blog posts The government is rescuing rural colleges that would otherwise close Apr 27, 2023 11:15 am The Washington Post (April 27) Having a university nearby not only raises household income, U of I research has found; it increases high school graduation rates and boosts employment and other things that contribute to local economies. The global food crisis will be one of affordability rather than supply Apr 15, 2022 10:30 am Time (April 14) Ukraine is one of the most important breadbaskets of the world. Professor Scott Irwin writes that formidable challenges face farmers in Ukraine, from shortages of fuel, labor and fertilizer, to landmines left in the fields. The Galloping Ghost: Red Grange's unrivaled legacy Sep 1, 2023 9:00 am In honor of the 100th anniversary of Grange's Illinois debut back in 1923, we remember a man who revolutionized the game of football at the college and professional levels. The future of higher education: What it means for students and educators Sep 15, 2022 11:30 am Forbes (Sept. 14) Gies College of Business Dean Jeffrey R. Brown: 'The idea that one can earn a degree at the age of 22 and be set for a career has become as antiquated as the pocket watch.' The future of astronomy lies in artificial intelligence Jan 9, 2024 10:15 am Forbes (Jan. 7) Illinois graduate student in astronomy Patrick David Aleo discusses the needs for algorithms to find celestial anomalies. 'With the Large Synoptic Sky Survey, we expect to find objects which we didn’t even know existed.' The forecast for battery life: Clear with a 45% chance of degradation Oct 27, 2023 1:15 pm Rechargeable batteries have a lifespan of utility—losing their ability to hold a charge over time. As battery-powered aircraft are being developed for commuter flights in urban environments, the rate of degradation will be an important consideration. The foods the world will lose to climate change Jan 2, 2024 3:45 pm Wired (Dec. 29) 'For every degree Celsius, the yield of oats reduces by about 1.8 bushels per acre...That’s just about how much we gain in oats every year with breeding. So every gain we make, we lose it with that extra degree of temperature.' The (failed?) effort to bring gray squirrels to campus in 1901 Sep 6, 2023 11:00 am It’s hard to know when President Draper and Professor Rolfe realized they were over their heads: Some squirrels died in their shipping containers. Many died of disease or disappeared. And, local residents started shooting them. The downside of 'branded access offers': Perceived lack of consumer commitment Apr 11, 2024 12:30 pm 'Brands are constantly pursuing new customers, and the leading trend is a focus on branded access offers... moving away from ownership to more of a short-term rental mode,' said U of I business professor Tiffany Barnett White . The college-going gap between Black and white Americans is getting worse May 15, 2023 12:00 pm When Patrick Ben III finally made it to U of I, the shortcomings of his high school were laid bare. Other students 'were sitting there in class talking about how they’ve already done this stuff, where I’m thinking, all of this is new to me.' The case for saying ‘pregnant people’ and other gender-inclusive phrases May 7, 2024 4:15 pm CNN (Atlanta, May 6) 'You can’t just wave it away and say, "Oh, these are made up terms so they’re no good,” U of I professor Dennis Baron said. 'All language is made up, and it’s made up because we have a need to say things.' The best cat food in 2024, with advice from veterinarians Jul 2, 2024 11:00 am Business Insider (June 6) Wet cat food doesn’t have to cost a premium to be nutritionally balanced. Both the percentage of protein and the sources of that protein are important, says U. of I.'s Kelly Swanson. Theatre's playwright residency program allows students to help develop new plays Sep 21, 2022 1:15 pm Mallory Raven-Ellen Backstrom wrote 'A Darkling at Nightfall' and worked on it for two weeks in the Daniel J. Sullivan playwrite-in-residence program. Students' reading of the play will inform Backstrom's edits as she prepares it for the stage. Terrence Shannon Jr. earns Big Ten Player of the Week honor Nov 22, 2022 9:15 am Shannon earns the award after averaging 22.7 points, 7.3 rebounds and 4.3 assists while shooting 59.5% from the field, including 56.5% from 3-point range. He led the No. 16 Fighting Illini to a 2-1 record on the week, including a top-10 victory. Terrance Shannon Jr: 'I'm Back' Jun 1, 2023 8:00 am Shannon is a major addition to the 2023-24 Illini lineup. He averaged 17.2 points, 4.6 rebounds, 2.8 assists and 1.3 steals in his inaugural season in Champaign, earning first-team All-Big Ten accolades. Teenage girls' self-esteem is a product of past experience Jan 9, 2023 11:30 am 'We all feel the need to fit in socially, but teenagers feel this need more strongly than most. What we don’t understand is why some teenagers feel it more strongly than others,' says doctoral student Haley Skymba. Technology to absorb CO₂ at power plants is promising Apr 25, 2022 11:45 am Testing has proved the biphasic solvent-based