News Bureau

Just as athletes cross-train to improve physical skills, those wanting to enhance cognitive skills can benefit from multiple ways of exercising the brain, according to a comprehensive new study from University of Illinois researchers.

A new study indicates that cancer patients and survivors have a ready weapon against fatigue and “chemo brain”: a brisk walk.

Spinach and kale are favorites of those looking to stay physically fit, but they also could keep consumers cognitively fit, according to a new study from University of Illinois researchers.

In the summer of 2012, two undergraduate students tackled a problem that plant ecology experts had overlooked for 30 years. The students demonstrated that different plant species vary in how they take in carbon dioxide and emit water through stomata, the pores in their leaves. The data boosted the accuracy of mathematical models of carbon and water fluxes through plant leaves by 30 to 60 percent.

Geoscientists have long puzzled over the mechanism that created the Tibetan Plateau, but a new study finds that the landform’s history may be controlled primarily by the strength of the tectonic plates whose collision prompted its uplift. Given that the region is one of the most seismically active areas in the world, understanding the plateau’s geologic history could give scientists insight to modern day earthquake activity.

Soil temperatures are above normal in mid-July, according to Jennie Atkins, the Water and Atmospheric Resources Monitoring program manager at the Illinois State Water Survey, part of the Prairie Research Institute at Illinois.

Bill D. Lazzell

Emily Knox, a professor in the University of Illinois School of Information Sciences, is the editor of a book that looks at the controversial topic of the use of trigger warnings in the classroom.

New research from U. of I. business professor and branding expert Carlos J. Torelli provides a more nuanced understanding of the role of political ideology and social norms on donation decisions.

A Supreme Court decision that limits the types of statements that can be admitted as evidence unless the victim testifies in court discourages prosecutors from trying some child maltreatment cases, according to a recent national survey of more than 200 prosecutors.

It took two years on a supercomputer to simulate 1.2 microseconds in the life of the HIV capsid, a protein cage that shuttles the HIV virus to the nucleus of a human cell. The 64-million-atom simulation offers new insights into how the virus senses its environment and completes its infective cycle.

The Institute of Contemporary Art’s “artful book club,” ICA Reads, has selected “Kindred: A Graphic Novel Adaptation” as its 2017 pick for a book of critical and societal importance. A reinterpretation of Octavia E. Butler’s science-fiction masterpiece “Kindred,” the book was adapted by School of Information Sciences at Illinois alumnus and adjunct lecturer Damian Duffy and illustrated by John Jennings. A New York Times bestseller, the novel tells the story of a young black woman’s time-travel between her home in 1970s California and a plantation in the antebellum South.

Chemical compounds called cannabinoids are found in marijuana and also are produced naturally in the body from omega-3 fatty acids. A well-known cannabinoid in marijuana, THC, is responsible for some of its euphoric effects, but it also has anti-inflammatory benefits. A new study in animal tissue reveals the cascade of chemical reactions that convert omega-3 fatty acids into cannabinoids that have anti-inflammatory benefits – but without the psychotropic high. 

A five-minute encounter with an outsider spurs a cascade of changes in gene activity in the brain that can last for hours, researchers report in a study of stickleback fish.

Walter H. Franke Jr.

James H. Kuklinski, a professor emeritus of political science at Illinois, has been honored with the 2017 Hazel Gaudet Erskine Political Psychology Career Achievement Award, given by the American Political Science Association’s Political Psychology Section.

"...fixing the major problems that Illinois has – both in policy and in finances – is going to require the governor to work in cooperation with rather than in opposition to the majorities in the General Assembly, and vice versa"

The reward for information about missing scholar Yingying Zhang’s whereabouts will be raised to $50,000. The increase, requested by Zhang's family, will be announced at a news conference Friday morning.

The Center for Advanced Study has appointed seven new members to its permanent faculty – one of the highest forms of academic recognition the University of Illinois campus makes for outstanding scholarship.

When it comes to efficiency, sometimes it helps to look to Mother Nature for advice – even in technology as advanced as printable, flexible electronics.

Researchers at the University of Illinois have developed bio-inspired dynamic templates used to manufacture organic semiconductor materials that produce printable electronics. It uses a process similar to biomineralization – the way that bones and teeth form. This technique is also eco-friendly compared with how conventional electronics are made, which gives the researchers the chance to return the favor to nature.  

Gavin Horn, the University of Illinois Fire Service Institute’s director of research,  will testify before the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Science, Space and Technology, Subcommittee on Research and Technology. The hearing, scheduled for July 12, is titled “U.S. Fire Administration and Fire Grant Programs Reauthorization: Examining Effectiveness and Priorities.” The hearing will review the effectiveness and priorities of the United States Fire Administration and the Assistance to Firefighters and Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response Firefighters grant programs.

In an online survey about their workplace experiences, 88 percent of academics, students, postdoctoral researchers and administrators in astronomy and planetary science reported hearing, experiencing or witnessing negative language or harassment relating to race, gender or other physical characteristics at work within the last five years. Of the 423 respondents, 39 percent reported having been verbally harassed and 9 percent said they had suffered physical harassment at work.

Charles Bellatti ... Richard Marks Joy ... Sandra Lee "Sandy" Roberts

The average temperature for June in Illinois was 72.8 degrees, 0.9 degrees above normal, according to Illinois State Climatologist Jim Angel with the Illinois State Water Survey, part of the Prairie Research Institute at Illinois.

