(C) The Conversation This story was originally published by The Conversation and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis on The Conversation [1] ['Adia Harvey Wingfield', 'Alessandro Poletto', 'Andrew Reeves', 'Christopher Schaberg', 'Cody Musselman', 'Danielle Williams', 'Jeffrey Gillis-Davis', 'Jianqing Chen', 'Joanna Dee Das', 'John Edward Mccarthy'] Date: 2024-06-27 12:21:38+00:00 Bettmann/Getty Images June 27, 2024 How the surrealists used randomness as a catalyst for creative expression A century ago, the French writer and poet André Breton penned his ‘Manifesto of Surrealism,’ launching an art movement known for creating bizarre hybrids of words and images. AP Photo June 26, 2024 As debate approaches, presidents are blamed for events over which they have little control Most efforts to project how well a candidate will do in an election are based largely on factors over which presidents have little to no control. AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez June 19, 2024 ‘Loyal to the Oil’: Finding religion in the Stanley Cup finals The Edmonton Oilers are more than a hockey team. In some ways, they symbolize devotion to a way of life − and one of Canada’s major industries. Associated Press June 12, 2024 American womanhood is not what it used to be − understanding the backlash to Dobbs v. Jackson A historian of gender and women’s rights explains how women’s protests focused on their rights evolved from the 1960s through the present. Carol Yepes/Moment via Getty Images June 4, 2024 Pregnancy is an engineering challenge − diagnosing and treating preterm birth requires understanding its mechanics How and why preterm birth happens is still unclear, in part because research on pregnancy tends to focus on developmental biology. Reza/Getty Images April 22, 2024 Passover: The festival of freedom and the ambivalence of exile The Passover Seder commemorates the escape from slavery in Egypt. But then came the 40-year wandering in the desert – a story that resonates with much of Jewish history. Bruce Bennett/Getty Images April 18, 2024 The luck of the puck in the Stanley Cup – why chance plays such a big role in hockey With low-scoring games and a preponderance of deflected shots, randomness is much more likely to color NHL teams’ records than those of squads in the other four major US pro sports leagues. Cmglee/Wikimedia Commons March 26, 2024 How AI and a popular card game can help engineers predict catastrophic failure – by finding the absence of a pattern What mathematicians call ‘disordered collections’ can help engineers explore real-world worst-case scenarios. The simple card game Set illustrates how to predict internet and electrical grid failures. Underwood Archives/Getty Images March 6, 2024 Oppenheimer feared nuclear annihilation – and only a chance pause by a Soviet submariner kept it from happening in 1962 During the Cuban missile crisis, World War III was likely averted by what one US official called ‘just plain dumb luck.’ Kyoto University Library/Wikimedia March 1, 2024 The tools in a medieval Japanese healer’s toolkit: from fortunetelling and exorcism to herbal medicines In medieval Japan, healing might mean taking medicine, undergoing an exorcism or sidestepping harm in the first place by avoiding inauspicious days. National Museum of the U.S. Navy/Flickr February 29, 2024 We’ve been here before: AI promised humanlike machines – in 1958 Enthusiasm for the capabilities of artificial intelligence – and claims for the approach of humanlike prowess –has followed a boom-and-bust cycle since the middle of the 20th century. jayk7/Moment via Getty Images January 19, 2024 Students in this course learn the art of the apology Apologies can easily go awry if they’re not made in a certain way. AP Photo/Fareed Khan December 12, 2023 Scientists and space agencies are shooting for the Moon – 5 essential reads on modern lunar missions Chandrayaan-3’s successful landing on the Moon made 2023 a big year for lunar exploration, and future years will come with even more discoveries. Kyle Encar/Loyola University New Orleans December 4, 2023 Here’s what happened when I taught a fly-fishing course in the waterways of New Orleans Students learned not just a practical outdoor skill, but how to explain what they were learning to curious observers. Fausto Riolo/Getty Images November 15, 2023 From ancient Greece to Broadway, music has played a critical role in theater The use of music in theater goes back to ancient Greece, and its popularity has grown to the modern-day productions of ‘Hamilton.’ Terra Fondriest/The Washington Post via Getty Images October 6, 2023 What live theater can learn from Branson, Missouri Comedians like Stephen Colbert might mock the entertainment mecca, but live theater is in too much of a crisis to dismiss the town’s formula of spectacle meets story. Kevin Frayer/Getty Images October 4, 2023 China’s WeChat is all-encompassing but low-key − a Chinese media scholar explains the Taoist philosophy behind the everything app’s design The design philosophy of the everything app WeChat may seem paradoxical, being simultaneously pervasive and inconspicuous. But this idea of “everythingness” goes back to ancient Taoist philosophy. [END] --- [1] Url: https://theconversation.com/institutions/arts-and-sciences-at-washington-university-in-st-louis-5659 Published and (C) by The Conversation Content appears here under this condition or license: Creative Commons CC BY-ND 4.0. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/theconversation/