Last Tuesday, the Missouri Supreme Court requested that the State Parole Board decide parole conditions for the woman, who is currently imprisoned.

Shirley Lute, 76, was convicted of aiding in the 1978 murder of her husband, Melvin Lute, who she said abused her. Her son, who was convicted of the actual murder, told officials that his mother had paid him to kill Melvin Lute for insurance money. Lute has consistently denied this claim.

“Her son [later] said that he made up everything about her being involved because he was angry with her because he thought she’d turned him in for the murder,” said Jane Aiken, William M. Van Cleve Professor of Law and director of the Civil Justice Clinic.

In reality, the son’s girlfriend turned him into the police.

Aiken first started working on the case when a group of law professors statewide convened to form the Missouri Clemency Coalition. Students at the Law School are assigned two to three cases a semester from the various law clinics.

The coalition identified 12 women who were convicted of killing or aiding in the murder of their batterers; each woman had received excessively long sentences. One of them, Lute, was serving a life sentence for first-degree murder without possibility of parole for 50 years.

The legal legwork involved in Lute’s case focused on how the State Parole Board had interpreted requests for Lute’s chance at parole.

In 2004, Governor Bob Holden commuted Lute’s life sentence and asked the Parole Board to examine her parole conditions.

“The parole board evaluated [the request] and determined that the sentence that she had gotten was excessive and commuted her sentence from life without parole to life with parole,” said Aiken.

Unfortunately, the parole board had a change in personnel with the new administration and did not examine Lute’s case until six months later in 2005 when they decided to deny her parole.

“The [new] parole board had exceeded its authority by not following the governor’s intent in his commutations,” which had ordered that parole be included in Lute’s sentence, said Aiken.

Aiken and her students brought a habeas corpus petition saying that the board had ignored the governor’s intent and wrongfully kept Lute in prison, but again they were denied.

A habeas corpus petition is a writ that orders a person in custody to be brought in person before a court. It places the burden of proof on those detaining the person to justify the detention.

Undaunted by the request’s denial, Aiken and her students took the case straight to the Supreme Court, suing on habeas corpus and skipping over the Appellate Courts in the process.

Olivia Bradbury, a third-year law student who joined the case this past fall, wrote the habeas corpus brief.

“It was quite exciting,” said Bradbury. “We didn’t know if the court would be receptive.”

In the opinion from Tuesday’s ruling, Supreme Court Judge Mary Russell wrote that although the parole board had denied parole on the basis that parole would deprecate the seriousness of Lute’s offense, they must review the application.

Former Governor Holden issued an affidavit supporting Lute, stating that, “the circumstances surrounding her offense, the inadequate defense presented in Ms. Lute’s trial, the lack of knowledge at the time of Battered Women’s Syndrome, the length of time she had spent in prison, her exemplary behavior while incarcerated, her age and health, and the fact that Ms. Lute had served the retributive and deterrent portion of her sentence” support her release.

Judge Stephen Limbaugh Jr. dissented, writing that Holden should not be allowed to reinterpret his 2004 statement.

“I am afraid to speculate what other kinds of orders and pronouncements of a governor who has left office might also be subject to this precedent,” he wrote in the Opinion.

The parole board plans to assess Lute’s case early this week, said Brian Hauswirth, spokesman for Missouri Department of Corrections and Parole Board.

“They’re going to review it as soon as possible and take a couple of days, review the findings and then take appropriate lawful actions to make a decision,” said Hauswirth.

Once parole conditions are finalized, Lute has two daughters ready to take her in. Lute has already spent 29 years in jail.

The Supreme Court also ordered that Lynda Branch, another woman convicted of killing her husband, should be set free. The Law Clinic at Mizzou, also members of the Missouri Clemency Coalition, worked on Branch’s case.

“We just spent so much time reading and researching, looking over the regulations, and doing a lot of brainstorming, analyzing sessions with Jane Aiken and [other clinic supervisors],” said third-year law student Yeena Yoon.

“The clinic really made a difference. It becomes really personal to you and you just want to work that much harder,” said Yoon.

“For a couple years now we have…known that we wanted to make some improvements,” said Dean of Students Justin Carroll. “What we need to do is get some consensus on what our plans and goals are and work toward finding the resources to make these improvements.”