Westerners view handshaking more positively than do East Asians, researchers report in a new study. Western men also rate handshakes initiated by men and women differently, the study found. 

Green infrastructure is an attractive concept, but there is concern surrounding its effectiveness. Researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign are using a mathematical technique traditionally used in earthquake engineering to determine how well green infrastructure works and to communicate with urban planners, policymakers and developers.

The University of Illinois is hosting a Human-Animal Studies Summer Institute -- the first of its kind in the emerging interdisciplinary field.

A new portable device can quickly find markers of deadly, unpredictable sepsis infection from a single drop of blood.

New mothers who are in abusive relationships are three times more likely to have suicidal thoughts, a new study suggests. Conducted with women in Brazil, the study is among a growing body of research to establish a link between suicidality and intimate partner violence among postpartum women in low- or middle-income countries.

Marion Carter ... Franz Kamber

Teachers who have just completed their first year in the classroom are invited to attend the annual Beginning Teacher Conference  on July 17-18 at the University of Illinois.

The heart is a dynamic muscle that grows and shrinks in response to stressors such as exercise and disease. The secret to its malleability lies in individual cells, which get bigger or smaller depending on the heart’s needs. A new study of mouse hearts reveals a previously unknown mechanism by which heart cells control their size by ramping up or stopping the production of a key factor called PABPC1. The findings, reported in the journal eLife, could assist in the development of therapeutics that promote healthy heart growth and prevent disease.

A public event in support of missing scholar Yingying Zhang will take place Thursday evening at Krannert Center for the Performing Arts. The event is organized by the Chinese Students and Scholars Association.

The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign will award the Chancellor’s Medallion -- the highest campus honor -- to three men who have dedicated their professional lives to preserving the history of the university.

Jerry Boardingham ... William H. Erwin ... Stanley Friedman ... Cynthia A. James

A new book, “An Illini Place – Building the University of Illinois Campus,” covers the history of the planning and building of the University of Illinois campus and why the campus looks the way it does.

Political science professor Damarys Canache discusses the plight of Venezuela, where nearly three months of protests have resulted in more than 70 deaths

Sexy ads stick in the memory more but don’t sell the brand or product, according to research that analyzed nearly 80 advertising studies published over three decades.

For more than 100 years, the University of Illinois Summer Band has performed free Twilight Concerts on the Main Quad.

Soil temperatures have been rising throughout the first half of June, according to Jennie Atkins, Water and Atmospheric Resources Monitoring program manager at the Illinois State Water Survey, part of the Prairie Research Institute at Illinois.

Members of the news media are invited to attend a community meeting Thursday, June 22, to discuss campus support for the search for Yingying Zhang, a 26-year-old visiting scholar from China who has been missing since June 9.

Brian Brauer, the associate director for the Illinois Fire Service Institute, will receive the 2017 Outstanding Dissertation Award on June 21 at Auburn University. Brauer’s doctoral dissertation presented a case study of an Illinois fire department that underwent organizational culture change following a firefighter’s line-of-duty death. 

Fourteen University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign students and young alumni will pursue international educational, research and teaching experiences this coming year via student Fulbright grants. Applications are open for Fulbright grants for the 2018-19 academic year.

Researchers can look into your eyes to determine whether you’re getting your lutein, a pigment found in green leafy vegetables that is known to accumulate in the brain. Two new studies find that children with higher lutein levels in the eye tend to do better than others on tests of cognition and academic achievement, even after accounting for other factors known to influence academic performance such as IQ, gender, body composition and physical fitness.

Corn is grown not only for food, it is also an important renewable energy source. Renewable biofuels can come with hidden economic and environmental issues, and the question of whether corn is better utilized as food or as a biofuel has persisted since ethanol came into use. For the first time, researchers at the University of Illinois have quantified and compared these issues in terms of economics of the entire production system to determine if the benefits of biofuel corn outweigh the costs.

A $40,000 reward was raised by the community to generate information leading to the arrest of those involved in the apparent kidnapping of Yingying Zhang, a 26-year-old visiting scholar who has been missing since June 9. The reward will be discussed at a 7 p.m. news conference tonight on campus.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Its name is Stygobromus hayi, the Hay’s Spring amphipod. It is spineless. It lacks vision. It is an opportunistic feeder, consuming whatever resources are available – perhaps including the remains of its own kind. Now researchers report on a way to survey this aquatic, subterranean creature without threatening its existence, as other studies had done.  

It’s a warm April evening, and the air and earth are still heavy with moisture from recent rains. I’m perched on a plastic patio chair on my balcony when something catches my eye. I grab my binoculars and make out the details of a small bird paddling around in a new retention pond. It’s a pied-billed grebe, and it’s acting oddly.

James E. Hixon ... Richard “Dick” Nash ... Peggy F. Olsen ... Anna May Partenheimer ... Margaret L. Puckette ... Donna Franklin Scheibly ... Harvey J. Stapleton ... Edith A. Wade ... Irma Jane Wienke ... Gerald Paul Wirtz

Danita M. Brown Young will become the vice chancellor for student affairs at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign effective Aug. 7. She currently is the vice provost for student affairs and dean of students at the University of Minnesota.