2012-06-01
- Several College of Liberal Arts and Sciences students and recent LAS graduates will be spending the 2012-13 academic year overseas pursuing fully funded research, studies, or English teaching under Fulbright grants.“We’re thrilled by the richness and creativity of the projects that our Fulbright awardees will pursue. Our Illinois students can really make a difference,” says Laura Hastings, a co-...
2012-06-01 - Seven College of Liberal Arts and Sciences undergraduates were offered federally funded Gilman Scholarships to study abroad during the fall and academic year 2012-13, helping place Illinois among the top 10 institutions nationally this year in number of recipients, with 11 total. The scholarship provides financially disadvantaged students eligible for federal Pell Grants with scholarships of up...
2012-05-01 - 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 F, and how they can devour sulfur.While...
2012-05-01 - Sometimes we prefer to forget. But how do we put negative memories behind us when they're always there in our rear-view mirror? For men and women, what works seems quite similar, but what backfires can be dramatically different, according to a new study from the University of Illinois. Also, basic personality differences play a big part, says Florin Dolcos, U of I...
2012-05-01 - In separate federal competitions, seven LAS students earned scholarship awards to fund their studies abroad as part of a U.S. government effort to expand the number of Americans studying and mastering critical languages. Andrew Barr, a junior from Mount Prospect, Ill., majoring in political science, won a $10,000 Boren Scholarship. He...
2012-05-01 - “Every two seconds, an area of forest the size of a football field is clear-cut by illegal loggers around the globe,” says a World Bank report just released in March. The report went on to say that “forestry’s criminal justice system is broken. Despite compelling data and evidence showing that illegal logging is a worldwide epidemic, most forest crimes go undetected, unreported, or are ignored.”...
2012-05-01 - Does hearing that you are a member of an elite group—of chess players, say, or scholars—enhance your performance on tasks related to your alleged area of expertise? Not necessarily, say researchers who tested how sweeping pronouncements about the skills or likely success of social groups can influence children’s performance. The researchers found that broad generalizations about the likely...-
2012-05-01 - 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 F, and how they can devour sulfur.While...
2012-05-01 - LAS junior Jacob Becraft is one of two University of Illinois students awarded Barry M. Goldwater scholarships for 2012-13. The scholarship—awarded to highly qualified sophomores and juniors in science, mathematics, and engineering who intend to pursue careers in those fields—covers the cost of tuition, fees, books, and room and board up to a maximum of $7,500 per year. Becraft, of Peoria, Ill...
2012-05-01 - When Sri Mulyani Indrawati came to U of I in 1988 to obtain her PhD in economics, the world was still gripped by the Cold War and emerging economic giants such as Brazil, Russia, India, and China—the so-called BRIC countries—had no voice in world economic decisions.Today, the world and Indrawati’s place in it have changed dramatically. The BRIC...
2012-05-01 - Joanna Chromik, a junior double majoring in communication and English at the University of Illinois, has been awarded a Beinecke Scholarship, which awards $34,000 for future graduate study in the arts, humanities, or social sciences.Chromik, of Chicago, is a James Scholar honors student in the...
2012-04-01 - Researchers from LAS are fitting contributors for an ongoing art exhibition linking science, communities, and art. Images in the exhibit, called The Art of Science: Images from the Institute for Genomic Biology 2.0, are derived from research at the U of I that addresses issues in the environment, health, and energy use and production....
2012-04-01 - In the wake of the bombing of the federal building in Oklahoma City in 1995, authorities initially searched for a second bomber working with the perpetrator Timothy McVeigh. The manhunt was triggered when a key eyewitness claimed that another person was with McVeigh when he rented the truck that carried the explosives. However, authorities eventually discovered that this particular eyewitness had...
2012-04-01 - The Irish were essentially America’s first ethnic group, with more than 3 million flooding into the United States between 1840 and 1890. By 1900, in fact, there were more Irish in America than in Ireland.The Irish also became the model for other ethnic groups that followed, says University of Illinois historian James Barrett. As new immigrants from...
2012-04-01 - A new study describes how bacteria use a previously unknown means to defeat an antibiotic. The researchers found that the bacteria have modified a common “housekeeping” enzyme in a way that enables the enzyme to recognize and disarm the antibiotic.The study appears in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.Bacteria often engage in chemical warfare with one another, and many...
2012-03-01 - Each year the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences recognizes a handful of staff members and academic professionals for their outstanding contributions to the college and service to others. These individuals, who were nominated by members of the campus community, demonstrate excellence and enhance the image of the college. LAS Academic Professional Award Scott...
2012-03-01 - Talk about jumping into the deep end. Dana Fager was having the time of her life, immersing herself in the Japanese language and culture in Kobe, Japan, during her sophomore year at Illinois. But when a friend signed her up to learn how to scuba dive in the ocean, her language skills were put to the test in a big way. The crash course on how to safely scuba dive was given entirely in Japanese.“...
2012-03-01 - A new study in Science suggests that thrill-seeking is not limited to humans and other vertebrates. Some honey bees, too, are more likely than others to seek adventure. The brains of these novelty-seeking bees exhibit distinct patterns of gene activity in molecular pathways known to be associated with thrill-seeking in humans, researchers report.The findings offer a new window on the...
2012-03-01 - Osteoporosis drugs strengthen bones, but it looks like they can also be modified to strengthen the body’s defenses against malaria. The parasite that causes malaria has a knack for evolving resistance to the drugs used to combat it, so scientists are always on the hunt for new weapons against this deadly disease. Now, Illinois researchers have found possibilities among an unlikely source—Actonel...
2012-03-01 - Not that long ago in a hot spring in Kamchatka, Russia, two groups of genetically indistinguishable microbes parted ways. They began evolving into different species—despite the fact that they still encountered one another in their acidic, boiling habitat and even exchanged some genes from time to time, researchers report. This is the first example of what the researchers call sympatric speciation...
2012-02-01 - Daniel Simons stayed well out of view behind a giant sign depicting the famous Las Vegas magician, David Copperfield, while the hidden cameras rolled. Simons watched, and so did the camera, as people were recruited from the casino crowd and taken to a counter to sign an agreement to appear on a television show. When the person working at the counter ducked down to retrieve a pen, a completely...
2012-02-01 - When Idun Reiten was only 12 years old, a radio show from the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation held a math competition, presenting 10 problem sets over a span of 10 weeks. Only five people in all of Norway solved every single problem set, and 12-year-old Reiten was one of them. Her 16-year-old brother was another one.Reiten received an inscribed pewter bowl for her accomplishment, but that was...
2012-02-01 - What in the world does the decision-making process of a blind, cannibalistic sea slug have to do with the kind of decisions made by an out-of-control gambler burning through cash in Las Vegas, a shopaholic off on a spending spree, or an addict snorting cocaine?Sea slugs are shedding light on what’s going on in the brain when higher vertebrates, such as humans, make high-risk decisions while...
2012-02-01 - The lessons of Arab Spring keep rewriting themselves. In Egypt, the elation following the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak has been followed by reports of tension between Islamists and the military over the redrawing of power. And while some dictators fell like a deck of cards, the Syrian regime has defied revolutionaries for nine months. Is political change in the region in peril? Milan Svolik...
2012-01-01 - Those making land use decisions to reduce the harmful effects of climate change have focused almost exclusively on greenhouse gases—analyzing, for example, how much carbon dioxide is released when a forest is cleared to grow crops. A new study led by U of I researchers aims to present a more complete picture—to incorporate other characteristics of ecosystems that also influence climate.“We know...