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Engineering An optical micrograph showing the chiral liquid crystal phase of a polymer that researchers are exploring to produce highly efficient semiconductor materials.

Researchers identify unexpected twist while developing new polymer-based semiconductors

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — A new study led by chemists at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign brings fresh insight into the development of semiconductor materials that can do things their traditional silicon counterparts cannot – harness the power of chirality, a non-superimposable mirror image. Chirality is one of nature’s strategies used to build complexity into structures, […]

Humanities Headshot of Naomi Oreskes

Science historian Naomi Oreskes to talk about how free market ideology blocks climate action

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Climate change is a crisis that has resulted from the massive failure of the energy market, and free market ideology and the rejection of government’s role in correcting such market failures has stymied efforts to address it, says scientist and historian Naomi Oreskes. A leader in examining the efforts to undermine the […]

Agriculture Kaiyu Guan standing in an agriculutural field in Illinois

Researchers propose a unified, scalable framework to measure agricultural greenhouse gas emissions

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Increased government investment in climate change mitigation is prompting agricultural sectors to find reliable methods for measuring their contribution to climate change. With that in mind, a team led by scientists at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign proposed a supercomputing solution to help measure individual farm field-level greenhouse gas emissions.  Although locally […]

Physical sciences Social sciences A YouTube icon on a device screen

Study: YouTube did not actively direct users toward anti-vaccine content during COVID-19

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — New research led by data science experts at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and United Nations Global Pulse found that there is no strong evidence that YouTube promoted anti-vaccine sentiment during the COVID-19 pandemic.  The study, published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research, performed an algorithmic audit to examine if YouTube’s recommendation […]

Expert viewpoints Portrait of professor Deanna Hence, seated, with a computer image of a hurricane in the background

What prompted tropical cyclone Hilary’s unusual path?

Hilary was the first tropical storm to hit California in 84 years. Atmospheric sciences professor Deanna Hence spoke with News Bureau physical sciences editor Lois Yoksoulian about what made this storm unique and if the Southwest U.S. should expect more like it in the future.  Why don’t we usually see tropical cyclones along the western coast of the U.S.?  One of […]

Engineering Professor Nishant Garg, standing, and graduate student Hossein Kabir, seated, in their laboratory

Fast, automated, affordable test for cement durability

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Engineers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign have developed a new test that can predict the durability of cement in seconds to minutes – rather than the hours it takes using current methods. The test measures the behavior of water droplets on cement surfaces using computer vision on a device that costs […]

Engineering A display screens that use flexible fins and liquid droplets that can be arranged in various orientations to create images like this simulation of the opening of a flower bloom.

Displays controlled by flexible fins and liquid droplets more versatile, efficient than LED screens

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Flexible displays that can change color, convey information and even send veiled messages via infrared radiation are now possible, thanks to new research from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Engineers inspired by the morphing skins of animals like chameleons and octopuses have developed capillary-controlled robotic flapping fins to create switchable optical and […]

Expert viewpoints Researcher Viktor Gruev standing in front of the ocean wearing an orange and blue U. of I. wetsuit and holding a specialized camera.

What is the state of underwater geolocation technology?

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — The loss of OceanGate’s Titan submersible this week has triggered questions about how underwater craft navigate and how these vehicles can improve their geolocation abilities. Electrical and computer engineering professor Viktor Gruev spoke with News Bureau physical sciences editor Lois Yoksoulian about the current state of the science behind underwater geolocation, and […]

Life sciences Image of the interior of the cave and the massive trench with people standing at different levels and looking into the trench. The cave is dark and you can see the grid of guidelines used to plot the location of items found in the dig. There are bright worklights overhead.

Cave excavation pushes back the clock on early human migration to Laos

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Fifteen years of archaeological work in the Tam Pa Ling cave in northeastern Laos has yielded a reliable chronology of early human occupation of the site, scientists report in the journal Nature Communications. The team’s excavations through the layers of sediments and bones that gradually washed into the cave and were left […]

Physical sciences Portriat of researcher Lijun Liu

Geologists challenge conventional view of Earth’s continental history, stability with new study

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — The seemingly stable regions of the Earth’s continental plates – the so-called stable cratons – have suffered repetitive deformation below their crust since their formation in the remote past, according to new research from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. This hypothesis defies decades of conventional plate tectonics theory and begs to answer why most cratons have […]

Engineering Hokusai’s woodblock print “The Great Wave off Kanagawa,” showing an artistic rendering of a deep blue tsunami wave

Mechanical engineers lend fresh insight into battery-based desalination technology

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — To achieve more effective saltwater desalination, mechanical engineers focused on fluid movement rather than new materials in a new study. By adding microchannels to the inside of battery-like electrodes made of Prussian blue – an intense blue pigment often used in art that also has special chemical properties – researchers increased the […]

Engineering Life sciences Physical sciences A hand holds two vials of solution, one pink and one blue.

Imaging agents light up two cancer biomarkers at once to give more complete picture of tumor

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Cancer surgeons may soon have a more complete view of tumors during surgery thanks to new imaging agents that can illuminate multiple biomarkers at once, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign researchers report. The fluorescent nanoparticles, wrapped in the membranes of red blood cells, target tumors better than current clinically approved dyes and can […]

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