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Greek scholar to discuss opposing views of human mind

Greek scholar to discuss opposing views of human mind

In ancient Greece, there were two opposing views about the human mind. Plato thought a person was “tabula inscripta,” born with some innate knowledge. Whereas, Aristotle subscribed to the idea of “tabula rasa,” born without any previous knowledge.

UMSL sets up ‘one stop shop’ for veteran students

UMSL sets up ‘one stop shop’ for veteran students

As U.S. military presence winds down in Iraq and Afghanistan a whole generation of veterans is returning home and enrolling in universities. Recognizing this trend, the University of Missouri-St. Louis has established a new Veterans Center dedicated to making the transition from military to student life as smooth as possible for veterans coming into the classroom.

Genomics symposium set for Sept. 28

Genomics symposium set for Sept. 28

Genomics is an area of genetics that involves the study of the genomes or full genetic content of organisms. The goal of sequencing genomes includes understanding biological processes at the molecular level and how drugs work.

Anthropologist named campus leader in general education

Anthropologist named campus leader in general education

Sheilah Clarke-Ekong has long been a standout as an associate professor of anthropology at the University of Missouri–St. Louis. Going forward, she will play a larger role in helping shape general education at the university.

Eye on UMSL: Observation

Eye on UMSL: Observation

Students study the “UMSL geese” from the hillside overlooking the ponds on North Campus during their Animal Behavior Laboratory class. The students are (from left) Rebecca Dickerson, Jacob Franck, teacher assistant Allisyn-Marie Gillet, Cristen Gillett, Shelamae Paytocon and Stephanie Bladdick.

Gift from Peabody Energy to modernize 2 labs

Gift from Peabody Energy to modernize 2 labs

A modern work force needs a modern learning environment. That environment is exactly what the University of Missouri–St. Louis strives to offer its students, said Chancellor Tom George.

Be Inspired: Faculty, staff giving campaign starts now

Be Inspired: Faculty, staff giving campaign starts now

Scattered around the campus at the University of Missouri–St. Louis you’ll find more than 350 employees who give back a piece of their paycheck to the university. Why? Lots of reasons, but running through all of their stories is a passion for the work they do.

Nature inspires student’s artwork

Nature inspires student’s artwork

Stephanie Sabin has been honing her artistic skills in between her biology studies at the University of Missouri–St. Louis. This month, she will show off the fruits of her labor at two art shows in St. Louis.

‘I Chose UMSL’ refrain of new marketing campaign

‘I Chose UMSL’ refrain of new marketing campaign

Imagine the Edward Jones Dome filled to capacity. Now imagine everyone standing – including players and coaches and vendors and a few thousand people in the streets – saying in unison, “I chose UMSL.”

Center injects culture into mundane Mondays

Center injects culture into mundane Mondays

Got a case of the Mondays? Suffer no more. Violin and piano duets, narratives of Mound Bayou, Miss., and chess discourse are some of the many cultural events that make Monday Noon Series a cure for the blues.

Eye on UMSL: Academic Center for Mathematics and Writing

Eye on UMSL: Academic Center for Mathematics and Writing

University of Missouri–St. Louis engineering students Dan Denton (left) and Jason Arnold study outside the university’s Academic Center for Mathematics and Writing (222 Social Sciences & Business Building) on Aug. 30.

UMSL delegation brings art, music to Balkans

UMSL delegation brings art, music to Balkans

Art and music are the great equalizers to language barriers. The two played an important role when an official delegation from the University of Missouri–St. Louis recently visited Sarajevo in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Dubrovnik in Croatia.

Political scientists break down August election

Political scientists break down August election

On a national level, the November election will be the most important in four years. But for St. Louisans, the election Tuesday (Aug. 7) was also a big deal. Or as it was aptly written by University of Missouri–St. Louis political scientist Terry Jones in a St. Louis Beacon commentary last week, “If you want to decide who would best serve your views in the U.S. House of Representatives or Missouri General Assembly, don’t wait until November.

FBI seminar educates about research protection

FBI seminar educates about research protection

A case of a university professor prosecuted for transferring controlled defense technology to foreign national graduate students was used as a cautionary tale during a recent FBI Academic Alliance Seminar hosted by the Center for Nanoscience at the University of Missouri–St. Louis.

Eye on UMSL: FBI Seminar

Eye on UMSL: FBI Seminar

FBI Special Agent Tom Barlow discusses the case of Glenn Duffie Shriver, a Michigan man serving four years in prison for attempting to spy for China.

New Natural Bridge out now

New Natural Bridge out now

Each new Natural Bridge issue has already been read many times over before the University of Missouri–St. Louis literary journal reaches the hands of its subscribers. Issue No. 27, released last week, was no exception.

Student on a roll with research on marbles

Student on a roll with research on marbles

Clocking many hours doing research and analysis can be a solitary experience. Often times leaving Mary Lynn Longsworth, a senior anthropology major at the University of Missouri–St. Louis, wondering if anyone besides her could be interested in the work she’s doing.