The University has hired Hastings and Chivetta, a Clayton architecture firm with experience designing recreational complexes across the country. They may be more commonly known on campus as the designers of the Park and Mudd dormitories on the South 40.

Some of the new additions could include better fitness areas, an Olympic-sized swimming pool with room both for swimming teams and recreational swimmers, and an indoor track circling a multipurpose room that could be used for indoor tennis and other sports.

Roger Follmer, head coach for men’s tennis, said indoor tennis courts would not only help his team but would also increase class size for students enrolling in tennis classes.

“Every year we have a waitlist for PE [physical education] tennis,” said Follmer, adding that indoor tennis courts would “without a doubt” increase spots available for tennis classes.

Cold and wet weather often forces University tennis players to travel to other facilities where indoor tennis is available.

“We’ve had to go off-campus, which is a liability. I think indoor tennis would be great,” he said.

Jeff Stiles, track and field coach, would also welcome a few improvements.

“I would like to see an indoor track,” said Stiles. “A 200-meter track would benefit a lot of people.”

Carroll agreed, noting that the current indoor track leaves runners vulnerable to collisions with awry balls from the court below.

While no concrete plans or timeline exist, Carroll said the changes would not interfere with the University’s chances of hosting one of the 2008 presidential debates. Depending on funds, construction will not begin for at least one to two years. If the resources are readily available, the University will try to “do it all at once,” but adjustments to the Athletic Complex will most likely be completed in increments.

The new complex would be expanded to a bigger footprint than the one it currently occupies. Architects hope to take advantage of the space from the parking lot north of the Athletic Complex. The difference in elevation will also help architects save space by layering various gyms and rooms.

“I think it should be renovated first and foremost because it doesn’t fit the needs of our students right now. A lot of the facilities and equipment are old. Our peer institutions, like Emory or NYU, have a lot of cool things in their athletic facilities that we don’t have that attract students,” said Neil Patel, newly elected Student Union president.

The improvements may still be uncertain, but Carroll said that he hopes the new Athletic Complex will be able to cater to both athletics and major events.

“It’s the largest venue on campus for any kind of event,” he said, estimating that around 80 special events use the Athletic Complex every year. “One of the challenges is that any time there is a special event, it disrupts the regular users. Hopefully, one of the things that will be improved is not only gaining space, but gaining space that’s dedicated to athletics and recreation.”

Last semester, Aja Riley was busy caring for her 4-year old and two of her sister’s children, all while balancing her work at the Center for Social Development with her studies at the Brown School of Social Work.

“Even if I weren’t a parent, I would still get a higher education.” Riley, 28, said, “You need an education to make money.”

Shanta Pandey, associate professor of social work, was dismayed that mothers like Riley had to struggle with balancing their studies and even consider dropping out of higher education to make ends meet. Her recently published study, “Bachelor’s degree for women with children: a promising pathway to poverty reduction,” examines how both single and married mothers benefit financially from pursuing a bachelor’s degree.

According to the human capital theory, people with more education have more work experience and thus are more productive and have higher salaries.

Education is the major diffrence between poverty and affluence. In 2001, single mothers over 25 without a high school diploma were a little over 56 percent more likely to be below the poverty line. In the same year, only 10 percent of single mothers with a bachelor’s degree or higher were below the poverty line.

Married mothers over 25 showed a similar trend. In 2005, those without a high school diploma were below the poverty line at 21 percent, but mothers with a bachelor’s degree or higher only constituted 1.4 percent below the poverty line.

Pandey said that the Clinton’s welfare reform law in 1996 galvanized her to investigate how women on welfare would be affected. Currently, welfare pay is limited to five years. Unless the state offers funds on top of the federal welfare money, welfare recipients are restricted to about one year of secondary education.

But financial burdens as well as overwhelming responsibility has caused single parents to drop out at a rate of over 50 percent. Of 16 million undergraduates nationwide, 2.2 million of them are singles parents, according to a 2002 census conducted by the National Center of Education Statistics. Of these single parents, 70 percent of them are women.

