legendary New York Yankees slugger Babe Ruth. Science may never settle that argument, but researchers at Washington University in St. Louis can offer some sense of how Pujols stacks up to the Babe in terms of skills necessary to hit the long ball. Pujols visited WUSTL to take part in a series of lab tests similar to those conducted on Ruth in 1921.

How would you remember this strange image?A psychologist at Washington University in St. Louis is shedding new light on strategies people use to learn and then remember images, showing that some techniques are more effective than others. Brenda Kirchoff, Ph.D., WUSTL research associate in psychology in Arts & Sciences, used functional magnetic reasonance imaging to identify four major learning and memory strategies that range from visual to verbal, each relying on different parts of the brain. The findings eventually may help provide behavioral modification treatments for individuals with memory impairment, including adults afflicted with age-related memory loss and early onset Alzheimer’s disease.

Gas tax relief?With voters clamoring for relief from skyrocketing prices at the gas pump, politicians are floating a wide range of quick-fix solutions, many of which could cause more problems than they solve, suggests Paul Rothstein, a specialist in the economics of public spending at Washington University in St. Louis. More…

FlinnWhile expectant mothers, religious fanatics and the marketers of scary movies are latching on to the notion that the calendar date June 6, 2006 (6-06-06) is somehow tainted by association with biblical references to 666 as the “mark of the beast,” there’s really nothing to fear, suggests Frank Flinn, an expert on cults and religious symbols at Washington University in St. Louis.