2009-02-01
- 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. Academic Professional Award Alison...
2009-02-01 - A giant tarantula, the size of a house, has been unleashed on an unsuspecting desert community, the result of an experiment gone awry. Researchers are trying to figure out how to stop the rampaging arthropod when the female scientist suddenly blurts out what May Berenbaum describes as one of the most cringe-inducing lines in cinematic history: “Science is science, but a girl’s got to get her hair...
2009-02-01 - Many people these days wouldn’t trade their problems with the U.S. Federal Reserve’s for all the gold in its vaults, but the nation’s bank still offers an invaluable learning opportunity, as a team of LAS students discovered in the College Fed Challenge. It’s the first time a team from the University of Illinois has participated in the national contest, which started as a way to promote and...
2009-02-01 - When a professional pitcher hurls a 90-mile-per-hour fastball, the batter has roughly 450 milliseconds to swing, 300 of which are taken up looking at the ball, figuring out where it is heading, and deciding whether to swing. That gives a player about 150 milliseconds to actually swing the bat, which is why some pros exploit elementary chemistry principles to speed up their swing, says Jesse...
2009-02-01 - Never trust a honey bee that is hopped up on cocaine.Researchers have found that cocaine stimulates the reward system in the brains of foraging honey bees. As a result, bees on cocaine often exaggerate the quality of nectar and pollen they discover, says Gene Robinson, an LAS entomologist and Swanlund Chair who led the international...-
2009-01-01 - Home prices in many parts of the Chicago area have retreated to 2003 or earlier levels. Nevertheless, foreclosures, short sales and a lack of homes marketed conventionally will drive down prices by 15 percent to almost 20 percent during the year's first quarter, predicts Geoffrey Hewings, director of the regional economics applications laboratory and a professor geography in LAS.“I don't think...
2009-01-01 - A prolonged legal battle over the seating of U.S. Senate designee Roland Burris appears to have been avoided, but you get the feeling that the career of LAS alumnus Jason Abel could still help shape Congress—and soon. Did someone say Al Franken? As early as this week, Abel, a 2000 graduate in political science and ...
2009-01-01 - Stephanie Drain sounds disappointed when she ponders the fact that most people consider roads merely a means to an end, deserving attention only when a pothole or some other obstruction pops up. To her, roads are dynamic, intriguing, and worthy of a career. The 1995 LAS graduate (BS, geology) is a field engineering manager for SemMaterials, a major U.S....
2009-01-01 - Ten adventurous undergraduates—some of them anthropology majors—spent six weeks this summer at an archaeology field school in Belize. Field school is required training for those hoping to make archaeology a profession, and can aid the decision-making process for anyone unsure about being cut out for the job.That was true for Andrew Crawford, 21, a senior...
2009-01-01 - There is a simple, inexpensive way to increase the probability that people who are high-risk for HIV infection will enroll in a prevention program: Tell them they can just say no to the program’s message. Dolores Albarracin, an LAS professor in psychology, found that telling high-risk people that they will not be coaxed into changing their opinion about condom use increased the likelihood that...
2009-01-01 - Commercial broadcasters are doing the “bare minimum and not much more” for children’s educational programming, according to LAS communication professor Barbara Wilson, one of two lead researchers on a new study released by the organization Children Now. According to the study, one in eight TV shows (13 percent) labeled by broadcasters as...
2009-01-01 - An Internet job site did the math and the results were clear: By their count, mathematicians have the best job in the country. CareerCast.com (published by Adicio Inc.) evaluated 200 professions in terms of environment, income, employment outlook, physical demands, and stress, and scored mathematicians at the top of the widely reported list (see the complete list of rankings or read the...
2009-01-01 - By Vernon Burton Dr. Burton is a professor emeritus of history, sociology, and African American studies at U of I and is the author of Age of Lincoln.In September 1837, Abraham Lincoln received his license to practice law, and on April 15, 1837, he relocated to Springfield, Illinois’ new state capital, to...
