Spring 1992 by Endeavors

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VANTAGE POINT The Special Role of University Research

VERY0NE seems t0 be in the research business these dap. Manufacturers introduce new prG ducts after painstaking research. Public officials design their election campaigns on the basis

of public opinion research. Attorneys consult experts on juror profile research. Television executives establish their prime time lineups after extensive market research. Schools design their curricula to take advantage of the latest research on teaching and learning. Advertisers choose outlets for their messages with an eye on demographic research that categorizes each potential audience.

We have become a data conscious society. Research data guide the decisions of leaders in both the public and private sectors. Research data also legitimize decisions in the eyes of the public, because the public-in spite of some recent revelations about scientific and financial misconduct* largely husts scholars and scientists to improve their lives. All this suggests that universities have been both very successful and very unsuccessful in their roles as major inshuctional and research institutions. We have succeeded in convincing the world of the importance of research, perhaps beyond our wildest expectations. We have produced competently trained graduates who have learned the methods of research and are eager t0 apply those methods to the world's problems. We have contributed, through our own successes in research, to a public mindset that believes research can overcome most 0r all of our present and future problems. We have trained our students so well that, through their own creativity and the application of our methods, they have been able to apply research successfully in settings where data had never been collected systematically before. In all this we have been highly successful, and the benefit to society has been enormous. There is a darker side to our success. We have helped produce citizens who still value applied far more than basic research. We have taught our students that research can help solve the problems of the world, but have failed to teach them the importance of research that increases our understanding of the world or enriches our culture without producing a tangible product. We have taught the methods of research to willing students who never learned the limitations of those methods-who never learned that the methods of research are not, and can never be, free of values. We have created such high expectations for research that the public seems to believe research research

methods, properly applied, can never fail. fu a result, we now see genuine public confusion over the difference between research misconduct and common error. Universities have played a major role in creating the data conscious society in which we live. Universities now need to consider ways of protecting and stimulating the best aspects of research, while working to eliminate the darker side of our success. We need to emphasize that research is nothing more than a set of methods of inquiry. We need to teach our students how often those methods fail. We need to prepare our students to interpret research so they become intelligent research consumers. We need to teach the context of research in our society so that university graduates do not confuse the results of our research with the political process or with individual or social values. Universities are in a unique position to address these issues. The university uses research to teach its students, and those students leave the university to become the leaders of our society. The president of the University of North Carolina has called for a rededication of the university to undergraduate instruction. That rededication can be completely consistent with the special research mission of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and need take nothing away from our current research effort. lnstead, it challenges us to integrate research into the undergraduate classroom in new and meaningful ways. It gives us the chance to help shape our data conscious society into one that understands both the opportunities and limitations such data provide. It defines a special role for research at the university, a role I believe the university is willing and able to play.

â&#x201A;Ź(^,){ Robert

â&#x201A;Ź,

P Lowman, Ph.D.

Director, 0ffice of Research Services

End

Research and Graduate Education at The University

of North Carolina

at Chapel Hill/Spring 1992/Yolume IX, Number 2

Endeavors

DEPARTMENTS

Research and Graduate Education at the Unilrrsity

of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Spring 1992 Volume IX, Number 2 Endeavon is a magazine published thrce times a year by the 0ffice of Research Services at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Each issue of f,ndearors describes only a fs,v of the many research proiects undertaken by faculty and students of the University. Requests for permission

Marketplace

Dialogue

Carolina Opinion

,.)

What is. . .?

Vita

Scholarly Pursuits

to reprint material,

readers'comments and requests for should be sent to Editor,

utm

Endawn,

COVER STORY

copies

Offrce of

Research Services, CB# 4100, 300 Bynum Hall, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill,

Dem Bones, See page

Visual Artist Examines Being Female by Dottie Horn

Chancellor: Paul Hardin Vice Chancellor for 0nduate Studies

FEATURES

and Research: Mary Sue Coleman Director, 0ffice of Research Services:

A Balancing Issue

Chapel Hill, NC 275994100 (919/96e5625).

Robert

Newsmakers

A f

Lowman

"*-

Advisory Board for ORS Publications:

Philip Cail Kenneth Coleman

Stalking the Wolfram Gene Genetic Scientist and Psychiatrist Find Connection between Gene and Severe Psychiatric Disorders by Lisa Blansett

L l2

Needle

in a

DNAstack

Seeking Mechanisms

of Inflammation Regulation by Scott Lowry

Ihtherine High Douglas Kelly Carol Reuss

Balancing lssue, See page 8

II ti

A Testament to Change

r 11 ID

Victorian Women on the Verge Art Historian Examines the Bord-ers of

Religious Studies Professor Tlacks Alterations

Editor: Brenda Powell

ksistant Editors: Lisa

Blansett

Doftie Horn Scott Lowry Christina S. Stock

in the Bible by Lisa Blansett

Representation in

Victorian Culture by Lisa Blansett

Photognpher: Christina S. Stock Design: UNC Design Services

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Quarity or Lire

by Dottie Horn @ 1992 by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in the United States. All rights reserved. No part of this publicalion may be reproduced without the consent of the Unirenity of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

fl3,tt;,,i,'.X in rhe Labor

by Scott Lowry Victorian Women on the Verge, See page

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NEWSMAKERS The American Teenage Study

I dangerous precedent for researchers f! across the nation was set last July when I Ltwo UNC-CH socioloqists had an $18 million federal grant withdrawn. Ronald R. Rindfuss and J. Richard Udry had already undertaken the initial steps of a comprehensive survey investigating the sexual and contraceptive behavior of teenagers when

their work was abruptly derailed. The cancellation of the survey was the final blow after an unusually drawn out application process. The project was on the verge of approval in July of 1989 by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) when James Mason, assistant secretary for Health and Human Services (HHS), directed NIH to delay funding until his office reviewed the application. The survey, "The American Teenage Studyl' would have asked adolescents questions about

their sexual and contraceptive behavior. Although parental permission was required before a teen could participate in the survey, some elected officials on Capitol Hill voiced concerns about the appropriateness of such research.

secretary for health to review the grant appli-

cationl' Udry said. The review resulted in a two-year hiatus, but in spring of l99l Mason's office gave approval to the project. Rindfuss and Udry began work that May. Graduate students and assistant researchers had been hired. Preliminary work on questionnaires and sample selection of 24,000 teens had started. Then, in an unprecedented decision, Secretary of Health and Human Services Louis W. Sullivan suddenly announced in July that he was cancelling the grant. Although Rindfuss and Udry had no direct communication with Sullivan or Mason and never discovered who made the requests to HHS to reconsider the funding of "The American Teenage Studyl' both researchers said that politics were most likely behind the cancellation.

Earlier reviews by scientists, members of NIH and of the pubtic went extremely well, Rindfuss said. Both researchers said they had received strong peer approval of the survey. Nonetheless the study was cancelled, despite its potential role in helping to solve the AIDS crisis and the high rate of teen pregnancies, the researchers said. A fluny of press coverage and political activity accompanied the cancellation. Speaking

in The NIH funds these sex surDeysthe real purpose of which is to took the books,' so to spelk, in terms of presenting 'scientific focts'-in order to do whot? To legitimize homosexuol lifestyles of course. Of course, the liberal free sex zgendl is often camouflaged os so-cllled AIDS education. -Senator Jesse Helms In a speech before Congress September l99l

"We thought we were within days of starting the project, but then on account of political considerations of the Bush administration, a request came from the assistant

September 1991, Senator Jesse Helms, RN.C., told Congress: "The NIH funds these sex surveys-the real purpose of which is to 'cook

the booksl so to speak, in terms of presenting 'scientific facts'-in order to do what? To legitimize homosexual lifestyles of course. 0f course, the liberal free sex agenda is often camouflaged as so-called AIDS educationl' Vocal protests of the cancellation hailed

from many directions. A letter sent in September 1991 from an NIH child health institute advisory council to Sullivan said: "Suspension of such an important and highly regarded NIH research grant for nonscientific reasons is a dangerous precedent that is extremely harmful to the scientific mission of the NIH. This action compromises the NIH's longstanding reputation for scientific integrity, raises the specter of potitical veto of scientific and public advisory council decisions, and undermines vital research on important health problemsi'

Suspension of such on importont and highly regarded NIH research grant for nonscientific reasons is o dangerous precedent that is extremely hormful to the scientific mission of the NIH. The National Advisory Child Health and Human Development Council In a letter to Louis W. Sullivan Secretary for Health and Human Services

-NIH

September

1991

According t0 a statement issued by the department in July 1991, Sullivan was "concerned by the possible inadvertent message this survey could send that would distract from the potential scientific benefits and be counterproductive to his commitment t0 better communicate the message against casual sexi' Sullivan's spokesman John Gibbons told in March of this year: "The secretary felt this particular teen sex survey was not appropriate. It was too little clearly useful information for too much money. In our reasoning it was inappropriately invasivel'

Endeavors

Rindfuss and Udry said they are now approaching a number of undisclosed private agencies to finance the survey. lf the researchers get funding soon, they expect their preliminary work will still be valid. 'A lot of the

work we already did will still be beneficiali' Rindfuss said.

Their work on the teen sex survey discontinued, and busy with other research pursuits, Rindfuss and Udry said the termination of federal funding had neither a positive nor a negative effect on their careers. If nothing else, the turmoil of last summer taught them how to deal with the media. "Both of us feel much more confident about appearing on T{' Udry

joked.

MARKETPTACE

[)enr l]ones robably the last time you thought about plaster of Paris, you were pushing your small palm into the squishy mess to make a hand print your parents still treasure. The applications for plaster of Paris have expanded somewhat since then. In fact, a medical school professor of biomedical engineering, Jacob Hanker, has created a method using the compound to help patients replace bone lost as a result of infection, tumor or trauma. Before Hanker's invention got to the marketplace, most dental clinics or hospitals replaced head or facial bone by borrowing from the hips or ribs. Secondary surgery was required to cut replacement bone. "This secondary surgery is usually more traumatic for the patient than the head repairj' Hanker says. "Patients are often incapacitated by the secondary surgery-it takes a while to resume walking after a piece of your hipbone has been takenl' Use of this biomaterial avoids the secondary surgery and allows patients to return to normal activity quickly. "Some patients can even leave the hospital or clinic the same day the surgery is donel' Hanker says.

surgeons at Duke University Medical Center and Durham VA. Medical Center, into operating rooms. "The material has got to be carefully prepared so it sets at the right rate, and I put in the appropriate additives to promote solidification in bloody sitesl' Hanker says. He also warns that although the replacement won't work for weight bearing bones, like legs and arms, it is perfect for craniofacial bone reconstruction. "You could even put it directly on the brain and it won't hurtl' Hanker says.

Hanker's FDA-approved procedure was developed in the Dental Research Center of the School of Dentistry supported by a contract

from the Naval Medical Research and Development Command. USG Corporation in Chicago holds a license agreement with the University for the calcium/ceramic,/plaster composite called Hapset@ and has sublicensed it tr the Minnesota based company, Lifecore Biomedical, which began marketing it earlier this year.

