blog posts

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  Long-term study shows crop rotation decreases greenhouse gas emissions

  May 24, 2018 4:00 pm0 views

  Comparing the corn phase of a corn-soybean rotation to continuous corn showed an average yield benefit of more than 20% and a cumulative reduction in nitrous oxide emissions of approximately 35%

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  3-D printed sugar scaffolds: A sweet solution for tissue engineering, manufacturing

  May 23, 2018 3:15 pm4 views

  The water-soluble, biodegradable glassy sugar structures have multiple applications in biomedical engineering, cancer research and device manufacturing

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  Study: Ancient mound builders carefully timed their occupation of coastal Louisiana site

  May 22, 2018 10:00 am1 views

  New insights into how Native peoples selected the landforms that supported their villages and earthen mounds – and why these sites were later abandoned

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  Paper: Workload affects operational risk at commercial banks

  May 22, 2018 5:45 am0 views

  Under a low-workload scenario, bank employees tend to take performance-enhancing risks. But in a high-workload scenario, employees make more errors due to multitasking

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  Using 3D x-rays to measure particle movement inside lithium ion batteries

  May 21, 2018 11:00 am2 views

  Lithium ion batteries have come a long way, but performance still can decay over time (e.g., not fully charging after many charge/discharge cycles). Illinois researchers are discovering why

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  New technique can track drug and gene delivery to cells

  May 21, 2018 9:45 am0 views

  Illinois researchers say they now know how to track and map drug and gene delivery vehicles to evaluate which are most effective at infiltrating cells and getting to their targets

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  Understanding microbiomes: The American Gut Project

  May 18, 2018 11:15 am0 views

  Illinois scientists highlight impact of diet in world’s largest citizen-science microbiome project

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  Brazilians with less education more likely to report being in poor health

  May 16, 2018 3:15 pm0 views

  Illinois professor Flavia Cristina Drumond Andrade led a study of education levels and self-reported health in Brazil

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  Engineers on a roll toward smaller, more efficient radio frequency transformers

  May 16, 2018 8:00 am0 views

  3D rolled-up radio frequency transformers take 10x to 100x less space, perform better when the power transfer ratio increases and have a simpler fabrication process than 2-D transformers

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  Paper: Four service features impact demand for physicians’ online bookings

  May 15, 2018 10:15 am1 views

  Four service-quality proxies (bedside manner, diagnosis accuracy, waiting time and service time) disproportionately affect demand for patient care, said Professor Yuqian Xu

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  Team achieves two-electron chemical reactions using light energy, gold

  May 15, 2018 10:00 am0 views

  Puts scientists one step closer to building a carbon-recycling system that can harvest solar energy to efficiently convert CO2 and water into liquid fuels

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  Study shows how bacteria guide electron flow for efficient energy generation

  May 14, 2018 1:45 pm0 views

  Biochemists at the University of Illinois have isolated a protein supercomplex from a bacterial membrane that, like a battery, generates a voltage across the bacterial membrane. The voltage is used to make ATP, a key energy currency of life.

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  Elastic microspheres expand understanding of embryonic development and cancer cells

  May 14, 2018 1:45 pm0 views

  An Illinois-led team has demonstrated the quantification of 3-D forces within cells in petri dishes and  live specimens. This could unlock some mysteries related to embryonic development and cancer cells

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  New polymer manufacturing process saves energy

  May 11, 2018 11:30 am0 views

  A team of researchers has developed a new polymer-curing process that could reduce the amount of time and energy consumed.

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  Breeding cassava, a tropical root, has not improved photosynthesis or yield

  May 10, 2018 9:30 am0 views

  While advances in breeding have helped cassava withstand pests and diseases, cassava yields no more today than it did in 1963. 

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  Protecting a spacecraft's crew from extreme heat during reentry

  May 9, 2018 1:30 pm0 views

  Aerospace engineering researchers at Illinois created a model to determine the optimal thickness and composition of the material needed in a spacecraft's heat shield.

