What do Sonic the Hedgehog, Rapunzel, pharmaceutical black box warnings, Waldo, and a camera jib have in common?
Over the last 48 hours, they’ve been involved in NUAMPS projects. We began downtown with Northwestern University’s School of Law, documenting a symposium entitled The Pharmaceutical Industry: Economics, Regulation, and Legal Issues. Instructors and participants from all around the country came to discuss topics ranging from drug development and consumer advertising to the safety and risks of prescription drugs.
The program continued on Tuesday, where operations split in two – my group continued the downtown shoot, and Mark ventured north to set up our six camera shoot for the annual Waa Mu show tonight, One for the Books. The stage is a gigantic bookshelf, complete with secret windows, doorways, library codes up to my head, and towering spines past raised curtains. Each number is book-themed, from an assassin sent out on a search and kill mission for Waldo, to a full cast number of tap dancers learning from Tap for Dummies.
I was assaulted backstage during a rehearsal when Bell threw a piece of bread at her Beast and missed. Astronauts were attacked by a colossal cave beast, zombies danced, and Harry Potter sang.
Such are the perils of this line of work.
My downtown group changed locations to the Lurie Center where we shot the annual Scott Lecture, this year entitled Communicating with Hedgehogs. Featuring Richard A. Scott (pictured above), Professor of Developmental Biology, Genetics, and Bioengineering from Stanford University, he discussed specific proteins signals called Sonic hedgehog (named after exactly who you think it’s named after) and their role in cerebellum development and tumors.
Next week: Cataloguing the personal genome with George Church!