.laroh llalker

ntirci thl ttro

itrorqanic r:om-

Dr. R. Denby Lewis, an endodontist in the School of Dentistry, and Dr. Reynolds Carnevale, a Fayetteville periodontist, have used this composite material to repair jawbone defects and save teeth in hundreds of patients,

Dr. Jaroslav Hulka, professor of gynecology and obstetrics at UNC-CH, is playing a significant role in the recent wave of American influence on Russian [ife. A sterilization procedure and device invented by Hulka was demonstrated to an audience of hundreds of eager Russian doctors during a seminar in Moscow. Less than a year ago such an event would have been an impossibility. Until then, a Russian law made illegal any form of contraception, other than condom use and The Hulka clip, invented and patented at a tiny, clear plastic clothes pin with teeth. Through a small incision near a woman's navel, surgeons insert the clips and close them on each Fallopian tube. Hulka described the device: "lt's like a spring loaded clothespin. You open up the spring and you put it on a tube, like the pin on a clothes line, and then the spring closes the clip onto the tube or linel'

Hanker says. Hanker regularly follows Drs. Nicholas Georgiade and Gregory Ruff, both plastic

According

to Hulka, doctors

Crrld

fuo UNC-CH physicists have invented and patented a way to permanently join a thin layer of gold to the surface of industrial diamonds, a breakthrough with numerous commercial applications in microelectronic and laser technology. The procedure was invented by Charles B. Childs, lecturer and research associate in the UNC-CH department of physics and astronomy, and Wei-Kan Chu, formerly a UNC research professor, now at the University of Houston. It has received the first patent in the department's history. Why adhere gold permanently to the surface of diamonds? Microelectronic circuits and

and this heat must be conducted away by a "heat sinkl'Various materials have been used

UNC-CH, resembles

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All That Sticks ls

some lasers create a lot of heat, says Childs,

'lhe IIulka 0lip

abortion.

])r

from sales of the Hulka clip in Chicago and in London go to the UNC-CH School of Medicine for further medical research.

have been per-

forming spring-clip sterilizations since 1975 on millions of women, primarily in the United States, England, Australia and some in Canada. The Wolf Medical Instruments Company in Rosemont, Illinois markets the clip. Royalties

as heat sinks, diamonds being the most efficient. They conduct heat even better than copper which is commonly used for microelectronic and laser applications.

The new process enabling production of more efficient diamond heat sinks lowers the cost of production by using a single deposition of gotd with no subsequent heating required. According to Childs, another advantage of the new process is that it produces a smoother and therefore more efficient heat conducting surface on the diamond. Childs and Chu's research was funded in part by the Office of Naval Research. Some of the diamonds used in the project were conhibuted by the Dubbledee Harris Diamond Corporation, D. Drukker & Zn. N. V. of Amsterdam, and the Diamond Research Laboratory of De Beers lndustrial Diamond Division. The University has licensed the rights to the process

to Dubbledee Harris.

DIALOGUE Current Conflicts and the Chapel

Hill Cuniculum

by Darryl Gless ost reasonable souls, invited t0 enter into public dialogue on recent curricular controversies, would recognize but one course of sensible action-flight. As played out in the media over the past five years or so, the curriculum debate has yielded a sequence of opaque labels that are more effective as bogeys than as bearers of meaning. The debate's packaging ("deconstructionl' "political correctnessl' "multiculturalism") has helped to ensure that discussion often yields more anxiety, anger and frustration than clarity. Since the underlying causes of the debate are urgent ones, we need to try again. By focusing on the University's commit ment t0 provide an excellent liberal arts education to all its undergraduates, we can begin thinking less anecdotally and less impressionistically than usual. Reflection upon what curricula actually require, what those requirements entail in the classroom, who is doing the teaching and who is being taught, asks that we engage not in a polemic but in an exercise that liberal arts courses typically ask students

to undertake before they proceed to analysis and evaluation: the concrete observation and description of phenomena under discussion.

What, specifically, does the Chapel Hill curriculum as it now stands seek to achieve? Stated most concisely, the curriculum's proliferation of "perspective" courses seeks to equip students with a capacity to think in newly creative and versatile ways by entering at least temporarily into a multiplicity of ways of knowing and experiencing the world that any one person's particular conditions of life make otherwise unavailable. Given the rapidly increasing ethnic and racial diversity 0f the U.S. population and the intensifying interconnectedness of world economies and political structures, the curriculum's stress on multiple perspectives seems exactly compatible with one of the traditional aims of university education. John Henry Newman states this aim in lrle ldea of a University: "that of training good members of society. Its art is the art of social life, and its end is fitness for the worldl' To help students become adept at the art of social life which the world now requires of us all, universities will need to provide more courses that make the histories and interactions of different races and cultures a primary focus

of study. Introductory "perspective" courses will

be especially important in this effort. These courses most frequently spark students' interest in subjects they have never encountered or taken seriously earlier. Together with "basic skills" courses (mathematics, English composi-

tion, foreign language$, introductory "perspectives" act as symbols of the range of cultural productions universities consider important. The brief period when first- or second-year students can wake up to the extraordinary excitement of the life of the intellect is precisely the time when we can win them to a lifelong appreciation of Shakespeare or Plato or Titian, or to the satisfaction of achieving a mathematical proof or completing a biological experiment. The first two years are also precisely the time when the increasing numbers of students who are women and people of non-European descent must be able, as Henry Gates has said, "to discover the reflection or representation of their images, [and to] hear the resonances of their cultural voicesl' When such moments of self-recognition are made persistently available in the general education curriculum, it will be

the easier for all students in our classrooms also to learn about ideas and attitudes that differ markedly from those they bring with them to class. Although real learning is often unsettling, institutions which expect students t0 explore ideas that appear at first uncomfortably alien to them must also ensure that those students feel at home in their classrooms. (cont. on page 6)

DIALOGUE The Challenging Heresies of Multiculturalism by Stirling f,aig

[1he next great debate concerning the shape of the undergraduate curriculum at II Carolina, as at many other universities, is likely to fall under the heading of "multicultural curriculum" and it is likely to touch the humanities rather than the sciences. At first glance, the term might be taken to signify the "internationalization of the curriculuml' another campus buzzword. And to a faculty member in the Department of Romance Languages it might seem t0 be a fait acconpli, for our mission, as we recently defined it, is nothing less than the opening of young minds to the "otherness" of foreign cultures. We might wish to protest that we are already multicultural! But this would be disingenuous, for current usage defines "multicultural" quite otherwise. Although not much is yet known of the specifics of such a curriculum, it contests the traditional centrality of the study of Western Civilization (or more polemically, that history made and written by "great men") in the College of Arts and Sciences. I understand multiculturalism to mean a broadening of perspectives to include previously marginalized or silenced viewpoints. These would be principally the perspectives and voices of women, minorities and presumably lesser cultures, hitherto ignored or relegated to the periphery of discussion and analysis of the traditional great issues confronting humanity. The recuperation of these excluded standpoints of potential analysis would serve to reveal that many-long accepted perceptions constitute not "truthl' but are rather products of social, political and gender biases-mere extensions of a "hegemonic discourse" (authoritarian norm of

Feminist theory in alliance with deconstruction, whose special contribution has been the demystifying of traditional paired hierarchies (such as good/evil, meaning/form, nature/

the conservative position of Lynne Cheney, Director of the National Endowment for the Humanities, as the domestic equivalent of the post occupied by her husband, the Secretary of

culture), has already made powerful strides in these directions, exposing hitherto suppressed or ignored textual skewings in the great works of Western literature. To cite a brief example from my field (French literature), the history of the novel in the 18th century is dramatically altered if one includes novels written by

Defense. Will sees this couple as defending America against enemies foreign and (now) domestic. Recently, Lynne Cheney's critics have been alleging that she has nixed grants for non-Eurocentric scholarly projects related to the

wOmen.

Yet there is more to the multicultural heresy than a series of mere adjustments or course corrections. The relativist position, by insisting that all values are culture-specific (and thus subiective), denies the universality of any

particular set of values. Here is where the debate becomes acrimonious and politicized, and spills over into the public press where great alarums are being raised. Journalists seem to understand multiculturalism as an attack on the validity of Western Civ per se. As Russell Baker puts it, multiculturalism is this

yeafs "big fun slanging match for intellectuals, probably because it offers such rich opportuni-

ty for venting your most beastly animosities

on race, sex and ethnic issues while sounding so

utterly, so absolutely, so unbelievably civilizedl' But there is no playful irony in George Will's Barbarians-at the-Gate stance, in which he hails

Quincentenary celebrations of Columbus' discovery of America. (lncidentally, if there is any doubt as to what "Eurocentric" means, I have just indulged in one such usage: America can only be said to have been "discovered"

from a European-centered point of view-for the natives knew it was here all the time.) Arthur Schlesinger Jr. has joined the fray over multiculturalism. In the words of his admirer Michael Skube (columnist for the Ralerglr News and Observer), the eminent historian has denounced "an ideologicatly driven move to deny that there is anything like a common American culture and to assert instead the separateness of groups-racial, linguistic, religious, even sexuall'This is the rejection of the melting pot and its replacement by the cult of ethnicity. It provokes fear and dread for the survival of the concept of a common culture and it appears to reject the very idea of America. The academic and the Raleigh journalist, Pulitzer Prize winners both, join in (cont. on page 6)

expression) masking and preserving the projection of white male dominance and privilege.

l\. Y

Robert Guizhang Yon

IT.II.E

in today's classrooms-when brought

(Cunent Conflicts. . .cont.)

students

That sense of belonging will be impossible to sustain if the content 0r tone 0f con-

into contact with works and ideas that originate

spicuous introductory courses implicitly announces that the varieties of people whom those students themselves represent have produced no art, literature, science 0r phitosophy worthy of study by all-that those "other

cumstances, traditional "great books" courses

things" should be available only in specialized

flicting, mutually illuminating, acutely reasoned, powerfully expressed, and always exceptionally

programs (e.g., African-American studies, women's studies) or otherwise placed on the margins of major departments. My own experience as a teacher who specializes in Shakespeare and his contemporaries demonstrates that the canonical authors can do wonderful work in preparing students to enter the world beyond the academy's walls. But I have recently come to recognize that the works which have long appeared on "Western culture" syllabi can also

often function at their best-excite the greatest interest among the greatest proportion of our

markedly different traditions.