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  New polymer manufacturing process saves 10 orders of magnitude of energy

  May 9, 2018 1:00 pm0 views

  Makers of cars, planes, buses – anything that needs strong, lightweight and heat resistant parts – are poised to benefit from a new manufacturing process that requires only a quick touch from a small heat source to send a cascading hardening wave through a polymer. Researchers at the University of Illinois have developed a new polymer-curing process that could reduce the cost, time and energy needed, compared with the current manufacturing process.

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  Russian cuckoo invasion spells trouble for Alaskan birds, study finds

  May 8, 2018 11:45 am0 views

  Common cuckoos and oriental cuckoos in eastern Russia appear to be expanding their breeding range into western Alaska, where songbirds are naive to the cuckoos’ wily ways, researchers report.

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  New CRISPR technology ‘knocks out’ yeast genes with single-point precision

  May 7, 2018 3:00 pm0 views

  The CRISPR-Cas9 system has given researchers the power to precisely edit selected genes. Now, researchers have used it to develop a technology that can target any gene in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae and turn it off by deleting single letters from its DNA sequence.

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  Study adds new evidence that infants track others’ mental states

  May 7, 2018 2:15 pm0 views

  A brain-imaging study offers new support for the idea that infants can accurately track other people’s beliefs. When 7-month-old infants in the study viewed videos of an actor who saw – or failed to see – an object being moved to a new location, activity in a brain region known to play a role in processing others’ beliefs changed in the infants, just as it did in adults watching the same videos.

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  For nurses in Illinois, expectation of violence ‘a fundamental part of the job,’ study says

  May 7, 2018 2:15 pm2 views

  A new report from a University of Illinois labor expert found that 90 percent of nurses surveyed in Illinois experienced violence on the job at least once during the past 12 months, with 50 percent experiencing it six times or more during that period.

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  Study explores the down side of being dubbed ‘class clown’

  May 1, 2018 4:45 pm0 views

  Boys who are labeled a 'class clown' by teachers, classmates may experience negative repercussions by third grade that could affect their long-term social, educational success

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  Study suggests ample warning of supervolcano eruptions

  Apr 30, 2018 8:45 am2 views

  Illinois geology professor Patricia Gregg and graduate student Haley Cabaniss have developed the first quantitative model that could help predict supervolcano eruptions

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  Deadly handshake: How staph bacteria cling to human cells

  Apr 30, 2018 2:30 am0 views

  Researchers are using the Blue Waters supercomputer to simulate and decipher the adhesion mechanism of staph bacteria, which could lead to new treatments

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  Prosthetic arms can provide controlled sensory feedback

  Apr 28, 2018 4:00 pm0 views

  'We no longer want the prosthetic hand to feel like a tool, we want it to feel like an extension of the body,' said Aadeel Akhtar, an M.D./Ph.D. student in the neuroscience program

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  African forest elephants: Conservationists could save many species by protecting this one

  Apr 27, 2018 11:00 am1 views

  'Forest elephants are the heart of these ecosystems--without them, the system falls apart, and many other species are jeopardized,' said Illinois professor Alfred Roca

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  Respect Indigenous ancestors: Scholars urge community engagement before research

  Apr 26, 2018 1:00 pm0 views

  'Right now, there are inconsistent or no regulations for working with ancient ancestors,' and none for working with descendants, even though findings can have serious implications for them

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  Professor chronicles how Big Ten brought order to college football, then lost its way

  Apr 25, 2018 11:00 am0 views

  College football started small in the late 1800s, but the issues then were remarkably similar to today: amateurism versus professionalism, player eligibility, player safety, commercialization...

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  Earth BioGenome Project aims to sequence genomes of 1.5 million species

  Apr 23, 2018 2:15 pm1 views

  The Earth BioGenome Project aims to sequence all eukaryotic species, which encompasses all organisms except bacteria and archaea

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  Study: Girls more likely than boys to struggle with social, behavioral, academic needs

  Apr 23, 2018 1:45 pm0 views

  The more failing grades students have during eighth grade, the more likely they are to experience social, academic, and behavioral problems during their freshman year in high school