research – Page 9 – College of Arts & Sciences

Traveling to the Ocean Floor: Professor Studies Deep-Sea Mollusks

September 12, 2016

Aplacophora are worm-like mollusks characterized by their lack of shells and tiny units called calcareous spicules.

From the September 2016 Desktop News | While the unique environment of the deep ocean would likely prove nightmarish and panic-inducing for many people, it’s just another day of fieldwork for Department of Biological Sciences’ assistant professor Dr. Kevin Kocot. This July, Kocot submerged to oceanic depths for the ninth time, joining 21 other marine scientists from universities across the nation who were selected to participate in this year’s Chief Scientist Training Cruise put on by the University-National Oceanographic Laboratory System. In […]

High School Teachers, Students Learn Changing Tech & Solar Science

July 31, 2016

As energy generation alternatives gain traction, Alabama educators are working to keep up with this changing technology in their science curricula. Dr. Shanlin Pan’s six-week training course this summer, for Alabama teachers and students, aims at making the sometimes complex scientific concepts underpinning solar power more accessible to the state’s students. During the program, the teachers received research experience while working with University of Alabama chemistry researchers, developed their own modules to explain aspects of solar energy generation to students, and worked to […]

Research Featured in World’s Top Science Journal

February 8, 2016

Dr. Eben Broadbent (front) and Dr. Angelica Almeyda Zambrano (third from front), with field assistants from the Instituto Boliviano de Investigacion Forestal, carry a ‘pequi-pequi’ boat motor to the river in preparation for travel to one of their forest study sites.

From the February 2016 Desktop News | Last week’s online edition of Nature, the world’s most highly cited interdisciplinary scientific journal, published research co-authored by Department of Geography professors Drs. Eben Broadbent and Angelica Almeyda Zambrano. On average, Nature publishes only 8 percent of the 200 or more research papers submitted for publication each week due to rigorous selection criteria, according to the journal. In 2013, only 856 of the 10,952 papers submitted to Nature were published. Most submissions are declined […]

UA Professor Links Mothers’ Mental Health to Infant Growth

January 13, 2016

From the January 2016 Desktop News | In Mwanza, Tanzania, where nutritional deprivation runs rampant, Dr. Jason DeCaro, an associate professor in the Department of Anthropology, recently discovered that when families don’t have a reliable source for food, their babies don’t thrive as well. But surprisingly it’s not all about the food. “Household food insecurity is about more than just nutrition,” DeCaro said. “When you can’t reliably feed yourself and your family, it erodes mental, social, and physical health even […]

UA Physicists Share in Breakthrough Prize

January 13, 2016

From the January 2016 Desktop News | A team of University of Alabama physicists recently received recognition for making key contributions to a landmark study of neutrinos that won the 2016 Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics. The $3 million prize, which was divided between five international teams, celebrates a series of experiments demonstrating that neutrinos—neutral subatomic particles and fundamental constituents of matter—have mass and that they change character as they travel through space. Before this work, neutrinos were believed to be […]

UA Professor Helps Discover Theory in How Glaciers Influenced Land Formations

January 13, 2016

From the January 2016 Desktop News | Dr. Sarah Praskievicz, an assistant professor of geography at UA, recently used a forecasting model she co-developed to discover what the Oregon Coast Range might have looked like more than 25,000 years ago. Praskievicz originally designed the model while pursuing her doctorate at the University of Oregon in order to look at the impact of climate change on river systems in high-elevation regions. But, wanting to better understand how frost shapes lower-elevation regions, Praskievicz […]

Good News for Female Political Candidates

January 13, 2016

From the January 2016 Desktop News | When it comes to politics, research suggests that stereotypes often put women at a disadvantage. Female candidates—more than their male counterparts—must appear to be tough leaders without sacrificing their image as nurturers in order to win over voters: If they come off too strong, they lose votes. And if they’re not strong enough, they lose votes. So why would female candidates risk their chances of being elected by using negative campaign ads? Dr. […]

Wood-Based Alternatives Fuel Scientific Collaboration

November 16, 2015

From the November 2015 Desktop News | Researchers in the Department of Chemistry, in collaboration with researchers in Germany, have developed a new way to use wood and other kinds of biomass to make chemical materials without relying on the usual non-renewable petrochemical starting materials. The idea, the researchers said, is to produce everyday products from renewable resources while remaining economically competitive and without harming the environment. Toward that end, researchers, including Dr. Anthony J. Arduengo III, the Saxon Professor […]

The Power of Music

November 4, 2015

It’s not uncommon for babies in the neonatal intensive care unit, or NICU, at DCH Regional Medical Center to weigh less than three pounds, or little more than a bottle of water. With infants less than 28 weeks of age, their lungs aren’t fully developed, and the very thing keeping them alive—breathing machines that force oxygen into their lungs—can also cause significant damage over time to their lung tissue and vision. Lowering supplemental oxygen levels even slightly can have tremendous […]

Alabama Greece Initiative Calls for Proposals

October 23, 2015

The College of Arts and Sciences is calling for faculty members to submit research project proposals for the third Alabama Greece Initiative in Thessaloniki, Greece this summer. As in past years, the purpose of this trip is for A&S faculty to showcase their research and to meet and begin working with faculty collaborators at Aristotle University in Thessaloniki, one of Greece’s major research universities in the second largest city in the country. Participants will also learn about the state of current […]