Hubble spots a GHOST: Stunning new images reveal remnants of past quasars creating eerie green wisps in space
Daily Mail (U.K.) – April 3
Hubble has spied a set of ephemeral quasar ghosts circling the graves of quasars that flickered to life and then faded. The eight unusual looped structures orbit their host galaxies and glow in an eerie green hue. The ethereal wisps were illuminated by a blast of radiation from a supermassive black hole at the core of the host galaxy. he most active of these galaxy cores are called quasars, where infalling material is heated to a point where a brilliant searchlight shines into deep space. The beam is produced by a disk of glowing, superheated gas encircling the black hole. ‘However, the quasars are not bright enough now to account for what we’re seeing; this is a record of something that happened in the past,’ said Bill Keel of the University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, who initiated the Hubble survey. ‘The glowing filaments are telling us that the quasars were once emitting more energy, or they are changing very rapidly, which they were not supposed to do.’
NBC News – April 2
Eureka Alert – April 2
Delhi Daily News – April 3
International Business Times – April 3
Yibada (China) – April 3
Electronic forensics lab aids law enforcement agencies
Tuscaloosa News – April 3
Constant technological growth has created a new frontier in criminal investigations. Recognizing that, the University of Alabama, in partnership with area law enforcement agencies, has created a new electronic forensics lab that will allow the investigation process to speed up. The new Joint Electronic Crime Task Force, which officially began operations in September, is headed up by the University of Alabama Police Department. The Tuscaloosa Police Department and the Northport Police Department have officers assigned to the task force, and the University of Alabama Department of Criminal Justice uses the facilities for academic purposes. Six student interns job-shadow investigators to learn how to process evidence. The task force also processes evidence for other area, state and federal agencies. The task force began with the idea to bridge the academic and law enforcement communities, said Kathryn Seigfried-Spellar, an assistant professor in UA’s criminal justice department and the academic liaison between the university and area law enforcement.
ABC 33/40 (Birmingham) – April 2
Associated Press – April 3
NBC 13 (Birmingham) – April 2
CBS 42 (Birmingham) – April 2
WVUA (Tuscaloosa) – April 2
Researchers study sounds from colliding football helmets as alternative to understanding forces
Phys.org – April 3
When football helmets collide, they produce an unmistakable sound. With concerns rising over concussion risks, some parents and others are increasingly concerned about each pop they hear. Now, the sounds themselves are being studied. University of Alabama student Brandon McChristian hopes his research of those sound waves begins the process of better understanding the forces involved in those collisions and, perhaps one day, enables inexpensive sensing methods for a safer game. Working with Dr. Steve Shepard, a UA engineering professor, McChristian used a special University lab designed to eliminate acoustic reflections, microphones, a high-tech signal analyzer, a couple of helmets borrowed from the athletic department and some good ol’ fashioned string to prove a direct correlation between sound energy and helmet impact energy. Shepard recently incorporated data from McChristian’s proof-of-concept research into a grant funding proposal to the National Science Foundation. The University has already filed a patent application on the technology, and, if additional research funding is secured, Shepard hopes to further develop methods for assessing helmet impact severity using sound.
Bowen develops UA ‘Best Undergraduate Research’ plus national attention
Madison County Record – April 2
Matthew Bowen, a sophomore at the University of Alabama, is preparing to ‘MoVVE’ into a promising career in software design. A computer science major, Bowen was recognized at a UA ceremony on March 30 with the 2015 award “Best Undergraduate Research.” In addition, Bowen earned second place in the Association for Computing Machinery Student Research Competition in Kansas City, Mo., sponsored by Microsoft Research. His work was accepted for the 2015 Special Interest Group on Computer Science Education Conference. Growing up, he “thought it was cool that you could type a line a code into a computer and it would print something out on the screen. That’s when I started coding. Once I saw that … I was hooked,” Bowen said. “MoVVE” or Mobile Video Velocity Estimation is Bowen’s baseball app. With a mobile device, like a SmartPhone or tablet computer with camera, the app follows a baseball from the pitcher’s mound to home plate. The app reports the pitch’s speed and the baseball’s location in reference to a strike. MoVVE uses image size to calculate distance between the baseball and camera.
Five things to do this weekend
Tuscaloosa News – April 3
You expect eggs on Easter weekend, right? But in addition to the city’s largest egg hunt, there will plenty of other things to do this weekend in Tuscaloosa. Here’s five suggestions: … 4. Civil War history buffs will want to attend “Confederate Voices,” the annual John Caldwell Calhoun Sanders Lecture Series in the Grand Gallery of the Alabama Museum of Natural History on The University of Alabama campus. Lectures will focus on biographical sketches and personal wartime experiences on campus and in the field to unit histories and accounts of battles or skirmishes involving some 900 UA alumni and its Corps of Cadets. Admission is free, but advance registration is requested. Call 348-7551 or emailajones@ua.edu
Tide for Tusks raises money
WVUA (Tuscaloosa) – April 2
Looks like Big Al needs your help to save some of his friends. The University of Alabama organization called Tide for Tusks is hosting a fundraiser next Thursday at Gallettes. The group’s mission is to work closely with wild life services in Tanzania to fund elephant orphanages and to protect the animals from poachers.
Jobs bills advance in legislature, charter schools update and Tuscaloosa plant sale
APR News – April 3
The weekend weather forecast looks pretty sunny over much of the state. So, if getting out in the yard and helping college students all sounds good, the Alabama Wildflower Society wants to talk to you. The group is holding its annual plant sale tomorrow in the courtyard of the Kentuck Art Gallery near Tuscaloosa. A portion of the proceeds will go for a scholarship for a college student studying botany. … The plant sale starts at 8 a.m. Along with scholarships, the rest of the proceeds will go to the University of Alabama Arboretum and the Cahaba Lily Society.
RISE holds Easter egg hunt
Fox 6 (Birmingham) – April 2
The rain held off for kids at the RISE school to get in an Easter egg hunt. The special needs center at The University of Alabama held the hunt for its students and their families.
Pulitzer-Prize-winning author Rick Bragg to speak at Somerset Community College April 9
KY Forward – April 2
Pulitzer prize-winning author Rick Bragg will be on the campus of Somerset Community College on Thursday, April 9, 2015 as part of SCC’s 50th Anniversary Speaker’s Series. Bragg, a former national correspondent for the New York Times author of the memoir “All Over but the Shoutin’,” and numerous other books, will be giving a public presentation on Thursday, April 9 at 7 p.m. in SCC’s Meece Hall Auditorium, with a reception, hosted by the SCC Culinary Arts chefs, beginning at 6:30 p.m. in the foyer. Bragg will be available for a question and answer session, as well as book signing, after the presentation.
UA baseball is good business for Hoover
ABC 33/40 (Birmingham) – April 2
Baseball is good business. At least that is the message in Hoover. The University of Alabama’s baseball team has been playing all its home games in the Hoover Met this season. Having the team nearby has increased the bottom line. Businesses say they have seen more customers and local hotels have more rooms booked when there is a game.