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1911 The University sponsored a spring lecture series on "recent developments in variation, heredity, and evolution, and the application of this new knowledge to plant, animal, and human development and improvement." Speakers from the Chicago faculty, Harvard University, and the Carnegie Institute discussed plant genetics ("Inheritance and Evolution in Higher Plants" and "The Cytological Evidences of Germ Constitution and Modifications"). Lectures on human development featured such topics as "Variation, Heredity, and Their Relation in the Production and Perfection of New Races" and "Inheritance of Physical and Mental Traits in Man, and Their Application to Eugenics." The lectures were to be issued in book form by the U of C Press.

1951 With funding from Leo Wallach, the University of Chicago Hospitals opened a laboratory to study ulcerative colitis, a disease of then unknown causes. Wallach, a partner in the Fort Dearborn Hotel, also solicited the help of friends and business associates to purchase drugs for ulcerative colitis patients unable to afford medications. His interest in ulcerative colitis began when his son, a physician, became ill with the disease.

1976 Chicago women brought a new sport to the Midway: crew. The club sport, formed by undergraduate Barbara Horung and Lab Schools teacher Laurie Moses, had its first meet in April, defeating the Milwaukee Women's Rowing Club. Traveling to Boston for the Head of the Charles Regatta, the young team's four-woman crew came in 27th out of 37. The team also spent time fund-raising, embarking on a campaign to raise $10,000-$6,000 for an eight-oar shell and blades and $4,000 to defray travel expenses and buy a better four-oar boat.

1991 Based on the results of an eight-year, 108-person study, hypertension specialist William Elliott, PhD'76, MD'79, proposed a link between creases in human earlobes and heart disease. Elliott, an assistant professor in medicine and pharmacological & physiological sciences, found that individuals with a crease in at least one earlobe were much more likely to die from heart disease than those whose ears were crease-free. The earlobe-heart mechanism was unclear, but Elliott suggested several possible explanations, including the loss of elastin, which both causes creasing in the earlobe and contributes to the hardening of arteries.-Q.J.

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