2010-06-01
- Another academic year has ended, and you know what that means: It’s time to be regaled with stories of college graduates so outstanding that, unless you’re their parents or grandparents, you might simply choose not to believe it. How, you might ask, does someone major in mathematics and linguistics, preside over Honors Student Council, create a student peace organization, get promoted to student...
2010-05-01 - News travels fast, even among those who prefer travel without the benefit of gasoline. The University of Illinois had only just fenced off Lincoln Hall for renovation when a team of “Green Riders” from California announced plans to stop at the construction site in June during a cross-country electric bicycle trip to highlight acts of environmental sustainability. Oliver Bock, 55, of Palo Alto,...
2010-05-01 - American Indians invented the game of baseball—at least according to Ezol Day, a time-traveling Native American woman. “Base-and-ball” was played by Natives all over North and South America long before white people ever arrived in the New World, says Ezol, a character in the novel Miko Kings. Their ancient ball fields “had two intersecting lines that crossed at the mound where the...
2010-05-01 - Those who value excellence and hard work generally do better than others on specific tasks when they are reminded of those values. But when a task is presented as fun, researchers report, the same individuals often will do worse than those who say they are less motivated to achieve.The findings suggest that two students may respond quite differently to a teacher’s exhortation that they strive for...
2010-05-01 - A University of Illinois professor has earned national distinction for his original contributions in the field of microbiology, the American Society of Microbiology has announced. William Metcalf, a microbial geneticist in the Department of Microbiology and the Institute for Genomic Biology, has been elected to Fellowship in the...
2010-05-01 - You might think that a sports story is near its end when an athlete settles into a wheelchair, but this is not a normal sports story. Cerebral palsy redefines normal. Linda Mastandrea became a world-class athlete only after she started using her arms to move. By the time she retired from competition in 1999, the University of Illinois alum had won 15 gold and five silver medals in international...
2010-05-01 - Researchers report that Helicobacter pylori, the only bacterium known to survive in the harsh environment of the human stomach, directly activates an enzyme in host cells that has been associated with several types of cancer, including gastric cancer. Chronic infection with H. pylori is a well-documented risk factor for several forms of gastric cancer, but researchers have not...
2010-05-01 - They were illiterate farmers, builders, and servants, but Mayan commoners found a way to record their own history—by burying it within their homes. A new study of the objects embedded in the floors of homes occupied more than 1,000 years ago in central Belize begins to decode their story.The study, from University of Illinois anthropology professor...
2010-05-01 - The brain, with its many folds and ridges, has the most convoluted surface of any organ in the body. But the implants currently used to monitor brain waves are rigid and only slightly flexible, making them a poor match to the brain’s irregular surface.That is all about to change. John Rogers, a professor of chemistry and materials science, recently...
2010-05-01 - Andrea Jones had just typed the period at the end of the final sentence of the first draft of her book Hook & Jill—a psychological allegory based on author J.M. Barrie’s Peter Pan myth—when she got a phone call informing her that it was the 100th anniversary of Peter Pan.“We can’t get rid of him,” says Jones (AB ’78, speech communication), with a laugh. “He’s the boy who never grows...
2010-04-01 - As species go, human ideas for living a long life are such a drag. Watch your cholesterol. Consult a physician. One 105-year-old British woman made news by saying the key was celibacy. All rules that squirrels flaunt shamelessly. To them it’s simple: Climb a tree. In fact, it’s such a wise move that anthropologists at the U of I have determined that...
2010-04-01 - The brain contains hundreds of billions of interconnected neurons—cells that trigger every muscle movement and every thought passing through our minds. Neurons also work together with mathematical precision. In fact, by using new research models, LAS mathematics professor Lee DeVille was surprised to see how complex networks of neurons can work together...