In such cir-

can do their best traditional work: They can provide us opportunities t0 teach an excitingly and richly varied range of important ideas that

will be in

varying degrees complementary, con-

useful in introducing students to essential techniques for discovering, verifying and expressing ideas of their own. The numerous ways this can happen will become clear only to people who are willing

to try it, by studying works from traditions other than those we normally read, by participating in conferences and seminars about those alternative traditions and by conversing with colleagues who possess the relevant exper" tise. What is needed is a readiness-on the part of people who line up on either side of the curriculum debates-to acknowledge that one's world view will always be limited, that there will always be excellent things yet to learn or to re-discover. We need only seek to remain, or become again what we want our

students to be-enthusiasts for new learning. When universities provide more 0pp0rtunities for people to examine new

perspectives-and Chapel Hill is beginning to provide them-both traditionalists and proponents of change can begin to engage debates

that are more fruitful than usual because participants will be far more concretely informed. The homogenizing oversimplifications characteristic of media reports on academic conflicts could then, perhaps, be set aside. Then we who are concerned about the central issue which is often submerged in the debate-what is best for our students'education-could seek to achieve greater exactness of thought, whether we argue for change or resist it. Let's forget political correctness, that is, and consider our joint goal, pedagogical effectiveness. PE, not PC.

Darryl Gless is Associate Dean of the Office of General Education and Associate Professor in the Department of Engtish.

ffiffiffi (Challenging Heresies. . .cont.)

deploring the morally craven equalizing of curriculum material and the sheepish fear of liberal professors t0 protest against the trend.

Shakespeare and Milton. We remember lifting

mugs

the Rat while chorusing that "Matt

Their apprehensions, joined to those of Roger Kimball flenured Radicals) and Dinesh D'Souza (llliberal Education), is that muddled scholars ("witch doctors") "are getting tenure, building

does more than Milton can, /To ju$ify the ways of God to Manl' The existence of a homogeneous and universal curriculum is, however, more of an Alan Bloomian myth than reality, for as long as I can remember, undergraduate programs have been criticized for

departments and starring at conferencesl' In

their lack of unity.

short, Western Civ is under full-scale assault from within the academy, and the professors aren't doing anylhing to counter it. Now this is another version of Julien Bendas treason of the clerks. The anxiety is much overwrought. And yet I confess to sharing some of the concerns. I rather do lament the passing of a core curriculum of sorts at Carolina, when everyone in my graduating class (BA '58) had shared the bonding experience of a certain number of required courses, such as specified lab sciences, the old Mod Civ I and 2 (the very essence of Eurocentrism!), and

Today the traditionalists' fear is that "multiculturalism" will be imposed in a series of required courses whose purpose will be the bashing of "DWEM" (Dead White European Male) culture. Western Civ will be totally displaced. Cultural revanchists led by coteries

English

2l with its exposure to Chaucer,

tain that it is ethical to teach "standard" French, but not ethical to teach that standard French is the only French, or to teach in such a way as to imply that there aren't other varieties of French. As a professor of French literature, I do teach more George Sand and Marguerite Duras than I used to; I have added poems of Marceline Desbordes-Valmore t0 my syllabus. as well as the powerful voices of Neiritude. Aimd Cdsaire and Ldopold S6dar Senghor. My criteria fot canon inclusion remain aesthetic ones. I just hear better now, thanks to all the debates. Oportet esse haereses, wrote old Tertullian. We need these

heresies.

of gay black feminists will transmogrify the campus into a reeducation camp; it will be the Walpurgisnacht of a self-inflicted, Orwellian

Stirling Haig is Professor and Chair of the

nightmare.

Department of Romance Languages.

It couldn't happen

in my opinion. I

here? Actually

n0-n0t

can't see the displacement of

a glorious written culture. Rather, I see its pansion.

In my

language courses

ex-

I still main-

E.N

R.S

Stalking the Wolfram Gene Genetic Scientist and Psychiatrist Find Connection between Gene and Severe Psyhiatric Disorders

by Lisa Blansett

HE genetic basis of many diseases has been known for some time now. People

gene and 398 who were controls, that is, not related to the family except by marriage. "Without knowing who was a blood relative

inherit sickle cell anemia, cystic fibrosis, even a predisposition to cancer. But can a genetic basis be a definite link to suicide and severe mental problems? Dr. Michael Swift, professor of medicine and genetics division chief, and Dr. Ronnie Gorman Swift, his coinvestigator and spouse, have found a connection between the Wolfram Syndrome gene and psychiatric disorders. "The gene may cause as much as 8 percent of all suicides and psychiatric hospitalizationsl' says Gorman Swift, a clinical associate professor of psychiatry who also has a private psychiatric practice.

The Wolfram gene, named for the Mayo Clinic doctor who described the illness associated with it, causes those who inherit two copies of the gene, one from each parent, to develop a rare type of diabetes mellitus and to experience a progressive loss of vision due to optic-nerve atrophy. Michael Swift, already wellknown for his studies in cancer genetics, began by examining the health effects of a single copy of this gene-the heterozygotes who make up nearly I percent of the U. S. population. What he and his co-researchers found in a comprehensive study was unexpected: the medical records they collected suggested that the gene predisposes Wolfram Syndrome patients to psychiatric illness. That is where Gorman Swift entered. She analyzed the records of 68 homozygotes, those who have inherited two copies ol the gene. Using only the most objective and striking indicators of psychiatric illness-suicide attempts

and psychiatric hospitalizations-Corman Swift found that a significant number of those studied suffered from severe psychiatric problems. "Tkenty-five percent of those with a double dose of the gene had really serious mental illnessl' she says, "and several had multiple hospitalizations. This was really out of proportioni' As a comparison, of 300 people

A marriaqe nrarli' irr researcir. Nlicharl -\rvift, prolessor oi rnedit:int iind r:ltir:f ol qenetirs. and Ronnir: Gorntan Swilt. r'linical associlte proli,ssor of pst'chiatrv, lound tlriit the \\olliam qclc predisposr:s carliers lo selerc lrsvchiatrii: disorders. Photo

Will

Ownns

who suffer from ataxia talangiectasia, another genetic disorder, only one had a psychiatric hospitalization.

Preliminary evidence from questionnaires and medical records also drew the researchers t0 d0 quantitative work on those who carry one copy of the Wollram gene, the heterozygotes, who were related to the homozygotes suffering from the Wolfram Syndrome. In the detailed questionnaire given to hundreds of these blood relations were two inquiries about psychiatric illness: "Have you ever had mental illness?" and "Have you ever had chronic nervous trouble?" The researchers noticed a hiqh incidence of affirmative answers, so they decided to follow up with psychiatric analysis of the data. Gorman Swift again conducted the analysis of 941 people, 543 who carried the

and who was a spouse control, I compiled a list of all the patients with psychiatric hospitalizations and suicidesl' says Gorman Swift. Only after she had found all the patients meeting this criteria, did she separate the blood-relative carriers from the control patients. "The carriers have an eighrfotd increased risk of having a psychiatric hospitalization or committing suicide than the non-gene carriersl' she says. The work that remains now is to find the gene that carries the code for the Wolfram Syndrome. This first involves genetic mapping, in which the disease pattern in Wolfram Syndrome families is compared to already-known DNA patterns. Determining the DNA pattern will enable the researchers to make their own Wolfram gene and then put it into cells to track its activity under controlled conditions. "Once we figure out what this gene doesl' says Gorman Swift, "we'll be able to get an idea about what the gene-environmental interaction isl' As some gene carriers experience psychiatric illness and others do not, the researchers hope to be able to start eliminating environmental factors once they know how the gene responds. 'Assuming every Wolfram gene carrier has an equal likelihood initially of developing mental illness, do they eat something or do something that causes the clinical trait to be expressed?l' asks Gorman Swift.

As a testament to their enthusiasm and dedication Michael Swift adds, "lt's wonderful work to be doing. Can you think of anything more useful?"

Michael and Ronnie Gorman Swift's research in this article was supported by approximately $314,243 from the National Institute of Mental Health.

discussed

f,.t.D

E.A.V

A Balancing Issue Visual Artist Examines Being Female

by Dottie f,orn

n l{ IJ

ARBIE seems t0 flee. Perhaps she is

running from the lighted matchsticks standing upright behind her. She may be on fire. Her long, stiff hair stands out around her head, and flurried white and pink lines halo her figure. The work is titled Robbed of Sleep.

"We all have a part of Barbie in usl' says Beth Grabowski, associate professor of art, who uses the image to explore issues of being female. "We want t0 be that beautiful seductress, the perfect being, the one that everybody desires.

organization of printmakers. This exhibition will take place in the fall of 1992. A work which won a purchase award at

Elon College's Contemporary Print Exhibition is For Want of A Good Man's Praise. A photographic image, the back of a statuesque nude male, is on the right. The indentation of his spine forms a sinuous curve. 0n the left is a relief print: a knot bordered by a serpentine curve. "This particular piece has to do with intense, perhaps obsessive, desirel' says Grabowski. "lf you realize you're having an

And yet, she represents all that's wrong about what our society has told women they ought to bel' The artist says that the Barbie images are less an indictment of our society than a look at the decisions a woman living in our society faces. "lt's a balancing issuel' says Grabowski. "How much of Barbie do we accept and embrace as part of our beings and how much do we re.ject? It's even, do we wear makeup or not? Do we make ourselves more attractive or is that a constraint society has pinned on us that we need to escape?" Whether and when looking at the female body should be a source of pleasure are further at issue: "What's por-

obsession that may be unhealthy, and yet you want something so badly, it creates a knot in the stomach, a bondage, the tension of wanting something that's not given to you. The classical Greek form is that male ideal you're seeking

that may not existl' Grabowski often comments on her work by musing on a number of ways each interrelated image is significant. But, if the images in her works elicit divergent reflections, a single idea guides their making.

3- "*|fi " f--t

*:s

nography; what's erotica; how much of these can be part of female sexuality? I don't think these are easy questions to answer]' says Grabowski. "lf you adopt society's expectations, you compromise and conform in order to get certain things. But, if you reject them completely, you put yourself outside the ability to

!*ra

have an effectl'

Grabowski has received numerous honors

for her Barbie pieces, done in 19861987, and subsequent works, including

a 1990J991 Artist's

Fellowship from the North Carolina Arts Council and the presentation of her work in a 1990 national exhibition sponsored by the Los Angeles Printmaking Society. She was also selected to participate in The Print Club of Philadelphias 1990-1991 Annual Competition of Prints. This competition awarded Grabowski a solo presentation of her work at The Print

Club of Philadelphia, a leading national

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"My work ultimately is concerned with the nature 0f moral choice, that dilemma between yOur acti0ns and some0ne else's feelings or well-being;' says Grabowski. "We think about ourselves and the other person or other people and try to weigh things out and find a compromise that allows compassi0n for the other-capital 0 Other, if you want-and still protects the selfl' Crabowski says that self-knowledge is essential to this balancing act. "My art is about lookinq at yourself. What inside each 0f us influences our actions and reactions? What inside makes us protect ourselves or take a risk? How do we look at ourselves and find out these things so that we can be clear about the decisions we make, even if they're hard?"

