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...
2012-12-01 - 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 ...
2012-11-01 - 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 - 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 - 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...
2012-11-01 - 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...
2012-10-01 - Finey Ruan knows she’ll have to work hard to become a doctor. Not that it’ll be a new concept—in order to attend college she’s been working every summer since the eighth grade. Finey (pronounced “Finnie”), now in her freshman year at the U of I, grew up in the Chinatown district of Chicago. Her parents immigrated to America before Finey was born and raised their family here, running a restaurant...
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...
2012-09-01 - It’s unpredictable. It has sexual issues. It has a complicated past. Perhaps it’s no surprise, then, that the tropical fruit papaya could offer scientists insights into how humans evolved. Research originating at the University of Illinois has revealed that papaya sex chromosomes have undergone dramatic changes in their relatively short evolutionary histories. The changes that scientists observe...
2012-09-01 - Timothy Wedig was in Rwanda this past June, walking through the capital city of Kigali, when he spotted a man by the side of the road, swinging a machete. “I instinctively thought, ‘Oh my God, what is he doing?’” says Wedig, an LAS lecturer in global studies. He immediately associated the machete to the genocidal violence that tore Rwanda...
2012-09-01 - The reopening of renovated Lincoln Hall has been the spotlight event on campus this fall. Directly tied to the inspiring new surroundings, however, is the initiation of a growing scholarship program that for the first time is helping students attend the University of Illinois. Nine LAS freshmen who arrived on campus this fall have received scholarships under the Lincoln Scholars program,...
2012-09-01 - After a four-year pause for a much-needed building renovation, students at the University of Illinois are once again heading to Lincoln Hall for class. Classes had been on hold at the historic building since fall 2008, when the University began scaling down operations there in anticipation of the renovation. But thousands of students have finally returned this fall, and most of them have never...
2012-07-01 - Units on the second floor of Lincoln Hall LAS Office of the Dean LAS Student Academic Affairs (including LAS Honors Programs and New Student Advising) ATLAS Units on the third floor of Lincoln Hall Department of Communication Department of Sociology Other LAS units in newer locations Department of Political Science, 420 David Kinley Hall, 1407...
2012-07-01 - Rather than teach students by the hundreds, four LAS professors are now able to reach out to thousands at a time, across the globe. And their courses won’t cost students a cent. The University of Illinois is one of a dozen top universities joining Coursera, an open online course company that offers Web-based courses for free. Partnering with this global network puts Illinois at the leading edge...