Research Experiences for Undergraduates Program

COLLEGE NEWS: July 9: Tuscaloosa News – July 9

Seventeen college students from a variety of academic programs participated in the summer Research Experiences for Undergraduates Program in chemistry at The University of Alabama in 2017. The program is funded by the National Science Foundation. The NSF has supported the REU program in the UA department of chemistry for 31 years, providing 371 students, mainly from primarily undergraduate institutions in the Southeast, a 10-week summer research experience.

Distant Galaxies

Galaxy Zoo: Citizen science trailblazer marks tenth birthday: Dot Emirates – July 10

Galaxy Zoo began with a call for volunteers to help classify distant galaxies in space telescope images. The collaborative project made spectacular discoveries, spawning a family of similar projects – collectively known as the Zooniverse. We look back on 10 years of a citizen science phenomenon … In a new paper published in the Astrophysical Journal, scientists who led the Galaxy Zoo project at the University of Alabama and University of Oxford, have examined eight of these voorwerpen, including the one originally found by van Arkel.

Affordable Care Act

Stakes high as Alabama and the rest of the nation await health care bill: Anniston Star – July 11

As Republicans in the Senate rework their plan to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, hospitals and patients face uncertainty, Alabama health care advocates said Tuesday … University of Alabama political science professor Joseph Smith sees advantages for Republicans in leaving the Affordable Care Act mostly untouched. “If the Republicans were to give up on repealing or drastically cutting back on Obamacare, insurance companies would get more certainty that the system would stay the same going forward,” Smith wrote in an email to The Star. “That would entice insurance companies to participate in the insurance marketplaces set up under Obamacare.”
Insurance News – July 11

Theatre Tuscaloosa

Theatre Tuscaloosa to present ‘Ragtime’ starting this week: Crimson White – July 12

Dylan Davis found out he would have to hang upside down over the stage while singing just a few weeks after he landed the role of Harry Houdini in Theatre Tuscaloosa’s production of “Ragtime.” “For a while it was just like watching a child play on the monkey bars for the first time,” Davis, a junior musical theatre major at UA said. “I was trying to get up there and get comfortable with the whole mechanism that they have me going up with but it just took practice. Now I just get up there and just drop down like nobody’s business.”

Larsen C Iceberg

Six Points of Perspective on Larsen C’s Huge New Iceberg: EOS.org – July 12

Sometime between 10 and 12 July, Antarctica lost 1 trillion metric tons of ice, when a section of the Antarctic Peninsula’s Larsen C ice shelf broke free. Scientists have been watching the Delaware-sized slab of ice in West Antarctica for more than a decade, after the Larsen A ice shelf collapsed in 1995 and Larsen B collapsed in 2002. This January, May, and June, scientists reported rapid advances of the rift. By July, the shelf appeared to be hanging on by a thread … If Larsen C’s huge iceberg becomes the first of many events that lead to the ice shelf’s collapse, more worrisome events may follow. “Once you lose the ice shelf, you lose the continental ice,” noted Rebecca Minzoni, a paleoclimatologist from The University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa and the lead researcher on this study.

Developments in Jennifer Powers Cold Case

UA anthropologists take part in search for missing woman: WAAY-ABC (Huntsville) – July 12

Some new developments in a nine-year-old cold case. Some items were recovered today after a search began for remains of Jennifer Powers. She was reported missing by her husband exactly nine years ago today … Anthropologists from The University of Alabama along with the FBI response team from Birmingham were part of today’s search.

Walt Maddox for Governor

Tuscaloosa mayor Walt Maddox exploring run for governor: Crimson White – July 14

Tuscaloosa Mayor Walt Maddox has formed a political committee to explore the possibility of a campaign for Governor of Alabama next year … Stephen Borrelli, a political science professor at The University of Alabama, said that since Maddox has won campaigns as a Democrat in the past and has worked productively with Republican governors and members of Congress, Maddox may be less disadvantaged by the Democratic label than most Alabama politicians would be. “The Republican strategy with all Alabama Democrats is to find some linkage between the candidate and unpopular national leaders, like Pelosi, Obama and the Clintons, and party positions,” Borrelli said.

The Ottoman Empire

The Genocide of the Ottoman Empire: Assyrian International News Agency – July 14

Dr. Steven Leonard Jacobs holds the Aaron Aronov Endowed Chair of Judaic Studies and is Associate Professor of Religious Studies at The University of Alabama-Tuscaloosa. An ordained rabbi, Professor Jacobs is a specialist on the Holocaust and Genocide, Biblical Studies, Jewish-Jewish Christian Relations, and is one of the foremost authorities on Raphael Lemkin (1900-1959), who coined the term “genocide” and devoted his life to the enactment of an international law on the punishment and prevention of genocide.

New Term To Replace ‘Slaves’

‘Enslaved people,’ not ‘slaves’ at Stagville State Historic Site: Durham Herald-Sun (North Carolina) – July 15

The words “enslaved people” have replaced “slaves” among many public historians. Public historians engage visitors outside of academic settings, such as at museums and historic plantation sites like Stagville State Historic Site in Durham County … In 2010, on the HNET internet forum, historian Jenny Shaw of The University of Alabama said she’d seen the phrase “enslaved people” in a revised version of “Ar’n’t I a Woman?: Female Slaves in the Plantation South” in which historian Deborah Gray White of Rutgers University argued for the term. She asked if it was a better term to use.

Heroes’ Legacy Scholarships

Slice of Life: Kentucky New Era – July 15

The Fisher House Foundation named Morgan Derden, LaFayette, a recipient of the Heroes’ Legacy Scholarships for Children of Fallen or Disable Service Members. The scholarship is made possible by corporate sponsorships, private donations and proceeds from the book “Of Thee I Sing. Letters to My Daughters” written by former President Barack Obama. Derden is the daughter of Marc Derden. She attends The University of Alabama where she majors in psychology/biology.

Also making headlines

Bama Bound brings excitement to new students: Crimson White – July 12

2017 Harper Lee Prize awarded to Boies Schiller lawyer’s novel ‘Gone Again’: ABA Journal – July 12