science wire

Fowler Museum celebrates 50th anniversary with year of special exhibitions, programs
The Fowler Museum at UCLA will honor its 50th anniversary with a series of special exhibitions and programs beginning in fall 2013 and running through fall 2014.

The Golden Gate returns to Stanford May 30
Stanford celebrates a remarkable collaboration: Vikram Seth's sonnets become sound in Conrad Cummings' opera, which has been called one of the best of the new century.

Stanford adds two new freshman living, learning programs
ITALIC, which will focus on the arts, and SIMILE, which will concentrate on science, will open in the fall, offering freshmen a new way to combine living and learning in a thematic, residence-based educational program while meeting undergraduate requirements.

Bach to the blues,our emotions match music to colors
Whether we're listening to Bach or the blues, our brains are wired to make music-color connections depending on how the melodies make us feel, according to new research from the University of California, Berkeley.

Cuatro Corridos: New Chamber Opera Takes Look at Issue of Sex Trafficking Along Border
"Cuatro Corridos," the new chamber opera by UC San Diego soprano Susan Narucki and Mexican author Jorge Volpi, earned rave reviews for its May 8 premiere on campus.

U-M conference: Future of liberal arts at research universities
EVENT ANNOUNCEMENT DATE: May 22-24, 2013 EVENT: At a time when the value of the liberal arts is under much debate, more than 50 deans at large research universities around the country wil

The music of the Arab Spring finds a home on the Stanford campus
Stanford scholars broadcast Middle Eastern music and culture on two KZSU radio shows, Arabology and Mediterraneans: Music of the Middle East, North Africa, and Beyond.

Lights, Action, Camera, Roll-em: the Silent Films of the La Jolla Cinema League
San Diego-with its spectacular coastal vistas, wide sandy beaches, and perpetually balmy weather-has long been a draw as a filming location for Hollywood motion picture studios.

Two faculty members receive Guggenheim Fellowships
This year, two faculty members at the University of Chicago have received John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowships: Philip V. Bohlman, the Mary Werkman Distinguished Service Profes

Stanford scholar provides glimpse at words behind Martin Luther King’s dream
The key speechwriter and counsel to Martin Luther King Jr. says his training in music and study of historic speeches helped him draft some of the most important speeches of all time.

Stanford musicians bring 21st-century effects to 16th-century vocal music
Musician Jesse Rodin leads student singers through the works of Renaissance composer Josquin des Prez in a historically inspired performance featuring digital enhancements by sonic pioneer Ge Wang.

UC San Diego’s Arthur C. Clarke Center for Human Imagination Lifts Off with Public Events
When he wrote "2001: A Space Odyssey" 45 years ago, Arthur C. Clarke offered extraordinary visions of the future-including HAL, the artificially intelligent computer-that continue to provide insight into the human condition.

Researcher seeks secrets of pop-diva success

Rapper Future performs at Stanford’s Blackfest
Blackfest concert moves to Levin Field, rapper Future performs for free and students run the show. Blackfest is back with Future.

Three Penn Professors Elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences

Imminent emergence of 17-year cicada creates buzz at Yale Peabody Museum
This spring will mark the return of the 17-year cicada, as nymphs of this common species emerge in late May - for the first time since 1996 - from colonies in forested regions in south-central Connecticut.

UC San Diego’s "Simphony" Research Earns Grammy Foundation Support
A UC San Diego study of the impact of music training on the brain and behavioral development in children has been awarded a grant of nearly $20,000 by the Grammy Foundation. The San Diego Youth Symphony's Community Opus program works in partnership with the UC San Diego SIMPHONY project to better understand how music helps young minds develop and grow.

Stanford Department of Music presents course on Azerbaijani music

Alumni ’do great things’ through volunteerism

Five Questions with Marie-Louise Mares
Growing up in Australia, Marie-Louise Mares didn't have a television. Even then, she still got the occasional glimpse of “Sesame Street.” Now an associate professor of communication arts at UW-Madison, Mares and her colleague Zhongdang Pan, professor of communication arts, recently performed a meta-analysis of 24 studies of “Sesame Street's” impact around the world.

UCLA Dept. of World Arts and Cultures/Dance announces events for spring 2013
The UCLA Department of World Arts and Cultures/Dance (WACD) is offering a variety of events for the public's enjoyment this spring.

UCLA Department of Music announces spring 2013 events

Celebrated new wave filmmaker to attend three-day conference on Indian cinema
In 1913, director Dadasaheb (Dhundiraj Govind) Phalke released Raja Harishchandra, India's first feature film.

Roger Ebert, X’70, film critic and longtime Graham School lecturer, 1942-2013
Before Roger Ebert, X'70, became one of the world's most influential film critics, he began doctoral studies in English at the University of Chicago in 1966.

Penn Lightbulb Café Explores Living Deliberately: Monks, Saints and the Contemplative Life

Team up for downtown culture
Enterprise Square Galleries to showcase local art and University of Alberta Museums in the heart of downtown Edmonton.

