Arts & Sciences

Photo courtesy Muzeul Olteniei / Erik TrinkausThe early modern human cranium from the Pestera Muierii, Romania.A re-examination of ancient human bones from Romania reveals more evidence that humans and Neandertals interbred. Erik Trinkaus, Ph.D., the Mary Tileston Hemenway Professor in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, and colleagues radiocarbon dated and analyzed the shapes of human bones from Romania’s Pestera Muierii (Cave of the Old Woman). The fossils, which were discovered in 1952, add to the small number of early modern human remains from Europe known to be more than 28,000 years old. More…

The Washington University Symphony Orchestra will present “OrganFest,” a concert showcasing the university’s recently refurbished Graham Chapel organ, at 3 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 19. Dan Presgrave, instrumental music coordinator in the Department of Music in Arts & Sciences, conducts the 70-plus-member orchestra. Featured soloist are William Partridge, Jr., university organist; and Barbara Raedeke, instructor in organ.

Robert Criss, Ph.D., professor of earth and planetary sciences in Arts & Sciences, has analyzed data from the Lewis and Clark expedition and says it shows that the Missouri River today is but a shadow of what it was two hundred years ago, narrower and more prone to serious flooding.A geologist at Washington University in St. Louis and his collaborator at Oxford University have interpreted data that Lewis and Clark collected during their famous expedition and found that the Missouri River has markedly narrowed and its water levels have become more variable over the past two hundred years. This narrowing, or channeling, created by wing dikes and levees constructed mainly in the 20th century, has put the Missouri River at an increased risk of more damaging floods, the authors say. They blame the fact that the river cannot spread out as it did naturally at the turn of the 19th century, thus forcing water levels higher. More…

More than 80,000 people in the United States are on waiting lists for organ transplants. Some will have to wait for the death of a matching donor, but more and more people are receiving organs from living donors. In an effort to close the gap between organ supply and demand, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine, the University of Michigan and the American Society of Transplant Surgeons are studying ways to reimburse living donors for some of their out-of-pocket expenses when they choose to donate an organ.

Photo courtesy Library of Congress.Thurgood Marshall (center) with George E.C. Hayes and James Nabri celebrating the historic Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision.For the past 50-plus years, civil rights litigation has greatly affected Americans’ lives. It has secured our Constitutional rights, and it has dramatically improved many of our public and private institutions. Information about these cases, however, has been exceedingly difficult to locate. Until now. More…

Four aspiring playwrights will present staged readings of their work Nov. 16 and 17 as part of Washington University’s 2006 A.E. Hotchner Playwriting Festival. Sponsored by the Performing Arts Department in Arts & Sciences, the festival’s selection process actually began in January, when students from across the university submitted original plays to an adjudication committee made up of faculty and theater professionals. The committee then selected four plays — two full-length works and two shorts — to undergo an intense two-week workshop this fall, culminating in the staged readings.

Dan Morgenstern, director of the Institute of Jazz Studies at Rutgers University, will speak on “The Great Jazz Schism” at 4 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 14. A former editor of Down Beat magazine, Morgenstern has won six Grammy awards for best album notes and served as a senior advisor to Ken Burns 10-part PBS series Jazz. Earlier this year he was named a “Jazz Master” by the National Endowment for the Arts — a designation The New York Times calls “the nation’s highest jazz honor.”

The Washington University Wind Ensemble will perform a free concert at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 9, in the University’s Graham Chapel. Dan Presgrave, instrumental music coordinator in the Department of Music in Arts & Sciences, directs the program, which includes music of Franz Joseph Haydn, Malcolm Arnold, Franz von Suppé and Gordon Jacob.

Mezzo soprano Jade Lin Hornbaker, a master’s candidate in vocal performance in the Department of Music in Arts & Sciences, will present a graduate voice recital at 7 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 11, in the auditorium of the Uncas A. Whitaker Hall for Biomedical Engineering. The program includes music of Modest Mussorgsky, Robert Schumann, Francis Poulenc and John Ireland.

It’s election season once again, but the political fun continues even after votes are cast. On Thursday, Nov. 9, the Performing Arts Department in Arts & Sciences will host “Playwrights and Politics: Two Acts on the National and International Scene.” The symposium will examine the nature of political theatre and the impact of the arts on national and international politics.