Arts & Sciences

The way our brains are wired may reveal a lot about us, according to new research co-authored by scientists at Washington University in St. Louis. For example, people with “positive” behavioral traits, such as sharp memories, many years of education and robust physical endurance, have stronger neural connections between certain brain regions than people with “negative” traits, such as smoking, aggressive behavior and a family history of alcohol abuse.

In this Q&A, program founders Rebecca Messbarger and Corinna Treitel discuss the new minor in medical humanities, the development of the field and the relationship between the arts and sciences.

The Experimental Psychology Division (Division 3) of the American Psychological Association (APA) has awarded its 2015 Lifetime Achievement Award to Larry L. Jacoby, PhD, an internationally recognized scholar of human memory and a professor of psychology in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis.

The Department of Classics in Arts & Sciences will host a memorial for Kevin Herbert, professor emeritus of classics, at 5 p.m. Friday, Oct. 23, in the Ballroom of Washington University’s 560 Music Center.

​As a high school student in Connecticut, Sean Clarke had no idea where he would attend college. He only knew where not to go – Washington University in St. Louis. But after visiting campus, Sean decided to join his brothers, junior Matt Smith and senior Julian Clarke. 

If Republican senators from tobacco-growing southern states believe in social responsibility, they would fully explore the TransPacific (TPP) trade agreement’s potential impact on countries around the world, including provisions that influence the ability of American tobacco corporations to flood the globe with cheap, cancer-causing cigarettes, suggests the author of a book on the history, social costs and global politics of the tobacco industry.

Amy Suelzer, PhD, director of Overseas Programs in Arts & Sciences, came to Washington University in St. Louis for graduate studies in 1990, and stayed. Today, she helps guide students through the myriad study abroad programs, hoping they have the life-changing experience she did.

Voice messages sound in a lonely apartment. Robert is turning 35. “Happy birthday,” intone his friends. “You don’t look it.” Stephen Sondheim’s “Company” examines the nature of marriage and commitment through eyes of an aging lothario — the last dangerously unattached member of his social circle.​​​

NASA announced earlier this week that dark streaks that appear on Martian slopes in the summer, lengthen and then fade as winter approaches are seeps of salty water. The news that Mars still has surface water again raised hopes that it may have life. It will take thoughtful mission planning to find out, says Washington University in St. Louis Mars expert Ray Arvidson, PhD.

Louis Moreau Gottschalk was among the most popular American composers of the 19th century. On Oct. 4, pianists Mark Tollefsen and Jae Won Kim will perform one of Gottschalk’s most enduring works in the E. Desmond Lee Concert Hall.