Dear alumni and friends

As an information storage and retrieval device, the human brain is hard to beat. It is also relatively simple to improve. There’s the old-fashioned way of reading an actual ink-on-paper book, and there are new ways that are being created in places like the Cognitive Science lab in the College and Graduate School. The cover story of this issue of Arts & Sciences will give you a glimpse of research that could someday help you remember what you worked on last Thursday or check out of a hospital room a little sooner.

You can also read about a pilot program that has put a versatile new computer, the Tablet PC, into the hands of undergraduates, and follow the first steps we are taking in the direction of a dance program.

In the ’Hoos News section, you’ll meet an alumna of the graduate school who is reporting from Baghdad for CBS News and an alumnus who finds new music for MTV. There’s an alumna who is using her biology training to nurture an endangered species and another whose love of postcards and the sea shines through her colorful paintings. You’ll read of the work of a history professor who is studying the American tradition of charitable giving, from the wealthiest philanthropists to the simplest door-to-door campaign.

Our students continue to excel, both in their academic work and in their generosity with their time and talents. Read about our two newest Rhodes Scholars, plus a program that will put recent graduates into high schools to help students apply to college, among the news briefs in Around Grounds. On the last page, a fourth-year student shares her experiences in the Sustained Dialogue program.

Elsewhere you’ll find reactions to the last issue, in the form of both letters and action. I enjoy the emails I get in response to the monthly A&S Online email newsletter, and I hope you’ll consider subscribing to OscarNews, which brings you more news of scholarship, creativity, and research here. Whether you prefer ink-on-paper correspondence or the modern magic of email, I hope you’ll let me know what’s on your mind.