The dilemma in There's Something So Unusual About Wanting is lust. Two sticks cross in front of a fire; the flames lead up to a nearly abstract photographic image of the female torso from thigh to waist. "lt's that humorous idea of desire, fire in the loins, and yet, the 'X'

is a barrierl' says Grabowski. "Wanting

unusual because you can desire something so much, and yet, intellectually, it's 'Danger, danger, stay away, bad newsl' Overtly in this

'r '

piece, it's sexual desirel' While Crabowski shares her interpretations of the works, she tries to avoid prescribing

imagery to give clues as to what she was thinking about in the process of creation. While conceptual threads underlie her

their meaning.

works, Grabowski's creative process begins visually, with her attraction to images. "l usualIy start without a specific meaning. Two images

you look at the imagery. That's all fine with mel' In talking about her work, she shares others' interpretations as well as her own. "l believe for all art, each viewer brings his or her own experiences and memories and ideas to the piece, which actually complete the piecel' Grabowski says if people approached art by trying to find out what it says to them, rather than trying to find out what the artist intended to say, there would be a lot less anxiety about looking at contemporary art. Artist and viewer usually share enough common experience so that their interpretations fall within the same range, according to Grabowski. "l'd be upset if somebody missed the boat completelyi' To establish that common ground, Grabowski uses titles that lead the viewer. Grabowski likes her titles to work with the

working on a piece,

"l hate to say specific things about each piecel' she says. "People interpret my work in ways I would never have thouqht of, but their interpretations are believable when

have

a certain resonance and in the process of

I might figure out what it meansl' says Grabowski. This accrual of meaning often continues after a work is finished. For example, she finished Hoarder of Secret

Grievances in January 1991 and admits she has not completely figured it out herself.

Hoarder of Secret 1rievances explores what can happen if individuals compromise too much. A ring of barbed wire appears above a

a punishing crown of thorns or a ring of smoke which has emerged from smokestack, like

the smokestack. Its cloud-like hovering suggests a dampening presence that might be more imagined than substantial. Although the two images are discrete, Grabowski says she likes

the suggestion that the ring came out of the smokestack.

E.t.D.f,.A.V

"We all have these little secret grievances that we keep to ourselvesl' says Grabowski. "lf you felt like someone did something wrong t0 you, you might fantasize about mistreating back somehowl' She relates this aggressive, perhaps violent, fantasy to women because women generally compromise more and are better at empathy, she says. "That's why I perceive the

problem of compromise as more a woman's than a man's probleml' says Grabowski. "We are more willing to consider the other or put ourselves aside for the sake of the other. We're taught to defer and men aren'tl' Whatever the images, most of her works originate in some aspect of her personal history. "My art is very much influenced by my immediate environment and the things going on in my life at the timel' says Grabowski. For instance, before her first child was born in February 1991, her feelings while pregnant informed her work. ln fact, says Grabowski, much of the work she did while pregnant had to do with birthing and motherhood.

Birth is the dilemma in Prima Materia. On the right, black and white targets are laid over a photographic image of a rocky ground. ln the print on the left, concentric lines encircle and enliven a birthing stool. "The rocks are pnma nateria, the prime material from which everything else is madel' says Crabowski. This prime material is hard, sterile and threatening; the landscape is not a comfortable place. The target image derived from child development books Grabowski was reading. "Babies like to look at black and white images of targetsl' Grabowski says. She fixated on the target and transformed

it into an image of birth. "lt's

sitting on the birthing stool, 'X' marks the spotl' she says. The landscape, targeted and yet uncomfortable, generates conflict: "You bring somebody into a Iife that's maybe not all that easy, and yet you have some things to aim

forl'

says Grabowski.

Prima Materia and many of Grabowski's other works are diptychs, which consist of two discrete and related images. Grabowski often

works in this format because the diptych piques the viewer with an intellectual mystery-What do these two images mean toqether?-that takes time t0 muse over. [n addition to this psychological resonance, says Grabowski, the two images relate graphically. For example, in For Want of a Good Man's Praise, the curve of the man's bicep appears again at the right edge of the print. While the viewer may not notice graphic similarities, the coherence they provide is important to Grabowski: "Design is an element of all good artwork. It's usually more subliminal than

overtl' she says. This relationship among shapes is at the heart of Capacity and Essence: "[t ultimately just came from looking at particular shapesl' says Grabowski. Like the diptychs, this painting contains several images whose relationship is not immediately apparent. On the right is a lenticular shape, and on the left is an auger, sharp-ended spiral tool for boring holes. Two prayer cards for the deceased, one showing

il.lr.D.A.Y.O

Christ with a stigmata on his raised hand, appear at the bottom of the painting. "l was first attracted to the idea that the stigmata in his hand was the same shape as part of the auger-that little S-shaped curve. And that the auger is perhaps a device for making the stigmata, making holesl' says Grabowski. She then discovered a lenticular shape on her studio table that reminded her of the shape of Christ's stigmata: "They drill out all the knots in the plywood and then put these little plugs

in to

make

it a

perfect sheet of smooth wood

againi' An auger might have been used to gouge out the original imperfections in the table, says Grabowski. The work has no specific meaning, she says, but revolves around how individuals deal with their wounds or flaws. "We can camouflage them: That's what they've done with the plywood on the table here. Yet, there's the evidence of the wound having been there. Even though we try to hide our flaws in our public facade, their evidence is still there in how we are dealt with or how we deal with the world. So we get back to that idea of'what are the issues inslde us that influence our actions and desires and fears?"'

"l'm

perfectly happy

somebody

en.joys

the work on a completely visual level, without coming up with a specific meaningl' says Grabowski. "They might just feel a poetic resonance between the parts of the imagealthough most of my work looks like it means something and people get frustrated if they don't know the meaningi' While her work looks like it means

something, what it means can be difficult to pin down. As the viewer weighs conflicting interpretations of the symbolic images and the relationships between them, the works instill their indecisive tension in the viewer. This difiers from what happens when a viewer, presented with a single image, need only absorb a narrative: "You can take the image in

at a glance and know what's happening, without being asked to interpret it. You can dismiss

itl'

says Grabowski.

This is just what happened to the 20 Grabowski's Barbie series. "The Barbie's were dismissedl' she says, "as just

pieces

some woman blowing her topl' Grabowski had just joined UNC-CH's studio-art faculty when she began these works: "l was reconciling what it meant to be the only woman on an all-male facultyl' she recalls. 'A lot of women students would come to work with me because there weren't any other women on the studio faculty

to deal with certain issues they wanted to with:' Here, Let Me Help shows a pair of

deal

hands, modeled after the artist's own hands, reaching with a lighted match toward Barbie viewed from the back and bent at the waist. Paired

with this work is Torched, which

shows

Barbie walking out of the picture with sparks shooting out of an open rectangle on her back. Some read these images as the artist burning up the Barbie stereotype of women. "Maybe that piece did have some of those connotationsi' admits Grabowski. "But it was more ridding oneself of those things than ridding society of theml' ln the image Robbed of Sleep Barbie is hollowly silhouetted against a bright background: the light behind her shines dimly

through her eye sockets and a grid which broadcasts sound out of her stomach. With her arms extended in front of her like a sleepwalker's, and her leg jutting out stiffly behind her, Barbie looks like a machine. And yet, leaving the lurid matchsticks, she is not inhuman. 0rabowski says attempting to balance opposing needs creates anxiety: "Yet our involvement in this dilemma expresses our humanityi' In this image, Barbie, robbed of sleep, reminds us of ourselves, asitated and sometimes inflamed when we do not know what to do.

filH ':i

Needle

in a DNAstack

Seeking Mechanisms of lnflammation Regulation

by Scott Lowry

'it *1 \ ti L'r'

ITH about 35,000 genes in human DNA, finding a spJcific unidentified gene is about as easy as finding a needle in a haystack. But that's just what Professor J. Stephen Haskill of the Department of 0bstetrics and Gynecology and his colleagues have done. His study of human monocytes (a type of infection-fighting white blood cell) led them to a regulatory gene which molecular biologists knew must exist, but about which little else was known-not even its location.

Discovery of this gene excites researchers confronting immune disorders ranging from AIDS

to multiple sclerosis t0 arthritis. Haskill

expects

it to lead within our lifetimes to better regulation of the immune response not only through traditional drugs but through gene-specific therapy. The search for this regulatory gene began in 1988 with the discovery of a gene which was named NF kappa B. Haskill explains that

the "NF" in the name signifies that the gene is a nuclear factor: it acts within the nucleus t0 turn 0n other genes that produce inflammatory mediators, the substances that fight infection. Biologists figured there must be another gene t0 suppress NF kappa B after infection activates it; otherwise inflammation would run out of control. As Haskill wryly comments, "Fever is one part of this defense against infection, but if you always had fever, you wouldn't be very happy. So there are natural ways to regulate the ups and downsl' UNC-CH researchers

in the laboratories of Haskill and

Professor Al

Baldwin of the biology department were the first to isolate the inhibitor of NF kappa B, called I kappa B. Their announcement in June l99i ended a three-year international race to identify the missing half of the mechanism that regulates the ups and downs of inflammation. Haskilt did not set out specifically to find the inhibitor I kappa B, but to study regulation of the early stages of the immune response to infection. "We're trying to understand how a monocyte reacts through receptors on its surface with the endothelium, which is the lining of the blood vessels, to flatten and migrate from the circulation into infected tissues, and how the monocyte changes as it goes through

waves

of new events as it sees a new environ-

mentl' Haskill explains. A

in the bloodstream,

monocyte, innocuous

experiences

a Jekyll and

Hyde transformation after leaving. "lt can eat bacteria and viruses, but it's also capable of making inflammatory mediators which can give you a fever when you get an infection, or it

can make the growth factors that cause tissue repair when you cut yourselfl' Haskill says. "The different reactions occur because certain genes are quickly turned on when a monocyte leaves the circulation, genes involved with things like interleukin-l and tumor necrosis factor, important inflammatory mediators that the body uses in its defense systeml' These mediators are released by the monocyte to kill bacteria and damaged cells. Haskill is fascinated not so much by the mediators as by the monocyte's internal regulatory mechanism that determines whether or not they are produced. "We're trying to understand why sometimes you turn on genes that cause tissue repair and sometimes, in the same cell, you turn on genes that cause tissue destructionl' he says. Haskill turned to molecular biology as a

tool for understanding monocytes about four years ago. "l think mine was the last laboratory in the Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Research Center not using molecular biologyl' he recalls. "lt actually hadn't been used very

much in my field. We organized a meeting about six years ago to look at molecular biology and macrophages. Even though I had seen that it was obviously a big new approach to studying inflammation, it wasn'l until I did a sabbatical

with Cetus Corporation in Emeryville,

in 1987 that I was able to learn the incredible things that can be done. There has been a total revolution of medical research, in which almost all of us have switched to using molecular biology techniques to ask questions that you could not possibly ask ten years agol' California,