Tiffany Powell, 36, had to drop out of Washington University last spring when the cost of living in St. Louis exceeded her income. She is currently finishing her master’s in social work at the University of Texas at Arlington. A single parent with a 10-year-old daughter, Powell said that while she enjoyed Wash. U., the transition from her native Texas proved difficult.

“Sometimes I had to bring my daughter with me to class,” Powell said. “I had to adjust my schedule and leave work, get my daughter and come back to work [study].”

Powell helped Pandey think of ways to improve services for single parents at Washington University, which she called a “traditional school,” for students without children.

In Pandey’s study, which she coauthored with two other social workers, in “Equal Opportunities International,” Pandey suggests that financial incentives should be offered for low-income students pursuing secondary education. Full-day childcare facilities, subsidized public transportation, and a mentorship program would also help married or single women.

“The ideal situation would be to go to school, get a job, get married and have children. That sequence may not be possible for all women,” Pandey said. “Welfare is no longer there. If they go out and find jobs, the jobs they find without a good education are jobs without healthcare benefits, and are often at odd hours because they have a childcare responsibility.

“The goal is to improve their human capital, in this case education, so they can find stable jobs.”

Riley agreed. “If you are a parent, and you are in a situation where you’re not only thinking of yourself, but also someone else, it’s better to go to school. A single person can’t make it on $5.15 an hour. A person with a child definitely can’t make it on $5.15 an hour.”

In the 2004 study, “Postsecondary Education and Economic Well-Being of Single Mothers and Single Fathers,” Pandey found that single mothers with four years or more of education earned on average $12,257 more per year than women with a high school education. Single fathers earned $16,624 more on average.

“Reinstituting these benefits are worth it,” Pandey said. “Education is expensive, but these people will be out of poverty for the rest of their lives.”

Four young men leaving a St. Louis nightclub were shot at early last week near campus, according to a press release from the University City Department of Police. The men, who were attacked by unknown assailants, attempted to escape in their vehicle, but were chased west down Forest Park Pkwy. and shot at as they neared the intersection of Forest Park Pkwy. and Big Bend Blvd.

University City Police would not say if any arrests were made. The shots were fired at 2:07 a.m. on March 12.

“I saw a white, four-door sedan driving past my window and make a U-turn,” said junior Erin Beck, who saw the incident firsthand. “As it went into the intersection someone came out of the sunroof, pulled a gun, and fired six or seven shots at where I imagine there must have been another car off towards the Hi/Tec Copy Center.”

Beck immediately called 911, heard three more shots while she was still on the phone, and saw the white car turn around and drive southbound down Big Bend.

Two of the victims fled on foot, and University City Police apprehended the other two near the scene of the shooting, said Beck.

“There were two or three shots that had hit the car door and others hit the window on that salon,” said Beck, who went down to speak with police once they arrived. “Other than that we didn’t really see where things had hit.”

The nightclub, located on Olive Street and North Compton Avenue, is approximately 6.5 miles away from the intersection where the shooting occurred. No injuries have been reported from this incident.

University City Police said that the suspects were driving a white Monte Carlo occupied by several males. Beck said police told her that they had apprehended the Monte Carlo soon after the shooting, but she did not know if there were people in it at the time.

University City Police Captain Michael Ransom would not comment further on the investigation or say if police knew whether the guns used were legally registered. He called the incident “unusual” and said that “students should not have to worry” about a repeat episode.

Director of Campus Police, Don Strom, also emphasized the arbitrary location of the shooting in regards to the University.

“It was a coincidence that the episode happened there as much as anywhere else,” he said. “The cars slowed down there for whatever reason. The shots had started somewhere else. It’s a very isolated episode.”

Junior Brendan McCarthy was awake and doing homework when he heard the squeal of car tires early Monday morning and saw a volley of shots fired from the Monte Carlo. “Initially I was just shocked,” said McCarthy. “It’s not something you expect to happen outside your dorm window.”

Within seconds, several police cars and three ambulances rushed to the scene and began collecting the discarded bullet casing and examining the crime scene.

“You certainly don’t like this stuff happening so close to campus, but it started at a nightclub, so there’s no security steps the campus could have really helped to prevent this,” said McCarthy.

Beck said that while she felt unfazed when she first heard the shooting, she is now taking extra safety precautions around campus.

