Eating your way to a healthy heart (if you’re a python)
National Public Radio – Oct. 30
…Within two to three days [the snake] can get anywhere between a 30 and 40 percent increase in the mass of the heart,” says University of Alabama snake expert Stephen Secor. The growth comes following a meal, because the large meals pythons infrequently eat send their metabolism through the roof and put huge demands on their hearts. Secor and Leinwand have a paper out in Science Saturday in which they show that it is the ratio of three fatty acids in the blood that prompts the heart growth in snakes. They found that the same ratio of fatty acids injected into a mouse will cause its heart to grow as well. So why won’t eating a large meal cause a human’s heart to grow? Part of the answer is the scale of our meals relative to our size. “Could you swallow a totally intact meal that weighs a quarter of your body mass?” asks Secor. In other words, could you eat a 30- or 40-pound pig in a single sitting? “If you could, I guarantee you your metabolic rate would go through the roof,” says Secor…
ibtimes.com – Oct. 31
Global Animal – Oct. 29
On Alabama campuses: Alzheimer’s research, feeding the world, cancer advisory board
Birmingham News – Oct. 29
…University of Alabama researchers used a series of model organisms, including yeast, rats and microscopic roundworms, to examine the links between specific proteins and Alzheimer’s disease in a study recently published in Science Express. Their experiments illuminates how the failure of the protein amyloid beta peptide to fold properly in the brain can trigger the disease…
Book project seeks essays about Red Cross’ good deeds
Tuscaloosa News – Oct. 30
…An advertising and public relations class at the University of Alabama is handling the book’s promotion. Suzanne Horsley, an assistant professor in the department of advertising and public relations at UA who teaches the class is no stranger to natural disasters. A professor who doubles as a national public affairs volunteer for the Red Cross, Horsley has handled media requests for the Red Cross for floods in Fargo, North Dakota, a flash flood in Arkansas and a tropical storm in New Orleans. She said her class lets students experience a public relations campaign first-hand. “The students are doing the whole thing from start to finish,” she said…
Postcard From Alabama: A Pattern Always in Fashion (By Marquavius Burnett, a junior at the University of Alabama and the assistant sports editor of The Crimson White)
New York Times – Oct. 30
In Tuscaloosa, Ala., there are three things that reign supreme: Crimson Tide football, Bear Bryant and houndstooth…From sorority women in houndstooth dresses to babies in houndstooth onesies, fans have made the print a staple on Saturdays in Tuscaloosa…Ken Gaddy, the director of the Paul W. Bryant Museum, called houndstooth “the third color” of Alabama, along with the crimson and white of the uniforms. “The pattern is the symbol of the man who turned great players into great people,” Gaddy said…
Big game, big money
Tuscaloosa News – Oct. 30
…Ahmad Ijaz, an economist at the University of Alabama Center for Business and Economic Research, said most game-day weekends bring an extra $15 million into the local economy. “A game like that will bring in $17 million to $18 million for Tuscaloosa,” Ijaz said. Statewide, the economic impact will be $23 to $25 million for such games, compared with $21 million to $22 million for Tuscaloosa game-day weekends featuring other SEC and non-conference opponents, he said. Businesses outside Tuscaloosa often will see extra business on game-day weekends as fans traveling to and from the game stop for gas, food and lodging, he said…
Minority increase helps Etowah County’s growth
Gadsden Times – Oct. 29
…Annette Watters, manager of the data center at the Center for Economic and Business Research at the University of Alabama, said several other counties saw similar results. Crenshaw, Talladega, Montgomery, Tallapoosa, Covington and Mobile counties saw their total populations increase despite drops in their white populations. In all but Crenshaw County, the black populations increased, Watters said. White populations have a “very low reproductive rate,” Watters said, which leads to smaller family sizes than are typical among minorities. “They (minorities) welcome more children per family on average, and the other thing is that there has been an influx of minority migrants into the state,” Watters said…
CNN anchor Soledad O’Brien to speak at UA on Nov. 9
Al.com – Oct. 29
Award-winning CNN anchor and reporter Soledad O’Brien will visit the University of Alabama as part of her national speaking tour on Thursday, Nov. 9. O’Brien will speak to students at 7 p.m. in the Ferguson Center Ballroom with a Q&A session immediately following the speech…
College news
Tuscaloosa News – Oct. 30
Lacee Nisbett, administrator for UA’s Office of Research and Services, has completed the management certificate program for supervisors… — The University of Alabama College of Human Environmental Sciences presented the Jack Davis Professional Achievement Awards during recent homecoming activities on campus…