Arts & Sciences

Thomas F. Eagleton, who joined the faculty after serving nearly two decades in the U.S. Senate, died Sunday, March 4, 2007, at St. Mary’s Hospital in Richmond Heights, Mo. He was 77 years old.

Imrat KhanWorld-renowned sitar player Imrat Khan, a distinguished artist-in-residence in the Department of Music in Arts & Sciences, will be joined by virtuoso tabla player Samir Chatterjee for a concert of Indian classical music at 8 p.m. Sunday, March 25. Khan, the senior-most member of the famous Etawa Gharana (musical dynasty), is widely recognized as one of the giants of Indian classical music, celebrated for his virtuosity, musicality and inventive wit.

Scientists have known for years that the energy cost of walking and running is related primarily to the work done by muscles to lift and move the limbs. But how much energy does it actually take to get around? Does having longer legs really make a difference? Herman Pontzer, Ph.D., assistant professor of physical anthropology in Arts & Sciences, has developed a mathematical model for calculating energy costs for two and four-legged animals. His research was published in a recent issue of The Journal of Experimental Biology.

Robert Osburn (yellow helmet, recording and sketching) and WUSTL graduate student Jenny Lippmann (measuring and doing compass readings) conducting the cave survey in a small passage of 23 degree cave in Crawford County, Missouri.The Caves of St. Louis County and the Bridges of Madison County share a common theme: loss. The former, a scholarly paper that appears as the sole entry of the current issue of Missouri Speleology, is a description of some of St. Louis County’s 127 known caves and a warning that development over the past two centuries has eliminated or destroyed many caves in a state that could quite rightly call itself the Cave State. The latter is a tear-jerking novel, made into a movie by Clint Eastwood about a doomed, unlikely love affair, a hallmark of the ’90s with all the permanence of the Backstreet Boys. Caves, though, are in trouble, in St. Louis County, Missouri, and elsewhere, says co-author Robert Criss, Ph.D., professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis.

The figure shows the dynamics of a slab-tear earthquake (top), compared with a shallow thrust earthquake (bottom). The slab-tearing event typically doesn’t feature an accompanying tsunami.Seismologists at Washington University in St. Louis and their colleagues in Australia, Japan and Tonga have determined why a large earthquake in Tonga did not cause a large tsunami. A tsunami warning was issued around the Pacific Rim following the magnitude 8.0 earthquake on May 3, 2006, but the resulting tsunami was very minor and caused no damage.

Eminent British archaeologist Lord Colin Renfrew to speak on cognitive archaeology and how we become human, at the Assembly Series, 4 p.m., March 22 in Graham Chapel.

Mosaic Whispers, the University’s award-winning a cappella ensemble, will celebrate its “Super Sweet 16” anniversary with the release of a new CD during its annual Splash of Color concert 7:30 p.m. March 2-3 in Graham Chapel.

Violinist Silvian Iticovici, pianist Seth Carlin and violist Stephen Ewer will join with members of the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra for a recital of works by Robert Schumann (1810-1856) and Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975).

Frank K. Flinn, Ph.D., adjunct professor of religious studies, provides insight on the controversy surrounding a new Discovery Channel documentary, The Lost Tomb of Jesus, which airs March 4. Flinn, a consultant in forensic theology, is an expert on religion and the law, including issues related to the separation of church and state, government funding of faith-based social program and the display of religious symbols in schools, courtrooms and other public places.

Jo Labanyi, professor of Spanish and Portuguese at New York University, will speak on “Facts and Fictions: Knowledge, Delinquency and Madness in Late 19th-century Spain” at 4 p.m. Feb. 27 in Umrath Hall Lounge. Labanyi is the first speaker in the spring Faculty Fellows Lecture and Workshop Series sponsored by the Center for the Humanities in Arts & Sciences.