Arts & Sciences

The Big Read is a national program designed to encourage literary reading by helping communities come together to read and discuss a single book. In January 2009 Washington University in St. Louis — supported by a $20,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts — will coordinate a St. Louis Big Read focusing on Harper Lee’s 1960 classic To Kill a Mockingbird. The month-long series of community-based events will include a wide variety of reading programs, read-a-thons, book discussions, lectures, performances, movie screenings and other activities.

Residents of the central and southern Midwest are crossing their fingers, saying their prayers, planning evacuations, and in some cases filling sandbags in preparation for the excessive water Image courtesy of NOAAWUSTL geologist Robert Criss warns of “serious water” that could give some areas their second worst flood on record. ravishing communities in Iowa and Wisconsin. “The flood wave is propagating down the Mississippi River towards St. Louis at about the pace of a brisk walk,” said Robert E. Criss, Ph.D., professor of earth and planetary sciences in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis. “Some areas north of St. Louis in Missouri and southern Iowa are bracing for the second worst flood in their history. This is serious water.”

University College — the adult, continuing-education division of Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis — will host “Party with a Purpose” from 5:30-8 p.m. June 25 at The Grind, located at 4239 Lindell Blvd. The event, which is free and open to the public, offers partygoers the opportunity to learn about University College as they enjoy complimentary cocktails and hors d’oeuvres, mingle with current students, alumni, staff and faculty and network with like-minded individuals interested in enhancing their education.

Elsie Parker and The Poor People of Paris will launch the summer Jazz at Holmes series with a free performance at 8 p.m. Thursday, June 12. The concert will feature French popular music and jazz, including works by Vanessa Paradis and Herve Vilard. Also on the program will be music of French favorites Edith Piaf, […]

Elsie Parker and The Poor People of Paris will launch the summer Jazz at Holmes series with a free performance at 8 p.m. Thursday, June 12. The series features relaxed, coffeehouse-style concerts with professional jazz musicians from around St. Louis and abroad most Thursday evenings throughout the summer.

If a young Albert Einstein could have picked a summer activity he may have opted to participate in the ExxonMobil Bernard Harris Summer Science Camp at Washington University in St. Louis, June 16-27. An exciting two-week adventure filled with field trips and science experiments, the summer camp proves that math and science can entice a crew of middle school students and lead them to rewarding opportunities.

Image courtesy of NASAThe Phoenix Mars Lander on the northern Mars plains, searching for evidence of ice and water.Among the many Phoenix Mars Mission workers are Raymond E. Arvidson, Ph.D., the WUSTL chair of earth and planetary sciences, a computer specialist and four WUSTL students. Their goal is to infer from images and other data the geological history of the landing site and to imply some theories about current and past climate on Mars. Will they find ice?

Elsie Parker and The Poor People of Paris will launch Washington University’s summer Jazz at Holmes series with a free performance at 8 p.m. Thursday, June 12. The series features relaxed, coffeehouse-style concerts with professional jazz musicians from around St. Louis and abroad most Thursday evenings throughout the summer.

Image courtesy of Doug WiensDouglas Wiens (left), and a colleague ready equipment to emplace seismographs in Antarctica during a 2001 expedition.A seismologist at Washington University in St. Louis along with colleagues at Pennsylvania State University and Newcastle University in the United Kingdom have found seismic signals from a giant river of ice in Antarctica that make California’s earthquake problem seem trivial. Douglas A. Wiens, Ph.D., professor of earth and planetary sciences in Arts & Sciences, and colleagues combined seismological and global positioning system (GPS) analyses to reveal two bursts of seismic waves from an ice stream in Antarctica every day, each one equivalent to a magnitude seven earthquake.

Researchers at Washington University in St. Louis are the first to identify two proteins responsible for mechanosensitive ion channel activities in plant roots. Scientists have long known that plant cells respond to physical forces. Until now, however, the proteins controlling the ion channel response remained a mystery.