Arts & Sciences

In recognition of the Sesquicentennial theme “Treasuring the Past, Shaping the Future,” Arts & Sciences is hosting four “Conversations.”

The show features more than 50 works by 23 of China’s finest contemporary practitioners; it opens with a reception from 6-8 p.m. today.

Declan Kiberd, one of the world’s preeminent scholars of modern Irish literature, will launch the University’s fall Writing Program Reading Series in Arts & Sciences with a pair of talks. On Sept. 9, Declan will speak on “Ireland: A Case of Masked Modernity?” On Sept. 11, he will address “The City in Irish Writing.” Both […]

Mary ButkusA roundtable discussion Aug. 28 commemorated the 40th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech.

FriedmanThomas Friedman, three-time Pulitzer Prize winner, best-selling author and foreign affairs columnist for The New York Times, will present his talk, “What Kind of International Borders Will Exist in the 21st Century?” on September 17, 2003, at 11 a.m. in the Athletic Complex Field House, located north of Francis Field on the Washington University campus. Friedman’s lecture is also the Arts & Sciences Sesquicentennial lecture. Assembly Series lectures are free and open to the public. Parking will be limited; check the Assembly Series website for overflow parking information.

FriedmanSome of the nation’s top scholars will gather in the coming academic year at Washington University to have “Conversations” on such topics as: What kind of international borders will exist in the 21st century? What is the future of freedom? Who are “public intellectuals”? And what purpose do they serve? Where did modern humans come from? In recognition of the sesquicentennial theme, “Treasuring the Past, Shaping the Future,” Arts & Sciences is hosting a series of four “Conversations” among scholars whose disciplines range from anthropology and biology to law and women’s studies. Thomas L. Friedman, a three-time Pulitzer Prize winner, best-selling author and foreign affairs columnist for The New York Times, will participate in the first “Conversation,” to be held from 2 to 3:30 p.m. Sept. 17 in the university’s Graham Chapel.

Photo by Constantine E. MichaelidesChurches and chapels comprise the Aegean Islands’ most distinctive architectural forms.The history of architecture is largely the history of official buildings commissioned by ruling elites. Yet with the home improvement market expected to reach record-high levels in 2003, it is worth remembering that the true character of any city or town rests largely on the vernacular traditions of ordinary, often architecturally untrained citizens. In his forthcoming book The Aegean Crucible, Constantine E. Michaelides, emeritus dean and professor of the School of Architecture at Washington University in St. Louis, explains how many of the Greek island’s most defining forms were developed by local builders responding to particular climatic, cultural and political circumstances.

Photo by Mary Butkus / WUSTL PhotoStudy finds that the larger the bill, the smaller the tip percentage that food servers, hair stylists and cab drivers receive.In the world of gratuities, the bigger they are, the harder they fall. Psychologists at Washington University in St. Louis have shown that the larger the bill, the smaller the tip percentage that food servers, hair stylists and cab drivers receive. Compiling data from nearly 1,000 tips left in restaurants, hair salons and with cab drivers, the researchers found that the percent of the tip actually decreases with the amount of the bill across all three tipping situations. Their findings also indicate that with bills more than $100, the percent of the tip levels off — if the bill is $200, the server is likely to receive the same amount as if it were $100.

Mark Twain once mused that his mental faculties had decayed such that he could remember only things that never happened.Age-related false memories and failing recall are not inevitable, a new study from Washington University in St. Louis indicates. The researchers tested a group of senior adults averaging 75 years of age and found that one in four did not suffer memory loss and were as sharp as college students.

A new technique in development may produce quick and efficient radiation dosing.Researchers at Washington University in St. Louis have developed a technique that drastically decreases the time a radiation oncologist spends calculating radiation dosages and also provides a more carefully controlled dosage with less damage to nearby healthy tissues. They have applied a mathematical tool called wavelet analysis to radiation dose distributions simulations and have sped up the dose calculations by a factor of two or more over the standby dose calculation.