“The fact that it happened right outside my window was not that unsettling, but as the days have gone on I have found that I feel increasingly less secure on campus. I’ve been driving my car everywhere. I feel very nervous anytime I’m walking around campus after dark, sometimes even if I’m in a building,” she said.

Strom doubted the likelihood of a similar incident occurring close to Washington University, but said, “If you appear to hear gunfire, get away from that area and contact the police immediately.”

Captain Ransom encouraged anyone with more information regarding the shooting to call the University City Police Department at 725-2211.

The Donald Danforth Plant Science Center received a $25 million dollar gift from Jack and Susan Taylor, the founders of Enterprise Rent-A-Car Institute for Renewable Fuels, last week. The funds will help scientists pursue biofuel research and alter the genetic composition of plants used for energy consumption. William Danforth matched the donation, bringing the total to $50 million.

“The rental car company uses a lot of petroleum and puts a lot of CO2 into the air,” said William Danforth, Chancellor Emeritus of Washington University. “They’re really interested in the long run and finding out how to do a better job of protecting the environment by using bioenergy and liquid fuels.”

Jack and Susan Taylor have invested in other areas of the environment and just pledged to finance the planting of 50 million trees over the next 50 years. They gave $10 million to the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center in 2005.

The Danforth Center is currently working on research that complements biofuels such as E85, fuel that is 85 percent ethanol alcohol and 15 percent gasoline.

“Most cars, anything in the last 30 years, can do well on fuel that’s 10 percent ethanol. But when it gets to fuel that is 85 percent ethanol, you need a more recent car designed to be a flex fuel,” said Danforth.

Along with the buying public, Enterprise Rent-A-Car also is stocking its leasing fleet with flex fuel cars and gas stations across the country are starting to sell E85 along with regular gas.

By the time flex fuel cars are widespread, the Danforth Center research may be well on its way. Researchers are currently investigating ways to alter the genetic components of plants like soybeans, canola and corn, that can be easily converted into ethanol. Seeds from these plants yield fixed ratios of oil, proteins and starch, but, “what will be possible is to change those ratios, so you can make more oil or more protein,” said Roger Beachy, president of the Danforth Center and professor of biology.

A larger percentage of oil could help farmers market and sell their crops, said Beachy. Researchers are also planning to alter the type and quality of oil produced.

“Eventually, we would expect that more of these feed stocks or material for conversion would come from the stems of the plants instead of the seeds. That will make it more possible to use forest residues or switchgrass, or maybe even some of the corn stalks that are not used for ethanol production,” said Beachy.

If successful, this botanical research could produce an abundance of organic materials for biodiesel and E85. Other research targets include increasing drought tolerance and disease resistance in crops such as corn and soybeans and boosting the yield of crops used in biofuels. Increased biofuel production will be important for reducing the overall industrial costs.

“You need drought tolerance so you don’t have to irrigate as much; you need to have more disease resistance so the farmer doesn’t need to apply pesticides, which raises the cost and potentially harms the environment. All of these things together will make for a more efficient agriculture,” said Beachy.

Washington University may be working with the Danforth Plant Science Center in the future. Professor of Biology Himadri Pakrasi has applied for a grant from the national Department of Energy with the ambition to establish a center for the science of renewable fuels. The two winning centers that apply for the grant will split $250 million.

“Between the two, Washington University and Danforth Center, there would be a tremendous synergy and we would certainly work with others in the region, University of Missouri, Monsanto and others,” said Beachy.

The Danforth Center will hire three new faculty members with the money from Enterprise Rent-A-Car. They will then establish their own labs and be allowed to hire about four workers each, making approximately 12 new members for the Center. Their research will be funded from the Taylors’ gift, the Danforth Endowment and government grants.

“Many of us in the scientific community who are informed about the importance of this fuel recognize that we’re in this for the long haul,” said Beachy. “Having said that, it’s the excitement of new knowledge that drives most scientists. The incentive out there as an endowment such as this that encourages others to think of ways that their research can add to this challenge of bio-renewable fuels.”

TAT itself does not cause cell death. Gleaned from HIV’s protein envelope, this tiny molecule can drag entire viruses into cells. Researchers can produce stores of TAT (transactivator of transcription) by using protein synthesizers, but although they have decoded its genetic structure, they are unsure of exactly how TAT manages to bypass cell membranes.

