Newsroom Stories

Making friends is often extremely difficult for people with social anxiety disorder and to make matters worse, people with this disorder tend to assume that the friendships they do have are not of the highest quality. The problem with this perception, suggests new research from Washington University in St. Louis, is that their friends don’t necessarily see it that way.

Knight Hall and Bauer Hall are the latest buildings at Washington University in St. Louis to earn LEED Gold certification for their green design and construction. Home to Olin Business School, Knight and Bauer halls feature locally sourced and recycled materials, high-tech glass and an innovative layout that fosters collaboration.

With Republicans gaining control of Congress after the midterm elections, Speaker of the House John Boehner insists that President Barack Obama could get “burned” if he uses executive action to move forward on immigration reform during the remainder of his presidency. Obama is well within his rights to proceed with the temporary measures he is considering, says an immigration law expert at Washington University in St. Louis.

Cats and humans have shared the same households for at least 9,000 years, but we still know very little about how our feline friends became domesticated. An analysis of the cat genome by School of Medicine researchers reveals some surprising clues. Pictured is a blue Abyssinian cat.

While political and judicial rhetoric around unions has softened in recent years, images of the past still haunt labor, argue two Washington University in St. Louis researchers. In “Re-Assembling Labor,” published online Nov. 5 in Social Science Research Network, the authors seek to draw the lessons of assembly into contemporary labor law — to re-assemble labor law around the theory and doctrine of assembly that formed its early core.

Allyson R. Zazulia, MD, is the new associate dean for continuing medical education (CME) at the School of Medicine. In her new role, Zazulia will oversee and administer learning opportunities for practicing physicians. This includes maintaining accreditation and developing new CME programs.

The Brown School Policy Forum at Washington University in St. Louis presents “The University, the Community, and Race” at 4 p.m. Monday, Nov. 10, in Brown Hall’s Brown Lounge. The talk, part of the “Ferguson and Beyond” lecture series, will be given by Larry E. Davis, PhD, dean of the School of Social Work at the University of Pittsburgh and director and founder of its Center on Race and Social Problems. 

Washington University’s Bear Cub grant program helps researchers make the leap from bench scientists to budding entrepreneurs. The application deadline is Nov. 30.

Andrew Jackson stalks the stage in leather jeans. A power chord fills the air. Jackson was seventh president of the United States but this isn’t history class — it’s “Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson,” an irreverent romp through the American political id. The production from the Performing Arts Department in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis takes place Nov. 14-23.

Today’s freshmen students have a 50 percent chance of living to see their 100th birthdays. They are in the middle of a demographic revolution that will shape every aspect of their lives. A new interdisciplinary course for freshmen introduced this fall, “When I’m Sixty-Four: Transforming Your Future,” aims to prepare students for this aging revolution and to encourage them to examine their present and future lives in more detail.