TUESDAY APRIL 22, 2014 VOLUME 120 ISSUE 119 Serving The University of Alabama since 1894
SPORTS | FOOTBALL
Former Alabama, NFL fullback faces future with degenerative nerve disease By Kevin Connell | Staff Reporter
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hen Kevin Turner was 5 years old, he began his first season of organized football. Twenty-six seasons later at age 30, Kevin Turner would play his last season of organized football. Turner, a former University of Alabama and NFL fullback, has amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a neurodegenerative disease that attacks the motor neurons in the brain and spinal cord that control muscle action. The disease is better known as ALS, or Lou Gehrig’s disease. For Turner, ALS has taken most of his ability to use his arms and hands. “There’s very few things I can do with my hands,” Turner said. “I can’t eat by myself. I can’t take my pants off, can’t put them on. Can’t get dressed, can’t brush my teeth. It’s hard on someone who’s very independent.” The rest of his body is slowly deteriorating. Speech continues to worsen and swallowing becomes more and more of a strenuous task. Until last August, Turner needed a ventilator to help him breathe. He underwent a surgical procedure on his diaphragm that allows him to breathe on his own for the next two to three years. SEE TURNER PAGE 9
Photo Illustration by Austin Bigoney; Photo Courtesy of the Corolla Fullback Kevin Turner carries three would-be tacklers along for a ride as he trucks forward for a few more of the team’s 390 rushing yards against Vanderbilt in 1991.
TODAYON CAMPUS Campus exhibit WHAT: Healing the Wounded Heart Exhibit WHEN: All day WHERE: South Lawn Office Building
WHAT: WellBAMA Health Screenings WHEN: 7:30 – 11 a.m. WHERE: RISE Conference Room
By Taylor Manning | Staff Reporter
Campus art WHAT: Katherine Bradford: “The Golden Age of Exploration” WHEN: 9 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. WHERE: Sarah Moody Gallery of Art, Garland Hall
Local food WHAT: Taco Tuesday WHEN: 11 a.m. – 9:30 p.m. WHERE: Jim ‘N Nick’s
Campus lecture WHAT: “The State of Global Biodiversity” WHEN: 7 p.m. WHERE: Moody Concert Hall
Management Information Systems
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Scientist to visit campus UA honors prestigious Pulitzer Prize winner to alum at symposium lecture on biodiversity
Free screenings
WHAT: Alabama Information Management Society meeting WHEN: 6:30 p.m. WHERE: 159 Russell Hall
NEWS | BIODIVERSITY
Scientists, authors and renowned scholars from around the country will gather this week at The University of Alabama to discuss the future of biodiversity during “Edward O. Wilson Week,” a three-day symposium honoring the world’s leading experts in the field. Wilson, a two-time Pulitzer Prize winner and founder of sociobiology theory, is also one of the University’s most recognized alumni. “I cannot think of any other living biologist who is deserving of such recognition,” said Piotr Naskrecki, a resident research associate who works in the department of entomology at Harvard University. “If you look at his career and just look at the milestones, there’s enough major accomplishments to fill an entire generation of life, not just a single person’s life.” The one-time symposium features a packed schedule of book signings, speaker presentations, panel discussions and briefings on current research, culminating in a special tribute to Wilson from conservation and environmental
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groups throughout Alabama. Wilson, research professor emeritus at Harvard University, said the event will also serve as a launching point for his latest book, “A Window on Eternity.” The book traces the re-evolution of Mozambique’s Gorongosa National Park, which was nearly destroyed by civil war. Naskrecki, a long-time associate of Wilson’s at Harvard, collaborated on the book by photographing several of the park’s living species. Unlike Wilson’s 29 previously published books, this one includes extensive wildlife photographs. “They’re superb,” Wilson said. “We don’t appreciate how good they are. To find those particular creatures and get them in the right spot is enormously difficult. This is not just a book of ideas, which is what I usually write. It’s a book extolling on a part of the environment, which should be experienced by sight, and even sound if possible, as much as by words.” Naskrecki is currently teaching a class in Mozambique and will be unable to attend the event, but he SEE WILSON PAGE 9
By Austin Frederick | Contributing Writer
Sitting in the Tuscaloosa Cultural Arts Center last Thursday, Edward O. Wilson recalled a story about a massive spider. “I was out on a path, and there was a giant tarantula on the path,” Wilson said. “Tarantulas look like big, hairy, sluggish creatures. I wanted to get it off the path and I thought if I just nudged it, it would move off the path. I tapped it, and it turned around faster than the eye could see, and it had its two fangs reared and ready to strike. And I thought to myself, ‘There is so much about animals that we don’t know.’” A Pulitzer Prize-winning author, biologist and UA alumnus, Wilson comes from a humble background and remains humble in spite of his overwhelming achievements. Hailing from Birmingham, he was forced to give up things like studying birds and animals when he was blinded in one eye in a fishing accident. He decided to
CW | Anna Waters Edward O. Wilson turn his attention to a species he could study through a microscope: insects. In high school, Wilson discovered the first fire ant colony in the United States. He graduated with his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from The University of Alabama and received his doctorate from Harvard University. Since then, Wilson has published 29 books including “Sociobiology: The New Synthesis and The Diversity of Life,” which was voted SEE SYMPOSIUM PAGE 9
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