Humanities & Society

Courtesy photo*Delta Primer*Is California vulnerable to a New Orleans-style levee break? The land in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, where California’s two great rivers drain into San Francisco Bay, lies as much as 20 feet below sea level, warns Jane Wolff, author of Delta Primer: A Field Guide to the California Delta (2003). A breach on the scale of that in New Orleans would prove catastrophic for California — the world’s sixth-largest economy, home to approximately 10 percent of the U.S. population. In addition to property destruction, salt water from San Francisco Bay would migrate upstream, contaminating the water supply for much of Southern California, including major cities such as Los Angeles and San Diego.

Tasks requiring shifting of attention, like driving a car while conversing with a passenger, may be challenging for people in very early stages of Alzheimer’s disease.People in early stages of Alzheimer’s disease have greater difficulty shifting attention back and forth between competing sources of information, a finding that offers new support for theories that contend breakdowns in attention play an important role in onset of the disease. Published in a recent issue of the journal Neuropsychology, the study suggests that subtle breakdowns in attention may offer one of the earliest reliable clues that a patient is grappling with early symptoms of Alzheimer’s-related dementia.

Josh Smith compares tooth measurements of unidentified dinosaur species with those of known *Tyrannosaurus* specimens.A paleontologist at WUSTL has concocted a mathematical scheme for identifying dinosaurs based upon measurements of their copious Mesozoic dental droppings. His method could help paleobiologists identify and reconstruct the lives of the creatures that roamed terra firma many millions of years ago.

Remembering Einstein’s “miracle year.”The United Nations has declared 2005 the International Year of Physics — and there’s a very good reason why this particular year was chosen to raise worldwide public awareness of physics. It is also the 100th anniversary of physicist Albert Einstein’s miraculous year in which he wrote five — or three depending on whom you ask — of his most famous scientific papers. Also known as the World Year of Physics, 2005 will feature worldwide events of interest not only to physicists, but also to the general public. Two physicists from Washington University in St. Louis who are both known for their ability to speak and write clearly about physics to the layperson will be giving talks throughout 2005 about Einstein’s ideas and their impact on science and society 100 years later.

“Challenges to Public Education Financing Facing Missouri and the Nation” is the topic of a one-day public forum to be held Nov. 4. Co-sponsored by the Weidenbaum Center and the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, the event features discussions by nationally recognized academic experts, state legislators and school superintendents. Free and open to the public; reservations required.

Historian Christopher Browning will touch on his experience as an expert witness in recent famous court cases involving Holocaust deniers in his Holocaust Memorial Lecture for the Assembly Series at 11 a.m. on November 9. How ordinary Germans came to accept the wholesale massacre of Jews is a central theme in Browning’s pioneering scholarship of the Holocaust.

EpsteinHarriet Miers withdrawal from consideration for the U.S. Supreme Court is not surprising given the fact that she ranks among the least qualified candidates since the nomination of Hugo Black in 1937, according to an analysis by authors of a new book on the politics of Supreme Court nominations. “Despite the tremendous importance of politics in Supreme Court nominations, the single most important determinant of a successful confirmation is the qualifications of the nominee,” suggests Lee Epstein, WUSTL Supreme Court expert and co-author of “Advice and Consent: The Politics of Judicial Appointments.”

The Commission on Safety and Abuse in America’s Prisons, a year-long national effort to explore the most serious problems behind bars in America today and how to solve them, will hold its third public hearing from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. on Nov. 1-2 in Anheuser-Busch Hall, Room 310. The hearing, hosted by the School of Law at Washington University in St. Louis, will focus on corrections officers – a vast, yet poorly understood workforce that shoulders tremendous responsibilities, often without adequate leadership, training, or resources. Officers, administrators, labor leaders, former prisoners, and other witnesses will describe pivotal changes in the workforce and the job and conditions that jeopardize the health and safety of both officers and prisoners.

Nationally recognized attorney and human rights advocate Stephen Bright will discuss his views on the death penalty and the current state of the U.S. prison system in a talk entitled, “Crime, Prison, and the Death Penalty: The Influence of Race and Poverty.” The talk, part of Washington University’s Assembly Series and the School of Law’s “Access to Justice” series, will be held at 4 p.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 2 in the Bryan Cave Moot Courtroom, Anheuser-Busch Hall.

The Association for Political Theory’s conference Oct. 21-22 is designed to foster “intellectual sociability” among scholars.