Newsroom Stories

A bill pending in the Missouri Legislature would make it more difficult for workers who experience discrimination or lose their job because of whistleblowing to hold their employers responsible, says an expert on employment law at Washington University in St. Louis.

Washington University School of Medicine researchers have found that socially contagious itching is hardwired in the brain. Studying mice, the scientists identified what happens in the brain when a mouse feels itchy after seeing another scratch.

Pedro Pitarch has won the 2016-17 James Harrison Steedman Memorial Fellowship in Architecture. The $50,000 grant, which supports international travel for research, is one of the largest such architecture awards in the United States. Pitarch, who was chosen from a field of 100 applicants, will use the grant to explore the intersection of public and private spaces in cities across Europe, Asia and the United States.

Without public spaces for debate and discussion, our ideas and our expressions stay in our private spaces and we don’t have opportunities to engage with each other, argues John Inazu, the Sally D. Danforth Distinguished Professor of Law & Religion.

Cancer prevention experts, led by Washington University School of Medicine’s Graham A. Colditz, MD, PhD, are calling for education efforts and expanded programs to help people improve their health and halt cancer development.

While President Trump and a Republican controlled legislature look to make good on campaign promises to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, political reality is kicking in, says a health economist at Washington University in St. Louis.

Nearly 5,000 years ago, the foundations for the vast east-west trade routes of the Great Silk Road were being carved by nomads moving herds to lush mountain pastures, suggests new Arts & Sciences research published in Nature.

Washington University in St. Louis’ new parking and transportation management strategy will help address pending parking reductions, improve the use of existing resources, and better serve the campus community for the future. A new website, email and staffed hotline are available to help with questions.

American employers increasingly rely on large datasets and computer algorithms to decide who gets interviewed, hired or promoted. Pauline Kim, employment law expert, explains that when algorithms rely on inaccurate, biased or unrepresentative data, they may systematically disadvantage racial and ethnic minorities, women and other historically disadvantaged groups.

Five researchers at Washington University in St. Louis are being honored as outstanding scientists by the Academy of Science-St. Louis. University recipients of this year’s honors are faculty members Stephen Beverley, Liviu Mirica, Kater Murch, Edward Spitznagel and Peter Wyse Jackson.