process can achieve greater than 90% capture efficiency and greater than 95% CO₂ purity and has the potential to significantly increase energy efficiency and reduce CO₂ capture cost. Tech giants partner with U of I to launch Speech Accessibility Project Oct 5, 2022 10:45 am Forbes (Oct. 4) Tech heavyweights Amazon, Apple, Google, Meta, and Microsoft join Illinois in a 'one-of-a-kind collaboration rooted in the belief that inclusive speech recognition should be a universal experience.' Team uses digital cameras, machine learning to predict neurological disease Oct 11, 2022 10:45 am Illinois researchers led the development of a new approach for identifying people with multiple sclerosis or Parkinson’s disease. Team streamlines DNA collection, analysis for elephant conservation Jan 12, 2023 9:00 am U. of I. researchers developed a new, more efficient approach to obtaining DNA from wild animals without disturbing the animals or putting researchers’ lives at risk. Team identifies key driver of cancer cell death pathway that activates immune cells Jul 31, 2023 10:00 am Illinois researchers identified a protein that plays a key role in the action of several emerging anticancer therapies. The finding may help improve immunotherapies against solid tumors. Team finds reliable predictor of plant species persistence and coexistence Jun 8, 2023 9:00 am U of I researchers have developed a method for determining whether pairs or groups of plant species are likely to coexist over time. Their approach reliably predicts which plants manage to thrive in a shared habitat. Team effort lifts Illini Women's Basketball over Michigan State Jan 30, 2023 10:45 am 'We got back to our identity about finding ways to win, making plays when we had to, and showing some toughness when we had to,' said head coach Shauna Green. 'This was a much, much, much-needed win in response to the Purdue loss.' Team discovers how to fight tough-to-treat bacterial infection Nov 27, 2023 8:30 am A U of I research team has discovered the physical and chemical rules for overcoming the defenses of Pseudomonas aeruginosa, a bacterium responsible for tens of thousands of hospital infections every year in the U.S. Teaching generations of students about outbreaks – with art Jan 26, 2023 12:45 pm 'The art show is a midpoint in a journey to revamp the health district’s Germ Busters program, which conducts outreach to K-8 students on a variety of infectious diseases.' TEAACH your children well: Revealing the history of Asian Americans Apr 10, 2024 11:45 am The College of Education is serving as a professional development hub to assist public school teachers in educating students about contributions of Asian Americans to the economic, cultural, social, and political development of the U.S. T-cells infiltrate brain, cause respiratory distress in condition affecting the immunocompromised Aug 30, 2023 11:15 am The pulmonary distress associated with C-IRIS, an inflammatory condition that can affect immunocompromised patients, is caused not by damage to the lungs but by T-cells infiltrating the brain, U of I researchers discovered. Talk to children: Addiction info provides emergency first aid May 17, 2024 3:30 pm Itemlive (May 16) — Illinois information sciences professor Elizabeth Massa Hoiem discusses why we must talk to children about struggles with addiction. Taking on the pandemic—and winning Jun 23, 2022 8:00 am How the College of Education successfully placed 100% of its students that required placements in schools or with community organizations during the first two years of the pandemic. Takekawa shares bars title, Illini earn fifth place at B1G Championships Mar 20, 2023 9:15 am 'Mia Takekawa never fails to deliver,' Head Coach Nadalie Walsh said. "She 100% deserves to be the bar champion and runner-up on beam. I couldn't be prouder of her and just the legacy she's leaving," Synapses and silicon: Student contest blends biology and computer science to advance AI Jan 24, 2023 9:00 am The 2023 Bio-informed AI Research Competition encourages students in the behavioral and computer sciences to pursue collaborative AI research. The inaugural winners advise applicants in 2023 to 'be brave' and stay open-minded. Symbiosis: Understanding cooperation and conflict in plants Aug 4, 2022 10:30 am Do the interests of the symbionts always line up with the hosts plants, or do genes that benefit symbionts come at the expense of the hosts? Researchers investigate this question through genomic sequencing of plants seeded with microbial symbionts. Sweet corn production on a decades-long decline Jul 21, 2023 1:00 pm Modern Farmer (July 20) Cultivars in use now won’t necessarily be the ones performing well in the future, says U of I's Marty Williams. 