Arts & Sciences

GibsonRenowned literary theorist Stanley Fish will deliver the keynote address for Celebrating Our Books, Recognizing Our Authors, Washington University’s third annual faculty book colloquium, at 4 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 2, in the Ann W. Olin Women’s Building Formal Lounge. The event also will include readings by Judith Evans Grubbs, professor of classics in Arts & Sciences, and James L. Gibson, the Sidney W. Souers Professor of Government in the Department of Political Science in Arts & Sciences.

David Kilper/WUSTL Photo Servies“Taunting the Monster”Washington University Dance Theatre (WUDT), the annual showcase of professionally choreographed works performed by student dancers, will present Dancescape, its 2004 concert, Dec. 3-5 in Edison Theatre. The concert will feature 30 dancers, selected by audition, performing seven works by faculty and guest choreographers.

Courtesy photoMary Jo BangPoet Mary Jo Bang, associate professor of English in Arts & Sciences, will read from her latest collection, The Eye is Like a Strange Balloon (2004), at 8 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 2, for The Writing Program Reading Series.

Recognized as one of America’s finest writers of short fiction, she will host a colloquium on the craft of fiction and a reading of her work.

Keith Boykin, a prominent author and speaker, was a special assistant to the president and director of specialty media in the Clinton administration.

The Washington University Symphony Orchestra will perform music of Rossini, Liszt and Tchaikovsky at 3 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 14. The performance is free and open to the public and takes place in the university’s Graham Chapel, just north of the Mallinckrodt Student Center, 6445 Forsyth Blvd. For more information, call (314) 935-4841.

A chemist at Washington University in St. Louis has found surprisingly tough enzymes in a bacterium that “just says no to acid.” Acid resistance is a valued trait for both pills and human pathogens. The bacterium Acetobacter aceti makes unusually acid-resistant enzymes in spades, which could make the organism a source for new enzyme products and new directions in protein chemistry.

Sandra Day O’ConnorPresident Bush’s re-election, coupled with strengthened Republican control of the Senate, has fueled speculation that the next four years could bring about dramatic shifts in political composition of the U.S. Supreme Court. While Bush may be poised to push the court in a more conservative direction, a forthcoming study suggests his ability to make dramatic ideological changes still hinges on whether he has the opportunity to replace Justice Sandra Day O’Connor.

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.