The revolution began quietly in the late 1960s, when Haskill remembers friends in graduate school experimenting with bacteria

that were replicating with bits of non-bacterial DNA. A decade later, genetic engineering had

progressed

to the point that scientists

srtc-

cessfully modified bacteria to produce human insulin. Now scientists make mutants that allow them to study a particular biological process directly. There is nothing new about using mutants t0 tease out the secrets of biology: Gregor Mendel's genetic experiments more than a century ago exploited natural mutation in various plant species. The difference between pre-revolution and post-revolution biology is that scientists no longer depend on nature to randomly provide (or all too often nol provide) the specific mutations they need. The inhibitor I kappa B works in tandem with the gene NF kappa B, a transcription factor earlier isolated by other researchers. "Nature always has balances, so for a transcription factor

there's likely to be an inhibitor to turn it offi' says Haskill. This regulatory system is particularly interesting to researchers studying the

role of monocytes in the body's defense system. As Haskitt explains, "ln most cells, NF kappa is normally expressed at some level, but in monocytes, it's not turned on until the monocyte leaves the circulation and becomes excited. NF kappa then turns 0n more genes t0 respond to the infection. What we have identified is an inhibitor to this important transcription factor, and therefore we now have an important clue as

to how to regulate inflammationl'

Haskill's research followed an unorthodox path to the gene. The usual approach starts with a known protein, derives its amino acid sequence, and works back to the DNA sequence that would be expected to produce that specific nucleotide sequence. With the DNA sequence in hand, researchers then go to the Iibrary. This library, Genbank, holds not books but the collection of all known genes in the plant and animal kingdoms-some 40,000 genes at this point. The hope is that the computer will find homologues, genes from other organisms with a sequence similar to the new gene, providing evidence about the new gene's function. So researchers were stimulating monocytes with viruses and other insulting agents, giving the cells time to produce relatively large quantities of proteins, and then

trying to isolate that protein which would lead them back to the I kappa B gene. "We did it the opposite wayj' Haskill notes. "We started with the DNA; we asked, 'What new DNA sequences are used by monocytes when they adhere to the endothelium?' And we conceived at the very start that if you want to look at the things that regulate, you look at the beginning, not the endl' So instead of waiting hours as in other labs, Haskill's procedure was to test within 20 or 30 minutes after stimulating the monocytes because that, he reasoned, is how long it takes a gene t0 turn 0n. What turned up was a DNA copy 0f the RNA first produced by the reacting monocytes. A search of Genbank found homologues in a diversity of other organisms, and also revealed that because of a repetitive sequence of amino acids called ankyrin repeats in the protein produced by the new DNA, one of the closest homologues was the transcription factor NF kappa.

"We knew we really had something excitingl' recalls Haskill. "Every time ankyrin repeats are found in a protein, they are always involved with how a receptor on the cell surlace transfers information from the cytoskeleton to the nucleus. And because this sequence is so

identical from slime molds to fruit flies to humans, it has to be associated with an important function. Talking with Al Baldwin, our next-door neighbor in the Lineberger Center, we started to realize some other characteristics of this protein made it look like what other scientists had been searching for, this I kappa B. So graduate student Amer Beg in Al's laboratory did all the assays, and lo and behold, right from the beginning it was very clear this was what it wasl' Intense scrutiny of the evidence by skeptical peers confirmed that the search was over. Now that the gene has been found, researchers are much closer to understanding inflammation. To study NF kappa's role, Haskill, Baldwin and others are making mutants that overexpress the inhibitor, deactivating the NF kappa gene. They will then be able to find out whether NF kappa is an essential regulator of the monocyte's response to infection, or whether there is yet another regulator above it in the system. Borrowing basketball terminology, Haskill explains how close researchers are: "You can't go much farther back than the gene that regulates the gene, so in a sense we're in

the final four at this pointi' Haskill believes that research such as this will ultimately lead from understanding the inflammatory response to regulating it. By finding whether any genes regulate NF kappa B, as well as the sequences of genes it triggers in the system (another project under way in Haskill's laboratory), researchers are opening

lifetimes. As Haskill points out, "lt isn't going to be in the pharmacy this year, or this century, b:u| il's certainly going to be available soon. There will certainly be gene-specific therapyi' North Carolina is situated to play a strong leadership role in these new developments. Haskill attributes this position to a combination

of factors, beginning with government policy. "There's a center of excellence in this state. [Then-]governor Jim Hunt recognized the importance

of molecular biology and

supported

it very early,

and the legislature has supported the Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center as an online budget itemi' As the state's reputation in molecular biology grew, increasing numbers of talented professors and graduate students have been attracted to centers like UNC-CH, where they can share ideas that accelerate the pace of discovery. This com-

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the door t0 a new world of therapy. These studies may establish a foundation for treal ment of autoimmune diseases, diseases like arthritis in which the immune system destroys healthy cells. They may also lead to breakthroughs against diseases in which the immune response is suppressed: Haskill is working with

cell lines engineered to chronically express the

munication is critical; Haskill stresses that he would not have recognized the importance of the protein he discovered without constant contact with Al Baldwin and his researchers in the biology department. Ultimately, the public must learn the basics about the issues underlying molecular biology in order to contribute to the policy process. "Molecular biology is not a new frontier anymore; this is the wave of medical research and the changes are going to be dramaticj' predicts Haskill. "You need to understand the concepts of how molecular biology works. lt's absolutely going to mold your future for health carel'

inhibitor, studying how the AIDS-causing virus exploits NF kappa B to reproduce within human cells. Miracles will not happen overnight. Haskill emphasizes that a patient would not benefit from an injection of I kappa B: the inhibitor could not enter the cell nucleus to participate in the chemical reactions initiated by the genes. The inhibitor and NF kappa will instead find immediate use in testing potential drug treatments for inflammatory response malfunctions.

Directly testing the effects of substances on the regulatory genes of engineered cell lines allows researchers to check thousands of potential drugs for a specific effect far faster and more accurately than using animal models. Molecular biology has provided not only a

better method of testing traditional drugs, but the possibility for development of a new generation. "Radically new kinds of therapy are going to come out of thisl' Haskill asserts. "Once we understand how a gene works, we have the ability to make a drug which only works on one genei' Drugs that target a single malfunction without side effects, smart bombs to be added to the immune system's arsenal against disease, will be produced within our

Steven Haskill's research discussed in this article was supported in full by a grant from the National Institutes of Health.

voRs

A liestament to Change Religious Studies Professor Tracks Alterations

in the Bible

by Lisa Blansett

HE Bible may not be the fixed and stable entity many believe it to be. For example, the New Revised Standard Version Bible, just published last year, contains the familiar story of a woman caught in adultery, a tale found in John 7:538:11. This story, however, is not found in any of the earliest manuscripts of John. Why was this story added t0 some and omitted from other manuscripts of the Fourth Gospel? These are among the issues being investigated by Bart Ehrman, assistant professor of religious studies.

In his current project, he examines how the religious controversies of the second and third centuries A.D. may have affected scribes who copied-and changed- New Testament manuscripts. In the second and third centuries there was not a complete text of the New Testament, only discrete books, such as the Gospels of Mark and of Luke, circulating at different times. Before the advent of printing, scribes were responsible for copying texts. These scribes, for the most part members 0f the literate elite, generally copied the manuscripts for their own use or for early Christian congregations. During this period, and even now for that matter, there were many different versions of Christianity with conflicting doctrines and beliefs. "lt was also a time.' says Ehrman, "before there was a set orthodoxy or dotlrine within the Christian Church: All sorts of peopie believed all sorts of thingsi' According to Ehrman, while many Christians believed in only one God, some claimed there were tlo gods. others argued that there were 30, and yet

others insisted there were some 365. These theologicai conflicts found their way into different copies of New Testament texts. "The scribesl' says Ehrman, "actually changed the texts they copied so that they would embody their point of view more closelyi' Ehrman concentrates specifically on the Christological

controversies-that is to say, the theological interpretation of Christ and his works and their impact on surviving New Testament manuscripts.

This kind of research is not a purely antiquarian concern. Indeed, it relates rather closely, if unexpectedly, t0 recent developments in literary theory. Ehrman believes, along with other reader-response theorists, that readers construct meaning. "Meaning isn't some kind of objective entity that's ready to leap off the page if you look hard enoughl' says Ehrman.

'A typical reader-response theorist claims that when readers construe a text they, in a sense, rewrite the textl' Scribes literally rewrote texts, copying fiom previous texts, thus putting Ehrman in the unique position of being able to track changes from one text to another. "ln the manuscripts we have actual data for a readerresponse analysis that isn't available with texts produced by machinesl' says Ehrman. As the readers and scribes of this period were surrounded by debates over orthodoxy, the cultural milieu informed the scribes' various readings 0l the text. "When scribes changed the text, they weren't necessarily being malicious or duplicitous, they copied what they saw therel' says Ehrman. "But what they saw there was not always what was originally therei' Each succeeding form of the text, then, springs from a culturally informed space, with no one form more "correct" than the other. "l don't take an epistemological standl' says Ehrman. "lt's just an interesting phenomenon that scribes did what I think we all do whenever we read a text: we rewrite it in our heads. The scribes just took this act of interpretation a step further, by actually rewriting the text 0n the pagei' 0ne of the many Christological visions dancing in scribes' heads during the second and third centuries involved the question of whether Christ was human or divine. Part of this controversy can be found in readings of Luke's and Mark's accounts of Jesus' baptism. "The earliest textual witnesses of Luke indicate that when Jesus was baptized, as he came up out of the waters, a voice from heaven said, 'You are my son, today I have beqotten youl a

quotation of the second Psalm. In Mark, by comparison, the voice says, 'You are my beloved

son in whom I am well pleasedi " Luke's version would seem to say that Jesus was born human and then elected, or adopted, as God's son, while Mark's story supports the now more familiar idea that Jesus was already God's son before his baptism. "ln almost all of the later manuscripts of Luke, the voice has been changed so that it says exactly what it says in Markl' says Ehrman. "The scribes took offense and changed the text so that an adoptionist couldn't use it as a proof texti' The conflicting versions of Christ's lile and works reflect a larger struggle over which of the various early Christian sects was to hold power and thus determine what was orthodoxy and what was considered heresy. Ehrman has found that few scholars have linked the political struggles of early Christianity to the writing and copying of sacred texts. "By considering these aspects of religious polemicsl' says Ehrman, "the study shows the close relationship of language and socio-political reality. Religious polemics always have social and poiitical implicationsi'

E.If

Victorian Women on the Verge Art Historian Examines the Borders of Representation in Victorian Culture by Lisa Blansett

f f ? HEN Carol Mavor. assistant professor UfU ,i art history, was a periormance artist Y Y *or*,ns rowaro ner masters or rrne arts in visual arts at the University of California, San Diego, she created a piece called .41rce Malice. Larger-than-life sets and characters loomed around her while she talked about Lewis Carroll, psychoanalysis, the real Alice

and feminism, among other issues. In one performance of the series, a little pig scurried around the stage. But the performances were not meant to be all fun and games. In fact, according to Mavor, quite a tension developed as the performances/lectures moved toward more theoretical issues and feminist inquiries. "People had to listen and think, not just be entertainedl' remembers Mavor. After these auspicious beginnings, Mavor earned her doctorate at the University of California, Santa Cruz's History of Consciousness program. She still adds performative aspects t0 her work. As she lectures or writes she creates a text that is always mobile, always challenging, always pushing

against and transgressing assumed borders. In her most recent work on images of Victorian women, Mavor examines not only the images themselves but our reading of those images. "l'm interested in disrupting a lot of

feminist texts that have been written on gender difierence-works like Nina Auerbach's [,/oman as Demon, Bram Dijkstras ldols of Perversity, Lynda Nead's Myths of Sexuality and Martha Vicinus' Suffer and Be Still," says Mavor. While each of these texts makes important feminist arguments-Auerbach for example, was pro-

bably the first to read Victorian women as powerfully subversive-none unravels all the complex issues that were played out in representations of women. "These texts see women as either victimized or as highly

