2015-11-01
- A University of Illinois political science professor has been appointed to a White House team that’s applying insights from social and behavioral science to improve access to federal programs.Jake Bowers began his stint with President Obama’s year-old Social and Behavioral Sciences Team (SBST) last month and will continue with it through next summer. Bowers said it...
2015-10-01 - The forests in Alaska’s Yukon Flats are burning at a higher rate than any time in the last 10,000 years. A new analysis by researchers at Illinois finds that so many forest fires are occurring there that the area has become a net exporter of carbon to the atmosphere.This is worrisome, because arctic and subarctic boreal forests like those of the Yukon Flats contain roughly one-third of the Earth’...
2015-10-01 - Every four years the presidential nomination process in the United States comes under a great deal of scrutiny, with critics claiming that the drawn-out primary cycle, scheduled to begin in February 2016 and lasting until June, affords too much influence to a small number of voters in early primary states.But according to new research from a team of University of Illinois economists, the...
2015-10-01 - One particularly telling moment at the ceremony highlighting the U of I’s being named one of the “Milestones in Microbiology” sites actually occurred after the proceedings were over, as those who participated in the event were having their picture taken around a plaque from the American Society for Microbiology.On the plaque were the images of eight “giants” whose work at Illinois during the past...
2015-10-01 - An interdisciplinary team of researchers at Illinois have received $2 million over three years from the National Institutes of Health to develop new insights in neuroscience and create diagnostic and therapeutic tools in fighting neurological diseases. Jonathan Sweedler, professor of chemistry, Martha Gillette, professor of...
2015-10-01 - Amanda de Souza cradles a plastic petri dish in her hands. Tiny plants press against the lid; their roots form a delicate web. It’s hard to imagine that hope for millions of people may lie inside something so small, so seemingly fragile.But don’t let them fool you. These plants are hardy. Cassava thrives in the marginal soil of developing countries, where it is a life-saving commodity. In Africa...
2015-10-01 - The British Empire was not the model of peace and stability, the “Pax Britannica,” as it’s often portrayed. The common narrative of the empire’s rise and fall is misleading, says a University of Illinois history professor. Dissent and disruption were the rule, not the exception, according to Antoinette Burton, in her new book “The...
2015-10-01 - We’ve long known that there is ice on Mars, but on Sept. 28, NASA confirmed evidence of running water on the red planet—which makes all the difference in the world, says Illinois astronomy professor Leslie Looney.The discovery was made by NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, which used an imaging spectrometer to determine that mysterious streaks on the...
2015-10-01 - There’s good reason to be optimistic about the future of the humanities, but a sustained and innovative commitment at educational institutions such as the University of Illinois is required to maintain them in their role as an essential part of American democracy, the chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities said during his visit to campus.William Adams spent two nights on campus as...
2015-10-01 - A chemistry professor at Illinois has been named one of the first recipients of an award from the American Association for the Advancement of Science to help early-career women launch their research.Alison Fout will receive a $50,000 grant for receiving the Marion Milligan Mason Award for Women in the Sciences. She will apply the grant toward her...
2015-10-01 - In 559 B.C., the leader of the Rong barbarians in China argued that his people should be regarded as equals to those from the northern state of Jin. As the barbarian leader made his argument, he suddenly began to chant “Blue Flies,” a poetic ode about the dangers of slander.This story appears in the inaugural issue of The Journal of Chinese Literature and Culture, and it illustrates how poetry...
2015-10-01 - The student who chooses English as a major should be prepared—prepared for the questions, concerns and even mocking about the value of their degree.English major Mylissa Zelechowski said she gets it all the time. People she meets are “very quick to judge,” she said. But then the Wilmette, Illinois, sophomore tells them how she’s already using her...
2015-10-01 - The chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities, William Adams, will speak on the University of Illinois campus on Oct. 29 as part of events marking the 50th anniversary of the NEH.Adams’ speech, “The Common Good and NEH at 50,” will be at 7:30 p.m. in the Knight Auditorium at Spurlock Museum, 600 S. Gregory St., Urbana. The event is free and open to the public, and a reception will...
