Behind the Scenes
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Surviving a football frenzy
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – Thirty-one. That’s the number the Illinois football coaching staff writes on the white board for the players to see. Many of the fans filing into Memorial Stadium today know this number, as well. Thirty-one is the number of points by which pundits predict Illinois will lose to Wisconsin. That’s a tough number. […]
Weighing bears, corralling otters and healing wild beasts
HANNA CITY, Ill. – How do you weigh a fully grown American black bear? These veterinary medicine students know the answer, and it’s a bit more complicated than just saying, “very carefully.” Watching these soon-to-be veterinarians is a bit like watching a synchronized military operation unfold in the field. The team moves into a wooded area […]
Measuring the unseen life of a river
FORT POLK, La. – It’s morning on the bayou. I’m in the Calcascieu River at the Fort Polk Joint Readiness Training Center in Louisiana, and the river is teeming with life. The bank is littered with freshwater mussel shells, no doubt a feast for a raccoon last night. Cricket frogs bounce around at my feet as if loaded […]
Bringing yesterday’s plants to digital life
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – It’s about 65 degrees Fahrenheit in the herbarium, and the archival paper on which the plant specimen is mounted feels soft between my cold fingers. My hands are instantly warmed as I place the sheet in the light box. I check the computer monitor; everything looks good. I hit the spacebar. Click. […]
Tracking an invisible world
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — It’s 2 a.m. on a cold winter night. My timer beeps loudly, waking me up for yet another measurement. It’s been a long day; I’ve been tracking bacterial growth every two hours for the past 18 hours. I stumble off the couch that has served as a bed for countless graduate students […]
Extracting history from a cornfield
HEYWORTH, Ill. – When I get to the archaeological site, I’m surprised to see that it’s in the middle of a cornfield. Dusty furrows studded with tiny sprigs of corn come to within about 10 feet of the dig. The researchers are already here, gently peeling back their tarps, assembling their gear, getting ready for […]
Govindjee’s photosynthesis museum
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – I am in Govindjee’s office suite and I don’t know where to look. Govindjee, a professor emeritus of plant biology who goes by the one name only, is a collector. There are layers of history here: artifacts and papers, books and photographs. There also are homemade scientific instruments that look like plumbing […]
Interweaving technology and tradition
EL PASO, Texas – The MakerBot on my desk is making sounds like waves on a beach. Back and forth, back and forth, it gradually builds up my design in layers. My work focuses on the cosmogony and mythology of Zapotecan motifs. I am especially captivated by the fretwork designs of the archaeological site of […]
Discovering treasures in Library’s storage vaults
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — I’m guiding a group tour through the Oak Street Library Facility and we’ve reached my favorite part – the big moment of reveal. I step close to open the automatic overhead vault door, and visitors catch their first glimpse of the vaults with their 40-foot-high shelving packed with library materials. One visitor […]
Building an orchestra of brass
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – Everything is chaos. We don’t have all our music. We don’t have a permanent rehearsal space. I’ve never had my own ensemble before. Everything is unfamiliar, and everything has come together much more last-minute than I had hoped for. But for this first-ever rehearsal of the University of Illinois Saxophone Ensemble we […]
Destination: Conservation
NEAR CANTON, Ill. – I’m soaking wet from head to toe after walking through a mile of head-high dew-covered grass. Finally, I make it to my destination: an overgrown field dotted with copses of shrubs next to the Spoon River in western Illinois. I take the caps off of my binoculars. I’ve got my clipboard, […]
Highlights for the season
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — I’m at the Rare Book and Manuscript Library for its holiday open house, lured here by mulled cider and the opportunity to letterpress print a holiday card. But between the printing and the cider, I find what is for me the highlight of the open house – holiday- and winter-themed books on […]