Investigations

> > The sacred valence: Why marriage is more than a piece of paper
Cuing up a video in his shag-carpeted rec room one Monday this June, Don Browning, DB'59, AM'62, PhD'64, invites his guests to make themselves at home. His wife, Carol, switches off a lamp, and the credits roll for the documentary Marriage: Just a Piece of Paper? Browning explains to three first-time viewers that the video is still several months from completion, at which point it will go into the holding tanks at WTTW Chicago public television, to be aired late this fall and, Browning hopes, nationally syndicated early next year.
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> > Tracking the Crohn's gene
The 500,000 Americans who suffer from Crohn's disease can vouch that it's a pain in the you-know-where. A chronic gastrointestinal inflammation, Crohn's can cause stomachaches, diarrhea, fever, and weight loss. Although a cure is still a long time coming, researchers are beginning to understand the disease's genetic causes.
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> > Chicha for two
November 16, 1532, is a day that, for Tom Cummins, lives in infamy. On that date the conquistador Francisco Pizarro met the Inca king Atahualpa in what is present-day Peru. Life for the Incas was never the same. The next 40 years saw continuous resistance against Spanish rule, and within a century the native population was decimated by war, pestilence, and the hardships of forced labor. A Catholic church intent on washing the New World clean of idolatry suppressed centuries-old Incan religious rituals, and Atahualpa's sovereign people became colonial beings.
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