I think both stories are true and both stories are not true]' argues Mavor. This place where the stories are both true and not true, this place of unresolvable dil subversive.

ferences is an "utopic" one, according to

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Mavor. She does not use the idea of Utopia or the neologism "utopic" in the benign sense 0f a place where everyone lives happily ever after, but in the sense of French theorist lrouis Marin: a place where a constant play exists among disparate parts. "How the female body was written in the visual world of Victorian culture was always changing in this utopic sense: the female was both not sexual and highly sexuall' says Mavor. Mavor finds the perfect example of these contradictions in the "Cult 0f the Little GirU' a phenomenon which makes up the first chapter of the book she is working on while a Fellow at the Institute for Arts and Humanities. "The

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with them, but he also photographed many of them. Critics seem t0 fall into predictable arguments on the status of these photographs.

says Mavor. "She appears nonthreatening, but

Some see the images as purely innocent depictions of female childhood and its interests. Others argue that Carroll was a pedophile who exploited the children for his own pleasure. Mavor finds a place betwixt and between

cites a painting of Ophelia by John Everett Millais. "She looks very beautiful and almost dead except that her lips are a vivid rose color, suggesting she might come t0 life at any timel' While this image seems t0 some t0 portray a masculine fear of women, melan-

from which t0 argue her position: "l'm interested

in seeing a complicitous relationship-

Some feminist theorists, particularly French theorists Julia Kristeva and Helene Cixous, have hailed Carroll's text as a feminine one that disrupts masculinist language. Carroll's text transgressed borders, as did his liie, particularly in his personal relationships with children. Not

how Alice and these other little girls participated in the kind of play themselvesl' she says. "lt's clear that Carroll had a sexual interest in these girls, but at the same time he was very giving and supportive in a way most adults would not have beenl' Her position does not rule out victimization, but instead allows for other readings as well. Interpreting one of Carroll's photographs, Mavor finds Agnes Grace Weld posing as Little Red Riding Hood, yet playing with the image we would expect. "The child's own willful play is apparent, visible in, for example, the intensity of Weld s eyes, ready to eat you as viewer upl' says Mavor. Another series of images in which Mavor finds the play of both highly charged and effaced

only did Carroll have female children as companions, inviting them to tea, corresponding

sexuality is in representations of women asleep. "The women depicted appear sexually availablel'

little girl is taboo, she's innocent; she's highly sexual, she's not sexuall' In this chapter she has chosen to focus on Lewis Carroll, famous for his relationship with the real Alice (Alice Liddell) and for authoring Alice in Wonderland.

at the same time she could suddenly awake and become a monstrous suffragettei' Mavor

cholia and sickness may well have been a way for women t0 escape the confines of their culture. The poet Christina Rossetti, sister to poet Dante Gabriel Rossetti, was often bed-

ridden. "She writes in one letterl' remembers Mavor, "how happy she was that she was sick so that she wouldn't be forced to be a governessl' If a woman was not married, according to Victorian standards she was redundant, expendable. Sickness or suicide provided one way t0 transgress these boundaries:

very tragic

way,

might addl' says Mavor. Men were not the only creators of the play

of representations-photographer Julia Margaret Cameron also worked in this space. Perhaps best known for her photographs of Darwin, Tennyson and several other stately Victorian men,

Cameron also created representations of the Virgin Mother, images that exhibit both purity

D.E.A.V.O.R.S

and sensuality. "l find these images to be very seductive and sexual especially in terms of touchl' says Mavor. "There is a maternality that emphasizes touch and sensuality as Madonna figures caress children, gestures that are repeated between the womenl' Because Cameron was a mother herself, because motherhood was such a sacrosanct space in

Victorian culture, she is never seen to be working exploitively or even sexually, in the way that many want to characterize Carroll. Yet many of her photographs of young girls, some

with genitalia exposed, have a sexual content equal to Carroll's. One of her models writes of being locked in a closet before the photograph so that she would achieve a more realistically melancholic look. "Her work is seen as pure innocence because she was a mother of eight children-she was the Victorian angel in the housel' says Mavor. Her privileged position, a woman of some leisure with servants, gave her the space to exist as an artist. At perhaps the opposite end of female space is Hannah Cullwick, who worked as a maid, though she was secretly married to poet Arthur Mumby. "She broke down the categories of what constituted working class or upper classl' says Mavor. Cullwick apparently preferred to remain a maid so that she could

retain a certain independence. 0n days when she was not scrubbing the flagstones in front

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of her place of employment, she posed in many costumes for photographs taken in popular studios. "Masquerading as a slave, or as a fine lady, or as [a] man, she would take on various characters]' says Mavor. Cullwick's penchant for portraying a slave, going so far as to call Mumby "Massal' has led many to read l)trilLr':lir Jt:'ri,i il:llit jlr I it \\ l, lifi'r .: iir,111, i.:lL r,':' lr .": rL

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the relationship as sadomasochistic. "l think it's more complicated than thatl' says Mavor. "Can we say that the pleasure was not hers because

it lits into this sadomasochistic

space?" Victorian women were denied access t0 spaces that gave them pleasure or fulfillment; they did not have the same access as men t0 writing or painting. To compensate, Victorian women found other places to create. "They often turned to their bodies as a kind of art work, or even as a kind of performative space]' says Mavor. While the women were definitely

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confined to spheres shaped by men, it is too reductive, according to Mavor, to read every Victorian female text as borne of misogyny and sub.jugation. "lt's true their actions are culturally informedl' she says, "but there is a kind of play and power in their workl' Mavor herself uses performative space, she says,

t0 restore 'play' to the utopic text and t0

embrace difference. She uses difference to make her work dynamic and exciting, not only in the written text, but also in the text as Iived. "l'm interested in the ways that some women are able to grab stereotypes of women

and make them their ownl' She plays with and within the cultural boundaries of stereotypes, creating a mobile space of her own that is always on the verge.

E.N.II

A More Livable Drug Nicardipine Improves Hypertensives' Quality of Life by Dottie f,orn

"ls your

present state of health causing problems with your work?" The questions are weighted to yield one overall score. After completing the questionnaire, subjects are randomly divided into two groups. Neither

eadaches, fatigue, insomnia and male

impotence affect many patients when they take drugs to reduce high blood pressure. The many side effects associated with such medication contribute negatively t0 a pa-

tient's sense of well-being or quality of life.

patients nor staff know which treatment patients receive. Says Ekelund: "We start patients with the lowest dose and check them every week. If their blood pressure doesn't drop enough, the dose is titrated (gradually increased) until we get a diastolic blood pressure below 901'

Lars Ekelund, associate research professor of medicine, however, recently completed a study indicating that nicardipine-a drug that became available for treating hypertension in 1989improves patients' quality of life while lowering

blood pressure as effectively as propranolol, widely used antihypertensive drug lound to worsen patients' quality of life.

to Ekelund, the study shows that the two drugs are equally efficacious. Patients'blood pressure is checked weekly during the titration and a four-week maintenance period. After the maintenance period, subjects complete a second NHP. The new quality of life score is compared to the According

Blood pressure, says Ekelund, refers to the pressure the blood exerts 0n artery walls as it

In individuals with high blood pressure, normal blood flow through the travels through them.

arteries is impeded because of genetic flaws, disease or lifestyle factors such as cholesterol accumulation 0n artery walls, or a stressinduced constriction of blood vessels. Because it places an increased burden on the heart and blood vessels, high blood pressure can result in

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nicardipine patients' quality of life improved by

congestive heart failure, kidney failure, stroke and coronary artery disease. Propranolol and nicardipine-the two drugs tested by Ekelund-belong t0 two different types of antihypertensive medication-beta blockers and calcium channel blockers. Beta blockers such as propranolol, says Ekelund,

a promising alternative, Ekelund compared the drug to pro-

lower the heart rate by preventing beta receptors in the heart from responding to hormones that stimulate the heart to beat faster whenever the body performs mental or physical activity.

underrepresented in medical studies. Ekelund studied 343 participants in 20 different centers around the United States. In each center, patients with a diastolic blood pressure over 95 were recruited. After a run-in period, during which patients were treated with placebo pills, subjects were administered the Nottingham Health Profile (NHP). This 45-question scale, says Ekelund, measures the impact of disease and medical procedures on the subject's well-being. The scale asks respondents to answer "yes" 0r "n0" t0 queries that include: "l have pain at night" and

Beta blockers cause many who take the drugs, especially those who exercise, to complain of fatigue. Calcium channel blockers like nicar-

dipine, on the other hand, relax arterial muscles by blocking the normal influx of calcium which causes these cells to contract. When arterial muscles relax, resistance to blood flow decreases and the blood pressure drops.

baseline score obtained prior to medication therapy. The NHP scores are rated on a scale from 0-100. The mean changes from the baseline score indicate that propranolol patients' quality of life worsened by 28 points, while

Because nicardipine seemed

pranolol, studying both drugs' efficacy and their impact on patients' quality of life, work and productivity. One strength of his study, says Ekelund, is that 28 percent of the participants are African-Americans, a population often

seven points.

Ekelund finds that nicardipine's beneficial effect is more pronounced in males and those over 60. The NHP show that the drugs differ the most in their impact on energy, sleep, mobility, sex life, and interests and hobbies. Nicardipine's positive impact on quality of

life is important, says Ekelund, because it can make patients more compliant with a medication regimen. Because high blood pressure does not manifest itself in outward symptoms, many patients are reluctant to take a medication that makes them feel worse. Ekelund's study also found that, unlike beta blockers, nicardipine has no negative effect on cholesterol levels. In previous longitudinal studies, beta blockers proved no more effective than placebos in preventing mortality from cardiac heart disease. Ekelund's study indicates that those suffer-

ing from the side effects of antihypertensive drugs may have an alternative. Nicardipine seems a more livable drug.

On the Job New Patterns

in the Labor Market

by Scott Lowry

in a woman's decision to work?" His findings

NCE upon a time in the land of Suburbia, a beautiful princess and a handsome prince fell in love. They got married and lived happily ever after. That is to say, in this fantasy rooted in the years just after World War [, he got a good full{ime job while she stayed home to raise their three lovely children.

