Behind the scenes
Categories
Not sure where to start? Choose a topic below.
Learning by listening to the people who live it
SÃC TRăNG PROVINCE, Vietnam – Our bus rumbles along the rural roads of this province in Southeast Vietnam. It is hot. Today, we are visiting a cooperative prawn and rice farm. Nhan Dang, the director of the Mekong Delta Development Research Institute at Can Tho University and our guide on this excursion, describes the benefits […]
Starving mosquitoes for science
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – On a scorching summer day, I’m at work in the heart of the arthropod containment laboratory of the Medical Entomology Program. I place my hands in the rubber gloves that reach into a sealed workspace called the glove box, swiftly maneuvering to grab fully engorged mosquitoes. These insects have just fed on […]
Exploring multispecies relationships by walking ‘with’ the forest in Sri Lanka
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – In the rainforests of southwest Sri Lanka, Kosala gets ready in the early, humid morning to guide another group of visitors. I tuck my trousers into my socks and add some drops of lemon oil to my shoes and hands, as Kosala taught me on my first day here. It rained during […]
Tracking the traffic between our cells
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — We adjust a lens, and a bright constellation swirls into view – points of colored light hung against a deep-hued backdrop. We track them in their courses, their paths arcing around other, larger objects. Though the images look cosmic, they represent a frontier much tinier and closer to home. The glimmering stars […]
Renovating historic Altgeld Hall
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — The slabs of sandstone that make Altgeld Hall one of the most recognizable buildings on the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign campus have been covered in scaffolding for months. But the results of the renovation work going on there are apparent, as the dark gray stone is restored to a pinkish hue. Standing […]
‘CETACEAN’ performance shows connections between whales’ environment and humans
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Shafts of sunlight pour through the skylights of the Stock Pavilion on the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign campus, illuminating swirls of dust stirred up as several people on a dirt floor uncoil ropes, pulling them taut and twirling them in circles like lassos. It looks like the setting for a rodeo, but […]
Volunteers maintain ‘first gallery’ of flowers outside Krannert Art Museum
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — It’s one of the hottest days of the summer, but a dozen people have gathered with their water bottles, sun hats and gardening tools in front of Krannert Art Museum at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. They’re starting early in the morning, before it gets even hotter, amid blooms of pink, purple, yellow, orange […]
Changing police culture with stories of wrongful convictions
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – I’m in a room with more than 100 police recruits and I can’t believe what I’m hearing. The future police officers are learning about the devastating consequences of criminal prosecutions gone wrong. These aren’t just abstract stories. More than a dozen exonerees are here to share their stories with the police recruits. […]
Following in the footsteps of early 20th century naturalist Elizabeth Kerr
WEST OF HONDA, COLOMBIA. – I am walking in a forest and listening to a concert of birdsong at dawn. I pick one song out of the chorus – a fast chatter full of melodious whistles – the sound of the sooty ant tanager. “Today, we will probably get to know this bird up close,” […]
Preserving the sound of the Altgeld Chimes
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Early on a sunny Sunday morning, the chimes tower in Altgeld Hall is filling up with people. Students climb the steep staircase to the tower, several of them carrying snacks. They are all chimes players who will perform for a recording of chimes music. Chimesmaster Michael Broussard, a doctoral student in ethnomusicology […]
‘Blind Field Shuttle’ brings a new perspective to campus walk
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — It is noon on a cool, gray early spring day on the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign campus. I am breathless, surveying my fellow travelers who, like me, have hiked up a winding staircase to a fourth-floor landing in the Architecture Building. We sit quietly on benches, awaiting instructions from our host, Vancouver-based […]
Preserving Illinois forests, one landowner at a time
SOUTHERN ILLINOIS – No matter how many times I do this, I always get nervous. I am demonstrating the proper use of a chainsaw to fell a tree and I want it to go well. After choosing the right tree, a medium-sized box elder, I walk through the steps out loud so that everyone in the […]