Arts & Sciences

New research from Washington University in St. Louis confirms that the brain tunes itself to a point where it is as excitable as it can be without tipping into disorder, similar to a phase transition. The new research from Keith Hengen, assistant professor of biology in Arts & Sciences, is published Oct. 7 in the journal Neuron.

New research from Washington University in St. Louis realizes one of the first parity time-symmetric quantum systems, allowing scientists to observe how that symmetry — and the breaking of it — leads to previously unexplored phenomena. These and future PT symmetry experiments have potential applications to quantum computing. The work from the laboratory of Kater Murch, associate professor of physics in Arts & Sciences, is published Oct. 7 in the journal Nature Physics.

Joseph Jez, Howard Hughes Medical Institute Professor and chair of biology in Arts & Sciences, along with two former researchers in his laboratory, P.A. Rea and R.E. Cahoon, was awarded a U.S. patent for engineered plants that could help detoxify, or remediate, soils contaminated with heavy metals.

The university’s Center for the Humanities in Arts & Sciences, along with other academic partners, received funding from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation for an Africa fellowship program, aimed at enhancing research capacity for early-career humanities scholars. The application deadline is Nov. 11.

Faced with extreme weather events and unprecedented environmental change, animals and plants are scrambling to catch up — with mixed results. A new model developed by Carlos Botero, assistant professor of biology in Arts & Sciences, helps to predict the types of changes that could drive a given species to extinction.

Learn about how poet Paul Tran and more than a dozen artists, illustrators and designers are preparing for the inauguration of Andrew D. Martin as 15th chancellor of Washington University in St. Louis.

In “Mrs. Kelley’s Igloo,” senior Sophie Tegenu explores themes of family, romantic love and the difficulties of saying “I do.”  This weekend, the play will be one of three to receive world premier staged readings as part of the Performing Arts Department’s annual A.E. Hotchner Playwriting Festival.

Whatever impeachment moves the Democratic-majority U.S. House of Representatives makes next, it’s ultimately up to the Republican-controlled and administration-friendly Senate to hold a trial on the matter — and Washington University in St. Louis political scientist Steve Smith anticipates the Senate could make a number of moves to avoid the issue.

Bronwen Konecky, assistant professor of earth and planetary sciences in Arts & Sciences, works at the cutting edge of an emerging research area that combines paleoclimate data with climate models. She received the Nanne Weber Early Career Award from the Paleoceanography and Paleoclimatology Section of the American Geophysical Union.

The College of Arts & Sciences has added two new majors and a new concentration, all available this academic year. They are: a joint economics and computer science major; an astrophysics major; and a production concentration for the existing major in film and media studies.