Newsroom Stories

Sales of luxury goods, which analysts say could spike as much as eight percent this year, are soaring thanks to expanding personal wealth in China, says a luxury retail expert at Washington University in St. Louis.

HBO’s Big Love and TLC’s reality-TV offering Sister Wives have thrust polygamy into popular culture in the United States. Estimates are that somewhere between 50,000-100,000 families in this country are currently risking criminal prosecution by practicing plural marriage. Proponents and detractors of polygamy use same-sex marriage to support their arguments, but that’s just a distraction, says Adrienne Davis, JD, an expert on gender relations and the William M. Van Cleve Professor of law at Washington University in St. Louis. “While the gay analogy may make for splashy punditry and good television, it distracts us from the main legal issue — polygamy challenges the regulations inherent in the conventional two-person marriage,” Davis says. “Putting aside whether you think polygamy is ‘right’ or ‘wrong,’ it is important to look at whether U.S. law is up to regulating marital multiplicity.” She proposes some default rules that might accommodate polygamy, while ensuring against some of its historic and ongoing abuses.

Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have been awarded a $9.2 million grant from the National Cancer Institute to study the relationship between obesity and cancer. The five-year grant will fund the new Transdisciplinary Research on Energetics and Cancer Center. Led by Graham A. Colditz, MD, PhD, the Center’s researchers will study the effect of diet, weight, physical activity and the environment on cancer and cancer survivorship.

With utopian ambition and scientific precision, Tomás Saraceno redefines both the built environment and the role of the artist. His spectacular, gravity-defying installations and visionary sculptural models — inspired by clouds, bubbles, spider webs and other natural structures — explore connections between complex social and ecological systems while raising pointed questions about our own relationships to an increasingly fragile natural world. This fall, the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum will present Tomás Saraceno: Cloud-Specific, an exhibition highlighting the breadth of Saraceno’s cross-disciplinary practice.

What’s the best way to pay off debt? It’s simple. After making required payments to avoid penalties, pay down the loan with the highest interest rate. But consumers take a slightly different approach, according to a consumer behavior expert at Olin Business School at Washington University in St. Louis.

According to the United Nations, nearly 10 million people in Africa are experiencing  one of the worst droughts in 60 years. Drought conditions are now leading to famine. Michael Galvin, a second-year student at the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis, is in the east African countryside as part of a team testing the effectiveness of KickStart, a social enterprise selling low-cost technologies such as irrigation pumps to help alleviate poverty. Galvin is blogging about the farmers and families he and team members are visiting through stories, video and photos (http://kickstartblog.wordpress.com/ ). His entries give a powerful look at how the drought is impacting lives.

Discussion of the federal debt ceiling has dominated the front page recently. Several Washington University in St. Louis faculty experts, all members of the Weidenbaum Center on the Economy, Government, and Public Policy, have offered their opinions to the news media on the history of the debt ceiling and what may happen if a deal is not reached.

High-dose vitamin D relieves joint and muscle pain for many breast cancer patients taking estrogen-lowering drugs, according to a new study from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

WUSTL women’s basketball coach Nancy Fahey, who has guided the Bears for 25 seasons and won five national titles, has been chosen for induction into Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame. Besides Fahey, the Hall of Fame Class of 2012 includes players Nikki McCray, Pam McGee, Inge Nissen, and Dawn Staley, and contributor Robin Roberts. Fahey is the first NCAA Division III player or coach to be chosen for such an honor.

After a yearlong renovation, Cupples II is now home to the College of Arts & Sciences, the Graduate School of Arts & Sciences and the Office of Undergraduate Research, as well as eight state-of-the-art pooled classrooms.