Troublesome trees: spread of forests contributed to ancient extinction
Phys.org – June 19
Evidence from ancient rocks in north Alabama show the Earth’s first forest spread rapidly, likely contributing to a mass extinction of shallow marine life some 370 million years ago … Findings outlined in Scientific Reports by researchers from The University of Alabama and their international colleagues provide geochemical evidence for the oldest forests in southeastern North America, meaning the first forest spread across the barren land of a super continent millions of years earlier than previously shown.
Can the past help us foresee future sea level rise?
PRI.org (UK) – June 17
Researchers in Antarctica, including some from the University of Alabama, are probing beaches and seafloors in search of clues from the past that might help us get a better fix on how much sea waters will rise in the next few hundred years. The World’s Carolyn Beeler has the story.
Bernie Sanders campaign video on poverty in the South highlights Lowndes County
Al.com – June 18
Sen. Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign put a spotlight on structural poverty in the South by releasing video Tuesday of Sanders’ visit to Lowndes County … researchers at the University of Alabama have secured an EPA grant to study sewage treatment issues in one of the poorest parts of the state.
Miss UA crowned Miss Alabama
NBC 13 (Birmingham) – June 18
Tiara Pennington was crowed earlier this month. She’s working to raise awareness for psoriasis. She’s also just the second African American woman to win Miss Alabama and the first to win Miss University of Alabama.
UA professors make podcast about slain civil rights activist (live interview)
National Public Radio – June 18
From National Public Radio Station WBHM in Birmingham Alabama is Chip Brantley cohost and a producer of NPR ‘s podcast “White Lies” and a lecturer at the school of journalism and creative media at the University of Alabama.
Tesla under pressure as rivals prepare to launch new electric models
Fox Business – June 18
TeslaOpens a New Window. broke onto the scene promising to revolutionize the auto industryOpens a New Window. with its mass-market electric vehicleOpens a New Window., but the progress the firm has made toward that goal may instead serve as a boom for the rush of competition on the horizon … “Electric cars were not as disruptive as we all thought,” said Bharat Balasubramanian, a former Mercedes-Benz executive and head of the University of Alabama’s Center for Advanced Vehicle Technologies. “There’s just no incentive to it. They are more expensive, there’s the range anxiety to it. There’s the anxiety about recharging times.”
Theatre Tuscaloosa Presents GREASE
Broadway World – June 18
Theatre Tuscaloosa will present its summer musical, Grease, July 12-21 in the Bean-Brown Theatre on the Martin Campus of Shelton State Community College. In this popular musical by Warren Casey and Jim Jacobs, Rydell High’s senior class of 1959 head “greaser” Danny Zuko (played by Nolan McKinney) and new “good girl” Sandy (played by 2018 Miss Alabama and University of Alabama student Callie Walker), unexpectedly meet again after a summer of magical “Summer Nights.”
UA Student Wins Munson Foundation Grant for Black Warrior Riverkeeper Internship
Southeast Green – June 18
The Curtis and Edith Munson Foundation has awarded Hudson Nuckolls, a rising senior studying public relations at The University of Alabama, a scholarship grant to intern at Black Warrior Riverkeeper in Birmingham, Alabama, for the summer.