Top Gene Scientists
Business Alabama – July 19
Ever since the human genome was unraveled in 2001, genetic science has exploded into a race to find new products and services. In Alabama, researchers are using worms, synthetic genes, T cells and duplicating tests to recreate the way we diagnose and treat disease. These scientists seek to improve our health and safety, and hope, ultimately, that their life’s work makes life better for us all. “Roll Nucleotide!” unabashedly nerd puns the website of the Caldwell Lab, one of the most advanced biomedical laboratories in the state. Guy Caldwell recruits his superstar team with the same techniques used by another local recruiter — Nick Saban. The University of Alabama professor and researcher tells potential new lab rats that it takes hard work on nights and weekends, and it will be the defining feature of your college career.
UA researchers find fossils of rare marine animal in Greene Co.
Fox 6 (Birmingham) – July 18
A team from the University of Alabama, not a sports team, has discovered fossils of an animal they believe lived 80 million years ago. Vertebrae from a plesiosaur were found during a UA summer camp in Greene County. A middle school student made the first discovery of the bones. “We don’t typically find a lot of large marine predators in the fossil record so for us here in Alabama it’s quite an exciting discovery.”
NBC 13 (Birmingham) – July 18
ABC 33/40 (Birmingham) – July 18
CBS 42 (Birmingham) – July 18
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Geology professor at University of Alabama earns Meinzer Award
Tuscaloosa News – July 18
The Geological Society of America has named a University of Alabama geology professor as the 2013 recipient of the O.E. Meinzer Award for his publications on hydrogeology. Chunmiao Zheng, a professor of geological sciences, has published numerous papers, books and transport models in various areas of the field of hydrogeology that are heavily cited each year, according to a release from UA. The annual O. E. Meinzer Award, founded in 1965, is presented to the author or authors of publications who have advanced the science of hydrogeology or some closely related field, according to the release. Recipients are selected by the Geological Society of America Council from a field of recommendations made by the Hydrogeology Division’s award committee.
Mobile native lands spot in the top four of Alabama Launchpad competition
Al.com – July 19
Mobile native and University of Alabama student William Sanders clenched one of the top four spots in the Alabama Launchpad Startup competition, along with his colleagues. Sanders is the chief marketing officer for startup, e-Electricity which is presenting the concept of a wireless phone charger. Sanders another participant and professor Jaber Abu-Qahouq, who first developed the technology, are behind the company. Their product would harvest radio frequency waves and convert them into electricity that can be used to charge a cellular phone. The trio has been competing in the statewide competition for a chance to move the wireless phone charger concept off the printed page and into an actual prototype. They are seeking $50,000 of the total $100,000, Sanders said, if they win.
University of Alabama program aims to increase minority medical professionals in rural Alabama
Al.com – July 19
Rising high school senior and recent graduates from rural areas recently participated in two five-week programs designed to foster interest in health and medical professions in rural areas of Alabama. The Rural Health Scholars and Rural Minority Health Scholars programs introduce students from rural areas of Alabama to a college campus and encourage the development of health and medical professionals in their home communities … According to UA press release, the Rural Health Scholars — rising high school seniors — lived on campus while taking college courses for credit in chemistry and English. They also made field trips to medical schools and rural health care facilities. The recent high school graduates in the Rural Minority Health Scholars program also lived on campus, taking a general chemistry course and attending lectures and field trips. Minority Health Scholars also shadowed black physicians in their home communities.
