Newsroom Stories

Lead pipes once used routinely in municipal water distribution systems are a well-recognized source of dangerous lead contamination, but new research from Washington University in St. Louis suggests that the partial replacement of these pipes can make the problem worse. The research shows that joining old lead pipes with new copper lines using brass fittings spurs galvanic corrosion that can dramatically increase the amount of lead released into drinking water supplies.

Any multicellular animal poses a special difficulty for the theory of evolution. Most of its cells will die without reproducing, and only a privileged few will pass their genes. Given the incentive for cheating, how is cooperation among the cells enforced? In the Dec. 16 issue of the journal Science, Washington University in St. Louis biologists Joan Strassmann and David Queller suggest the answer is frequent population bottlenecks that restart populations from a single cell.

Rita A. Stanley arrived at the School of Law in 1995. Since then, the scenery and her duties changed, but a constant was excellent co-workers. “People were the reason I loved it here,” Stanley says. Stanley, along with the other 102 staff members who retired from the university this past year, contributed a total of 2,023 years of service to the university — more than two millennia.

Jordan Teisher, a doctoral student in evolution, ecology and population biology, and Jeremy King, a doctoral student in plant biology, have been named the first Monsanto graduate fellows at Washington University.

There is an undeniable romanticism to the sculpture of Patrick Dougherty. Working with the simplest of materials — sticks, branches and saplings — the North Carolina-based artist creates playful architectural forms that variously suggest nests, primitive shelters and fairy-tale castles. This fall, Dougherty enlisted dozens of students to help construct Double or Nothing, a new commission for the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts.

Constitutional courts worldwide are increasingly turning to legal arguments and ideas from other countries for guidance and inspiration. But scholarly interest in the growing judicial use of foreign law paints a very misleading picture of the globalization of constitutional law, says David Law, JD, PhD, professor of law at Washington University in St. Louis. He says that for those who want to see the U.S. Supreme Court make greater and more sophisticated use of foreign law, encouraging its members or inviting them to additional conferences and gatherings is likely to have little impact. “At this point in time, the greatest obstacle to judicial comparativism in the United States is not the unwillingness of individual judges to consider foreign legal materials, it is the current political economy of the American legal education.”  

Seethu Seetharaman, PhD, was recently installed as the W. Patrick McGinnis Professor of Marketing in the Olin Business School at Washington University in St. Louis. The ceremony, held Oct. 26 in the Charles F. Knight Executive Education Center, included welcoming remarks by Chancellor Mark S. Wrighton and an address by Seetharaman.

Faculty Fellows in the South 40 recently hosted holiday parties for their student neighbors. Freshman Matt Burkhardt (left) visits with Ian MacMullen, PhD, assistant professor of political science in Arts & Sciences. MacMullen and his wife, Lola Fayanju, MD, research fellow in the WUSTL Department of Surgery, co-hosted the party in their Gregg House residence. Faculty Fellows help integrate academic and residential life by living in the residential colleges with students for three-year stints.

With the holidays right around the corner, many parents are scanning the latest “recommended toy” lists as they make their final purchases. An education expert at Washington University in St. Louis says that, while educational toys are a fine idea, children receive the most benefit when their parents play with them and engage them in their new gifts. R. Keith Sawyer, PhD, associate professor of education in Arts & Sciences, offers advice to parents worried about making the right toy choices for their children.

Career Center advisers are encouraging students to make the most of the upcoming holiday break. The extended time off is a great chance to network and put plans into action, they say. Students are urged to self-evaluate, review their interests and options and update their resumes with recent experiences and new skills.