Newsroom Stories

USAF 388th Range SqdGenesis was recovered in the Utah desert with fears that all data were lost.Scientists at Washington University in St. Louis have begun to measure noble gases present in the solar wind delivered to Earth by the Genesis spacecraft, the first sample return mission since the lunar Apollo missions in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

The Concert Choir of Washington University — under the direction of John Stewart, director of vocal activities in the Department of Music in Arts & Sciences — will perform a concert of music about animals at 8 p.m. Saturday, April 16.

Eric Wright*Hiroshima Maiden*Washington University’s Edison Theatre OVATIONS! Series and Center for the Study of Ethics and Human Values will present a panel discussion titled “Examining the Hiroshima Maiden: Exploring the Historical, Cultural and Ethical Issues” from 7 to 9 p.m. Wednesday, April 20, at the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum.

Dancer and choreographer Darwin Prioleau, Ph.D., professor and chair of the Department of Dance at the State University of New York (SUNY) Brockport, will present a “Movement Lab for Teachers” from 1:30 to 3 p.m. Saturday, April 16, in Washington University’s Annelise Mertz Dance Studio.

TulvingEndel Tulving, Ph.D., the Clark Way Harrison Distinguished Visiting Professor of Psychology and Cognitive Neuroscience in Arts & Sciences, is one of six scientists to be awarded the 2005 Gairdner International Award for groundbreaking work in medical research. Tulving, a visiting scholar at WUSTL since 1996, was selected for his “pioneering research in the understanding of human memory.”

Good team work means not trusting each other too much.There’s no denying that trust is essential in a healthy work place. It’s expected that you trust your co-workers and your boss. And you hope that your boss and peers trust you. Common wisdom is that trust brings numerous benefits: it improves communication, raises group performance, reduces conflict, and provides greater job satisfaction. However, a recent study by a professor at the Olin School of Business at Washington University in St. Louis found that too much trust could actually be bad for business…when it comes to working on team projects.

Stock options or pure stock — what’s the trade-off?In recent years, the practice of motivating CEOs and managers with stock options rather than pure stock has been linked to corruption and fraud. But companies shouldn’t fear the option, according to two professors in the Olin School of Business at Washington University in St. Louis. Moving away from stock options as a way to reward good work may be a bad business move. The professors argue that in most cases stock options provide better incentives to motivate employees and they’re less expensive for the company to issue. At the same time, the researchers found that if a company is just starting out or facing possible bankruptcy, then stocks are your best bet.

Eliminating the need to ascertain eligibility.Years of double-digit increases in health care costs are devastating business, federal, state and family budgets. While the United States pays more per capita for health care than any other industrialized country, 44 million people lack assured care. “Most people overlook the most affordable way to achieve universal coverage – putting all of us under the Medicare umbrella,” says Merton C. Bernstein, a founding member of the National Academy of Social Insurance and the Coles Professor of Law Emeritus at Washington University in St. Louis. “That single-payer system would reduce non-benefit spending by doctors, hospitals, clinics, laboratories and health care insurers by about $300 billion a year, providing funds to insure everyone without additional outlays.”

It’s tax-time. For many people that means handing some hard-earned money over to Uncle Sam. But for others tax time is refund time. Theoretically, that refund is money you’ve earned as a part of your salary, and should be accounted for and spent like regular income. However, most people view it as “found money” and generally find a way to justify spending it on something they didn’t necessarily need. According to a professor of marketing at the Olin School of Business, people mentally credit their refunds to specific budgetary accounts to justify spending it on desirable luxuries. The result is people end up spending too much, making it harder to pay other, more essential accounts.

The first detailed studies of two of the largest human chromosomes have revealed enormous gene “deserts” lacking any protein-coding sequences and relics of the merger of two ape chromosomes to form a single human chromosome.