Newsroom Stories

Sabine Eckmann, curator of the Washington University Gallery of Art, and David Bonetti, visual arts critic for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, will speak on Art and Pleasure for the Gallery of Art’s Friday Forum series at 7 p.m. Friday, March 19. CALENDAR SUMMARY WHO: Sabine Eckmann, curator, Washington University Gallery of Art, and David Bonetti, […]

In some people smoking rewires the brain, producing a powerful addiction that may never be entirely cured, experts say. An estimated 35 million smokers try to kick the habit each year, but only about 7 percent succeed in remaining smoke-free for more than a year. Most relapse within a few days of quitting and require multiple attempts before they can give up cigarettes. “The people who could quit, quit. Now we’re left with a group of really committed smokers,” explains WUSTL geneticist Laura Bierut in a recent St. Louis Post-Dispatch news article.

Washington University faculty and staff make news around the world. Following is a representative sampling of media coverage from clippings and electronic sources received between October 1 and December 31, 2003. Cancer gene may predict relapse A first-of-its-kind genetic test will soon be available to help women with breast cancer make one of their most […]

Public intellectuals — a class of specialists, all-purpose thinkers — will gather from 10-11:30 a.m. Feb. 12 in Graham Chapel at Washington University in St. Louis to have a “Conversation” about, well, public intellectuals. As part of the university’s yearlong 150th anniversary celebration, Arts & Sciences is sponsoring “Conversations,” a four-part series bringing some of the nation’s top scholars together to discuss key issues that will affect the future of the university, the community and the world.

Michael Les Benedict, a professor of history at the Moritz School of Law at Ohio State University, is an authority on Anglo-American constitutional and legal history, the history of civil rights and liberties, and the federal system. Benedict will present “The People Themselves: The Constitutional Responsibility of the American People” at 11 a.m. on Wednesday, February 11 in Graham Chapel.

McClatchyPoet and Essayist J.D. McClatchy will read from his work at 8 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 19, for The Writing Program Reading Series at Washington University in St. Louis.

Super Bowl XXXVIII is over, but the Super Bowl ads — which cost a cool $2.3 million for a 30-second ad — are still battling it out. For the fourth year in a row, MBA students and faculty at the Olin School of Business at Washington University in St. Louis critiqued and ranked the Super Bowl ads during the big game with veteran advertising executives. This year, the Olin MBA students huddled with senior ad execs from the Leo Burnett agency. But expectations were dashed as most of the Super Bowl ads fell flat. Click here to view the article on the Super Advertising Bowl from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

To some people, the Super Bowl is a football game. To others, it’s a marketing derby. “Careers are made, and careers are ended, on these commercials we’re about to see,” said Lewis Williams, a senior vice president, creative director, at Leo Burnett Worldwide Inc., a Chicago-based advertising agency. Williams was addressing more than 100 attendees of the fourth annual “Super Advertising Bowl” at Washington University’s Olin School of Business while Sunday’s game was starting on a giant screen above him. Every year, MBA students, their friends, Washington U. faculty and ad execs like Williams gather to rank Super Bowl ads. During halftime, Advertising Bowl participants vote for their favorite commercials.

Little is understood about how depression makes people feel sad, but neuroscientists do know that the brain chemical serotonin is involved. School of Medicine researchers studied 46 people with active depression and compared positron emission tomography (PET) scans of their brains to scans from 29 people who were not depressed. The team was measuring levels of a particular type of serotonin receptor called the 5-HT2A receptor.

The following incidents were reported to University Police Jan. 21-27. Readers with information that could assist in investigating these incidents are urged to call 935-5555. This information is provided as a public service to promote safety awareness and is available on the University Police Web site at police.wustl.edu. Jan. 22 7:43 p.m. — A person […]