Arts & Sciences

To operate a nuclear power plant like Three Mile Island, hundreds of highly trained employees must work in concert to generate power from safe fission, all the while containing dangerous nuclear wastes. On the other hand, it’s been known for 30 years that Mother Nature once did nuclear chain reactions by her lonesome. Now, researchers at Washington University in St. Louis have analyzed the isotopic structure of noble gases produced in fission in a sample from the only known natural nuclear chain reaction site in the world in Gabon, Wes Africa, and have found how she does the trick.

Is this a “cup” or a “mug?”No matter how hard we try to change our behaviors, it’s the old ways that tend to win out over time, especially in situations where we’re rushed, stressed or overworked, suggests a new study of human memory from Washington University in St. Louis. The findings are bad news for people struggling to change harmful behaviors, such as smoking or overeating, and good news for people who establish healthy lifestyles at an early age. Even when we consciously try to put new good intentions into place, those previously learned habits remain stronger in more automatic, unconscious forms of memory.

Tips for kicking the butts.The Great American Smokeout — the day each November the American Cancer Society encourages smokers to say “no thanks” to cigarettes for 24 hours — helps many people recognize how dangerous smoking is and how much they really want to quit, says a psychologist at Washington University in St. Louis who is an expert on helping people gain control of personal habits.

British tenor Paul Elliott will join Washington University’s Kingsbury Ensemble for a concert titled “Love and War: Music of the Early Italian Baroque” at 8 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 20.

Soprano Emily Heslop, library assistant at Washington University’s Gaylord Music Library, and tenor James Harr, voice instructor in the Department of Music in Arts & Sciences, will present a voice recital 8 p.m. Monday, Nov. 22.

Courtesy photoAmy HempelAuthor Amy Hempel, widely recognized as one of America’s finest writers of short fiction, will host a colloquium on the craft of fiction at 4 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 17. In addition, Hempel will read from her work at 8 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 18.

As one of the world’s leading experts on literacy and spelling development, Rebecca A. Treiman has spent more than two decades finding order in the perceived chaos of the English language. “The English writing system is often considered to be chaotic and hard to learn,” said Treiman, Ph.D., the Burke & Elizabeth High Baker Professor […]

It’s a classic gender-bending satire of colonial and sexual conquest; performances will be Nov. 12-14 and 19-20 in the A.E. Hotchner Studio Theatre.

Courtesy photoWil HaygoodWil Haygood, one of the nation’s leading biographers of African American life, will read present a pair of events Nov. 9 and 10, as a part of The SmartSet Series: Where Great Writers Read, sponsored by Washington University’s Center for Humanities in Arts & Sciences.

Bankruptcy, labor markets and auction theory will be among the topics discussed Nov. 5-7 as Washington University hosts the Fall 2004 Midwest International Economics and Economic Theory Meetings. More than 100 scholars are expected to attend the event, which features a packed, three-day schedule of research presentations in Eliot Hall.