After the children had grown up and started their own wonderful families, she had some time to devote to community service, while he continued the old nine{o-five until retiring at age 72. They then moved to Florida to watch the sun set on their declining years as they reminisced about the good old days. If some members of the middle and upper classes found this fairy tale to be true in the 1950s, by the 1990s most Americans found it to be only fiction. Chances are good today that young children will be in day care while the adults from their single-parent or dual-career families are at work. 0r that if one parent, most likely the mother, stays home, that parent will provide the neighborhood's informal daycare center. And Grandpa is more likely than not to retire before he is 65-but less likely to stay retired. Professor David

M. Blau of the Department

of Economics has spent the past few years studying these changes in the labor market. "The structure of the labor force, the idea of who should work and who shouldn't, has been changing dramatically since World War lll' he says. "lt's become much more common for married women with young children to work, and for older men to spend a large number of years in retirement enjoying Ieisurel' These

in and of themselves, Blau continues, but he is even more interested in how economic analysis of this new structure can contribute to determining the actual effects of government policies intended to improve the labor market. Blau wants to bring facts to the debate over how well the child-care market is working and whether the government should intervene.

trends are fascinating

indicate that cost is indeed a factor, with more mothers entering the labor pool when childcare cost drops. But labor economists are having trouble determining just how much effect cost has on that decision. "The factor that really complicates analysis is that families essentially choose how much to pay for child care by choosing a level of quality, which could range from a neighbor who doesn't have any

training to an accredited day-care center with highly{rained teachersl' says Blau. "To infer the effects of cost of child care, you really need to standardize the level of qualityl'

Until economists develop a better understanding of child-care quality, they cannot disentangle its effects on child care. Blau hopes to collaborate in the near future with a child

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development psychologist who has developed specific measures of quality. Testing whether parents are willing to pay more for higherin

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"The debate tends to be at an emotional levell' he nctes. Even where agreement has been reached, there has been little consideration of cause and effect. "For examplel' he says, "there is a consensus now that child-care subsidies are a good thing, but that consensus is based more 0n intuition and not really on any kind of explicit calculation. Will there be a higher probability that a child would graduate from high school as a result of child care at ages 2 and 3, or that a woman will have higher lifetime earnings as a result of not losing the years of experience? These things are more 0r less accepted on faithl' So Blau turned to the basics to find the hard information needed for rational debate and policy-making. "The first thrust of the researchl' he says, "established the basic economic facts on the demand side of the market. Do families take into account the cost of child care? And how much of a factor is it

quality child care and whether they are willing

to trade off quality for other features of childcare arrangements such as convenience, reliability and values shared with the provider will provide a better basis for predicting how demand for child care would respond to changes in government policies. Demand is only one side of the labor market; supply must also be considered for effective policy-making. Again, the debate is dominated by conventional wisdom rather than factual information. "There is a perception that something is fundamentally wrong with the child-care market, that pay shouldn't be so low and that government intervention is necessary]'

Blau says. His research leads Blau to believe that continued low pay despite a fourfold increase in government subsidies since 1976 is the result not of a malfunctioning market but of one that has a huge pool of people, mostly women, willing to offer their services. "There are many women who are taking care of their own children and see an opportunity to make some extra money taking care of another child.

This large supply of potential child-care workers tends to put a ceiling on wagesi' Congress in 1990 passed a package of child-care legislation, the first major policy revision in years. Blau notes that congressional debate centered on what types of subsidies should be increased, without any examination of whether subsidies had proven nationally beneficial. Conservatives argued that all should receive subsidies, including mothers who choose to stay home to care for their own

children. Others supported limiting subsidies to parents who paid for child care, while a third faction wanted to underwrite only direct subsidies to child-care centers meeting prescribed standards, encouraging parents t0 seek "high-

quatity" child care. Although Congress merely tried to please all sides by increasing all types of subsidies, Blau is optimistic about future policy-making: "Proposals from economists didn't end up as part of the package, but at least they were given fairly serious consideration, which is really encouragingl'

While policy-makers, psychologists and children's advocates pay increasing attention to economic research on child care, labor economists have begun exploring the far end of the work cycle. Retirement issues may soon demand as much attention as child-care issues do today, as changing retirement patterns further threaten the solvency of the Social Security system. Blau's initial research in this area, like that of virtually all his colleagues, has focused 0n men because of a dearth of data on women, who have not held career{rack positions in large numbers until recently. One trend jumps out from the available data. "0lder men are much less likely to work now than they were 40 years ago]' Blau reports. "Leisure in a very real sense is something you can purchase. To the extent that pension and Social Security coverage and benefits have gone up since Wodd War II, men may simply feel wealthier and want t0 use some of that wealth to retire earlier and enjoy more leisurel' There has been debate about whether the early retirement provisions of pension plans and Social Security are the primary causes of this trend, or whether early retirement instead reflects changing social values about the acceptability of long retirement. Using data gleaned

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from a Social Security Administration survey, Blau found sharp increases in retirement numbers in the few weeks following the 62nd and 65th birthdays: dramatic evidence, he maintains, that the trend is linked to specific stimuli, notably the early and standard retirement ages under Social Security. Current retirement patterns are far more complex than the traditional model. More than one-third of older men n0 longer jump from career

t0 final retirement. Some may begin full-

time work elsewhere, others may take a parttime job, some may return to work months or years after retiring-and almost all earn much Iess than in the careers they retired from. "Many men through their actions express a preference for phasing gradually out of the Iabor force, which is remarkable because they're not earning a lot of money doing itl' Blau observes. "But the financial incentive to continue working past the earliest age at which

pension or social security benefits can be collected is often very weak. I don't think it was ever intended that the Social Security system should encourage people to retire earlier than they would have otherwise, and yet all the evidence we have suggests that that does in

fact happeni' Blau's research is poised to move from descriptive to predictive models. As policymakers face the task of finding ways to help retirees without encouraging experienced workers to quit still-productive careers, or of

figuring out affordable ways to help mothers of young children enter the labor market while simultaneously assuring that the quality of child care does not decline, Blau believes that economists will become an integral part of the process: "Economists have something unique to contribute to policy debates, and that is how people are likely to respond in practice to alternative

policiesl'

David Blau's research discussed in this article was supported in part by approximately $116,782 from the National Institute on Aging and $78,646 from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.

CAROLINA OPINION Mothels This colunn features information

Work

fron the

Carolina Poll conducted by

the UNC-CH School of Journalism and Mass Communication and the lnstitute for Research in Social Science.

by Beverly lYiggins

r, r r

ORKING women have changed the ruuor [orce,* out sociery cannot decide Iro* t0 treat them. paiticuiariy those Y who are mothers. Our ambivalence stems from a conflict between economic realities and

lit/

deeply-rooted social attitudes and practices. Working women hold down jobs to help their families keep pace with economic demands but

torth Garolinians' Attituder Do you agree

disagree that

pressures

0n women are increased

because,

should work if she has or chooses to, those same attitudes often dictate that child care is

woman's-not a family's-job. Thus, many women end up working a double shift, one at which they earn a wage, and a second unpaid shift at home, cooking, cleaning and taking care of children. These pressures are felt as intensely in North Carolina as anywhere else. The state's

Disagree

know Answer

Male

Female

Note:

Totals may

65+

Male Female

Don't

not equal

25-44 45-64 42 59 27 31 46 24 64 53 17 912 16 39

18-24

Male Female

Agree

while societal attitudes may say that a women

a preschool child suffers if his or her mother works?

Age

also to put their talents to work. The resulting

about Working Motterc

100 percent because

25 13

of rounding.

rate of employment among women for 1989, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, is 60 percent, making North Carolina lSth in

the nation. In the fall of 1990, a Carolina Poll conducted by the School of Journalism and Mass Communication and the Institute for Research

in Social

Science

at UNC-CH asked 822 adult

North Carolinians, "Do you agree or disagree that a preschool child is likely to suffer if his or her mother works?" More than one{hird of those polled, 38 percent, agreed with the statement.

Males were more likely than females to believe that preschool children are harmed if their mothers work. Forty-six percent of males, compared with 3l percent of females agreed

with the statement. Among married respondents, the difference was even greater. Half of married men and one-third of married women said that a preschool child suffers when his or

her mother works. White respondents of both sexes were more likely to agree than were African-American respondents. Younger respondents, those between the ages of 18 and 44, were less likely than those 45 and older t0 agree that a mother's working

is likely to harm her preschool child (34 percenl compared with 43 percent). The table shows

that among both the youngest respondents, those between the ages of 18 and 24, and the oldest respondents, those 65 or older, males and females were equally likely to agree with the statement. Differences between the sexes on

Beverly Wiggins is the Associate Director for Research Developnent at UNC-CH's Institute for Research in Social Science.

this attitude were present only among those 25 lo 64 years old-those most likely to be currently facing, or to have recently faced, this

the Labor Market."

dilemma. There are two possible explanations for the

in attitudes by sex among age groups. One explanation is that younger people are more equalitarian because they have not been faced with the realities of the situation. If this is true, we can expect that when these young adults are actually faced with working, or have wives who work instead of staying home to care for young children, their attitudes will change. Another possible explanation, however, differences

is that male attitudes are changing. Perhaps child care is coming to be seen as a family responsibility, rather than solely a woman's responsibility. If so, as the younger generation gets older, we should see sex differences

disappear.

rSee page 19

"0n the Job: New

Patterns in

WHAT IS. .

VITA

a Prime Number Good for? Jack Griffith

rr !{

at UNC-CH have interests ranging far beyond the bounds of their ILspecialties. Listen to Jack Griffith eulogizing his serval, a 60-pound African cat that recently died of a brain tumor after living with him for

*l) Jane Filer

ESEARCHERS

13 years, The conversation ricochets

grey-

hounds, Jaguars (the car, not the cat), Mustangs (the airplane, not the car), then to scientists, and on to photography, electron microscopes

?$*

a nevt department that allows readers to get answers to life's little Endeavors prcsents

nysteries. We learned in junior high school that prime numbers are whole numbers divisible only by themselves and one, but we couldn't help but think, "So what? Theres no use

for themi' Wrong.

Professor Douglas Kelly of the Department of Mathematics reports that publickey cryptography now makes prime numbers useful to everyone from bankers to spies. Cryptography involves encryption and decryption: transforming a text into new symbols, then returning it to the original state to be read. Even complex cyphers have proven vulnerable to those determined to crack them until prime numbers were applied to the problem. Wilh public-key cryptography, the encryp

and flashlights-all in just five minutes. Now a professor of microbiology and director of the electron microscopes at the Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Research Center, Grilfith won his reputation among genetic researchers by inventing technology for visualizing DNA and DNA protein complexes with the electron microscope and applying that technique to chromosome structure and virus studies. Not one t0 rest on his reputation, he is currently throwing himself into four major research projects at once. "We've got one

on how DNA molecules in human cells recombine]' he enumerates. "l'm on one of the national study sections on the AIDS virus, and on the project mapping the human genome. Then there's a fairly large project studying pro.iect

basic DNA structure.

