2004-12-01
- Time spent in the great outdoors, or 'green time,' may be a valuable supplement for children with attention deficit hyperactive disorder (ADHD), say two researchers in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. "The advantage of green outdoor activities was observed among children living in different regions of the United States and among children living in a range of settings, from rural to large...
2004-12-01 - When LAS English assistant professor Audrey Petty was asked to prepare a paper for a panel titled "Edible Icons in Black (and White)" she knew she had to write about chitlins. The result of her efforts is the essay "The Sacred and The Profane: Late Night Chitlins With Momma." "Chitlins' are a special kind of soul food in my family," Petty says, laughing. "This was the one dish that divided the...
2004-12-01 - The first formal study to investigate U.S. public opinion about who was to blame for the 9-11 attacks challenges a popular theory. The story of widespread misconceptions about Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein's role in the September 2001 attacks grabbed headlines around the first anniversary of the attacks. This discovery-noted in national surveys at the time-led many commentators to suggest that...
2004-12-01 - A creature that "resembles a wet brown paper bag with the appetite and table manners of a hyena" is helping researchers blaze a trail toward future pharmaceutical treatments for depression and other disorders. Researchers at Illinois are studying two species of marine mollusks to learn more about the chemical pathways of serotonin in the human nervous system. "Understanding novel serotonin...
2004-12-01 - Considering the overwhelming amount of time South Korean mothers devote to their children's academic endeavors, for some, it is as though they have never left school.Education traditionally has been valued by South Koreans, but a new generation of mothers have taken this dedication to a whole new level. Out of a desire to improve their children's lot in life, South Korean mothers have become "...
2004-12-01 - Sulfate-reducing bacteria may be the answer to detecting and reducing hazardous levels of arsenic in groundwater, according to researchers in the Department of Geology. "The threat extends to central Illinois, where there are very high levels of arsenic contamination in a number of wells," says Craig Bethke, professor of geology. Chronic exposure to...
2004-12-01 - A modest five-cent tax on a gallon of gasoline paid today could mitigate long-term climate change in the future. The idea is the work of two U of I scientists and an economist from Wesleyan University, with funds from the National Science Foundation."You can think of the tax as a low-cost insurance policy that protects against climate change," says Michael Schlesinger, a U of I professor of...
2004-10-01 - Negotiating the complex paths of health care is difficult enough under the best circumstances, but it becomes progressively more confusing as we age and our memories become less reliable. Vital daily tasks such as taking required medicine can be simply forgotten. The National Institute on Aging estimates that "medical non-compliance" is around 60 percent. Now, thanks to the research efforts of...
2004-10-01 - History has some good news for the Democrats. In terms of the relative size of their electoral base and its distribution across states, and despite current polling data, which is highly volatile, the Democrats began the 2004 campaign last July "with a distinct electoral advantage." So says Peter Nardulli, author of a new study that is based on 20 years of research on state-level presidential...
2004-10-01 - Old China hands say that after you've been in China for two weeks, you can write a book; after six months, a page; and after two years, not a thing. I'm approaching the 2.5-year mark, but here goes. This wasn't Planned My plan was to retire from Hewitt Associates, a global HR consulting and outsourcing firm, at the end of 1998, and I did. Afterward, I agreed to take on some...
2004-10-01 - Got a major? Need a major? Come see displays on a variety of majors and minors on October 19, 2004, from 3:00 to 5:00 p.m. in Illini Union Rooms A, B, and C.
2004-10-01 - Early in Nina Baym's distinguished career she read a quote by Nathaniel Hawthorne that would guide the arc of her writing and research. The 19th-century Massachusetts novelist known for such classics as The Scarlet Letter and Twice-Told Tales, dismissed fiction by women as trivial while describing female writers as a "damned mob of scribbling women." Baym, who came to the U of I...
