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Paper: Nutrition label readers favor food quality over quantity
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — People who closely eyeball nutrition labels tend to eat differently than less-discerning diners in one key regard, according to research from a University of Illinois expert in food and nutrition policy and consumer food preferences and behaviors. Although nutrition-label users and non-nutrition-label users eat roughly the same amount of food, the two […]
Science at Illinois feeds the world, furthers health, protects the planet
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Illinois scientists are helping power plants run more efficiently, designing better, longer-lasting batteries, finding new ways to target cancerous tumors, and developing robots that can aid in construction, in agricultural fields and even inside the human body. And that’s just in engineering! Elsewhere at Illinois, researchers are boosting agricultural yields to feed […]
Team nebulizes aphids to knock down gene expression
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Researchers are nebulizing soybean aphids with RNA, which, when incorporated into the body, can hinder the expression of specific genes. The new method of delivering “interfering RNA” in a mist will likely speed the process of discovering the function of many mystery genes in insects, the researchers report in the journal Insect […]
Report: Milkweed losses may not fully explain monarch butterfly declines
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Steep declines in the number of monarch butterflies reaching their wintering grounds in Mexico are not fully explained by fewer milkweeds in the northern part of their range, researchers report in a new study. The research, published in the journal BioScience, reviews decades of studies of monarchs and includes an in-depth analysis […]
Hand-picked specialty crops ‘ripe’ for precision agriculture techniques
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Timing the harvest and transport of highly perishable, hand-picked crops such as strawberries so these delicate products reach consumers at peak flavor and freshness is an intricate dance that partners Mother Nature with manual labor. However, many of the “smart farming” techniques and technologies that help growers harvest more of what they […]
Agricultural robot may be ‘game changer’ for crop growers, breeders
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — A semiautonomous robot may soon be roaming agricultural fields gathering and transmitting real-time data about the growth and development of crops, information that crop breeders – and eventually farmers – can use to identify the genetic traits in plants likely to produce the greatest yields. A team of scientists from the Carl […]
Study rewrites early history of corn in corn country
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — A new study contradicts decades of thought, research and teaching on the history of corn cultivation in the American Bottom, a floodplain of the Mississippi River in Illinois. The study refutes the notion that Indian corn, or maize, was cultivated in this region hundreds of years before its widespread adoption at about […]
Survival of many of the world’s nonhuman primates is in doubt, experts report
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — A report in the journal Science Advances details the grim realities facing a majority of the nonhuman primates in the world – the apes, monkeys, tarsiers, lemurs and lorises inhabiting ever-shrinking forests across the planet. The review is the most comprehensive conducted so far, the researchers say, and the picture it paints […]
Pollinator habitat program spreads bad seeds with the good
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Weed scientists in at least two Midwestern states have been reporting for years that a conservation program meant to provide habitat for pollinating insects is sowing bad seeds – including seeds of the potentially devastating agricultural weed Palmer amaranth – along with the good. Now, researchers at the University of Illinois have […]
Eight Illinois researchers rank among world’s most influential
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Eight University of Illinois researchers have been named to the Clarivate Analytics Highly Cited Researchers list for 2016 (previously known as the Thomson Reuters Highly Cited Researchers list). The list identifies scientists “whose research has had significant global impact within their respective fields of study,” according to a statement from Clarivate Analytics, […]
Scientists tweak photosynthesis to boost crop yield
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Researchers report in the journal Science that they can increase plant productivity by boosting levels of three proteins involved in photosynthesis. In field trials, the scientists saw increases of 14 percent to 20 percent in the growth of their modified tobacco plants. The work confirms that photosynthesis can be made more efficient […]
Livestock donation programs reduce poverty, improve food security and nutrition
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Two papers co-written by a pair of University of Illinois experts in agricultural policy and international development point to the wealth of positive effects that direct livestock-transfer programs have on impoverished communities in rural Africa. Peter Goldsmith and Alex Winter-Nelson, both professors of agricultural and consumer economics at Illinois, found that the […]