Stanford’s Cantor Arts Center partners with the Google Art Project, an international online art gallery
More than 100 high-resolution images from the Cantor are now available for in-depth research and examination.

Transforming Audacious Speculations into Reality
Engineers who think like artists, physicists who thinks like dancers, scientists who think like poets, and designers who think like Mother Nature: These are some of the researchers from the Universit

Morris Arboretum Celebrates Japanese Cherry Blossom Festival
This spring, the Morris Arboretum will once again host its annual Japanese Cherry Blossom Celebration, in partnership with the Subaru Cherry Blossom Festival of Greater Philadelphia.

Penn Dental Medicine Sponsors Oral Cancer Walk and 5K Run April 6

End-of-year Frost Music and Arts Festival features MGMT, Delorean and Kuroma

UCLA Ethnomusicology Department announces events for spring 2013

UCLA’s TFT and USC to host fourth annual ’Transmedia, Hollywood’ conference April 12

Trinity College's Andy Orchard bound for Oxford
Beloved literary scholar and administrator Andy Orchard is leaving the University of Toronto for a prestigious role at the University of Oxford – one previously held by J.R.R. Tolkein.

Penn Lightbulb Café Explores Why U.S. Life Expectancy Is Lower Than Other High-income Nations

Exhibition at UCLA celebrates alternative, independent architectural publishing
The contemporary alternative architectural press, edited and written by architects, artists and students, provides new and exciting platforms for commentary, criticism and research into the spaces we inhabit and the practice of architecture.

UCLA Department of Art announces events for spring 2013

UCLA Department of Design | Media Arts announces events for spring 2013
For events at the UCLA Broad Art Center's New Wight Gallery (Room 1100), EDA facility (Room 1250) or Game Lab (Room 3252), all-day parking ($11) and short-term parking (payable at pay stations) are available in Lot 3 (enter campus at Hilgard Avenue and Wyton Drive).

Stanford’s Cantor Arts Center draws kids in with new family program

Transforming Learning for a Third Century funds its first projects
ANN ARBOR-The University of Michigan's Third Century Initiative has awarded $825,000 to two dozen projects designed to enhance action-based, experiential learning for students.

Stanford’s Chocolate Heads dance around the theme ’synesthesia’
Stanford Report, March 6, 2013 The group of dancers, musicians and spoken word artists learn to put their talents together with jazz master William Parker and each other.

Former FBI Investigator to Speak at Penn About Recovering Stolen Art
WHO: Robert Wittman, former senior investigator/founder of the FBI's National Art Crime Team WHAT: "Recovering the Priceless: The Proof Is in the Undercover Operation to Regain Our Heritage!" WHEN: Feb.

Eric Ames’ new book focuses on filmmaker Werner Herzog
Eric Ames is a University of Washington associate professor of Germanics and author of the new book “ Ferocious Reality: Documentary According to Werner Herzog.” Herzog is a highly regard

The Penn Science Café and Penn Lightbulb Café Return
PHILADELPHIA- The Penn Science Café and the Penn Lightbulb Café are back, bringing the University of Pennsylvania 's top scholars out on the town to share their research.

Fowler Museum highlights art, ephemera from South Africa’s landmark 1994 election

Penn Professor Salamishah Tillet to Discuss Hollywood Depictions of Slavery at Penn Lightbulb Café Feb. 26

’X-Files’ creator Chris Carter to attend 30th annual Insect Fear Film Festival

Trustees hear updates on online and experiential education at Stanford

’Ernest Cole Photographer,’ exploring South African apartheid, opens April 7 at Fowler
Ernest Cole, one of South Africa's first black photojournalists, passionately pursued his mission to tell the world what it was like to be black under apartheid.

More than a Stanford concert hall, Bing is a high-tech music research lab
Stanford Report, February 12, 2013 In a series of performances, students and faculty from Stanford's Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics will give audiences an immersive 3-D experience.

A weekend of sold-out performances at Stanford’s Pan-Asian Music Festival

Early phases of construction begin for BAM/PFA
Work is underway on the future home of the University of California, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (BAM/PFA) in Berkeley's downtown arts district, BAM/PFA officials announced today (Tuesday, Feb.

Penn Glee Club: Still Singing After 151 Years
With its massive popularity among parents and adolescents alike, the Fox Network 's " Glee " certainly has staying power.

Contempo to celebrate timeless music of Ralph Shapey on March 1
The University of Chicago's new music group, Contempo , will celebrate its founder, the late Ralph Shapey (1921-2002), in a tribute concert at 7:30 pm.

Penn Professor Tukufu Zuberi’s ’African Independence’ Wins Two Top Awards at San Diego Black Film Fest

Stanford set to break ground on Windhover Contemplative Center in June
Stanford Report, February 7, 2013 A new site for contemplation and reflection will break ground in June on the west side of campus in front of Roble Hall.