“We still are at the very beginning of understanding how one protein from HIV is able to perform this amazing task of dragging much bigger molecules than itself inside the cell,” said William Hawkins, assistant professor of surgery at the medical school, Site Cancer Center member and senior writer for the study. TAT can tow molecules up to 1,000 times its size.

The idea for a cancer treatment involving TAT arose when Hawkins met with professor of anesthesiology Rich Hotchkiss, who was trying to use TAT to save cells from apoptosis, or cell death. Hawkins wondered if he could use TAT to destroy, instead of save, cells.

Hotchkiss had armed TAT with a domain of BIM, a regulator of the apoptotic pathway. Over-expression of BIM triggers a sequence of events that leads to cell death. If researchers can increase concentrations of BIM in specific cancerous cells, then tumors can be slowed or suppressed.

The paper, “TAT-Bim Induces Extensive Apoptosis in Cancer Cells,” published in January’s Annals of Surgical Oncology, is the beginning of a larger research project, said Research Instructor Jonathan McDunn.

“What we published so far is a demonstration that this growth helps slow the growth of a tumor. What we’re looking for now is combining that with other approaches to kill the tumor that then may work together,” he said.

Cancerous cells resist signals that tip the cell toward apoptosis. In pancreatic cancer, Hawkins’ area of expertise, cancerous cells over-regulate signals that protect the cell from suicide. Every day, millions of cells undergo self-directed death.

“Cells undergo death when they become too crowded. They undergo death when the immune system tells them to,” said Hawkins. “Cancers get signals that tell them to die because they’re too crowded, they run out of blood and sugar, and they ignore that and continue to grow.”

Hawkins and his crew contacted McDunn, who synthesized TAT with BIM to create the new cancer drug.

“Basically we’re telling the cancer cell that it has permission to go ahead and die and respond to these normal signals,” said Hawkins. Doctors can increase signals for cell suicide by prescribing chemotherapy or radiation.

Although Hawkins has concentrated on pancreatic cancer, he said there was no reason why the TAT-BIM drug could not be used on other types of cancer. The drug is still in the development phase and being tested on cell lines and mice, but clinical trials are not too far away.

“We take cancers from people, make cancer lines, and test the drugs first against those lines. You don’t want to use animals unless you know that your drugs are going to work against the cancer,” said Hawkins.

The research team of nine, all from Washington University, is planning next to publish a paper on how the TAT-BIM targets cancerous cells. By working with radiologists, they are using cancer-identifying molecules to hunt tumors.

“We’re hooking our molecules, which can get inside the cell, to molecules which know how to find cancer. With the combination of these multi-domain things, the molecules are able to find cancer, get into cancer, and leave normal tissues alone for the most part,” said Hawkins.

“Cancer has outwitted us for many years now. The reason we’ve made progress is because we have people from all different specialties that all get in a room and talk about things,” said Hawkins. “Here we are cancer doctors learning stuff from HIV doctors, and some of the newer molecules that we’re working on are from radiologists to label things for X-ray studies.”

Prematurity is on the rise, with the March of Dimes reporting that one in eight babies is born before the full 38-week gestation period. In the past decade, studies all over the country have been finding correlations between genetic makeup and preterm births.

With permission from the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services, researchers at the Washington University School of Medicine retrospectively analyzed over 368,600 birth records dating from 1989 to 1997. Professor of Pediatrics Louis Muglia and his team sifted through records indicating the status of birth mothers, including maternal age, health, race, socioeconomic status and education level. The study accounted for these variables by using logistic regression graphs.

“We found that there are many factors that increase the risk of preterm delivery in women,” Muglia said. “But even if you adjust for all those other factors,” black women have about a 3 percent greater risk of delivering prematurely between 20 and 34 weeks.

Compared to white mothers, black women had a nearly 4 percent higher risk of delivering prematurely between 20 and 28 weeks of gestation, a period that just clears the age of viability, meaning that the baby will be able to survive in the outside world.

Of the approximately 368,800 births, 17 percent were born to black women and 81 percent were born to white women. The other two percent were of other racial groups. Twins and multiple births, which are usually born prematurely, were excluded from the study, which was published in February’s American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology.

