Humanities & Society

Social activist and Black Entertainment Television commentator Jeff Johnson will present the annual Black Arts & Sciences Festival lecture at 11 a.m. Wednesday, October 31 in Edison Theatre. His talk, sponsored by the University’s Assembly Series and the Association of Black Students, will suggest strategies for developing effective organizations for future leaders: “BECOME Activists: Building Effective Campus Organizations and Maintaining Excellence.”

Washington University researcher Stanton Braude, lecturer in biology in Arts & Sciences, says the secret to a long life in humans might exist in the wrinkled body of one of the world’s ugliest animals — the naked mole rat.

The Washington University-Fudan University EMBA Program is ranked as the 7th best international executive MBA program in the world and, for the second consecutive year, as the 1st program in mainland China, according to 2007 rankings released today by The Financial Times, one of the world’s leading business newspapers.

Social activist and Black Entertainment Television commentator Jeff Johnson will present the annual Black Arts & Sciences Festival lecture at 11 a.m. Wednesday, October 31 in Graham Chapel. His talk, sponsored by the University’s Assembly Series and the Association of Black Students, will suggest strategies for developing effective organizations for future leaders: “BECOME Activists: Building Effective Campus Organizations and Maintaining Excellence.”

Come hear the latest research accomplishments of some of the School of Medicine’s most talented female faculty and fellows. Spotlighting Women in Medicine and Science (SWIMS) will highlight the work of doctors and scientists in diverse fields, including obstetrics and gynecology, pediatrics, oncology, cardiology and cell biology. Speakers also will discuss some of the unique challenges they have faced in their careers in academic medicine.

Connie DiekmanWhile Halloween, with all its candy and treats, may be a child’s dream come true, it can turn into a nightmare for parents who have been touting the benefits of healthy eating the rest of the year. How do you keep your kids from devouring all that candy in one sitting? It takes a bit of planning, says Connie Diekman, R.D., director of University nutrition at Washington University in St. Louis and president of the American Dietetic Association. (video available)

The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation is bringing together a distinguished group of scientists, legal scholars, jurists and philosophers from across the country to help integrate new developments in neuroscience into the U.S. legal system. The Law and Neuroscience Project is the first systematic effort to bridge the fields of law and science in considering how courts should deal with new brain-scanning techniques as they apply to matters of law.

A little health information is not enough to help obese children get into better shape, according to a recent analysis. “Providing information is a necessary component, but it’s not sufficient,” said Denise Wilfley, Ph.D., lead author of the study and professor of psychiatry at the School of Medicine and of psychology in Arts & Sciences.

Photo by David KilperLarry A.Taber, Ph.D., (left) the Dennis and Barbara Kessler Professor of Biomedical Engineering, and Philip Bayly, Ph.D., the Hughes Professor of Mechanical Engineering, employ a microindentation device to measure the mechanical properties of embryonic hearts and brains. The researchers are examining mechanical and developmental processes that occur in the folding of the brain’s surface, or cortex, which gives the higher mammalian brain more surface area (and more intellectual capacity) than a brain of comparable volume with a smooth surface.

Image courtesy of the BBCWhat good is longevity if you end up looking like this? WUSTL biologist Stan Braude, working on a book about the critters, says the naked mole rat is being studied for its tendency to live a long life.Who would have thought that the secrets to long life might exist in the naked, wrinkled body of one of the world’s ugliest animals? Probably not many, but current research may be leading seekers of the Fountain of Youth to a strange little beast — the naked mole rat.