2010-04-01 - The photos have the feeling of intimacy, of behind the scenes at the White House—and you find them where you find pictures of your new nephew and of your aunt’s trip to Texas.Welcome to the White House photostream on Flickr, about 2,000 images and growing.But don’t let this “seemingly transparent” access to the president fool you, cautions...-
2010-04-01 - An unusual chemical reaction that allows malaria parasites and disease-causing bacteria to survive may be their downfall. Researchers at the U of I say they have developed a protein inhibitor that strikes at these bugs’ ability to create compounds necessary for life. Researchers have long tried to understand an enzyme called IspH that’s essential for bacterial cell walls. Now,...
2010-04-01 - Acclaimed novelist Richard Powers, the Swanlund Chair and Center for Advanced Study Professor of English at the University of Illinois, has been elected a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.Composed of 250 architects, artists, composers, and writers, the American Academy of Arts and Letters fosters and sustains interest in literature...
2010-04-01 - The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences gratefully acknowledges the following individuals for their excellence in teaching and advising in 2010. Their contributions are vital to maintaining LAS as a great college.Excellence in Undergraduate Advising Gary Wszalek, Psychology Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching by Graduate Teaching Assistants Troy Cooper, Communication Amy Oh, Classics Jennifer...
2010-04-01 - Displaying the charm and quick wit that have made him one of Latin America’s most charismatic leaders, Ecuadorian President and U of I alumnus Rafael Correa Delgado returned to campus last week to become one of the University’s most controversial alumni award recipients.Correa was being honored with the Madhuri and Jagdish N. Sheth International Alumni Award for Exceptional Achievement, the first...
2010-04-01 - Robert Warrior, director of LAS’s American Indian Studies program and an English and history professor, will be featured in two of the six episodes that will air beginning Sunday, April 25 on the History Channel. The series, called America: The Story of Us...
2010-04-01 - Many of today’s college students hadn’t yet reached elementary school when the Rwandan genocide erupted in April of 1994. Some at the University of Illinois gained an intimate view of its stormy aftermath, however, by participating in a United Nations videoconference that explored the ways that the African nation is still trying to heal. Students in Global Studies 296: “International Humanitarian...
2010-04-01 - A new study of brain activity in depressed and anxious people indicates that some of the ill effects of depression are modified—for better or for worse—by anxiety.Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), researchers looked at depression and two types of anxiety: anxious arousal, the fearful vigilance that sometimes turns into panic, and anxious apprehension, better known as worry.“...-
2010-04-01 - A junior from the University of Illinois who is triple-majoring in integrative biology, chemistry, and astronomy, will have help paying for all those extra textbooks and summer courses as he has been named a recipient of the prestigious Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship for the 2010-2011 academic year. Kamil Stelmach, of Lombard, Ill., says the award will not only help him finish his undergraduate...
2010-03-01 - Advertisers have told us over the years that coffee “is the best part of waking up” because it “tastes as good as it smells.” Now, researchers at the University of Illinois have come up with a way to scientifically determine whether a particular batch of coffee truly is as good as it smells.A variation on the U of I’s well-known artificial nose can distinguish among 10 different popular brands of...
2010-03-01 - The eruption of Mount Tambora in 1815 was the most colossal since human civilization emerged 10,000 years ago. Why is so little known about it today? In this year's LAS Humanities Lecture, English Professor Gillen Wood will re-acquaint us with the eruption that caused snows in July and civil unrest. Its worldwide impacts are largely unstudied, Wood...
2010-03-01 - Of all the insults you hurled at your brother as you beat his score in Pac-Man, you probably didn’t mention your nucleus accumbens. A study conducted at the U of I, however, indicates that the size of certain brain structures profoundly influences cognitive skills that are at play in video games—and in everyday life. The study found that achievement seen among men and women trained on a...
2010-03-01 - Walter Dalitsch III was returning from a cousin’s wedding in upstate Illinois this fall when he saw the University of Illinois again for the first time in seven years. He didn’t have long to soak in his homecoming, however, as he experienced it from the cockpit of his Cessna 172RG airplane. “I had to keep my eyes on the instruments and our altitude and so on, but I couldn’t help looking out and...