Science and Technology
To Prescribe or Not to Prescribe? Opioid Crisis Presents Ethical Dilemma
Deaths from prescription opioids have more than quadrupled since 1999. So today, doctors trying to treat pain face a dilemma: to prescribe, or not to prescribe. To understand the quandary, WBHM’s Dan Carsen checks in with two leading specialists who've agreed to disagree.
UAB Research Finds Security Risks with Computer Created Voices
As computers get better at mimicking human speech, new security issues arise. Researchers at UAB looked at some of them.
Tesla to Boost Charging Sites in Alabama to 10
Tesla is known for fast electric cars with price tags that can easily reach six figures. But this summer, the company plans to produce its first mass-market model. To prepare for more Teslas on the road, the company says it’s expanding its network of charging sites in North America by 150 percent, including in Alabama.
UAB Program Unravels Mysteries Of The Human Body
Each year thousands of people suffer from diseases that defy diagnosis, sometimes for decades. They are medical refugees. These undiagnosed diseases, as they are called, mean a doctor can’t figure out what’s wrong with their patient. But UAB is trying to change that.
NPR’s Joe Palca Takes On Jargon And The Politics Of Science
NPR’s nationally known science correspondent Joe Palca is in Birmingham helping UAB celebrate the anniversary of Charles Darwin’s birth. He stopped by WBHM, where sometimes-science-reporter and full-time-geek Dan Carsen jumped at the chance for an interview. They cover research bias, education, and science illiteracy, but Joe starts by explaining why he does what he does.
UAB Researchers Develop New Way to Create Stem Cells
Researchers at UAB have found a new way to create stem cells, one they hope will lead to more efficient and personalized medical treatments.
UAB MakerSpace Provides Place to Explore, Encourage Opportunities
Careers in 3-D printing and design are growing, and college students are taking note. A new student-run makerspace has opened in UAB’s Sterne Library. Students and faculty alike now have a place to learn and explore these new and innovative ideas.
Priming the Pipeline for STEM in the South: Student Incentives in Alabama
Given thousands of related job openings but only hundreds of computer science college graduates, Alabama is trying to ramp up its computer science education. That includes a new policy allowing those classes to count toward core math graduation requirements. WBHM's Dan Carsen concludes the Southern Education Desk series "Priming the Pipeline for STEM in the South" with a visit to a Birmingham-area class that's leading the way.
Alabama Could See Tornadoes, Record-Breaking Christmas High Temps
Forecasters say a heat wave that could deliver the warmest Christmas ever recorded to cities across the South may also fuel tornadoes and storms featuring golf ball-sized hail and damaging winds of up to 70 mph.
UAB Student, Iraq Vet Hopes to Help Feed Black Belt with Aquaponics
Ramon Jeter was raised by a single mother on the west side of Birmingham. Right out of Ramsay High School he joined the Navy. He eventually served as a field medic in Iraq. Now the married new father is studying public health at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, and he’s been accepted to Clinton […]
Interview: UAB Space Archaeologist and TED Prize Winner Sarah Parcak
To some, the fact that “space archaeology” is actually a thing will come as news. Practitioners use satellite imagery to discover and analyze ancient ruins, and increasingly, to spot looting. University of Alabama at Birmingham archaeologist Sarah Parcak is a leader in the field, and she’s just been named winner of the 2016 million-dollar TED Prize, […]
Alabama’s Science Standards Get a Makeover
Alabama schools are getting new science standards for the first time in a decade. The state Board of Education voted unanimously today to replace old standards that some teachers say were behind the times the moment they were approved. As evidence, they point to their students’ biology textbooks, many of which currently come with warning […]
Dr. Minda Berbeco On Alabama’s New Science Standards
Alabama’s State Board of Education on Thursday approved new K-12 science standards that will go into effect next school year. Science teachers across Alabama say the new standards are better than the current decade-old ones. We wanted a national perspective too, so WBHM’s Dan Carsen caught up with Dr. Minda Berbeco, Programs and Policy Director for […]
UAB Researchers Use CRISPR Technology to Target Childhood Syndrome
In the last couple of years there’s been a bonanza in life sciences around something called CRISPR. This is a process that bacteria do naturally as a defense mechanism, but scientists have figured out how to use it to snip out specific genes from DNA and replace them. In other words, it makes cheaper and more precise genetic editing possible. Dr. Tim Townes, director of the UAB Stem Cell Institute, led a team that published a paper Thursday in Cell Reports on their use of CRISPR to develop a potential new cure for a troubling condition in children.
Parents Look to Headgear to Protect Soccer Players from Concussions
Football players suffer the highest concussion rates among athletes. But players of the "other football," soccer, also experience a notable number of concussions. It’s a sport where most players don't wear protective headgear. But that’s changing as parents look for ways to protect their kids.
In Football Country, Concussions Spark A Parental Dilemma
More and more people are learning about the risks contact sports pose to the brain. So even here in football-loving Alabama, parents and young athletes are wrestling with a serious dilemma, one that could affect them decades later: to play or not to play. To help parents facing that decision, WBHM’s Dan Carsen got some […]
What Stands in a Storm
Monday marks the fourth anniversary of a massive tornado outbreak where 62 tornados raked across Alabama in a single day. More than 250 people died from those storms on April 27, 2011. Writer Kim Cross chronicles that time through several personal stories in her book What Stands in a Storm. It grew out of an article she wrote for Southern Living magazine. She spoke with WBHM’s Andrew Yeager.
