Arts & Sciences

If you’re clueless about petrology, paleobiology and plate tectonics, the National Science Foundation and the Earth Science Literacy Initiative (ESLI) have just released a free pamphlet offering a concise primer on what all Americans should know about the Earth sciences. “The Earth Science Literacy framework document of ‘Big Ideas’ and supporting concepts was a community effort representing the current state-of-the-art research in Earth sciences,” said Michael E. Wysession, Ph.D., chair of ESLI and associate professor of earth and planetary sciences in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis.

The Gateway Festival Orchestra will begin its 46th season of free Sunday-evening performances July 12 with a concert celebrating American music. The program will include orchestral excerpts from Wicked and other popular musicals as well as the Armed Forces Salute, a medley of official songs representing each branch of the armed forces, and The Stars and Stripes Forever. Subsequent concerts, on July 19 and 26, will highlight Vienna’s classical era with music of Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven; and works by “Old World” and “New World” composers, including Bach, Beethoven, Adler and Dvořák.

Joe Angeles/WUSTL Photo The Living Learning Center An opening ceremony for what could be one of North America’s greenest buildings — a flagship building on the cutting edge of sustainable design and energy efficiency — was held May 29 at Washington University in St. Louis’ new Living Learning Center at the university’s Tyson Research Center. The Living Learning Center is a 2,900-square-foot facility built to meet the Living Building Challenge — designed to be the most stringent green building rating system in the world — of the Cascadia Region Green Building Council (CRGBC). No building has met its standard yet, but the Living Learning Center is in the running to be the first in North America.

The Linda Presgrave Quintet will launch Washington University’s summer Jazz at Holmes Series from 8 to 10 p.m. Thursday, June 11. The series will feature six free concerts — in a relaxed, coffeehouse-style setting — by professional jazz musicians from around St. Louis and abroad. Presgrave, a pianist and former St. Louisan, lives and performs in New York City, where she recently released In Your Eyes, her debut CD.

A flurry of recent research has documented that talking on a cell phone poses a dangerous distraction for drivers and others whose attention should be focused elsewhere. Now, a new study in the Journal of Environmental Psychology finds that just the ring of a cell phone may be equally distracting, especially when it comes in a classroom setting or includes a familiar song as a ringtone.

Sawyer Want to take your children somewhere fun and educational this summer but money is tight? No problem, says a children’s play expert at Washington University in St. Louis. Your answer might even be as close as your own backyard. Video available.

Landscape in pine plantation forest.Researchers at Washington University in St. Louis, along with collaborators at three other universities, have discovered that the biodiversity in a patch of habitat can extend outside the borders of a protected area; this effect is magnified when corridors — skinny strips of land — connect the habitats. Their findings, reported in this week’s online issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, provide a strategy for managing nature preserves to maximize biodiversity in the small spaces that are already formally protected.

Inside of the diamond cellOf the 92 naturally occurring elements, add another to the list of those that are superconductors. James S. Schilling, Ph.D., professor of physics in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, and Mathew Debessai, Ph.D., — Schilling’s doctoral student at the time — discovered that europium becomes superconducting at 1.8 K (-456 °F) and 80 GPa (790,000 atmospheres) of pressure, making it the 53rd known elemental superconductor and the 23rd at high pressure.

Frank FlinnNotre Dame University’s decision to invite President Obama to deliver the university’s commencement address on Sunday has sparked strong protests from groups who disagree with Obama’s stand on abortion and stem cell research. Despite condemnation of Obama’s speech by a number of prominent American bishops, the Vatican may be more interested in moderation and conciliation in its dealings with Obama, suggests Frank K. Flinn, a close observer of religious politics and author of the Encyclopedia of Catholicism (2007).

Younan XiaMaterial scientists at Washington University in St. Louis have developed a technique for a bimetallic fuel cell catalyst that is efficient, robust and two-to-five times more effective than commercial catalysts. The novel technique eventually will enable a cost effective fuel cell technology, which has been waiting in the wings for decades and should give a boost for cleaner use of fuels worldwide.