Alec Harvey

For businesses in midsized cities, community banks are still the source of wherewithal. For the bankers, it’s a balancing act between the strength of local relationships and the cost of new technology.

Alabama is well represented in this newest field of medical research. Perhaps more promising than the genome is the new frontier of the microbiome — your gut microbes and “all of the bugs that are living in symbiotic relationship with us.”

Tuskegee University produces more research per capita than any other historically black college, and one reason is Shaik Jeelani. Tuskegee made a place for him 45 years ago and he was never persuaded to leave.

The Appalachian Regional Commission, Southern Research and a team of college interns assist small businesses in four counties hit by a coal mining slump.

Residents of Opelika eagerly dove into a citywide charrette called DesignPlace. One result morphed from sticky notes, through local history, into a logo with locomotion.

Auburn University’s two-year-old Launch initiative has invested $300,000 in university-born research — looking to bridge the gap between lab testing and commercialization.

In affluent and poor communities alike, untreated sewage overflows into streams as many as 30 times a day across Alabama. Improvements to wastewater utilities usually only follow a problem, including a trip to the hospital after a summer swim.

Germany’s Berghoff Group chose Auburn for its U.S. precision manufacturing plant because it had the skilled workforce that could hone parts taking 130 hours to perfect.