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Building a living laboratory on a lake
DECATUR, Ill. – After more than a year of planning, our team is finally ready to launch a new phase of research. We’ve designed and built two small “islands” of wetland plants that will float on Lake Decatur. These living laboratories will help us investigate how floating wetlands may affect nutrient levels and sediment dynamics […]
Monitoring stress from the surface of the body
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – Today, my laboratory looks more like a scene from a sci-fi film than a psychology research space. Wires snake across tables, sensors lay carefully arranged on trays, and a bucket of ice water sits in the corner, quietly waiting its turn. This work is part of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign’s department […]
New AI tool helps match enzymes to substrates
The new AI-powered tool EZSpecificity can help researchers determine how well an enzyme fits with a desired target, helping them find the best enzyme and substrate combination for applications from catalysis to medicine to manufacturing.
Study: Tariffs have potential to reshape US beer market
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — The ripple effects of increased tariffs under President Trump could extend to the $117 billion U.S. beer market, according to new research from a University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign agricultural economist who studies food supply chains. While tariffs could stimulate increased domestic beer production, any gains in domestic market share would most likely […]
How will the government shutdown impact air travel?
Although Transportation Security Administration officers and air traffic controllers are considered essential workers, any reduction in staff could result in long security lines and flight delays or cancellations, says University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign aviation security expert Sheldon H. Jacobson.
Retraining after a lapse in endurance exercise adds to muscle gains, study finds
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — New research offers potential good news for those who’ve lapsed at the gym. The study found that mice that voluntarily ran on an exercise wheel for four weeks, stopped for four weeks and ran again for another four weeks saw unexpected gains. The second bout of wheel running led to a bigger […]
Study: 72% of Illinois wetlands no longer protected by federal Clean Water Act
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Illinois once harbored more than 8 million acres of wetlands. By the 1980s, all but 1.2 million wetland acres had been lost, filled in for development or drained to make way for agriculture. Now, thanks to a 2023 Supreme Court decision, roughly 72% of the remaining 981,000 acres of Illinois wetlands are […]
Study identifies hotspots of disease-carrying ticks in Illinois
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Scientists analyzed the distribution of three potentially harmful tick species in Illinois, identifying regions of the state with higher numbers of these ticks and, therefore, at greater risk of infection with multiple tick-borne diseases. The study found that, of the three species tracked, the lone star tick, Amblyomma americanum, is most prevalent […]
Illinois celebrates opening of iBioFoundry, National Institute for Biofoundry Applications
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Scientists, government officials and participants from around the world gathered on the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign campus for the grand opening of the National Science Foundation’s Illinois BioFoundry, or iBioFoundry, and the National Institute for Biofoundry Applications at the U. of I. The ribbon-cutting ceremony took place Sept. 18 at the Carl […]
New model can accurately predict a forest’s future
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — One of the great challenges of ecology is to understand the factors that maintain, or undermine, diversity in ecosystems, researchers write in a new report in the journal Science. The researchers detail their development of a new model that — using a tree census and genomic data collected from multiple species in […]
Study: Muscle-building response to weight training differs among high-protein animal foods
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — A new study tracked the acute muscle-building response in adults engaged in a weight-training exercise who were fed either high-fat or lean ground pork burgers with the same amount of protein in each. The findings surprised the scientists, adding to the evidence that muscle-protein synthesis in response to weight-training and a post-exercise […]
Long-term alcohol use suspends liver cells in limbo, preventing regeneration
Excessive alcohol consumption can disrupt the liver’s unique regenerative abilities by trapping cells in limbo between their functional and regenerative states, even after a patient stops drinking, researchers at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and collaborators found in a new study. This in-between state is a result of inflammation disrupting how RNA is spliced during the protein-making process, the researchers found, providing scientists with new treatment pathways to explore for the deadly disease.