Thomas J. Bernatowicz, professor of physics in
Arts & Sciences, will deliver the McDonnell Distinguished Lecture at
7 p.m. Wednesday, April 10, in Room 105, Steinberg Hall, at Washington
University in St. Louis. He will discuss what cosmic dust carried to
Earth by meteorites has revealed about the creation of the elements by
stars and supernovae. The St. Louis community is cordially invited to the lecture, which is sponsored by the McDonnell Center for the Space Sciences.
Yearly expeditions to explore the lava tubes on
the famed archipelago will culminate in an international symposium to be
held there next year. In the meantime we may all be able to participate as well, if only vicariously. WUSTL’s Aaron Addison, who has traveled to the Galàpagos repeatedly to map the tubes, apppears in a new IMAX film called Galàpagos 3D. Not yet released in the United States, it stars David Attenborough as well as the archipelago’s fantastic geology and biology.
We all know the story of the Roman gladiator, right? Not the whole story, says Harvard classicist and advisor to the 2000 blockbuster film, “Gladiator.” Kathleen Coleman will explain this fascinating and complex culture for the annual Biggs Lecture in the Classics: “Christians in the Roman Arena,” April 9.
A strange stone found in the Moroccan desert was the talk of the recent Lunar and Planetary Science Conference. The stone has highly unusual chemistry, suspiciously like that found by the Messenger space probe, which is currently surveying the surface of Mercury. If it was from Mercury, it would be the first meteorite from that body ever found. The prospects was thrilling but doubts crept in. WUSTL’s Randy Korotev, a lunar meteroite expert, explains the arguments for and against Mercurian origin.
Holden Thorp, who will become WUSTL’s provost in July, has been named chair of a new National Research Council committee tasked with establishing and promoting a culture of safety in academic laboratory research.
In Contemporary German Art: Selections from the Permanent Collection, the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum will highlight 16 large-scale works, all completed within the last 12 years, by artists living and working in Germany. The exhibition compliments the opening of a major expansion to the Saint Louis Art Museum, which will showcase its own holdings of postwar German art.
The Clinton Global Initiative University opens at Washington University in St. Louis with inspiring words from President Bill Clinton, Chelsea Clinton and a panel of innovative thinkers. Chancellor Mark S. Wrighton offers his thoughts on the first day.
Researchers at Washington University have identified a new set of genetic markers for Alzheimer’s disease that point to a second pathway through which the disease develops. Much of the genetic research in Alzheimer’s centers on amyloid-beta, a key component of brain plaques in people with the disease. But the new study identified several genes linked to the tau protein, which is found in tangles.
An outdoor chess park. Cargo containers transformed into compact restaurants. A sustainable urban farm. On April 11, Washington University in St. Louis and the City of St. Louis will announce which of these or several other concepts will win the inaugural Sustainable Land Lab Competition, the first of its kind in St. Louis.
The offices of Sustainability and Parking and Transportation challenge the WUSTL community to try alternative means of commuting to campus during Car-free Month, April 1-24. The teams with highest number of car-free trips and greatest number of car-free miles will win awards. April 12 is the last day to register for the Car-free Challenge.