UAB Magazine Online Features

Exploring the Limits of the Brain

By Caperton Gillett

mindmatter
Descartes's concept of how sensations travel from the extremities to the brain
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart had an ear for music. Albert Einstein had a unique understanding of physics. Andy Warhol found uncommon beauty in common items, Frank Lloyd Wright crafted cold stone into living architecture, and Lewis Carroll drew an enduring fantasy story from a mirror and a white rabbit. Such creativity—genius, even—is too wonderful, too human to simply bubble up from the chemical cocktail of the brain.

At least, that’s what most of us probably think. And many of the world’s most illustrious thinkers have agreed. The exact relationship between the human brain and the human mind has been debated by philosophers throughout the ages. Plato and Aristotle fought for dualism—the idea that the mind or spirit is independent of the physical brain. Their contemporary, Parmenides, argued the case for monism: that body and spirit are one and the same.
Over the years, Plato, Aristotle, and their dualistic successor, Descartes, have undoubtedly had the upper hand. But ever since the 1920s, when science began to take a keen interest in the subject, the tables have turned. Sort of.

Forensic Program Trains Scientific Sleuths

By Claire L. Burgess

David Graves

David Graves

Lawyers, police officers, and doctors used to nab all the professional glory on prime-time television. That is, until 2000, when CSI: Crime Scene Investigation debuted with an addictive blend of thrilling plotlines and scientific wizardry and quickly became a runaway hit. Now you can find forensic scientists all over the cable box, including dramas such as Bones and Dexter and reality shows such as Forensic Files.

Science geeks have become crime-fighting superheroes—only in lab coats and protective eyewear instead of spandex and capes. And by generating massive exposure for a previously little-known profession, these shows are actually performing a public service. Forensic science is one of the fastest-growing jobs in the country; the need for trained investigators is projected to grow 31 percent by 2016, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

A few seasons’ worth of CSI won’t prepare anyone for the reality of criminal forensics, however. For that, interested parties can turn to the innovative new bachelor’s degree in forensic chemistry offered by the UAB Department of Chemistry, one of only a handful of programs in the country offering similarly in-depth training.

Turning the Camera on Birmingham

By Caperton Gillett

Making a short film can be a tall order. Every year, students in UAB's Ethnographic Filmmaking class scatter across Birmingham in search of untold stories. The ones they find are unforgettable—hidden fishes, graffiti artists, urban farms, ghost towns. But once they've found their subjects, the real challenge begins: How can you condense a complex issue into five minutes? See the stories unfold in this new audio slideshow.

Lessons From the Real-Estate Bubble

By Jo Lynn Orr

It doesn’t matter if they’re made from bubble gum, soap, tech stocks, or subdivisions, the invariable law of bubbles is a simple one: They burst. And when they go, they tend to leave a mess behind. But few, if any, have grown so big or spread their wreckage so far as the vast American real-estate bubble, which began in the mid-1990s and kept inflating through most of the present decade before bursting catastrophically last year.