March 11, 2010

The organ donation debate

By Kaitlin Warner The question of whether to donate organs after death is a topic that prompts much speculation and debate. Some people are resistant to the idea due to religious beliefs, but others, such as Mark Price, want to call for mandatory action.

A firefighter’s dream: flame-retardant fit

By Emmy Hayes The sun was glaring in the sweltering Texas heat, and Lynn Boorady was decked in 70 pounds of heavy firefighter gear. “They had me crouching, lunging, walking around with all that gear on,” Boorady says. The gear might not be as fashionable as what she wears to lecture every day, but for the assistant professor at MU’s textile and apparel management department, it was all in the name of firefighter safety.

Harvesting the soybean genome

By Megan Thomas Davis Consider a jigsaw puzzle. Hundreds, even thousands of pieces scattered about. Imagine how difficult it would be with no picture or directions to assemble the tangled mess. Biochemists face this dilemma constantly, and sometimes even they need a little guidance.

Piecing history together

By Anna Gaynor Todd and Christine VanPool aren’t a traditional couple. While others enjoy the first days of their marriage sightseeing or lying on a beach, the VanPools spent theirs taking tree samples on a Navajo reservation.

Remember me

By Amy Kluber The shortcomings of a short-term memory come into play when trying to remember that last item on a mental grocery list. MU Curators’ Professor of Psychology Nelson Cowan attributes this common funk to working memory, the small amount of immediately recallable information that is held in the mind at one time. “It’s how much is in your conscious mind, and it’s how we can sort of define this human feeling of being conscious,” Cowan says.

Stomp the yard

By Mallory Gnaegy Stephanie Manka could hear the agitated beast stomping around the perimeter of the Gabon field station. She could hear the massive four-legged animal ransacking the camp; then it recklessly ripped off the wooden paneling of her room. Panicked, Manka sought safety in another researcher’s cabin. Minutes later, the dangerous African elephant left. She wasn’t dealing with the average Dumbo.

Digging beneath the painted surface

By Lindsay Schallon Columbia College Sociology Professor Yngve Digernes delicately thumbs page by page through a fragile, 90-year-old Spanish newspaper. He doesn’t have a clue what the articles say, but the language barrier won’t stop him. Although it is a slow and daunting process, Digernes manages to flip through hundreds of issues until stumbling upon a key word in the copy: “Rivera.” Eagerly, he passes the article on to his translator and wife, Nancy Flores, and hopes he has finally found a key component of his research. He does this for several years of newspapers.

Revamping the learning process

By Mallory L. Hoke Donnybrook is an isolated town with a crazy old lady who lives on a bluff and a button factory on the other side of the tracks. Or at least that’s the way Kate Berneking Kogut sees it. As a playwright and assistant professor of English and creative writing at Stephens College, Kogut enthusiastically describes this imaginary post-World War II-era town that she and a handful of students brought to life last semester via an audio soap opera titled Dear Donnybrook.

Killer hobby

By Kelly Nelson Kortnie Ford has a hobby. But it isn’t your run-of-the-mill photography or playing Ping Pong. Her hobby is researching serial killers.

Lobes of spirituality

By Chelsea Deptula Neuropsychologist George “Brick” Johnstone points his finger at a black and white photograph pinned to a crowded bulletin board on his office wall. The image shows a large hole that measures about two inches in diameter in the back of a bald man’s head. “He was struck by lightning,” Johnstone says. “You could fit a V8 can inside that hole.”

Imprisoned art

By Maggie Menderski Therese Pfeifer spent a month in a Swiss prison, but her only crime is a passion for visual art. Last autumn, Pfeifer, an adjunct professor at the Stephens College School of Design and Fashion, transformed a cell of an abandoned prison to depict how time passes in confinement.

Clickable clothes

By Jessica Matteson Whether you rock leggings and Uggs or a leather jacket and gloves, it’s all fashion. And it’s exactly what Elizabeth DeMaria lives for.

Flashes of innovation

By Vox staff, multimedia by Sarah Herrera Eureka. It’s that moment of epiphany, a realization that’s career-defining, that trumps everyday findings and makes countless hours spent leafing through stacks of 90-year-old newspapers or painstakingly piecing together a genome worth it. Innovators as diverse as Albert Einstein, Gloria Steinem and Thomas Edison are permanent fixtures in our history because of their “Aha!” moments, and the people of Columbia are following in their footsteps. These individual breakthrough moments, such as managing populations of endangered forest elephants or creating better-fitting fire gear, affect more than just the researcher. They secure Columbia as a place where initial concepts turn into concrete realities.

March 04, 2010

Human trafficking in your own backyard

By Claire Hanan As a special investigator for the Cole County prosecutor, Schlup, 57, spends a great deal of his semi-retired work time and spare time investigating human trafficking cases throughout mid-Missouri. Although his name does not always appear in case dockets or witness testimony, Schlup is often a go-between, connecting different enforcement branches and following leads.

Medieval Times

By Seth Putnam On a sunny Saturday afternoon in October, Peace Park is alive with the sound of fighting. Shouts ring out; the clashes and clangs of swords bludgeoning helmeted heads fill the brisk air. It’s the din of war, and the dead are curled in fetal positions on the ground. A wedding party shows up, startled that the serene park the bride and groom planned to use for pictures has become an ancient battlefield.

February 25, 2010

True/False Ticket Process

By Chelsea Deptula Trash, dates and True/False Film Festival tickets. What do these three things have in common? You pick them up. Adding a personal touch to the festival ambiance, the True/False ticket process doesn’t let you just point, click and print.

Experience Matters

By Katlyn Keller Unless you snag the DeLorean from the Back to the Future trilogy, you won’t have enough time to catch all 40 films in this year’s True/False lineup. To ensure you pick the documentary that’s right for you, co-founder David Wilson and associate programmer Chris Boeckmann have selected the two films ideal for every experience level.

Beyond the Films

By Emmy Hayes

Reel P.O.V.

By Katlyn Keller The True/False Film Festival blows into town every February just as the cold is rushing out, but the film selection process gets underway before the winter chill has even begun. With hundreds of films flowing in from independent submissions, other festivals and big-time directors, the procedure is anything but simple. The destination might be True/False, but the journey to get here isn’t clear-cut.

Pieces of Stories

By Lauren Foreman For the past four years, each True/False documentary has been preceded with a short film called a bumper. Functioning like a trailer, this year’s creation demonstrates how one person’s small actions can benefit others.