Anthropologist Yohannes Haile-Selassie, who found the first fragment of the newly reported Ardipithecus ramidus skeleton nicknamed "Ardi," will talk about the discovery and its implications at Indiana University Bloomington. The Dec. 1 lecture is sponsored by the Stone Age Institute and Indiana University's CRAFT Research Center.

Indiana University's 2009 Ethics Bowl team placed third last week in the Central States Ethics Bowl Regional competition, ensuring its place in upcoming national competition. The team is comprised of five undergraduate students and is sponsored by the Poynter Center for the Study of Ethics and American Institutions at Indiana University.

Indiana University's School of Fine Arts (SoFA) Gallery will host "The School of Fine Arts Abroad: Overseas Study Exhibition," opening Dec. 1 (Tuesday), and a simultaneous Bachelor of Fine Arts Painting show. A separate Bachelor of Fine Arts Thesis Exhibition will be Dec. 8-12 (Tuesday-Saturday).

Indiana University's Department of Theatre and Drama wraps up the first half of its 2009-2010 Lee Norvelle Theatre and Drama Center season with Sony Labou Tansi's darkly funny Parentheses of Blood under the direction of Edris Cooper-Anifowoshe, assistant professor of acting and directing.

NASA's apparent discovery of copious water on the moon is a revolutionary development that could help answer questions about the origin of water on earth and other mysteries of the solar system, says Indiana University geologist Abhijit Basu.

Fair Trade Bloomington, a nonprofit organization created by Indiana University's Students in Free Enterprise organization (SIFE), will host its fifth annual International Fair Trade Market Thursday, Dec. 3, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. in the Frangipani Room at the Indiana Memorial Union. On sale will be artisan-made goods from more than 30 countries, including handmade jewelry, holiday ornaments, baskets, carvings, tableware, textiles and toys.

Top scholars on Afghanistan and Iraq will meet on the Indiana University Bloomington campus Friday and Saturday (Nov. 13-14) for one of the first collaborative conferences on state-building in both nations. "State-Building in the Contemporary Islamic World: U.S. Intervention in Iraq and Afghanistan" is being presented by the Indiana Democracy Consortium. The two-day event is being held in the Indiana Memorial Union's State Room East and is open to both the public and the media.

George Lankford, professor emeritus of social science at Lyon College, Batesville, Ark., Wednesday (Nov. 11) will present his take on an enthno-astronomy view of how American Indian peoples understood the universe with his free, public presentation, "Footprints in the Stars," a 2009 IU College of Arts and Sciences "Evolution, Diversity and Change" Themester event.

Four candidates for the position of director of the IU Cinema will visit the Indiana University Bloomington campus and speak at public forums this week and next starting Thursday, Nov. 12.

When the historic Little Nashville Opry closed its doors after a devastating fire this fall, the Indiana University Department of Theatre and Drama and Brown County Convention and Visitors Bureau joined forces to open the playhouse for the Little Nashville Express Band. The band has a 30-year history of performing at the Opry.

Faculty members from the Indiana University School of Education and the College of Arts and Sciences are beginning newly funded projects to enhance the teaching of U.S. history in schools, thanks to grants from the U.S. Department of Education. The grants are each from the Teaching American History program, which the department describes as a program designed "to raise student achievement by improving teachers' knowledge and understanding of and appreciation for traditional U.S. history."

The Haitian Studies Association's 21st annual conference will take place Nov. 12-14 at Indiana University Bloomington. The theme of the conference is "New Ecologies: Actualizing Global Contributions and Development in Haiti."

As part of an Indiana University conference on black experiences in rock music, the producer of the Tony Award-winning musical Passing Strange will speak after a screening of a filmed version of the production.

A new Indiana University academic program will focus on the work of French political thinker and author Alexis de Tocqueville, who died 150 years ago but whose insights into American democracy remain as fresh and vital as when they were written. The Tocqueville Program, directed by Associate Professor of political science Aurelian Craiutu, will launch with a lecture on Nov. 6 by Matthew Mancini of Saint Louis University.

The Indiana University Nanoscience Center is sponsoring a workshop on advanced battery technologies from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 13, in the IU Bloomington Chemistry Department. The workshop is an outgrowth of a major two-day Energy Conference held at IU Bloomington and Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis in August.

Pumpkin-colored Mars will return to prominence during November, rising shortly before midnight at the beginning of the month and more than two hours earlier by month's end. The orange planet will brighten noticeably as it passes the stars of the Beehive cluster.

Indiana University's Creative Writing Program in the Department of English is now ranked among the top in the nation, according to the November/December issue of Poets and Writers Magazine.

Gossip in the workplace can be a weapon in reputational warfare or a gift and can offer clues to power and influence not found on organizational charts. New research from Indiana University details how the weapon is wielded -- and its influence muted -- in a rare study that catches this national pastime on video.

Indiana University's Department of Theatre and Drama continues its 2009/2010 theater season with a fresh take on William Shakespeare's As You Like It under the direction of Fontaine Syer, associate professor of acting and directing. This production focuses solely on the exploration of "the human organism in love." The power structure has been altered, shifting the focus to a play about mothers and sisters (instead of fathers and daughters).

The College of Arts and Sciences will honor faculty, donors and alumni at its annual recognition banquet Friday, Nov. 6.

A professor and an alumnus of Indiana University's Department of Folklore and Ethnomusicology have been selected to share one of the most venerated awards in their field, the Chicago Folklore Prize.

Over the past 20 years or so, scholars have delved deeply into the racial ideologies that became influential in the early 1900s and helped facilitate the rise of Nazi Germany. But has the pendulum swung too far? A conference this weekend at Indiana University Bloomington will examine the limits of the "racial state" model in explaining Germany's Third Reich and explore the role of other factors, such as nationalism and ethnic and class issues.

Indiana University dignitaries dedicated Multidisciplinary Science Building Phase II, the Bloomington campus's newest science building, in a special ceremony on Thursday. The dedication was part of October's month-long Celebrate IU initiative. IU President Michael A. McRobbie led a platform party that included members of the IU Board of Trustees, Provost Karen Hanson, College of Arts and Sciences Dean Bennett Bertenthal, School of Public and Environmental Affairs Dean John Graham, and Provost's Professor of Geological Sciences Lisa Pratt, who has also been chair of the MSB II Design and Oversight Committees. David Johnson, president and CEO of BioCrossroads, was the event's keynote speaker.

Indiana University Bloomington will host a mini-symposium titled "Representing Animals in Art" as part of "Themester 2009: Evolution, Diversity and Change," the university's inaugural themed semester and a project of the College of Arts and Sciences. The two-day event will be presented by Art and Environment (Institute for Advanced Study New Knowledge Seminar) on the Bloomington campus Oct. 29-30.

A small molecule designed to detect cyanide in water samples works quickly, is easy to use, and glows under ultraviolet or "black" light. Although the fluorescent molecule is not yet ready for market, its Indiana University Bloomington creators report in the Journal of the American Chemical Society (now online) that the tool is already able to sense cyanide below the toxicity threshold established by the World Health Organization.