2004-10-01 - Independence Day has taken on new layers of meaning for a team of archaeologists who've been digging in western Illinois this summer. In fact, nearly everything about the excavation in the rolling farmland near Barry speaks volumes about freedom and liberty, nearly everything adds a chapter to the American Dream. Sponsored by a three-year grant from the National Science Foundation's Research...
2004-10-01 - Recent images of a star-forming "nursery" in a neighboring galaxy are helping scientists better understand how stars came to populate our own Milky Way. You-Hua Chu, an astronomer in LAS, and Yäel Nazé, from the Universite de Liège, Belgium, are analyzing images taken by the Hubble Space Telescope of the N11B...
2004-10-01 - Students are discovering how globalization is transforming the world through a new program in LAS, for freshmen, that combines integrated curricula with internationally prominent guest speakers and the chance to travel abroad. The Global Studies program, launched...
2004-10-01 - It all started with a hiking trip to Burma. Scott Eggener (BS, '94, biology) was in medical school in 1999 when he and his wife first traveled to remote villages in the Burmese hills, carrying medical supplies with them. The villages were so isolated, Eggener said, that children asked their parents what these visitors had eaten to make them so white; they had never seen white people before. The...
2004-10-01 - Fortune magazine described Richard Heckert (AM, '47; PhD, '49, chemistry) in 1987 as "gregarious, relaxed and unflappable….a 6-foot-3, friendly bear of a boss." With his people-person skills, plus an understanding of the power of market-oriented research and manufacturing, Heckert had worked his way by then to the pinnacle of the business world. Heckert spent his entire...
2004-10-01 - Arthur Galston's (MS, '42; PhD, '43, plant biology) life has been all about light. Galston is one of the country's premier plant biologists, spending much of his career studying the relationship between light and plant development. But he has also spent considerable energy shedding light on some of the toughest ethical issues in science. Galston taught bioethics from 1977 to 2004—an interest...
2004-09-01 - Carla E. Cáceres, a professor of animal biology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, is among 57 young researchers named this fall as recipients of the 2003 Presidential Early Career Awards for Scientists and Engineers, the highest honor bestowed by...
2004-09-01 - Wednesday, September 29, 2004 Levis Faculty Center, Third Floor 7:00 p.m., Reception followsJames D. Wallace Professor of Philosophy Philosophers are deeply divided as to the subject matter of ethics. At the core of the disagreement is this commonly-held assumption: If ethical norms are to serve as objective, authoritative standards of criticism of our institutions and practices, these norms must...
2004-08-01 - Sarah C. Mangelsdorf, head of the department of psychology and a recent associate provost at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, has been appointed as acting dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.Mangelsdorf succeeds Jesse G. Delia, who has held the position since 1994. Delia was recently appointed acting provost for the campus, filling the position left by Richard Herman,...-
2004-07-01 - Your parents did it. Even your great-great grandparents did it. The urge to dig at your teeth to dislodge a wedged slivver of food is, researchers say, older than written history. LAS anthropologist Dr Leslea Hlusko claims that ancient man used rudimentary toothpicks, made from grass stalks 1.8 million years ago. Hlusko argues that toothpicking is probably...
2004-07-01 - For those who think that life changes much too quickly, consider the intrepid cicada. In fact, at this time of year it would be hard to ignore it. This 100 percent green-blooded American insect has survived glaciers, predators, farms, and subdivisions. The periodic appearance of the cicada is a resourceful piece of the American experience, writ very slow, 17 years to be exact. Currently, the...-
2004-07-01 - What can parents do to help children doing poorly in school? Two new studies from the Department of Psychology suggest that supporting their children's autonomy and refraining from being controlling will help kids do better on their homework and raise their grades.The findings, published in the May/June issue of the journal Child Development, send home a poignant message. If parents...
2004-07-01 - A student who hopes to someday explore the solar system is one of 31 U.S. students to receive a Gates Cambridge Scholarship funded by an endowment from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Senior Joannah Metz from Champaign will receive approximately $38,000 to cover the full cost of studies at Cambridge University in England as well as travel and living expenses."This will be the 14th...