2013-01-01
- Those pesky sulfur compounds in petroleum fuels have met their nano-match. University of Illinois researchers have developed mats of metal oxide nanofibers that scrub harmful sulfur from petroleum-based fuels much more effectively than traditional materials. Such efficiency could lower costs and improve necessary processes that protect engines and fuel cells. Co-led by...
2013-01-01 - For almost a century archaeologists have believed that a treasure-trove of 2,000-year-old Native American pipes unearthed in southern Ohio came from local stone. A new study at the University of Illinois, however, concludes that most stone for the pipes—and perhaps even the finished pipes themselves—came from Illinois. The researchers spent nearly a decade studying the pipes. They found that...
2013-01-01 - The family of Carrie Klaus has been seen around Lincoln Hall for almost as long as the building has existed. Appropriately, her family is among the most frequently featured on memorial pavers in the courtyard of the restored Lincoln Hall. Carrie Klaus is just the most recent graduate from her family from the University of Illinois, where she received her master’s in...
2013-01-01 - When polar bear drills are part of the class schedule, you know that studying abroad has just been taken to a new extreme. And it has—the University of Illinois is bringing students and faculty to the Arctic Circle. Faculty are organizing a second class in the land of ice and never-setting sun after the first one, called “Environment and Society in a Changing Arctic,” was a resounding success...
2013-01-01 - Want a happy retirement? You might start by getting in touch with your personality. Psychologists at the University of Illinois report that changes in social well-being are closely tied to one’s personality, with positive changes in one corresponding to similar changes in the other. Psychology professor Brent Roberts and postdoctoral researcher...
2013-01-01 - It’s funny the things you notice when you come to a new country for the first time. For Cathy (Copeland) Gryczan, it was laundry hung outside windows in southern France when she arrived as a U of I student for a study abroad program in the early 1980s. “That struck me as something that was like a poor neighborhood,” Gryczan recalls. “And I thought to myself, ‘Gee, what kind of neighborhood am I...
2012-12-01 - Since the early part of the 20th century, many scientists have pictured the first microbial life on Earth as a fully formed cell that emerged from a “primordial soup” of simple organic compounds. However, a more complete picture of the origin of life might be that of a “primordial Internet.” According to the groundbreaking work of Carl Woese, LAS professor of...
2012-12-01 - Four professors from the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences have been named fellows to the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2012. Neal Cohen, professor of psychology, So Hirata, professor of chemistry, Lisa Lucero, professor of ...
2012-12-01 - Who is Ana Peso? If you’re a fan of Jeopardy!, you’ll find out on December 31 when the U of I alum appears on the iconic television game show to match her knowledge—and buzzer speed—against other contestants in a moment she’s dreamed about for years.“I’ve always wanted to be on the show since I was a kid,” says Peso, 30, who holds three U of I degrees and is working on a fourth. “And...
2012-12-01 - For most of us, ant control might be accomplished with the bottom of a shoe or maybe a few traps. Tasked with helping prevent infestations across an entire 2,000-mile national border, however, researchers at the U of I turned to the Internet. They created Antkey, an interactive website that the U.S. Department of Agriculture can use to better inspect incoming...
2012-12-01 - Several departments within the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences are in the final planning stages of a classroom initiative that they believe could reform the way many college courses are taught on campus. Called the LAS Top Ten Innovation Initiative, the project is focused on bringing more active learning techniques to introductory courses, which impact many first-year students and which...
2012-12-01 - You might say that Bill Taber was tailor-made for his role in what’s becoming humanity’s most significant deep space exploration yet. The first book he ever recalls reading was about the solar system. And then there was the connection he saw early on between math and life. “You could discover things about the world through geometry alone,” he says, adding that he found the fact that 180 degrees...
2012-11-01 - Some like it hot—very, very hot. One such creature is the archaea, which have been described as among the strangest forms of life on the planet. University of Illinois researchers are studying archaea that live near volcanoes in Naples, Italy, trying to unlock the mystery of how some forms of these microbial creatures can live in temperatures close to 180 degrees F, and how they can devour sulfur...
