Humanities & Society

Hannah Wilke, “Intra-Venus #4, February 19, 1992,” (1992-93)Women’s bodies — nude, adorned, eroticized, abstracted — figure prominently in the history of art. Yet the art of women’s health is shockingly new. In January, the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum at Washington University in St. Louis will present Inside Out Loud: Visualizing Women’s Health in Contemporary Art, the first major museum-level exhibition dedicated to the topic. The show tracks the emergence of women’s health in American art from the early 1980s to the present, and includes approximately 50 artworks in a variety of traditional and cutting-edge media by more than 30 internationally known artists and artists’ groups.

Alcohol and drug abuse remain the biggest problems among homeless individuals.The homeless population is changing. In the days of the Great Depression, many homeless people were victims of bad luck and a worse economy. But after studying St. Louis’ homeless population since the 1980’s, experts at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis say the problem has become more complex in recent times.

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.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has awarded an additional $1.8 million to the Midwest Regional Center of Excellence in Biodefense and Emerging Infectious Diseases Research (MRCE), a multi-institutional research center anchored at WUSM.

AbumradNada A. Abumrad, Ph.D., has been named the first Dr. Robert C. Atkins Professor of Medicine and Obesity Research at the School of Medicine. The professorship has been made possible by a gift from the Dr. Robert C. Atkins Foundation.

Scientists at the School of Medicine have become the first to successfully grow a norovirus in the lab. In humans, noroviruses are a highly contagious source of diarrhea, vomiting and other stomach upset that made headlines two years ago after a series of repeated outbreaks on cruise ships. These viruses are a major cause of human disease worldwide.

When and where a bacterium uses its DNA can be as important as what’s in the DNA, according to WUSM researchers. Scientists found significant differences in two bacterial organisms’ use of a gene linked to antibiotic resistance. The distinction alters the bacteria’s “lifestyles,” or their ability to survive in different environments.

Gene D. Thin Elk, one of the nation’s leading authorities on treatment for alcoholism, will present a lecture on the “Red Road Approach to Wellness and Healing” 4:30 p.m. Nov. 30 in Brown Lounge. The Red Road approach, created by Thin Elk, uses Native American traditions and values as part of a drug and alcohol rehabilitation program. The lecture, which is free and open to the public, is sponsored by the Kathryn M. Buder Center for American Indian Studies at the George Warren Brown School of Social Work and the American Indian Student Association.

Researchers at the School of Medicine have identified a previously unsuspected response by mouse heart muscle cells to fasting conditions: the cells’ power generators, the mitochondria, appear to remodel and consume extra internal walls or membranes in an effort to supply energy to the rest of the cell.

Legal scholars, planners and political scientists from the Midwest will come together at WUSTL School of Law Dec. 3-4 to discuss the opportunities for reform in planning and land use regulation. Rep. Marcy Kaptur and Paul Farmer, president of the American Planning Association, will service as conference keynote speakers. The conference features two days of panel discussions on political leadership in planning statute reform, contemporary planning efforts, sprawl and urban growth, housing and regulatory streamlining, and the impact of state and local planning programs.