Newsroom Stories

Charred grains of barley, millet and wheat deposited nearly 5,000 years ago at campsites in the high plains of Kazakhstan show that nomadic sheepherders played a surprisingly important role in the early spread of domesticated crops throughout a mountainous east-west corridor along the historic Silk Road, suggests new research from Washington University in St. Louis.

Don’t miss this beautiful classical concert in the Cathedral Basilica, featuring St. Louis’ world-renowned orchestra and choir. With an 8-second sound delay in the hall, the music of Bruckner, Vaughan Williams and Messiaen literally will be bouncing off the walls, immersing you in sound.

Washington University School of Law will establish a Prosecution Law Clinic in partnership with the City of St. Louis Circuit Attorney’s Office. The clinic will be funded by a generous gift from former prosecutor and law alumna Alicia McDonnell (right) (JD ’95), who hopes to strengthen the ranks of criminal prosecutors by creating opportunities for talented law students to gain hands-on experience essential to a career in criminal justice.

Jonathan Bate, PhD, one of the world’s leading scholars of Shakespeare, will discuss “Shakespeare at 450 Years” at 2:30 p.m. Monday, April 7, in Hurst Lounge, Duncker Hall, at Washington University in St. Louis. Bate, who is well known as a biographer, critic, broadcaster and scholar, is provost of Worcester College and professor of English literature at the University of Oxford.

The U.S. Supreme Court, in the McCutcheon v. FEC decision, removed the cap on the number and amount of donations a person can give during political campaigns. Gregory Magarian, JD, election law expert and professor of law at Washington University in St. Louis, says that this decision will have a major impact on campaigns – a much bigger impact than the earlier Citizens United campaign finance decision. This decision “marks then end of campaign finance regulation as we know it,” says Magarian.

Is the American Dream slipping away? Maybe, says Mark R. Rank, PhD, one of the country’s foremost experts on inequality and social justice. “More than at any time in our past,” Rank says, “there are serious questions regarding the American Dream and its applicability to everyday people.” Rank’s new book, “Chasing the American Dream: Understanding What Shapes Our Fortunes” (Oxford University Press 2014) is out.

New research at the School of Medicine and Vanderbilt University Medical Center has implicated a poorly understood protein called PLAC8 in the spread of colon cancer.

WUSTL students are riding a teeter-totter this week to raise money for the Campus Y Strong Community Campaign.

Each year, Allyson Zazulia, MD, associate professor of neurology and radiology, hosts a review modeled after the game show ‘Jeopardy.’ The session helps medical students prepare for an exam on diseases of the nervous system. Shown, from left, are students Tracey Godbold and Sravya Vajapeyajula participating in the game.

Although tobacco companies are barred by law from advertising their products to children, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine have found that many teens and pre-teens are getting tobacco advertisements and promotions through social media outlets or text messaging on mobile phones. More than one in 10 children under 18 reported receiving tobacco coupons or promotions on their Facebook or MySpace pages or in text messages.