2012-11-01 - Learning occurs when you are introduced to a new fact or discovery. But you also learn when a familiar topic is presented to you from a new angle, which is the idea behind a new, non-traditional course initiative in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences that brings together typically separate disciplines. It’s called the “blockbuster” course initiative, and when it kicks off in the spring,...
2012-11-01 - The year was 1970, and Yale University had just broken from its centuries-old all-male tradition by accepting its first female undergraduates. There was only one catch. The Yale president said the institution could not start recruiting freshmen women until there was a woman on the admissions staff. Jane Phillips Donaldson (BA, '65, teaching of English, MA, '67, journalism),...
2012-11-01 - Life in all of its forms is represented in the work of the 2012 LAS alumni award winners—everything from ground squirrels, bats, and whales to rivers, plants, and people. The three LAS Alumni Achievement Award winners include a leading paleobotanist, renowned for his work on the evolution of plants; an expert on bats, whales, and other mammals; and a sociologist who has helped bring electricity...
2012-11-01 - Research in the humanities is often an independent endeavor. A new initiative originating at the University of Illinois, however, is designed to expand scholarship in the liberal arts by inspiring cross-university collaboration. “Humanities Without Walls” brings together the scholarship of liberal arts academics across the Midwest. The Illinois Program for...
2012-11-01 - LAS alum Karl Niklas recalls one of the early scenes in the movie Jurassic Park, when paleobotanist Ellie Sattler is sitting in a jeep and staring at an enormous leaf. “This species of vermiform has been extinct since the Cretaceous period,” Ellie exclaims. Suddenly, she looks up and is stunned to catch her first sight of a live dinosaur, and she immediately drops the leaf. Prehistoric...
2012-11-01 - Ameena Matthews, a petite African American woman, is surrounded by over a dozen men who tower over her. She holds up the picture of a young boy, slain by Chicago’s gang violence, and declares, “This is unacceptable for me to be holding this young man’s obituary!” All remain silent as she spins around and adds, “Schools, churches, your mama’s home.... These are safe zones!” Then she suddenly...
2012-11-01 - Douglas Barnes was visiting a remote village in southern India in the 1990s when he ducked into a small thatched-roof house and found a woman sitting on the earthen floor and lighting a wood fire on a traditional stove made of clay. Smoke filled the entire two-room house, and Barnes suddenly noticed that he was getting quite woozy. Smoke rises, so he quickly crouched down before he keeled over...
2012-11-01 - When describing an online course to his parents, LAS junior Maxwell Norris told them to imagine that they are in front of a professor in a lecture hall. “But, instead, the professor is now on your computer screen,” he explained. When the University of Illinois decided earlier this year to partner with Coursera to offer free online courses, it was able to...
2012-11-01 - There’s nothing like a beautiful outdoor dinner with hors d’oeuvres, refreshments, lively conversation, and several million bats. In the 1990s, when David Schmidly was educating the public on the importance of bats, his Texas A & M-Galveston department would sponsor conservation fundraisers, in which people gathered for a catered meal outside of Bracken Bat Cave near San Antonio. “It is the...
2012-10-01 - Yes, there is such a thing as obese mice—and recently they have helped scientists take a step toward reversing the ill effects of obesity in humans. A study led at the University of Illinois identified a key molecular player in a chain of events that can lead to fatty liver disease, Type II diabetes, and other metabolic abnormalities associated with obesity. By blocking this molecule, the...
2012-10-01 - When Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation almost 150 years ago, he made ending slavery a Union goal in the Civil War, then more than a year and a half old. Less widely understood is how the demands of war also were destroying slavery from within and dramatically upending southern society, according to University of Illinois history...
2012-10-01 - A dozen years after the end of her storied racing career, a visit with Jean Driscoll feels like a Sunday drive. Amidst lots of laughing and reflections on kayaking in Wisconsin, she jokes that anyone who saw a story about her now would ask, “Who?” That’s doubtful. A person who’s won the Boston Marathon eight times, has been inducted into the U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame, won 14 Olympic and...