’Resplendent Dress From Southeastern Europe’ opens March 10 at Fowler Museum
The countries of southeastern Europe maintain some of the most elaborate and diverse traditions of dress in western Eurasia.

Music legends, industry insiders share life lessons in class
The 134 students taking Ken Kragen's inaugural Music Industry 106 class, "Stardom Strategies for Musicians," are primed to expect the unexpected.

’Spomenik: Photographs of the Monuments of Former Yugoslavia’ opens March 17 at Fowler
Futuristic-looking yet dilapidated spomeniks - monuments in Serbo-Croatian - dot the hills and valleys of the former Yugoslavia like abandoned spaceships, tributes to a now-forgotten socialist future that would be free of ethnic divisions.

Meet alumnus Graeme Ferguson, a creator of IMAX
He is a renowned filmmaker and co-inventor of IMAX, a concept that came out of Expo '67 in Montreal and has grown into a network of more than 660 IMAX theatres in 52 countries.

Chancellor to lead American Academy’s new Lincoln Project

UC San Diego to Host Workshop on Future of Stereoscopic 3D Cinema
Calit2 senior research scientist Tom DeFanti in StarCAVE VR environment, using polarized glasses to navigate model of Atkinson Hall in S3D (but in 2D for this image).

UCLA Dept. of World Arts and Cultures/Dance announces events for winter 2013

Kenneth Goldsmith of Penn Programs in Contemporary Writing Center Named 2013 Poet Laureate of Museum of Modern Art

Musical Performances Part of Penn’s MLK Observances

Mandel Hall restored to its original beauty with new modern updates
Earlier this month, work concluded on an ambitious restoration project in the 109-year-old Mandel Hall, a beloved music venue for the UChicago community, Hyde Park and surrounding South Side communities.

Fluharty Named Dean of Arts and Sciences at Penn

Grammy-Winning Penn Alumnus John Legend to Speak at 12th Annual Martin Luther King Jr. Lecture in Social Justice

Stanford’s Bing Concert Hall opens to rave reviews
Actor, author and former Stanford faculty member Anna Deavere Smith introduces the St. Lawrence String Quartet on Friday.

Making of Modern World Lecture Series to Focus on What It Means to Be Musical
What makes music musical? Why is music such a potent form of expression? And how does the human brain respond to music? A series of talks by UC San Diego faculty will answer these questions and more in the free lectures series "The Making of the Modern World: To Be Musical," to be held Jan.

Grammy-Winning Penn Alumnus John Legend Honored at 12th Annual Martin Luther King Jr. Lecture in Social Justice

Penn Museum's Chinese New Year Celebration Welcomes the Year of the Snake

Stanford’s Bing Concert Hall opens Friday with soundscape fanfare
Stanford Report, January 8, 2013 The first notes on opening night will show off the advanced acoustic and technical systems of the new concert hall.

Jazz legends Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter named UCLA professors

U-M arts and culture: Understanding race and more
ADVISORY ANN ARBOR-The University of Michigan website "Montage" highlights the latest news and features about the arts, culture, creative endeavors, collaborative projects and upcoming events.

McGill Expert Alert: Holiday sources
Retail, Consumer jui [dot] ramaprasad [at] mcgill [dot] ca (Jui Ramaprasad) Professor, Information Systems, Desautels Faculty of Management Expertise: social media, digital goods, music in

U-M arts and culture: Understanding race and more (2)
ADVISORY ANN ARBOR-The University of Michigan website "Montage" highlights the latest news and features about the arts, culture, creative endeavors, collaborative projects and upcoming events.

Why the world won’t end tomorrow
The idea that the Mayan calendar predicts the end of the world on Dec. 21, which has been jangling nerves worldwide, is being questioned by a University of Alberta researcher.

UCLA Department of Art announces events for winter 2013

Crunching 2012 Google search trends: data analysis expert
That little white Internet search box is more of a door than a window, says Professor Periklis Andritsos , a data mining expert at the University of Toronto's Faculty of Information Studies.

Study links toddlers' language skills to anger responses in preschool
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - Toddlers with more developed language skills are better able to manage frustration and less likely to express anger by the time they're in preschool.

UCLA Ethnomusicology Department announces events for winter 2013

Checking in with the Chocolate Heads “movement band”
Stanford Report, December 17, 2012 The Stanford movement-driven band readies for its Bing Concert Hall debut with William Parker.

Trustees talk about exciting changes in Stanford’s arts landscape
Stanford Report, December 14, 2012 At its Dec. 10-11 meeting, the Stanford University Board of Trustees heard presentations about the university's longstanding commitment to the arts.

World music researcher honoured for breaking sound barriers
A University of Alberta music researcher has been recognized by the U.S.-based Society of Ethnomusicology -a nod she says is less about her and more a statement on the quality of the university's ethnomusicology education.

Improving lives for sexual minority youth
There may be no other research centre quite like it in the world.