LAS News Archive

2009-03-01 - Converting certain grasses to biofuels could do more to reduce greenhouse gas emissions than current methods using corn, according to a researcher in LAS. Perennial grasses such as switchgrass and Miscanthus are better than corn at preserving and increasing carbon stores in soil, which can...

2009-03-01 - When Don Quixote mistook a windmill for a giant in the famous Spanish tale, he was facing the kind of quaint structure you see in postcards. But today’s windmills are true giants, with turbines reaching heights of 100 meters (328 feet), not counting their 100-meter-diameter rotor blades. When...

2009-03-01 - A few years ago, Maj. Gen. Edward Giller (Ret.) would have been surprised to see even a color photograph of one of his old World War II fighter planes, much less a magazine photo of one in flight more than 60 years after the war. A couple months ago, however, Warbird Digest published a...

2009-03-01 - 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.When Stephen A. Douglas learned that Lincoln would be...

2009-03-01 - As Brazil emerges as one of the world’s largest, most vibrant economies, University of Illinois is staging its own emergence—as home to one of the most comprehensive programs dedicated to understanding this new powerhouse.With a $14 million gift from Jorge Paulo Lemann and family, of Jona,...

2009-03-01 - Wary of fading memories, a history professor studied World War II-era diaries and letters to learn what Germany was thinking during one of humankind’s darkest eras. He found deep insecurity that he believes enabled the Holocaust even as most Germans...

2009-02-01 - 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.Abraham Lincoln retired from Congress in 1848 and...

2009-02-01 - The film footage is riveting. By night, tracer bullets light up the darkness; and by day, bullets are flying, as thousands of rounds are exchanged between federal marshals and a couple of hundred lightly armed American Indian activists. The world watched this drama unfold in 1973 during a tense, 71...

2009-02-01 - Phi Beta Kappa, the country’s oldest and most respected undergraduate honors organization in the liberal arts, recently invited new members to join its chapter at the University of Illinois. The names of these outstanding students—18 juniors, 70 seniors, and six recent graduates—are listed below....

2009-02-01 - The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences is looking for students to participate in a new LAS Student Advisory Committee during the spring semester and the 2009-2010 school year. Students on the advisory board will consult with the LAS Office of the Dean on efforts that affect the academic student...

2009-02-01 - A remote western Illinois field could someday yield tourists instead of crops, adding to the state’s legacy of racial equality that already includes Abraham Lincoln and the nation’s first black president. Once an integrated town that flourished decades before the Civil War broke the grip of...

2009-02-01 - Those consumed—or burned—by love may find it no surprise that LAS psychologists say romance is even harder to understand than previously assumed. If you want to know where your relationship is headed, you might need more than a heart-to-heart conversation, according to a recent study. While...

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...

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...

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...

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,...

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...

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...

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...

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,...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...