Humanities & Society

The first documented evidence of wild chimpanzee mothers teaching their offspring to use tools has been captured by video cameras set to record chimpanzee tool-using activity at termite mounds in the Nouabalé-Ndoki National Park in the Republic of Congo, according to new research from anthropologists at Washington University in St. Louis.

Economic advisers to presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump will offer their insight into the candidate’s economic platforms as they square off in their own debate at 1:30 p.m. Sunday in the Steinberg Auditorium.

It is a staple of the political season: “The founders wanted this,” a candidate confidently declares. “The founders wanted that.” But not so fast, says Peter Kastor, principal investigator for the digital archive “Creating a Federal Government.”

“Envisioning the Future of Religion and Politics in America” will be the focus as the John C. Danforth Center on Religion and Politics at Washington University in St. Louis welcomes national news media superstars Krista Tippett, David Brooks and E.J. Dionne Jr. for a pre-presidential debate dialogue Saturday, Oct. 8, in Graham Chapel on the Danforth Campus.

How might the makeup of the United States Supreme Court change depending on who is elected as the country’s next president? A new analysis from Washington University in St. Louis estimates where the candidate’s potential nominees fit compared with the current justices and finds that a Democratic appointee would move the middle of the court to the left, shifting the court’s balance of power.

It is the ultimate symbol of public trust. Accompanying the president, at virtually all times, is a military aid with a large black satchel known as the “nuclear football.” But for all its prominence in the popular imagination, the football does not contain some sort of “nuclear button” that might allow a president to single-handedly initiate nuclear launch, says Krister Knapp, senior lecturer in history in Arts & Sciences.

World-renowned choreographer Bill T. Jones will receive Washington University’s 2016-17 International Humanities Prize Sept. 29. In this Q&A, Joanna Dee Das, assistant professor of dance, talks with Jones about his career, his choreographic process and his latest works.

In 1630, John Winthrop, governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, proclaimed to fellow Puritan settlers that “we shall be as a city upon a hill.” In this video, Abram Van Engen examines the surprising history of Winthrop’s striking image and its subsequent adoption by presidents John F. Kennedy, Ronald Reagan and Barack Obama.

A new study from Washington University in St. Louis suggests eight interventions that will help create healthier and more sustainable cities of the future, built to reduce the negative impacts of pollution, climate change, noise and crime.

Students who come out of college with debt, especially larger amounts of debt, are more likely to face hardship and financial difficulty during their lives, finds a new study from Washington University in St. Louis.