ISU play chronicles Nobel winner’s work

A one-woman play debuts in Ames tonight about a Nobel Laureate who made great advances in seed corn genetics. As part of National Women’s History Month, the play features the woman who discovered so-called “jumping genes” in corn.Mary Ann Evans, director of Iowa State University’s Program for Women in Science and Engineering — or WISE. Evans says the subject of the play, Barbara McClintock, won the Nobel Prize for Medicine and Physiology in 1983 for her corn genetics research, claiming the award at 81 years of age.Evans says the play was written by and will be performed by I-S-U theatre professor Jane Cox, who has done several plays on accomplished women.The premiere of “The Longing to Understand” is tonight in Ames with a second performance in Des Moines April 3rd. All proceeds from the performances will go to the WISE program. For info, call (515) 294-0966.