Sea changes could affect millions

If you’re worried about the impact of the oil spill in the Gulf, consider this new report by UNC marine scientist John Bruno and colleagues, showing that unprecedented, far-reaching impacts of climate change on the oceans could affect millions of people. Published in Science.  Details here.

Studying marine life forms near Gulf oil spill

Luke McKay, right, taking sediment cores aboard a research vessel near the spill site

UNC marine microbiologist Andreas Teske and doctoral student Luke McKay are searching the Gulf for life forms that could shed light on the impact of the oil spill and be helpful in the clean-up.

Using dozens of water and sediment samples taken in the Gulf in the wake of the BP spill, Teske and his team are conducting various experiments, such as identifying which microbes are present and how they are responding to the spill.They are collaborating with colleagues at UNC and elsewhere to propose various novel “rapid response” projects that could play a role in monitoring and tackling the spill disaster.

McKay and several graduate students have been working in the Gulf on research expeditions studying the spill and the surrounding area.  McKay was aboard one of the first research expeditions to visit the site and surrounding waters shortly after the spill began to unfold. He sent several days on the RV Pelican in early May, helping gather water and sediment samples.

See more details and photos in the News and Observer.

Click here for details on what Teske, McKay and other UNC scientists are doing to understand and address the Gulf oil spill.

Understanding oil spill plumes

UNC College Professors Rich McLaughlin and Roberto Camassa explained on CNN how oil forms plumes under the surface, and why it’s a problem. Click here for the video.

David Brooks plugs the humanities

New York Times columnist David Brooks stood up today for the value of a humanities education, even during hard times when students are worried about whether it will help them get a job.

Studying humanities can improve your ability to read and write, he argues. “You will have enormous power if you are the person in the office who can write a clear and concise memo.”

Studying humanities exposes you to the “language of emotion,” he says, which is important for taking a technically brilliant innovation to the masses via effective advertising and branding.

Perhaps most important, he argues that studying humanities helps you get in touch with “The Big Shaggy,” i.e. the beast within all of us that tempts us to misbehave (think sex scandals) or be overconfident or arrogant in the face of risk (think oil spill), while at the same time gives us the drive to excel (think Kobe Bryant).

Brooks writes, that “…over the centuries, there have been rare and strange people who possessed the skill of taking the upheavals of thought that emanate from The Big Shaggy and representing them in the form of story, music, myth, painting, liturgy, architecture, sculpture, landscape and speech. [They] developed languages that help us understand these yearnings and also educate and mold them.”

Click here to read the whole column.

Brooks was the Frey Foundation Distinguished Visiting Professor in UNC’s College of Arts and Sciences in 2008.

Wind Power, Rwanda Revisited and Facing the Past

 In this issue of our periodic e-news,  you can read about:

• Marine scientists Harvey Seim and Pete Peterson, who conducted research with the assistance of undergraduates, showing that North Carolina could derive 20 percent of its energy from wind power.

• Donna LeFebvre and 20 undergraduates, who traveled to Africa last summer to confront the aftermath of the genocide in Rwanda They learned about hope from the survivors.

• Minrose Gwin, a prominent southern literature scholar, whose first novel explores the segregated south of the past. Her book has been compared favorably with To Kill a Mockingbird.

Click here to read online.

Carolina Arts and Sciences magazine online

PlayMakers Reaches Out, Football Fallout, Hotel Rwanda Revisited….  

These stories and more are available in the Spring 2010 issue of Carolina Arts and Sciences magazine. Our semi-annual publication is mailed to faculty, alumni and friends who have made a gift to the College, and is available to all online.

E-News: Blues Goldmine, Nicholas Nickleby, Chinese Lessons

In the latest edition of Carolina Arts and Sciences E-News:

• UNC historian and folklorist William Ferris spent the 1960s and 70s traveling the back roads of his native Mississippi tracing the roots of American blues music. He found them in church halls, prison fields and rural homes, where he recorded and filmed African American musicians and storytellers.
• Like everyone in PlayMakers Repertory Company, Jeff Meanza plays multiple characters in The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby. The company’s most ambitious undertaking ever runs on the Paul Green stage through Dec. 20.
• Wyatt Bruton ’11 spent last summer in Beijing, where he worked at a public relations agency during the week and taught in a migrant village on the week-ends.

Learn more here.

Red Clay Ramblers release Old North State

Jack Betts likes the Red Clay Ramblers’ new CD, “Old North State” with our very own Creative Writing Professor Bland Simpson, alum Jack Herrick, and company. Learn more.

UNC’s living laboratory in the Galapagos

UNC and partners at the University of San Francisco – Quito, Ecuador, are developing a living laboratory to prevent ecological damage in the fragile Galapagos Islands. Learn more.

B.B. King, Lucille and more

B.B. King, a guitar named Lucille, and more Mississippi blues tales in UNC blues historian William Ferris’ new book and DVD, Give My Poor Heart Ease, coming soon from UNC Press. Learn more here about the book, film and audio clips online.