2015-10-01 - Four professors in the College of LAS have been named University Scholars for outstanding contributions to their fields. They were among 14 faculty selected for the honor this year across the three campuses of the University of Illinois.Carla Eva Cáceres, of the Department of Animal Biology, Clare Haru Crowston, of the...
2015-10-01 - Smoking will kill you. Candidate X will destroy the economy. Does that grab your attention? According to a study by a psychology professor at Illinois, fear-based appeals such as these are effective ways of influencing attitudes and behaviors.“There are very few circumstances under which (fear-based appeals) are not effective and there are no identifiable circumstances under which they backfire...
2015-10-01 - A four-year, $1 million grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation will help University of Illinois humanities scholars identify digital publishing options and produce new publications that will best disseminate their research.The collaborative project involves the Illinois Program for Research in the Humanities, the...
2015-09-01 - No, this story is not about interdisciplinary research between psychologists and astronomers. It turns out, however, that imagining life on a distant (albeit fictional) planet helps shed light on our assumptions about fairness in society.Participants in a study by psychologists at U of I were asked to guess why, on the Planet Teeku, the Blarks were richer than the Orps. The researchers found that...
2015-09-01 - Music? Check. Planetarium show? Check. Dinosaurs? You better believe it. The stage was set for alumni from the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences to reunite with their alma mater and each other this past summer, and they did so in memorable fashion. More than 160 people attended Night at the Museum with LAS, at the Peoria (Ill.) Riverfront Museum in July. Organized by the LAS...
2015-09-01 - Come back to the University of Illinois this fall and celebrate Homecoming with the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. Join LAS alumni and friends at our festive event for a lunch buffet, entertainment, displays, prizes, and more. The LAS Homecoming Celebration is open to all LAS alumni and friends. Registration is required in advance. After the event, head over to Memorial Stadium to cheer on...
2015-09-01 - On the surface, it appears that policymakers are faced with a great dilemma. If we grow more biofuel crops, we reduce greenhouse gas emissions but we make it harder to grow food. If we grow more food in our fields, we have less land for environmentally beneficial biofuels.So which will it be? Steve Long, U of I’s Gutgsell Endowed Chair of Plant Biology and Crop Sciences, suggests that maybe we...
2015-09-01 - Baseball was still a relatively young sport when roughly 20,000 people packed the small Oklahoma City stadium that was designed to hold less than 10,000. With the stands filled, a multitude lined the outfield foul lines, leading one reporter to wisecrack that “any guy ought to be able to pitch with 7,000 outfielders.”What made the scene even more remarkable was that thousands of fans had come out...
2015-09-01 - Giving up all liquids and food from dawn to dusk every day for a month sounds difficult enough. But how about trying to fast from food and drink all day when you are a high school football player running wind sprints in full equipment?The complicated pairing of faith and football was the topic of just one of the movies that students viewed while attending the 2015 University of Illinois Summer...
2015-05-01 - Six professors in or affiliated with the College of LAS have been elected to the National Academy of Sciences, one of the highest honors a scientist can receive. Renée Baillargeon, professor of psychology; Gary Dell, professor of psychology; Steve Granick, professor emeritus of materials science and engineering (and affiliated with the...
2015-05-01 - They were called “the Romans of the New World.” The Iroquois, a league of five (and later six) Native American nations in what is now upstate New York and southern Ontario and Quebec, were sometimes compared to Romans because of the scope of their influence and power. European writers from the 17th to the 19th centuries also compared Iroquoian and other Native American languages to Latin and...
2015-05-01 - Driving lessons and scary videos aside, psychologists studying blood flow in the brain have learned that there’s one good way to stop teenage drivers from taking risks behind the wheel: Put mom in the passenger seat.A new study at the University of Illinois found that for teenagers, blood flow to the ventral striatum, a “reward center” in the brain, is affected by a mother’s presence. When...