Other studies also suggest that gestation period may be influenced by genetic factors. A 1998 study published in the Oxford University Press found that Swedish women whose older sisters had given birth to preterm babies had an 80 percent increased risk of delivering a premature child.

A more recent study from Virginia Commonwealth University reported last year that compared to women of European descent, black women have a twofold risk for having a gene variation that causes a woman’s water to break prematurely.

Associate Professor of Psychology, Jan Duchek found Muglia’s study intriguing because it reported that for both whites and blacks, more than 50 percent of recurrent preterm births occur within the same two to three week period of the first preterm infant. Of the group with successive preterm births, black mothers were two to three times more likely to give birth prematurely.

“When you hear things about the subsequent birth, and the similarity of when the premature birth occurs for a particular woman, it really does make one seriously think about racial and genetic factors,” said Duchek.

F. Sessions Cole, director of the Division of Pediatric Newborn Medicine and chief medical officer at St. Louis Children’s Hospital, is one of the seven other researchers who helped Muglia conduct the study.

Cole emphasized that preterm babies face many health problems. Because the lungs develop in later gestation, many premature infants need breathing ventilators and may acquire asthma later in life. Preterm babies may also have brain developmental problems, hearing difficulties and visual problems following birth.

Preterm infants will often stay in the hospital for their remaining time of the 38-week gestation period. Medical care can cost up to $2,500 to $3,000 a day.

“If you asked the question, how much does the technology cost per year that it saves, actually this is one of the cheapest technologies in medicine,” Cole said. “When our babies do well, they do well for 70 years.”

Muglia’s study is part of a larger effort sponsored by the March of Dimes to identify the genes involved in preterm birth. He hopes to one day understand the genetic processes determining gestational periods.

“Hopefully the study will pave the way, not only to motivate black women to seek medical input both prior to conception and early in pregnancy to try to reduce their risk of preterm birth, but also motivate scientific efforts to identify those specific genes pathways of genes that account for this increased risk,” said Cole.

Graham Chapel’s carvings are not gargoyles and ancient Masonic beliefs may have influenced the decision to put King Solomon on the stained glass window. Dedicated in memory of Benjamin Brown Graham (1840-1904), the chapel has gone through four organs and a series of renovations, including the installation of the balcony.

The non-gargoyles, since they do not act as rain gutters, are actually grotesques, figures of animals and flowers that protrude from a vertical surface. Graham’s rainwater amasses in hidden gutters along the roof and descends down pipes fitted into the walls.

Students are also familiar with the Chapel’s bells, which ring every 15 minutes and sometimes play songs, such as Somewhere Over the Rainbow. The carillon tunes have sounded “over the years on and off,” said James Burmeister, executive director of University relations.

“The Chapel is a critical element to the whole campus fabric,” Burmeister said.

The idea of building a University Chapel came to fruition when Christine Blair Graham, neighbor of Robert Brookings, approached the University in 1905 and offered to fund a chapel for the University in her husband’s name. Her husband, Benjamin Graham, an entrepreneur from Ohio, moved to St. Louis in 1855 and founded the Graham Paper Company, the largest papers distributor in the Midwest. The original Chapel cost $171,087.12 in total, according to an old receipt.

Despite the University’s non-religious affiliation, Brookings agreed to the Chapel and construction commenced soon after. Surprisingly, shortly after the Chapel’s inauguration, Acting Chancellor Snow remarked “until 20 years ago, attendance at this religious exercise was compulsory; since that time it has been entirely voluntary,” thus making the Chapel a center more for guest speakers, weddings, and concerts rather than for religious services.

The University laid the first Graham Chapel cornerstone in 1907 and workers dug a concrete foundation 30 feet deep to support its massive weight. The chapel was completed two years later in Nov. 1909 as the 12th building at Washington University.

Mrs. Graham surrendered her agency regarding the depictions in the stained glass windows to Brookings and architect James Jamieson, who worked for the Cope and Stewardson Company. Jamieson and Brookings, both Freemasons, may have honored ancient Masonic codes honoring King Solomon and Masonic pursuit to build the “temple of all-encompassing brotherly love,” which may explain why they chose a scene presenting the dedication of King Solomon’s Temple as the main image.