Professor in demand for Olympic expertise

Professor in demand for Olympic expertise

With the London Olympics just around the corner, the demand has increased for the expertise of a professor at the University of Missouri–St. Louis. Susan Brownell, professor of anthropology at UMSL, is an expert on the Olympic Games, with a special emphasis on Chinese sports. She was in Beijing during the 2008 games and has written two books on China and the Olympics; “Beijing’s Games: What the Olympics Mean to China” and “Training the Body for China: Sports in the Moral Order of the People’s Republic.”

Psychologists discuss coping with trauma from theater shooting

Psychologists discuss coping with trauma from theater shooting

How does mass trauma affect us? How do you talk to children about traumatic events? University of Missouri–St. Louis psychologists talked to KSDK (Channel 5) reporter Kay Quinn about how to recover from events as tragic as last week’s theater shooting in Aurora, Colo., where a lone gunman opened fire on people during sold-out screening of “The Dark Knight Rises,” killing 12 and wounded more than 50 people.

Historian discusses ‘our friends, the killer robots’

Historian discusses ‘our friends, the killer robots’

With his most recent book, “Sublime Dreams of Living Machines,” Minsoo Kang tracked our love-hate relationships with robots, automata and other machines that mimic human behavior. The associate professor of history at the University of Missouri–St. Louis further discussed the topic in a feature about his work that ran in St. Louis Magazine.

Political scientists break down August election

Psychologist talks texting’s impact on driving

Driving down the highway, you look over and notice the driver next to you is texting. How do you react? Some do nothing. Some honk their horns. Others get angry and some even retaliate.

STARS student has science in her genes

STARS student has science in her genes

At 15, with college right around the corner, Preethi UmaShanker has been giving a lot of thought to the universal question that plagues most teenagers, “What do I want to be when I grow up?”

Sidewalk tour, film screening look back at Pruitt-Igoe

Sidewalk tour, film screening look back at Pruitt-Igoe

Pruitt-Igoe was supposed to be the new model of urban housing and the answer to low-cost housing needs and overcrowding in post-World War II St. Louis. But within 20 years, several of the 33 11-story apartment buildings constituting Pruitt-Igoe would lie in rubble following their widely televised demolition. Thick, overgrown foliage and trees now blanket the vacant site where the uniform high-rises once stood.

Study questions long-held conclusions of male mating habits

Study questions long-held conclusions of male mating habits

During courtship, peacocks raise their colorful fan of tail feathers and shake them, the objective is to advertise to potential mates and win female favor. But a recent WIRED magazine article is poking holes in that theory, indicating that the mating dance between the sexes is far more complicated than male showmanship.

Chinese flowers focus of student’s research on climate change

Chinese flowers focus of student’s research on climate change

How do flowers in a remote area of China factor into the study of climate change? Since 2009, Robbie Hart, a PhD candidate in biology at the University of Missouri–St. Louis, has been traveling to China’s Yunnan Province to study how rhododendrons in the region are adapting to global warming, according to The Christian Science Monitor.

Greek dig makes pages of Archaeology magazine

Greek dig makes pages of Archaeology magazine

Each summer for more than a decade, University of Missouri–St. Louis archaeologist Michael Cosmopoulos has led an expedition of students and volunteers to an area in the middle of an olive grove in southwest Greece for hands-on experience they’re likely to never forget.

Professors talk Olympic Games in recent podcast

Professors talk Olympic Games in recent podcast

As the world gears up for the 2012 Summer Olympics next month in London, reflection on the last summer games continues. University of Missouri–St. Louis scholars Susan Brownell and Richard Wright recently sat down to film a video podcast about the Olympics for the British Journal of Sociology in London.

Novelist’s book makes ‘great summer reading’ list

Novelist’s book makes ‘great summer reading’ list

To paraphrase KMOX (1120), you don’t have to travel far from the University of Missouri–St. Louis campus to find great summer reading. “The Inverted Forest” by John Dalton, director of the MFA in Creative Writing program at UMSL, made the radio station’s list of “Books by St. Louis authors to read this summer.”

Eye on UMSL: Big camps on campus

Eye on UMSL: Big camps on campus

Saxophonist Dave Pietro leads a Jazz Camp class in J.C. Penney Building/Conference Center at UMSL. Held June 10-15, it’s one of several precollegiate camps on campus each summer. Others include Girls Leadership Camp, STARS, UMSL Bridge Program Summer Academy, Xtreme IT! Summer Academy and UMSL Boys Basketball Camps. The picture, by campus photographer August Jennewein, is the latest to be featured at Eye on UMSL.

Student gets hands dirty at Cahokia excavations

Student gets hands dirty at Cahokia excavations

Timothy Meyer, a senior majoring in anthropology at the University of Missouri–St. Louis, has been getting his hands dirty this summer, logging real-world experience helping excavation efforts at Cahokia Mounds in Collinsville, Ill., just east of St. Louis.

In defense of the F-word in K-16 education

In defense of the F-word in K-16 education

Recently I received an email from a student unlike any message I have received in 40 years as a college professor. It is worth noting for what it says not so much about this student as about the culture we have now created within K-16 education in America. Commenting on the failing grade the student received in one of my courses, the individual wrote that s/he had “complied” with the paper and tests and that it was I, the instructor, who had failed insofar as I had not done what it took to enable a passing grade and had not given adequate warning of failure. The student concluded that “you should be embarrassed to give a student an F and demanded a refund of the money charged for the course.