Hold That Thought

In theaters and classrooms around the world, audiences and students experience the stories and emotions behind plays penned thousands of years ago by writers like Euripidies, Plautus, and Terence. But how do these modern encounters compare with original performances, and how are scholars even able to determine what it might have been like to view one of these plays in its original setting? Timothy Moore, professor and chair of classics at Washington University in St. Louis, describes the historical context of Greek tragedies and shares his own research into the music of ancient Roman comedies.

We've all been there: staring at the ceiling at 2:43 a.m., unable to fall asleep while the world slumbers around us. How do our internal clocks stay synced to our environment? What exactly do they control? Might future research provide relief for late-night workers or the jet-lagged when the natural rhythms of the body are disturbed? Erik Herzog, professor of biology at Washington University in St. Louis, explains how the brain's "master clock" works and how genetic mutations and natural toxins can influence our daily biological rhythms.

In a follow-up to the episode Global Cities, Carol Camp Yeakey, founding director of the Center for Urban Research and Public Policy at Washington University in St. Louis, shares her own work and describes some of the interdisciplinary issues that students and practitioners of Urban Studies confront today. Camp Yeakey's ongoing research projects include the forthcoming studies No Place to Be Somebody, about Detroit, and Up From Rust?: The Promise and Peril of Urban Renewal, about neighborhoods in Cleveland, Chicago, and Pittsburgh.

Creation doesn't happen in a vacuum. Artists and writers find inspiration in the world around them and in the work of their peers and predecessors. Today we offer a sneak peak into the new literary summer podcast series, Retellings, which will explore the complex web of inspiration and influence in literature. For this preview, host Rebecca King will introduce the series and provide a clip of her interview with Washington University alumna and current Writer-in-Residence Anton DiSclafani, whose first novel, The Yonahlossee Riding Camp for Girls, releases on June 4th.

The full interview with Anton can be heard on June 17th as the pilot episode of Retellings.

With the help of scientists like Sophia Hayes, associate professor of chemistry, new technologies may make it possible to remove the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, turn it into a solid, and store it in a safe environment elsewhere. Hayes uses a technique called nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) to understand the structure of materials, including carbon dioxide. Hear her describe this research project, explain how NMR works, and reveal how “the magic angle” – a Washington University innovation – changed the field.

In the late 1980s, Marla Sokolowski noticed that if she placed fly larvae on a pile of yeast in a petri dish, some would sit and eat the yeast which they sat upon, while others would move, creating wild trails through the yeast as they ate. What makes some larvae rove around, while others simply sit and eat? And what do these fly larvae have to do with bees? Yehuda Ben-Shahar, assistant professor of biology, returns to continue his discussion on how genes can affect behavior and the various ways the same genes express themselves across species.

In an increasingly global and interconnected world, cities across the world confront similar issues. Where and how are people to live as urban centers become both larger and more dense? What are the effects of urban renewal on lower-income populations, and what sort of government policies can help bridge the widening divide between the 'haves' and the 'have-nots'? Carol Camp Yeakey, founding director of the Center on Urban Research & Public Policy and Interdisciplinary Program in Urban Studies at Washington University in St. Louis, shares her perspecives on urban studies in a global context.

Between 1950 and 2000, some 60% of the built environment in St. Louis's Old North neighborhood was demolished, and the majority of its residents left the area. Abandoned buildings have fallen into disrepair, but should they remain standing? If the last houses on a block are torn down, leaving empty, litter-filled lots, how can we expect neighborhoods to repopulate and rebuild? Michael Allen, architectural historian and director of the Preservation Research Office in St. Louis, describes the ambiguous role of historic preservation in neighborhoods like Old North, and challenges us to see declining urban landscapes both for what they are and what they might become.

Cities are often synonymous with modernity, but what exactly does modernity look like? In cities with a colonial history, such as Algiers and Cairo, often there are two city centers, two hearts: one with narrow alleys and courtyards, the other with broad boulevards and European-style storefronts. These separate architectural identities have led scholars and visitors to describe such places as “dual cities,” but Nancy Reynolds, associate professor of history at Washington University in St. Louis, questions whether this label truly applies to the complex city of Cairo.

As the face of Chicago changed during industrialization, so too did its workforce. The city had become a bustling metropolis, but at what cost? Dangerous working conditions prompted the rise of organized labor and a progressive movement, championed by social reformers like Jane Addams and Florence Kelley. In the second part of our look at turn of the century Chicago, Margaret Garb, associate professor of history at Washington University in St. Louis, examines the social and political movements that took place in reaction to the rapid industrialization of the city.