Striking the Blow at Fort Wagner
New York Times – July 18
“Today we recognize the right of every man … to be a MAN and a citizen,” Gov. John Andrew of Massachusetts proclaimed on May 18, 1863, to a crowd gathered around the 54th Massachusetts, the first African-American regiment raised in the North. They fight “not for themselves alone,” he insisted, but also for their race. Their military service would refute “the foul aspersion that they [are] not men,” proving that African-Americans deserved their nation’s citizenship rights. The regiment then proudly accepted its official flag, and Andrew told its commander, Col. Robert Gould Shaw, to report to the Department of the South, which included the coastal areas of South Carolina and Georgia. The soldiers would thus begin their war against slavery deep in the institution’s bowels. We are “on our way to Dixie,” Cpl. James Henry Gooding proclaimed, and “the greatest difficulty will be [for anyone] to stop [us.]” (Glenn David Brasher is an instructor of history at the University of Alabama and the author of “The Peninsula Campaign and the Necessity of Emancipation: African Americans and the Fight for Freedom.”)
History News Network – July 18
Alabama unemployment rate falls in June, as state’s economy adds jobs (updated)
Al.com – July 18
Alabama’s official unemployment rate for June is 6.5 percent, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, down from 6.8 percent in May…In Alabama, both the household survey and the establishment survey showed signs of positive economic growth over the past month. The number of unemployed persons fell by more than 7,000, while Alabama employers added roughly 3,700 new jobs. (Changes in unemployment and jobs added are usually slightly different because the data is collected differently.) …Ahmad Ijaz, a University of Alabama economist, says the state’s long-term jobs trend is encouraging. “”The state’s labor markets are gradually improving,” he said.
San Francisco Chronicle – July 18
Detroit, now in bankruptcy, could learn from Jefferson County, professor says
Al.com – July 18
As the city of Detroit, which filed for bankruptcy Thursday, starts its long road to recovering from more than $18 billion in debt, it could learn from Jefferson County’s bankruptcy process, a University of Alabama professor told MLive.com. Robert Brooks, a professor of financial management, said a major lesson Detroit could learn from Jefferson County is to be careful with the investment banks, which hold much of the city’s debt. “In some sense, Detroit needs to take a very tough stance with the people that got them so in debt, that’s their only shot at getting out of this,” he said. Brooks also suggested Detroit avoid some of the things Jefferson County has done to get out of debt, including harsh austerity measures and brokering deals with the same banks that got them into debt.
Preserving the romance of Alabama’s historical covered bridges (Odd Travels)
Al.com – July 18
Alabama’s covered bridges are reminiscent of a more romantic time, when people rode in horse-drawn buggies and couples stole kisses beneath their roofs. But they are also keepers of history, places built by former slaves, or where Civil War soldiers trod and, according to one legend, an outlaw was hanged. Covered bridges are treasures that should be preserved, said Max Shores with Center for Public Television & Radio at the University of Alabama. In 1999, Shores made a documentary called “Bridges to the Past,” that was shown on Alabama Public Television. “Wooden covered bridges were used to span the creeks and rivers of Alabama as our state developed,” he said. “Most of them are gone now, replaced by concrete and steel, but I hope the few that remain can be saved to provide insight into the needs and hardships of our ancestors. The covered bridges that are still in their original settings are accompanied by winding roads, rushing water, and scenic vistas. Some of the bridges have been relocated as showcases, but one can imagine the romance of their original settings while exploring them.”
Local writer pens, directs documentary
Newnan Times-Herald (Ga.) – July 18
“Three Days at Foster,” a documentary film about civil rights and sports that was written and directed by Newnan’s Keith Dunnavant, will screen at the prestigious Sidewalk Film Festival in Birmingham on Aug. 25. Coweta residents will also have a chance to see it later that same week. “This is a story that’s been in my head for more than a decade, and so it’s very gratifying to have the film recognized in this way,” said Dunnavant, a best-selling author of sports books, including biographies of football icons Bart Starr and Paul “Bear” Bryant. The film focuses on the pioneers who shattered the athletic color barriers at the University of Alabama in the shadow of segregationist Governor George Wallace’s futile attempt to block the integration of the student body at Foster Auditorium in 1963. In the film as in real life, Foster emerges as a symbol of change as the integration of sports in Tuscaloosa profoundly impacts Alabama culture. Many of the key figures in this drama have never appeared on camera before.