2013-11-01
- Call it a happy accident: Stephen Elledge (BS ’78, chemistry) was doing his postdoctoral research at Stanford University in 1984 when he stumbled across a family of genes known as RNRs. Through RNRs, he discovered the genes that sense damaged DNA and trigger its repair—a process vital to the prevention of cancer and other diseases.
“It was all an...
2013-11-01 - One solution leads to another. Or, as protein researchers at Illinois have recently found, one solution can lead to hundreds of others—and a greater understanding of how life works. Biochemists in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences were amongst 15 scientists in a multidisciplinary study across three institutions to identify the function of a single, mysterious bacterial protein. In the...
2013-11-01 - “It’s been over an hour since we poked the patient with something sharp. Get him a lumbar puncture.” —Dr. Gregory House Dr. Gregory House of the TV show House was famous for being rude, abrasive, and a lousy communicator—but also a brilliant doctor. In real life, however, people prefer their doctors to be both brilliant and caring, not to mention good communicators. That’s why...
2013-11-01 - Joel Coats’ first laboratory had no tables, no beakers, and no walls. His first lab was a living laboratory—the family farm on which he grew up in northwest Ohio. “I knew every tree and every bird nest and every kind of bug in the field or garden,” says Coats (MS ’72, PhD ’74, entomology). “It was the perfect laboratory for a...
2013-11-01 - Any nightmare vision of what lies in the office of May Berenbaum, longtime head of the Department of Entomology and founder of the Insect Fear Film Festival, is hereby dismissed. There are no glass cases filled with hissing cockroaches, no exotic spiders, no giant moths flapping about the lights. There is, however, something vital to...
2013-11-01 - The world of Ken and Ann Slaw changed forever in 1996 on the day their 4-year-old son Andrew slammed his hand in the sliding door—and felt little pain. This incident led to his diagnosis of Familial Dysautonomia (FD), a rare disease that afflicts only an estimated 300 people in the world. “It was the longest night of our lives,” says Ken Slaw (BS ’79,...
2013-11-01 - If you ever find a periodic table published between 1926 and World War II, you might notice the two-letter abbreviation for Illinois—Il—listed as element 61. No, it’s not a printing mistake, and yes, it carries a reference to the University of Illinois. It stands for illinium, the name of which has since been removed from the periodic table and yet remains a symbol of how science evolves. The...
2013-10-01 - There are certain milestones we all look for in a baby: first smile, first steps, first words, etc. Perhaps only a psychologist would question the importance of whether a baby realizes that animals have internal organs. Interestingly, researchers in the College of LAS have determined that babies do. Professor of psychology Renee Baillargeon, who...
2013-10-01 - A former faculty member of the University of Illinois Department of Chemistry is one of three scientists who received a Nobel Prize on Wednesday for developing computer simulations for complex chemical processes. Martin Karplus, a professor emeritus of chemistry at Harvard University who is also affiliated with the Universite de Strasbourg in...
2013-10-01 - As usual, things are looking up at the University of Illinois Observatory. The same goes for the mood as the historic, 117-year-old telescope that lies at the roots of the astronomy program has been renovated for the first time in almost 60 years. Bryan Dunne, assistant chair and professor in the Department of Astronomy, says the 12-inch Brashear...
2013-10-01 - The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences is creating a Gallery of Excellence in honor of its 100-year anniversary. This virtual gallery features people and events throughout LAS history, which dates back to 1913. With the college’s broad range of academic disciplines (more than 60 departments and units are housed in LAS), the gallery features those who have made breakthroughs in research,...
2013-10-01 - The period surrounding World War II was a unique one at the University of Illinois, and Gladys Dawson was in the perfect position to observe it. During the war there was such a dearth of men—save for the military training programs—that they jokingly called it a “girl’s school,” but in the aftermath men flooded to campus in such numbers that the University could hardly handle them all. The flux...
2013-10-01 - In the summer issue of LAS News magazine, we reported how English professor Bruce Weirick helped obtain the Carl Sandburg papers for the University of Illinois. As it turns out, gaining rights to the great poet’s collection was just the start of the unusual story of how it finally came to be a campus treasure.As told by George...
