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Beneficial effects of no-till farming depend upon future climate change
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – By storing carbon in their fields through no-till farming practice, farmers can help countries meet targeted reductions in atmospheric carbon dioxide and reduce the harmful effects of global warming. Growing plants take carbon dioxide from the air and store it as carbon in their tissues. Most of this carbon is returned to […]
Study: ‘Run-down’ feeling with illness may last longer as people age
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – Aging may intensify and prolong feeling run down when common infections like the flu occur, according to researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. A new study, done with mice and published in the Federation of the American Societies of Experimental Biology Journal, suggests that miscommunication between the immune system and […]
Researchers seeking alternative to surgery for brain cancers
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – With a four-year, $450,000 grant from the James S. McDonnell Foundation, scientists at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign are working to develop an immunotherapy that would be a safe alternative to surgery for brain cancers. Current treatments of surgery, radiation and chemotherapy often provide only marginal survival benefits and sometimes leave […]
Vanadium appears to play role in speeding recovery from infections
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – Dietary supplements containing vanadium are used by body builders to help beef up muscles and by some diabetic people to control blood sugar. New research now suggests the naturally occurring but easily toxic element may help prepare the body to recover speedily from infections from gram-negative organisms such as E. coli. In […]
Research advances understanding of how hydrogen fuel is made
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – Oxygen may be necessary for life, but it sure gets in the way of making hydrogen fuel cheaply and abundantly from a family of enzymes present in many microorganisms. Blocking oxygen’s path to an enzyme’s production machinery could lead to a renewable energy source that would generate only water as its waste […]
Molecular research suggests shift needed in how drugs are created
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – The first close-up look at a pro-inflammatory signaling molecule involved in immune response in mammals suggests that researchers “should rethink what they are doing” in creating drugs based on a fruit-fly model, scientists say. Reporting in the Oct. 1 issue of the Journal of Immunology, researchers at the University of Illinois at […]
Shredded tires a cheap, environmentally friendly way to cover landfills
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – Placing shredded tires on top of – rather than in – landfills can save money and benefit the environment, researchers from the University of Illinois say. Timothy Stark, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and Krishna Reddy, a professor of civil engineering at the […]
U. of I. researchers to play key roles in study of how life emerged on earth
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – Three scientists from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have leading roles in a multi-institution quest funded by the National Science Foundation to determine how life emerged on Earth. A second grant, from the U.S. Department of Energy, will allow the Illinois researchers to go a step farther: They will seek to […]
Hybrid grass may prove to be valuable fuel source
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – Giant Miscanthus (Miscanthus x giganteus), a hybrid grass that can grow 13 feet high, may be a valuable renewable fuel source for the future, researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign say. Stephen P. Long, a professor of crop sciences and of plant biology, recently took that message to Dublin, Ireland, […]
Room-temperature transistor laser is step closer to commercialization
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – Researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have demonstrated the room-temperature operation of a heterojunction bipolar transistor laser, moving it an important step closer to commercialization. The scientists describe their work in the Sept. 26 issue of the journal Applied Physics Letters. “We have shown that the transistor laser, even in […]
U. of I. chemistry professor wins $500,000 MacArthur Fellow Award
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – Todd Martinez, a theoretical chemist at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, has been named a 2005 MacArthur Fellow by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. Martinez is among 25 individuals who will each receive $500,000 in “no strings attached” support over the next five years. MacArthur Fellows are selected […]
Researchers zero in on estrogen’s role in breast-cancer cell growth
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – Why do estrogen dependent breast-cancer cells grow and spread rapidly? Researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign say it may be because estrogen virtually eliminates levels of a vitally important regulatory protein. In a paper that will appear in the Sept. 13 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of […]