All

revolve around elec-

tron microscopy-we don't do lust that, but it's our special nichel' As if his many research

projects weren't enough to satisfy him, Griffith also teaches one course on genetics and another on scientific writing and grant writing. Griffith recalls a psychological profile of scientists which noted their abitity to defer reward for extended periods. He agrees, but offers a caveat. "lf you focus on the scientists who are doing forefront things, they're very seldom people who are single-mindedly obsessed with science. Scientists have discovered that they need to balance things,

whether it's with family or traveling or hobbies or painting or whatever. 0therwise they can get so caught up in the dayto-day experiments that it's easy to miss the big picturei' To counter the stress of projects that can take months to produce results, Griffith immerses himself in activities that provide more immediate returns. One such pastime has been restoration of Jaguar automobiles. "l had three Jags in graduate school at one point, because it didn't cost muchl' he remembers. "l would drive 'em, fix them up, sell 'em. It was a Saturday afternoon endeavor, something to get me out of the labl' Working on Jaguars, as famous then for their unreliability as for their performance, provided relief from the protracted projects of microbiology research, an escape still available with the vintage Jaguars he

tion key can be made available to everyonq so that anyone can send confidential information to the receiver. Decrypting the messages is possible only by the receiver, who alone knows the two huge prime numbers that were multiplied together to make the key and which are necessary t0 decrypt the message. Credit agencies, for examplg could receive information about consumers from banlm and stores with the key, but none of them could violate consumer prirracy by decrypting the files. Sheer size is the trick. Kelly uplains that if two thirty-digit primes were used, the number of primes that a cypher breaker would have to test would be staggering. Even today's supercomputers would take

billions of years to run through the

possibilities.

So why is the sky Carolina blue? Send

your vexing perplesrity fo

CB#

4100, 304

Bynum Hall, or

Endeavors,

all

96c.5625.

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presently owns: an XK-140 sports car and a Mark IX sedan. "[t's very relaxing]' Griffith smiles. "Maybe the horn dies. You don't know

what the problem is, so you track it down, discover Aha!' It was the horn button. So you redo the wires and at the end of the evening you push the button and go 'Honk, honkl You spent two hours and you have a positive resulti' Another favorite escape is flying, an interest which has captivated Griffith since his childhood spent near a seaplane base in Alaska. Criffith owns a Cessna 172, which he describes as the most popular single-engine airplane ever made because of its safety record, versatility and inexpensive operation. He is beginning to consider buying something a little faster with longer range; the Cessna 182 appeals to him as a sensible step up. Ask him what airplane he really wants, and sensibility is thrown to the winds. 'A P-51 Mustangl' he replies with a laugh of delight. "Jim White, who just retired from the biochemistry department as a professor, flew Mustangs in World War II. It was the ultimate refinement of the single-engine propeller-driven fighter: fabulous range, efficient, very flyable, very quick, responsivel' There is a catch. "They now cost about $600,000, and there are only about a hundred of them leftl' Griffith says. "People are beginning to wonder whether you should even fly them. They're almost better kept in museumsl' If he were to fly a Mustang, Griffith would assuredly not risk it against the cliffs of a box canyon. Not that he does not know how to cope with the special dangers of such flying; he has learned many of the tricks for surviving canyon flights in lessons from some of the bush pilots whose small planes link the remote reaches of Alaska with the rest of the state. The activity demands not only a skillful pilot but also the right airplane: one that is not only powerful and agile, but also able to fly slowly enough to complete a turn within the canyon walls if the need arises. Machines designed for high-speed performance, such as the Mustang, are simply the wrong tool for the job. Griffith brings this awareness of appropriate roles for machines to his laboratory. The electron microscopes he works with are not only wonderful devices for revealing molecular structure, but also for exposing flaws in experiments. As Griffith sees it, "The advantage of being able to see what's going on with an electron microscope is that it's constantly

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bringing you back to reality. It's like you're the only one in a cave with a flashlight. If you didn't have that flashlight, didn't have the electron microscope, you could go off on a tangent forever, not realizing, for example, that what you thought was a fulllength DNA molecule was actually just a pile of pieces. ['m very visually oriented, so it's exciting to see these molecules. 0ther people are oriented around genetics; I can't think that way. I tell people I'm not very bright, so I take picturesi'

This picture{aking is central to all four of his current research projects. He also probably holds an unofficial record with three photographs from his lab gracing the cover of the respected journal Ce11. 0utside the laboratory, photography is one of his primary hobbies. Mounted photographs of Cessnas and servals, molecules and cells are scattered across walls and shelves; cameras and other equipment act as paperweights atop stacks of journals and monographs. As with s0 many of Griffith's interests, the subject matter at work may vary from that of play, but the approaches are tied closely together.

Some of his interests may involve more

risk than most people seek, but Griffith is no feckless daredevil. The same attenti0n to detail that brings him back safely from the skies

him well in his profession. "You get to living with checklists and making sure

serves

used

that you don't miss thingsl' he says about flying. He brings his so-called airplane philosophy to the classroom when he teaches his course on scientific writing and grant writing. "Pilots live by checklists if they want to live. Researchers' lives hang on getting grants, and so they need checklists for scientific writing, particular-

ly grant writing. I'm on a study section fthat reviews grant proposals] that went through 80 grants last week. There were famous scientists landing backwards, famous scientists Ianding

with their wheels up, landing at 100 miles an hour-every mistake in grant writing. Excellent scientists, but they missed their checklistsl' Griffith wants t0 help his students learn to avoid such fatal mistakes. After all, there are t00 many exciting things that need to be done, t00 many interests to be explored. I

SCHOTARLY PURSUITS "Why Do Birds Sing So Gay?"

r ! I

N the'50s tune "Why Do Fools Fall in Love?l' Frankie Lymon aslsihis very question. To the

l0 seconds later, they'd hear the second quarter and the fourth quarter. I went down to chunks

'sor pop iinger and ,any un imaginative

about a sixth of the length of the song, so a bird

listener, birds seem to burst into song for the same

would hear

1,3 and 5;

then 2, 4 and 6l'As the

love-for the

birds have evolved in an open, windy environ-

joy of it. But love and ioy do not have much to do with why birds sing. According to Mike Green, a doctoral candidate in biology, only male birds sing

ment, Green expected that they would respond strongly to the amplitude-fluctuated songs.

reason that Lymon sings fools fall in

and they do so for a quite explainable reason-to survive. Bird songs help males defend territory and attract mates. Female birds do not sing,

although they do make shorter sounds known as calls, used for shorter-distance communication, as between mates 0r to keep a flock together. Fundamental to Green's research is an understanding of how sound behaves in North Dakotas rolling plains of grass that serve as the breeding ground for the Baird's sparrow Because sounds in the grassland are disrupted by wind and temperature patterns in the atmosphere, singing does not mean that a song

will be coherent once it

has traveled across the open fields.

broadcast

different frequencies of sound and re-recorded them at different distances such as 25, 50 and 75 meters and in different wind conditionsl' says Green. His data show that the wind causes the amplitude or loudness of sound to fluctuate, essentially blowing away sections of sound. Green's research suggests that birds in such environments-because they may hear only parts of other birds' songs-have evolved means t0 communicate despite these constraints. To ask the birds, in effect, whether they could understand songs in spite of this amplitude fluctuation, Green recorded and then manipulated bird songs and played them back to the birds, gauging their reaction.

"lf

you play back an

unmanipulated song in a male songbird's territory, the male gets all upset. The male think, 'Oh, a

Green also prepared a reverberated version of each song. 0nly woodland birds face reverberation, says Green. "With trees all around, sound bounces around off the leaves and branches and has mul-

tiple pathways to the receiver. You have direct waves and delayed waves that take a little bit longer to get therd'says Green. Because birds in open habitats don't have reverberations to deal with, Green predicted that the grassland birds would not respond as strongly to the reverberated songs. Each year, Green used three different birds' songs, and produced control, amplitude-fl uctuated

and reverberated versions of each song. He played back only one recording to each bird, so as not to run into problems with birds who might be more

or less sensitive to a second playback. He played back recordings t0 an average of 35 birds each summer for three years. After preparing his recordings, Green arrived in North Dakota in May of each year. "You try to arrive iust before the birds dol'says Green. "Suddenly, you wake up in the morning, and it's noisy because all the birds are singingl'The first few weeks are spent mapping out the birds' territories.

staked out a

little over 200 acres with stakes

Dodoral studcnt l\,like Green s rcsearch suggests that il a sparrow hears even part of a song, the bird will understand it. I']hoto l\{ike Green

Then he'd hop around and fly back and forth and try t0 attack the speaker. This would go on throughout the two minutes. Then I'd shut off the playback and watch his behavior for the following l0 minutes. The bird would gradually become less agitatedl' To gauge how strongly the bird responded to

the song, Green noted the bird s actions:

"[[

every 50 meters north, south, east and west. The

recorded] how closely they approached the

markers helped me figure out where I wasj' says Green. "Every year this 200 acres was filled with

speaker; how much time they spent within l0

about 60 breeding malesl' The males never seem

to leave their territories, explains Green. "By chasing them several times and going to places where they drop down in the grass you can get a g00d

meters of the speaker; how many times they changed perches; and how quickly they initially respondedl' He found that the Baird's sparrows responded just as strongly whether they heard the full song, or one-half, two-fourths or three-sixths of it. "The birds didn't respond nearly as strongly to the reverberated songs as they did to the control songs.

competitor is here in my territory-he wants to mate with my female or take overl " Green explains. Each year, Green used bird songs he had

of particular Baird's sparrows' songs, allowed

recorded the summer before. He played back an

him-amazingly-to identify individual

unmodified version of each song as a control and amplitude-fluctuated versions of the same song to

Green was then ready to begin the playbacks. 'l'd go into a bird's territoryl' says Green, "set a speaker

The more I reverberated the song, the less they respondedl' His study implies, says Green, that animals have evolved as we would expect them to,

test bird response. The amplitude- fluctuated ver-

down and run the speaker wire about 30 meters

given the constraints in their environment.

sion had chunks taken out of it, s0 that it resembl-

away. I'd wait

ed a song whose loudness changes in the wind.

50 meters of the speaker, and the speaker was pointed at the bird. Then l'd start the playback,

"The birds always heard half the songl' says Green. "But which parts they heard varied. The first year, they'd hear the first half of the song, and then a natural song interval later, 10 seconds later, they'd hear the second halfl' says Green. "The

idea of their territory perimeterl' Green's

territorial maps, and his recognition

till

birds.

thd bird was singing within about

which was the songs of a particular treatment repeated every ten seconds for two minutesl'

'A potent song would get an immediate

ln other words, Green's research suggests that the better a bird in a windy and open grassland can understand an amplitude-fluctuated song, the more likely it is to survive-and reproduce. Without this communication, a male can neither defend territory nor attract mates. "Everything

next year I took out smaller chunks. They would

responsel' says Green. "The bird would leave his perch and fly directly to the speaker, sometimes

birds do [has] a purpose; that's a fundamentall' says Green. So, why do they sing? Birds sing to

hear the first quarter, then the third quarter, then

overshoot it and sometimes land in front of it.

survive.