2013-09-01 - A longtime faculty member at the U of I has been awarded a $1 million grant to advance his groundbreaking organic chemistry research in the discovery and development of new chemical catalysts. Scott E. Denmark, the R. C. Fuson Professor of Chemistry, received the prestigious and highly competitive W. M. Keck Foundation Science and Engineering...
2013-09-01 - After a century of togetherness, it’s hard to imagine a time when the liberal arts and sciences weren’t mentioned in the same breath at the University of Illinois. Prior to 1913, however, when the College of Science merged with the College of Literature and Arts to form the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, a happy marriage between the two did not seem likely. Indeed, marriage was the analogy...
2013-09-01 - Breaking news: There is a good reason why people who drive fast are described as having a “heavy foot.” A University of Illinois survey has shown that shoe size determines how fast a person will drive. The bigger the shoe, the faster the driver. “But is this really true?” asks Ellen Fireman, an LAS senior lecturer in statistics. On one level, it...
2013-09-01 - What was the black Confederate soldier's myth? Over 150 years after the Civil War, many websites, articles, and organizations still assert that between 500 and 100,000 free and enslaved African Americans willingly served as soldiers in the Confederate army. Patrick R. Cleburne, a prominent general in the Confederate Army of Tennessee, could see what was happening in the South in...
2013-09-01 - In the classic Humphrey Bogart movie, The Maltese Falcon, a detective picks up the statue of a falcon, sizes it up, and says, perplexed, “Heavy. What is it?” Then Bogart’s character, Sam Spade, answers with the classic line, “It’s the stuff that dreams are made of.” However, when showing students old movies such as The Maltese Falcon, LAS professor Pat Gill has noticed that many...
2013-09-01 - Those of us who can’t pass up a chance to be seen with the Great Emancipator have another, easily accessible opportunity on the University of Illinois campus just off—where else?—Lincoln Avenue. Just in time for Homecoming, a life-sized sculpture of Abraham Lincoln is seated comfortably on a bench in front of the Alice Campbell Alumni Center, 601 S. Lincoln Ave., Urbana, home of the University of...
2013-09-01 - A promising drug that has successfully treated dogs afflicted by cancer is headed for possible human clinical trials pending a review by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. PAC-1, a compound developed by a chemistry professor at the University of Illinois and tested at the U of I Veterinary Teaching Hospital, could be headed for human clinical trials by mid-2014. An anonymous gift of $2...
2013-08-01 - It’s been a busy 100 years at the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at the University of Illinois. For the next year, the largest college on campus will commemorate all that’s been accomplished. Formed in 1913, the College of LAS will be highlighting people, events, and achievements that have shaped liberal arts and sciences at Illinois during the past century. From the naming of...
2013-08-01 - Ten faculty have been named Centennial Scholars in honor of the 100th anniversary of the creation of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at the University of Illinois. The faculty come from a wide range of academic units, and they were selected for their scholarly productivity and contributions to the educational mission of the College of LAS. Executive officers also made a point to select...
2013-07-01 - For Ruth Watkins, taking a bull by the horns is not just an old cliché. She actually knows how to take a bull by the horns. Growing up in northeast Iowa as the daughter of a large animal veterinarian, dehorning cattle was just one of the gritty tasks required while administering veterinary care. With a wry smile, she adds that the lessons learned while wrestling cows didn’t necessarily become...
2013-05-01 - When Sheila Lammers’ husband was deployed to Germany with the Illinois National Guard in 2002, their first child was only five months old. So when he came back home six months later, just before his daughter’s first birthday, he was like a stranger to her. Getting reacquainted took time. “My expectation was that I was going to find instant relief by having my husband back home again and able to...
2013-05-01 - The University of Illinois will soon have its own slice of China on campus. Officials hope that a new Confucius Institute strengthens bonds to the growing Asian country. Organizers say that the institute, to be housed in the Education Building, will increase awareness about Chinese culture through research, community outreach, and the teaching of the language. They also plan to send Chinese...