Arts & Sciences

GibsonWhen the U.S. Supreme Court issues its much-awaited decision on the constitutionality of the controversial McCain-Feingold campaign reform legislation, its arguments may hinge on testimony regarding the validity of a political advertising database used to push for the legislation. Supporters of the legislation claim the database provides clear and compelling evidence that McCain-Feingold reforms do not infringe upon free speech, but this is far from the truth, according to James L. Gibson, a Washington University political scientist who served as expert witness when the case was heard in a lower court. His analysis found the database to be “riddled with internal errors and inconsistencies.”

Image by Trent L. Schindler, Nat’l Science Foundation, Arlington, VAComputer-based reconstruction of an arsinoithere, an extinct fossil mammal from Ethiopia that lived 27 million years ago.Tab Rasmussen, Ph.D., a professor of anthropology in Arts & Sciences at Washington University, and two of his graduate students, were part of an international team of researchers that discovered new fossils in the highlands of Ethiopia that are filling gaps in scientists’ understanding of the evolution of African mammals. The results are reported in the Dec. 4, 2003, issue of the journal Nature.

Image courtesy of Cindy LustigParts of the brain involved in a “resting network” show large differences between young adults, older adults, and people with Alzheimer’s disease.Researchers tracking the ebb and flow of cognitive function in the human brain have discovered surprising differences in the ability of younger and older adults to shut down a brain network normally active during periods of passive daydreaming. The differences, which are especially pronounced in people with dementia, may provide a clear and powerful new method for diagnosing individuals in the very early stages of Alzheimer’s disease.

More than $300 million will be spent to rapidly bring the new knowledge of the human genetic blueprint to the patient’s bedside.

More than $300 million will be spent to rapidly bring the new knowledge of the human genetic blueprint to the patient’s bedside. More about BioMed 21

(Republished with permission from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. This article originally ran in the News section on Monday, November 24, 2003.) Ehlmann and Gilmore will enter England’s University of Oxford in October, 100 years after the first class of American Rhodes Scholars did in 1904. The scholars were selected from 963 applicants endorsed by 366 colleges and universities. The scholarships provide two or three years of study at Oxford.

Elliot F. Gerson, American Secretary of the Rhodes Trust, announced the names of the thirty-two American men and women chosen as Rhodes Scholars. They will enter the University of Oxford in England next October, almost exactly one hundred years after the first class of American Rhodes Scholars did in 1904. The Scholars were chosen today from 963 applicants—who were endorsed by 366 colleges and universities. The WUSTL recipients for 2004 are Allison Gilmore and Bethany Ehlmann.

Deanna M. Barch, Ph.D., doesn’t want much — she just aims to discover the cause of schizophrenia and develop a way to prevent it. Barch, associate professor of psychology in Arts & Sciences and assistant professor of psychiatry in the School of Medicine, devotes much of her research to studying schizophrenia in order to better […]

Washington University’s Center for the Humanities in Arts & Sciences will present Celebrating Our Books, Recognizing Our Authors, its second annual faculty book colloquium, at 4 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 4, in the Ann W. Olin Women’s Building Formal Lounge.

David Kilper/WUSTL PhotoPictured are student dancers performing Jennifer Medina’s *Arcadia*.Washington University Dance Theatre (WUDT), the annual showcase of professionally choreographed works performed by student dancers, will present its 2003 concert, dance@stl.art, Dec. 5-7.