'It gives you pause – what do we need to be doing now so we can ensure profitability and productivity into the future?' Survey finds 55% of teachers intend to leave profession earlier than planned Aug 15, 2022 12:00 pm WLS-TV (Aug. 14) 'I think for two or three decades we have been de-professionalizing the field of teaching. Both in how we look at teachers, how we blame...our schools and our teachers for everything that is not the way that we think it should be.' Survey: COVID-19 vaccine recipients report changes in menstrual bleeding Jul 15, 2022 1:15 pm Study represents the most comprehensive assessment so far of menstrual changes experienced by pre- and post-menopausal individuals in the first two weeks after receiving the COVID-19 vaccine. Surprise computer science proof by U of I student, colleague stuns mathematicians Mar 22, 2023 5:00 pm Quanta Magazine (March 21) 'My best idea for how to make progress on this problem [was] to actually improve the tool itself, not to use it in a more clever way,' said U of I grad student Zander Kelley. Supreme Court leak investigation will be led by U of I Law alumna May 4, 2022 10:15 am Bloomberg Law (May 3) Col. Gail A. Curley, who earned a law degree from U of I in 1999, will lead the probe of the leak of a draft opinion that would overturn abortion rights in the U.S. by striking down a 1973 landmark Supreme Court decision. Supreme Court appears divided on the independent state legislature theory Dec 12, 2022 10:45 am Christian Science Monitor (Dec. 8) The original meaning of 'legislature' in the elections clause 'was clear,' writes U of I Law Dean Vikram Amar. State legislatures are 'constrained by the state constitution,' and not 'independent' in any context. Summers are when we’re most vulnerable to tick bites. Here’s what you need to know Jun 4, 2024 3:30 pm Fort Worth Star-Telegram (May 31) Not all tick bites mean disease: you should only be worried if you start to feel ill. 'Watch for symptoms — rash, fever, muscle or joint pain, or headache,' says U. of I. professor Becky Smith. Summer humanities program builds bridge between communities Jun 8, 2022 11:00 am The program invites humanities students to work collaboratively with organizations in the Champaign-Urbana area, using their humanities knowledge to make an impact in the community. 'Subatomic baseball' could speed up tomorrow’s quantum computers Mar 10, 2023 12:30 pm Inverse (March 10) 'Arrays of neutral atoms trapped in focused laser beams are one of the leading quantum computing platforms,' U. of I. physicist Brian Leeds DeMarco says. But it's tough to create a defect-free array where no atoms are missing. Study tracks waterbird use of Chicago-area wetlands Sep 14, 2022 10:00 am Researchers found that several wetland bird species make use of even small Chicago-area wetlands, and that the level of urbanization had little effect on most studied species’ use of such sites, provided the right kinds of habitat were available. Study tracks social, genetic evolution in Asian colobine primates Jun 1, 2023 12:45 pm A new study reveals that colobines living in colder regions experienced genetic changes and alterations to their ancient social structure that likely enhanced their ability to survive. Study tracks plant pathogens in leafhoppers from natural areas Aug 2, 2022 10:00 am By extracting and testing DNA from archival leafhopper specimens collected in natural areas, the study identified new phytoplasma strains and found new associations between leafhoppers and phytoplasmas known to harm crop plants. Study tracks emerging contaminants from landfill to treatment plant to application Feb 8, 2024 10:45 am 'Once in landfills, the stuff moves into the leachate... We’re just moving them from one environmental compartment to the next without addressing the problem. We never get rid of them; we’re just shifting them back and forth.' Study tracks COVID-19 infection dynamics in adults Apr 28, 2022 10:30 am 'We capture the most complete, high-resolution, quantitative picture of how SARS-CoV-2 replicates and sheds in people during natural infection. There are no other data like this,' said U. of I. microbiology professor Christopher B. Brooke Study: Tipped restaurant workers in Chicago compensated at rates below minimum wage Oct 5, 2023 1:30 pm Researchers also found several violations of municipal, county, state and federal work-related laws, including wage theft, hours and work schedule violations, discrimination and harassment, and occupational health and safety violations. Study tests rotary blade designs in quest for quieter copters, drones May 18, 2022 11:15 am Researchers at Illinois are testing the limits of rotary blade design to find an efficient, but quieter option for helicopters and drones. Noise is one of the key bottlenecks for the urban air mobility market. Study: Social networks can influence perception of climate-change risk May 22, 2024 9:45 am A U of I study found that social networks can play a significant role in influencing the financial behaviors and perception of catastrophic risks brought about by climate change. Study shows the power of 'thank you' for couples Nov 14, 2022 11:15 am Study by a professor of human development and community health finds greater levels of perceived gratitude protect couples from common stressors such as ineffective arguing and financial problems, and promote relationship stability.