Collegian – Page 6 – College of Arts & Sciences

Improving Veteran Life

October 26, 2016

Over the last twenty years, the quality of nursing-home care across the nation has changed dramatically. Residents have more choices over their accommodations, their food, and their schedules than ever before; but when Dr. Lynn Snow, an associate professor in the Department of Psychology at UA, a principal faculty member in the Alabama Research Institute on Aging, and a clinical research psychologist at the Tuscaloosa Veterans Affairs Medical Center, visited nursing homes throughout the country, she noticed the care was […]

Volcanic Ashfall

October 26, 2016

When volcanoes erupt, molten rock called magma is ejected into the air where it cools and becomes volcanic ash—bits of jagged rock and glass sometimes no bigger than a few micrometers in diameter. But this ash isn’t like the ash leftover in a charcoal grill or a campfire; it’s hard, and depending on where and how it falls, it can be deadly. According to Dr. Kim Genareau, a professor in the Department of Geological Sciences, airplane pilots can’t see fine […]

Mirrors and Mangroves

October 26, 2016

Though Dr. Ryan Earley has flown to coasts off the Caribbean Sea at least once a year for the last seven years, his meccas are not the places most tourists want to see. Instead of lying out on luxurious sandy beaches and swimming in crystal clear water, Earley spends his time knee-deep in the dark sulfured sludge of coastal mangroves—looking for a tiny fighting fish. According to Earley, the fish, commonly known as the mangrove rivulus, holds some of the […]

Tiny Giant

October 26, 2016

There are three things always at the tip of Pam McCollough’s tongue—The University of Alabama, adversity, and her mom. In the fall, especially, the University rolls off her tongue like drumsticks on a snare beginning the national anthem, and rightfully so. Since 1984, the year she graduated from law school, it’s been her tradition to attend nearly every home football game, trekking from Houston and further to Alabama to cheer on her alma mater. The most home games she’s missed were those […]

Ancient Artifact

October 26, 2016

When a Torah scroll salvaged from the Holocaust came to the Temple Emanu-El, located just west of the Frank Moody Music Building, Drs. Paul Aharon and Steven Jacobs—both UA professors and members of the local Jewish congregation—wanted to know more about the scroll and when it was created. With the permission of the Westminster Synagogue in London, which had permanently loaned the Torah to the Tuscaloosa temple, their congregation decided to have the scroll radiocarbon-dated. Aharon, a professor in the […]

‘Til the Wheels Fall Off

October 25, 2016

Twenty-two year old U.S. Army Sgt. Shaun Castle was on a training mission in Germany when the pulsing rounds of a Mark 19 automatic grenade launcher rang out unexpectedly and drastically changed the course of his life. He had been teaching a solider how to use the weapon, which was mounted on the top of a Humvee, but the soldier fired prematurely. The Humvee recoiled, and, in an instant, the brush guard of the vehicle slammed into Castle’s lower back—cracking […]

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Bridging the Gap

October 23, 2016

Growing up, Seth Panitch thought he would be a doctor like his father. He dreamed of going to medical school and was familiar with the apprenticeship-like process of residency that allows young professionals to apply their academic training in the real world. But when Panitch, now the director of UA’s acting programs, pursued theatre instead of medicine, he was on his own. Despite the classical training he received at the University of Washington, the professional theatre world was uncharted territory […]

From Space to Surgery: Student revamps NASA technology for cardiologists

October 20, 2016

NASA’s high-tech inventions aren’t just for outer space. Through the NASA Technology Transfer Competition, UA students are able to take NASA patents and re-envision them for use on earth. Virginia Morgan, a senior studying neuroscience in New College, re-envisioned a panoramic lens—which NASA designed to measure heat distribution efficiency in rocket engines—and retooled it to improve heart surgery. “When doctors perform heart surgery, they often try to look at the walls of a heart valve, but their cameras only look […]

Freedom and Fire! A Civil War Story

October 20, 2016

When Colonel Thomas M. Johnston and the Second Michigan Cavalry arrived in Tuscaloosa in 1865, they carried with them orders to destroy The University of Alabama—the Confederacy’s makeshift West Point at the time. The war was nearly over—Johnston arrived only five days before the surrender at Appomattox—and professors like Andre DeLoffré pleaded for campus, especially the library, to be spared. But the order to burn everything remained. Still, some structures including the President’s Mansion were preserved. The president’s wife, Louisa […]

The Next Generation of Scientists: Hands-on outreach encourages middle school students to consider careers in science

October 20, 2016

When Dr. Laura Reed passed around two dozen photos of racially and gender diverse UA students to a classroom of seventh graders, she asked them to choose which ones were scientists and which ones weren’t. The kids responded with comments like, “This person is wearing big earrings, so she couldn’t possibly be a scientist,” but, in reality, each photo was of a member of Reed’s biology lab. “I wanted the students to recognize and address some of their potential stereotypes,” […]