Newsroom Stories

The U.S. Supreme Court is again considering whether it is constitutional to display the Ten Commandments on public property. An expert on the American religious experience from Washington University in St. Louis argues that the only way to allow all citizens to contribute to this country’s religious tapestry is for religion not to have a direct role in civil affairs and on government property. “If there is anything the Founding Fathers wanted to avoid, it was a repeat of the wars of religion that wracked Europe during the 16th and 17th centuries,” says Frank K. Flinn, Ph.D., adjunct professor of religious studies in Arts & Sciences.

Christine Floss, Ph.D., and Frank Stadermann, Ph.D., examine data on the NanoSIMS in Compton Hall.A collaborative team of researchers including two from WUSTL have discovered what turns the lights out from space. They have discovered that organic carbon and amorphous silicates in interstellar grains embedded within interplanetary dust particles (IDPs) are the carriers of the astronomical 2175 Å extinction line, which occurs at a wavelength of 2175 Angstroms and blocks starlight from reaching the Earth.

Sherman Alexie, a writer known for his poetry, novels, short fiction and screenplays, will deliver the Buder Center for American Indian Studies Lecture for the Washington University Assembly Series at 11 a.m. Wednesday, March 16. His talk, “Without Reservations: An Urban Indian’s Comic, Poetic and Highly Irreverent Look at the World,” will be held in Graham Chapel, located just north of Mallinckrodt Student Center (6445 Forsyth Blvd.) on the Washington University Hilltop Campus. The talk is free and open to the public.

The renowned classics scholar Malcolm Schofield will give the annual Biggs Lecture in the Classics at 4 p.m. Thursday, March 17, for the Assembly Series. The event will be held in the Women’s Building Formal Lounge; it is free and open to the public.

CarlinWashington University’s Eliot Trio will highlight late piano trios by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Johannes Brahms at 8 p.m. Tuesday, March 15, in the auditorium of Uncas A. Whitaker Hall for Biomedical Engineering. The Eliot Trio consists of Seth Carlin, professor of music and director of the piano program in Washington University’s Department of Music in Arts & Sciences; David Halen, concertmaster for the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra; and guest cellist Michael Haber, professor of music at the University of Akron.

Rates of celiac disease are significantly higher in patients with osteoporosis, according to researchers at the School of Medicine. They recommend using blood tests to screen osteoporosis patients for celiac disease because their study has shown that treating celiac disease with diet can restore bone health in these patients.

*Arabidopsis thaliana*A team headed by Craig Pikaard, Ph.D., Washington University professor of biology in Arts & Sciences, has discovered a fourth kind of RNA polymerase found only in plants and speculated to have been a plant feature for more than 200 million years.

James L. Gibson, Ph.D., the Sidney W. Souers Professor of Government in Arts & Sciences, will receive a 2005 Decade of Behavior Research Award in recognition of his research on democracy issues. The award recognizes high-caliber research that has profoundly influenced the public’s understanding of behavioral and social science principles as well as the use of social and behavioral science knowledge in policy settings.

Missouri legislators have introduced bills that would criminalize certain kinds of research into medical uses of embryonic stem cells. More medical news

Photo by Mary ButkusFraternities, sororities and members of University Police recently did their parts to help benefit the Special Olympics.