2009-01-01 - Water molecules and proteins make good dance partners, and LAS scientists have the evidence to back it up.An LAS research team has become the first to measure the activity of water molecules as they perform an intricate ballet during protein folding, a process that enables proteins to perform their jobs within the body. Water molecules are not idle spectators to the folding process, but are part...
2008-12-01 - As a girl in post-colonial India, Rajeshwari Pandharipande learned the sacrifice required for an education. What defines her as a professor is something else she learned at a young age, which she lives by—and is being honored for—even decades later and half a world away in Illinois: The importance of educating others. That requires sacrifice, too, and nowhere was it on display more meaningfully...
2008-12-01 - In some LAS classrooms, mastering the subject matter is only half the challenge. In addition to learning the properties of a lightning bolt, for example, or the implications of ancient cultures, students are increasingly being taught how to communicate these ideas to growing audiences. At times, one of instructor Eric Snodgrass’s atmospheric sciences...
2008-12-01 - By Vernon Burton Dr. Burton is a professor emeritus of history, sociology, and African American studies at U of I and is the author of Age of Lincoln.The first known public writing of Abraham Lincoln suggests much about the hardworking, aspiring politician. Only in 1830 had Abraham Lincoln moved with his...
2008-12-01 - Talk about being tuned in to your mate. Some unique Chinese frogs can pick out the sounds of their mates in a noisy environment using a newly discovered ability that’s similar to tuning in a radio. LAS researchers have found that a species of torrent frog, Odorrana tormota, can select different sound frequencies in much the same way that a radio listener switches among the different...
2008-12-01 - They have been called “the cockroaches of bacteria” by the head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Certain strains of the Staphylococcus aureus bacteria, better known as “staph,” can be as resilient and as elusive as the common cockroach.To battle these microscopic bugs, LAS biochemists have genetically engineered a protein that can neutralize several toxins emitted by staph...-
2008-12-01 - Eight professors in the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences have been named AAAS Fellows by the American Association for the Advancement of Science. They were among 486 members chosen by peers to receive the honor for “meritorious” efforts to advance science or its applications. “These faculty members represent the very best of the creativity, innovation and vision that are hallmarks of...
2008-12-01 - Graduate student Brianna Lawrence created a Lincoln Hall gingerbread housefor the Department of Political Science’s holiday party on Friday, Dec. 5.She estimated that it took 10 hours to craft the confection made of cherry balls, cinnamon imperials, Necco wafers, gumdrops, gum, frosting, ginger snaps, candy canes, coconut shavings, and of course, baked...
2008-12-01 - In some parts of the world, mosquitoes are a matter of life and death. Every year, nearly 3 million people die of malaria, which is transmitted by mosquitoes. Roughly 80 to 90 percent of those deaths occur in Africa, and the most susceptible are children under the age of five.LAS researchers are in the thick of the battle against malarial mosquitoes, having recently discovered which protein gives...
2008-12-01 - There were 45 nations in the “Coalition of the Willing” when the U.S. invaded Iraq. Or 46 or 48 or 49. The number depends on which version of key White House news releases you read. Different versions of three releases all appear to be the originals. But the words are different and so are the facts, depending on when, over a period of several years, you accessed the releases on the White House...
2008-12-01 - Astronomers and physicists call it dark energy—a mysterious force that may or may not even exist. But if it does exist, it could be the reason that the expansion of our universe is not slowing down as Albert Einstein and other scientists expected. The University of Illinois is in the thick of this mystery, recently receiving a $3.3 million grant to develop the tools to manage data coming from...
2008-12-01 - Ruth V. Watkins could not be more enthusiastic. On November 13, she was named by the University’s Board of Trustees as the next Harry E. Preble Dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, a job she’ll start on January 1st. She’s excited despite the dismal economic outlook and the tight budgets that will demand her attention, despite the tough decisions that await her, and despite having new...