The stained glass, with King Solomon, the son of King David, in the center, is imbued with meaning. The lamp above Solomon’s head represents the moon, and the two pillars on either side of the king stand for the pillars found on Solomon’s Temple, which symbolize Boaz, King David’s great grandfather and Jachin, a high priest.

The three pillars on either side of Solomon adding up to six, may represent the six planets known to Masons, according to Jay Kempen, a former Washington University Archivist.

Many have speculated that Graham Chapel is modeled after King’s College Chapel at Cambridge University. The Cambridge Chapel, commissioned by King Henry VI in 1441, epitomizes the medieval English gothic church. Yet Jamieson dispelled the rumors in his book, “Intimate History of Washington University.”

Jamieson wrote, “The Graham Memorial Chapel is not a copy.the length and height of the University Chapel are so modest, and so magnificent in King’s', that a comparison of the two, seem idle.”

In spite of the Chapel’s non-regal affiliation, it has fulfilled many a noble cause. Before 1921, the Chapel held freshman convocation. Red Cross Workers used the Chapel during World War I to store hospital supplies and, following World War II, professors used the Chapel as a makeshift classroom because the school’s population had substantially increased.

Today, the Chapel serves as the home for the Assembly Series, concerts and weddings. Events Coordinator Shannon Greenwell said that while couples need to sign up for weddings no more than 14 months in advance, there is no waiting list.

“We do up to three weddings a day on Saturdays or Sundays, and usually everyone can get the day they want,” Greenwell said, adding that couples of any faith can marry at the Chapel.

The human eye may see in 3-D, but Lisa Randall, today’s Assembly Series speaker, will encourage her audience to expand their minds and envision a universe with extra dimensions.

Randall, a professor of physics at Harvard University, recently wrote “Warped Passages: Unraveling the Mysteries of the Universe’s Hidden Dimensions,” a book on string theory and the dimensions of the universe.

“String Theory is a hot topic in theoretical physics today. She has made a name for herself and so she seemed to be the natural choice,” said Michael Friedlander, professor of physics, explaining why Randall is this year’s William C. Ferguson Science Lecturer.

“It’s also very important that she’s written a popular book,” said Mark Alford, assistant professor of physics. “She’s interested in reaching out to a wide audience and explaining string theory, getting people interested in it, even people who aren’t necessarily scientific experts.”

String theory is the attempt to find a unified description of quantum mechanics and gravity, said Alford. Many people are familiar with gravity, a concept Einstein tackled in his special theory of relativity, but quantum mechanics may evoke puzzled looks from non-physicists.

In a nutshell, “quantum mechanics is the theory that’s required to explain the behavior of particles at very small distance scales, like the atom,” said Alford. “It’s been tested deeply and experimentally.

“Quantum mechanics is sort of the framework for all of physics as far as we can tell,” he continued.

Yet Alford said that physicists are having trouble fitting in gravity within the quantum mechanical framework.

Randall addresses the complexity of these theories in her book, and will speak about understanding extra dimensions in her lecture today from 11-12 p.m. in Graham Chapel.

“I like solving problems and understanding how the world works,” said Randall. “People should have the opportunity to understand physics. Particles tell us things about the world we would never know otherwise.”

Her book builds off the history of physics of relativity, quantum mechanics, particle physics and string theory and why they might all tie together. While Randall admitted that her core subject is “obviously a hard subject,” she said she enjoys making physics relatable to a lay audience.

Randall and Raman Sundrum of Johns Hopkins University co-published an influential paper in 1999 on extra special dimensions. Her theory may be further explored next year when the Large Hadron Collider in Geneva, Switzerland plans to generate enough energy to send particles to or through another dimension. The experiment may even create black holes on a microscopic level.

Both Friedlander and Alford applauded Randall for serving as a role model to women who want to enter the field of physics.

“It’s good to see women in the senior ranks who are doing first rate work which is recognized,” said Friedlander.

Alford agreed. “Women in science sometimes feel that they don’t get as many role models as they’d like to have,” he said. Randall’s research can stand on its own, Alford said, but the fact that she’s a woman at the forefront of the physics profession is “a bonus.”