Arts & Sciences

Anthropologist Erik Trinkaus argues that “in the broader sweep of human evolution, the more unusual group is not Neandertals, but it’s us — Modern Humans.”

Map of the I-64 reconstruction projectHelping St. Louis residents and businesses cope with commuting challenges posed by the planned reconstruction of Interstate 64 (Highway 40) is the goal of a Weidenbaum Center community forum to be held on campus 7:45 – 10:45 a.m. Sept. 22. Free and open to the public, the event kicks off with a presentation by MoDot Director Peter Rahn.

Eric Woolsey*Hickordickory*From Tennessee Williams to Shepherd Mead and A.E. Hotchner, Washington University boasts a strong tradition of original drama. This year the Performing Arts Department (PAD) in Arts & Sciences will celebrate that tradition with four original plays by alumni, faculty and students. The series begins Sept. 29 to Oct. 8 with Hickorydickory, a playful, magical-realist-style work by recent alumnae Marisa Wegrzyn.

MacDonaldHugh Macdonald, the Avis H. Blewett Professor of Music in Arts & Sciences at Washington University, will speak on “What Did Bizet Write?” at 4 p.m. Friday, Sept. 22. Macdonald will serve as general editor for a proposed new edition of the works of Georges Bizet, a joint venture between French and German publishers.

Kellie Wells, Ph.D., and Kerri Webster, both writers-in-residence in the Writing Program in Arts & Sciences, will launch the fall Writing Program Reading Series at 8 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 7.

Mahalia celebrates the life and music of gospel great Mahalia Jackson (1911-72).

The program will focus on the music of two contrasting historical periods — the 18th-century Baroque and the early 20th century — through the work of composers representing the breadth of Europe.

Photo courtesy USDASchaal rice one.Biologists from Washington University in St. Louis and their collaborators from Taiwan have examined the DNA sequence family tree of rice varieties and have determined that the crop was domesticated independently at least twice in various Asian locales. Jason Londo, Washington University in Arts & Sciences biology doctoral candidate, and his adviser, Barbara A. Schaal, Ph.D., Washington University Spencer T. Olin Professor of Biology in Arts & Sciences, ran genetic tests of more than 300 types of rice, including both wild and domesticated, and found genetic markers that reveal the two major rice types grown today were first grown by humans in India and Myanmar and Thailand (Oryza sativa indica) and in areas in southern China (Oryza sativa japonica). More…

Photo courtesy NASAAmid a bevy of international space exploration missions to the Moon, the Washington University Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences in Arts & Sciences and ShanDong University at WeiHai (SDU at WH) in Mainland China have agreed to cooperate on scientific research and joint training of students in the two institutions. The agreement comes less than a year away from the planned launch of Chang’E-1, the Chinese lunar probe project, in April, 2007. The goals of China’s Chang’E-1 project are first to place a satellite into orbit around the Moon in 2007; then to land an unmanned vehicle on the Moon by 2010; and to collect samples of lunar soil with an unmanned vehicle by 2020. The spacecraft carries five instruments to image and measure different features of the Moon. Within two years, three additional missions from the United States, India and Japan will generate a furious flurry of data that will keep space scientists enthralled for the better part of the next decade. The Japanese Selene mission is scheduled to launch in the summer of 2007, the Indian Chandrayaan-1 in late 2007 or early 2008, and the United States’ Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter for October 2008. More…

Olga Pontes is Going FISHin’.Biologists at Washington University in St. Louis have made an important breakthrough in understanding a pathway plant cells take to silence unwanted or extra genes using short bits of RNA. Basically, they have made it possible to see where, and how, the events in the pathway unfold within the cell, and seeing is believing, as the old saying goes. Craig Pikaard, Ph.D., Washington University professor of biology in Arts & Sciences and his collaborators have described the roles that eight proteins in Arabidopsis plants play in a pathway that brings about DNA methylation, an epigenetic function that involves a chemical modification of cytosine, one of the four chemical subunits of DNA. More…