Video: University of Alabama astronomer discusses unusual black hole activity
NBC13 (Birmingham) – March 1
Today, astronomers around the world are making new discoveries studying the vastness of space. One such astronomer teaching at the University of Alabama has made major progress in studying black holes and has documented for the first time, a star being torn apart by a black hole. That black hole is a thousand times more massive than our sun…Dr. Jimmy Irwin is an astronomer, a researcher, one of only a handful of scientists who study black holes.
Opinion: Group works to help students with depression
Tuscaloosa News – March 2
…a student organization on the University of Alabama campus has been formed to raise awareness of the mental, emotional and psychological problems encountered by the 28,000 students attending the Capstone. The organization, NAMI-UA, is affiliated with the Tuscaloosa chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Health and is the first organization of its kind in Alabama. ‘Bottom line, we hope to provide a fun and supportive environment on campus for students to raise awareness for mental health and combat the stigma associated with mental illness,’ Caroline Titcomb, a clinical psychology doctoral student and NAMI-UA president said last week.
Did the discovery of cooking make us human?
BBC News – March 1
…Professor Stephen Secor at the University of Alabama found that not only does cooked food release more energy, but the body uses less energy in digesting it. He uses pythons as a model for digestion as they stay still for up to six days while digesting a meal. This makes them the perfect model as the only energy they expend is on digestion. His research shows that pythons use 24% less energy digesting cooked meat, compared with raw…
Birmingham Mayor Bell staff blends old, new with slight nod to cost cuts
Birmingham News – March 1
…However, Bell must be wise to measure what’s needed to bring both institutional knowledge and his own political team to City Hall, cautioned University of Alabama political science professor Norman Baldwin. “When the average citizen is seeing their budget pinched, they feel uncomfortable when they don’t see their city pinching dollars also,” he said. “At times, politically, it doesn’t look good.” Baldwin said the ultimate public test of Bell’s judgment and decisions will be in the coming weeks. “If he does have a plan that’s in place I personally don’t have a problem with hanging on to people who are in previous administration,” Baldwin said. “The question is, does he have a good plan to raise revenues?”
Alabama charter schools unlikely in near future
Tuscaloosa News – March 2
The Tuscaloosa Education Network hosted a forum on charter schools Monday at the Tuscaloosa Public Library to educate the public on the issue in Alabama. Speakers at the forum were William Stewart, professor emeritus of political science at the University of Alabama, Wayne Urban, the associate director of the Education Policy Center at UA, and John Petrovic, an associate professor at the Education Policy Center. “Charter schools are basically when a group of people (such as educators or parents) come together and write a charter about what they want for a school and they send it to get signed by a state body, which here would probably be the Alabama Board of Education,” said Petrovic. “(Charter schools) are relieved of some of the federally required mandates such as organization.” Urban said charter schools have to follow nearly all federal mandates and are exempt from a few, such as certification of teachers and some testing requirements…