LAS News Archive

2009-11-01 - Confetti filled the city’s skies when Rio de Janiero was named the host of the 2016 Olympics, breaking the hearts of Chicagoans and making Brazil the first South American country to host the games. But like so many things in Latin America, the Olympics raise both hopes and fears. “We are...

2009-11-01 - A recent study by U of I psychologists indicates that amphetamine abuse by adolescents can lead to potentially significant memory loss as adults even long after they’ve stopped taking the stimulant.In animal studies conducted by psychology professor...

2009-11-01 - Prior to 1989 you rarely saw photos of the Berlin Wall’s east face. There were plenty of pictures of the western side, what with all the graffiti and Pink Floyd lyrics splayed across it, but the opposite side rarely made the news. For one thing, people who could actually see the east side were...

2009-10-01 - Among the many surprises associated with the discovery of the oldest known, nearly complete skeleton of a hominid is the finding that this species took its first steps toward bipedalism not on the open, grassy savanna, as generations of scientists—going back to Charles Darwin—hypothesized, but in a...

2009-10-01 - Four LAS alums have each been recognized for his or her body of work—a full career of groundbreaking achievements. But in 2009, a common thread runs throughout these bodies of work—and that is the human body itself. Each of the winners of the 2009 LAS Alumni Achievement Award has delved into the...

2009-10-01 -   Ken Burns, director of such acclaimed documentaries as The Civil War and Baseball, has now focused his spotlight on America’s national park system through The National Parks: America’s Best Idea. The six-part documentary, spanning 12 hours, is a great work; but it...

2009-10-01 - For some people, wilderness might be any place that doesn’t provide a Wi-Fi connection or fresh towels in the morning. For others, if you even so much as come across another group of humans while hiking, you are not in the wilderness.Robert Pahre, LAS professor of...

2009-10-01 - Chemists at the University of Illinois have designed a small molecule that blocks an aberrant pathway associated with myotonic dystrophy type 1, the most common form of muscular dystrophy. The new compound, soon to be tested in cells, binds tightly to its target, an abnormally elongated RNA that...

2009-10-01 - Anyone alarmed by the disappearance of one of Lincoln Hall’s most endearing features need not worry. Abraham Lincoln may belong to the ages, but his bust still belongs to the University of Illinois.Workers and staff clearing the last items out of a soon-to-be restored Lincoln Hall were struck by...

2009-10-01 - See yourself in the future. You are royalty. The words sung by University of Illinois Black Chorus summed up the attitude at this fall’s induction ceremony for Chi Alpha Epsilon, a new honor society implemented by the LAS Access and Achievement Program (AAP), which provides services to...

2009-10-01 - Homecoming 2009 was a special one in historic Roger Adams Laboratory, as the weekend marked the completion of the first phase of a multimillion-dollar effort to revitalize laboratories and research support for biochemical research. A ribbon-cutting ceremony celebrated $8 million in upgrades that...

2009-10-01 - Between planning, producing, and buying advertising, most public health campaigns run out of cash long before organizers can evaluate whether they made a difference. One University of Illinois professor, however, studied the results of a nationwide child obesity campaign, and the findings were...

2009-10-01 - Eleven University of Illinois students were nearing the end of a seven-mile hike around Ribbon Lake in Yellowstone National Park. Under a steady drizzle, they had trudged through grassland and a spruce/fir forest—the “Mud March” they called it. They had even come uncomfortably close to a bison bull...

2009-10-01 - Carol D. Lee (BS, '66, teaching of secondary school English) says she will never forget the day she sat in on one particular class at a large urban high school. In her book Culture, Literacy, and Learning: Taking Bloom in the Midst of the Whirlwind, Lee describes talking to an articulate...

2009-10-01 - Govindjee (PhD, '60, biophysics) still remembers the day when he and a fellow student in India were taking a walk and he noticed a spotted, yellowed plant with curling leaves. Instantly, Govindjee was fascinated, and the two students decided they were going to find out what lay behind the plant’s...

2009-10-01 - The large magnet filled an entire corner of the Aberdeen, Scotland, lab. The year was 1979, and this machine was a far cry from the slick magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machines used in hospitals today. But primitive as it might look, this was a groundbreaking instrument, responsible for creating...

2009-10-01 - Doug Cole (PhD, '74, chemistry) had been at Merck Pharmaceuticals for only a few months when a scientist from across the street came to his research team and announced, “We’ve discovered the most potent biologically active natural product that anyone has seen.” But to make it work, Merck needed the...

2009-10-01 - In 1983, Lynn Hartmann (AB, '70, English) was an intern at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics; and like most interns, she was trying to choose a medical specialty—a decision that would set the course for the rest of her life. “I remember seeing a woman with cancer who had been...

2009-10-01 - “You once told me you wanted to be a doctor,” the physician told her 6-year-old patient, making conversation. But the boy lashed back, screaming and throwing an empty syringe at her. “I’m not going to be anything!” When the attending nurse asked what he was going to be then, the boy replied, “A...

2009-10-01 - The teenage boy sat in a chair wearing a most unusual baseball cap. Mounted on the hat was a small video camera, which angled downwards over the bill and pointed directly at his left eye. The camera tracked eye movements as the teen watched an old 1960s movie starring Richard Burton and Elizabeth...

2009-10-01 - Brock Siegel (PhD, '74, chemistry) still remembers the meeting in February of 1998 where it all began. What started out as a typical budget meeting at Applied Biosystems suddenly took a dramatic turn. At the time, Applied Biosystems was known for developing the world’s best-selling DNA sequencing...

2009-09-01 - Researchers report that they have found a surprising but reliable marker of colony collapse disorder, a baffling malady that in 2007-2008 killed off more than a third of commercial honey bees in the U.S.Their study, in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, is the first to...

2009-09-01 - If you’re looking for the ultimate survivor forget the wimps you see on television. A U of I plant biologist has discovered tropical tree seeds that can survive almost 40 years underground before germinating.James Dalling and colleague Tom Brown...

2009-09-01 - Conscientiousness is a good thing in a mate, researchers report, not just because it’s easier to live with someone who washes the dishes without being asked, but also because having a conscientious partner may actually be good for one’s health. Their study, of adults over age 50, also found that...

2009-09-01 - Six professors from the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at U of I begin their appointments this fall as professors in the Center for Advanced Study (CAS)—one of the highest forms of recognition the campus bestows on faculty members for outstanding scholarship.The new CAS professors are Renée...