Newsroom Stories

Clayton Avenue will be closed between 5 a.m.-2:30 p.m. Oct. 8-10 while MoDOT sets girders on the west side of the bridge under Kingshighway.

Photo by David KilperBradley P. Stoner works at the interface of medicine, anthropology and public health

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.

Judy Pfaff, one of the most celebrated artists of her generation, is known for crafting large-scale installations that combine local materials with elements of painting, sculpture and architecture. Pfaff — a 1971 WUSTL graduate — will return to St. Louis Oct. 11 to discuss her work for the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts’ fall Visiting Artist Lecture Series.

Is theatre an effective tool for social change? What were the effects of sexual violence on African American women after the Civil War? What is the history of organic food in America? The answers to these questions and many more will be explored during the Fall 2007 Undergraduate Research Symposium, from 8:30 a.m.-4 p.m. Oct. 13 in the Arts & Sciences Laboratory Sciences building.

Marxism in China, taboo images in Tibet and war, sex work and memory in 20th-century Japan will be among topics discussed as WUSTL welcomes the 56th annual Midwest Conference on Asian Affairs to the Danforth Campus Oct. 19-21. The conference is sponsored by the East Asian Studies Program 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.

Jennifer JakobSoprano Jennifer Jakob will perform an intimate Liederabend for the Department of Music in Arts & Sciences. Literally translated as “evening of song,” Liederabend is a German term referring to a recital given by a singer and pianist, particularly of works by 19th-century Austrian or German composers. The program will include songs by Hugo Wolf, Johannes Brahms, Franz Schubert, Robert Schumann and Richard Strauss.

The School of Medicine is participating in the largest study of child and human health ever conducted in the United States. The National Institutes of Health has selected the city of St. Louis and Macoupin County, Ill., as sites for the National Children’s Study, an extensive population-based study looking at the health and development of children by following them from before birth to adulthood.