Arts & Sciences

Scientists solve the world’s greatest challenges and are paid well to do so. Yet the gender gap persists in engineering, computer science and other fields. Women in STEM Day at Washington University in St. Louis welcomes high school girls into the community of female scientists and introduces them to cutting-edge research. Hosted by undergraduate female science students, the event features demonstrations, top speakers and a sleepover.

In fall 2015, Nobel laureate W. E. Moerner returned to campus to give the Weissman Lecture. Washington magazine spoke with him and asked what it was like to win the world’s top prize.

While it may seem bizarre for an American presidential candidate to describe the comments of a sitting pope as “disgraceful,” Donald Trump’s recent attacks on Pope Francis should come as no surprise from a candidate whose success hinges on playing to the fears of religiously inspired voters, suggests an expert on evangelical politics at Washington University in St. Louis.

A chemist at Washington University in St. Louis hopes to develop bifunctional compounds that can be both therapeutic and diagnostic agents for Alzheimer’s disease. In the first role, they would block the metal-mediated formation of amyloid beta oligomers; in the second, they would be loaded with a long-lived radioistope (Cu-64) and employed as PET imaging agents.

Annamaria Pileggi, of Washington University’s Performing Arts Department, has contributed a chapter to the book “Approaches to Teaching the Works of Anton Chekhov” (2016).

When tragedy strikes a traveling circus, the desire for justice goes terribly awry. “Elephant’s Graveyard” is a shocking tale, based on historical events, of spectacle, retribution and what we choose to remember. Presented by the Performing Arts Department, the show opens Feb. 26 in Edison Theatre.

More than 100 musicians from the Washington University Symphony Orchestra and the Washington University Choirs will join forces March 4 to perform Poulenc’s celebrated “Gloria” (1961) as part of the 2016 Chancellor’s Concert.

This month, Barbara Schaal, dean of the Faculty of Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, assumes the presidency of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the world’s largest general scientific society. In a Q&A, she talks about science and how its nature and practice have changed during her career.

Alexander Hamilton, Benjamin Franklin, Hubert Humphrey and some guy named “Thomas Moore” are among the names that many Americans mistakenly identify as belonging to a past president of the United States, finds a news study by memory researchers at Washington University in St. Louis.

Members of Synapse, Washington University’s neuroscience club, are helping local high school students prepare for the annual St. Louis Area Brain Bee, Saturday, Feb. 13, at McDonnell Hall. “The Brain Bee is a competition but it’s not about being competitive. It’s about getting more people excited about this fast-growing field,” says junior Smruti Rath.