Research

Shelter from the Storm

Shelter from the Storm

A crisis-communication expert finds traveling to a disaster area can be a short trip, and engineers evaluate tornado-riddled structures in an effort to design safer homes.

Number of Non-employer Firms in State Continues to Shrink in 2009, Census Bureau Reports

The number of non-employer businesses in Alabama that exploded between 2003 and 2004 took a drastic hit from the recession that started in 2007, according to new data from the U.S. Census Bureau.

UA Professor’s Book Discusses Key Dissenter in the Spanish Conquest

Among the figures who participated in and later wrote about the Spanish Conquest of the New World, one stands out as a passionate and sometimes abrasive champion of the native population – Bartolomé de las Casas. This priest, historian, writer and activist stands as the passionate focus of the scholarship of Dr. Lawrence Clayton, University of Alabama professor of history, and forms the subject of a book that offers insight into the conquest.

Tornado’s Impact on Tuscaloosa Real Estate Described in UA Study

A comprehensive real estate report on the short-term impact and an analysis of the April 27 tornado that ravaged the Tuscaloosa area is now available from the Alabama Center for Real Estate at The University of Alabama’s Culverhouse College of Commerce.

UA’s Industrial Assessment Center Named Center of Excellence

A U.S. Department of Energy program recently recognized The University of Alabama’s Alabama Industrial Assessment Center as the best of the country’s 26 assessment centers.

Cooling Refrigeration Costs

Cooling Refrigeration Costs

Most people know about refrigerator magnets. How about magnetic refrigerators? A University of Alabama professor of physics says a magnetic refrigerator operating at room temperature would use a third as much electricity as a typical home refrigerator. But there’s reasons you won’t yet find one on aisle five.

Manipulating Nanoparticles’ Surface Chemistry Holds Medical Promise, UA-Authored Nature Article Shows

Swapping the chemical groups that originally coat iron oxide nanoparticles and making the particles soluble in biological solvents shows great promise for medical applications, such as drug delivery and contrast agents, according to a recent publication by University of Alabama engineers and scientists and highlighted in Nature magazine.

Mason to Head Alabama Productivity Center at UA

Dr. J. Barry Mason, professor of business administration, who will step down Aug. 16 as dean of the Culverhouse College of Commerce at The University of Alabama, has been tapped by incoming Dean J. Michael Hardin to be the interim director of the Alabama Productivity Center.

Structures on Storm’s Edge Could Benefit Greatly from Improved Engineering, According to UA-Involved Study

In the wake of the horrendous tornadoes that delivered massive destruction to the state in April, University of Alabama engineers have analyzed building structures and design codes to recommend an approach to safer and stronger buildings going forward.

Chandra X-ray Telescope Images Gas Flowing Toward Black Hole in UA-Led Study

The flow of hot gas toward a black hole has been clearly imaged for the first time in X-rays. The observations from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, analyzed by University of Alabama astronomers, will help tackle two of the most fundamental problems in modern astrophysics.