Human-Animal Studies Summer Institute seeks applicants

The Animals and Society Institute and Illinois seek applications for the first Human-Animal Studies Summer Institute program for advanced graduate students and early career scholars pursuing research in human-animal studies.

This new program follows up on the successful six-week summer fellowship program started by ASI in 2007. The program is focused on graduate students and those in the first few years of their postdoctoral studies. It is designed to allow 20 to 25 participants to work on their dissertations or publications at the Center for Advanced Study at Illinois.

The institute will be held July 9-16. The deadline for applications is Jan. 30. Five scholarships for graduate students are available on a competitive basis. More information may be found online.

Review: Heat-resilient crops are within reach — given enough time and money

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Laboratory and field experiments have repeatedly shown that modifying the process of photosynthesis or the physical characteristics of plants can make crops more resilient to hotter temperatures. Scientists can now alter the abundance or orientation of leaves, change leaf chemistry to improve heat tolerance and adjust key steps in the process of […]

Arts

Diptych image of the book cover of "Natural Attachments" and a portrait of Pollyanna Rhee standing in front of greenery.

Book explores how ‘domestication’ of environmentalism limits who it protects

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — The response to a 1969 oil spill off the coast of Santa Barbara, California, reveals how the modern environmental movement has been used to protect the interests of private homeowners, said a University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign researcher. Landscape architecture professor Pollyanna Rhee chronicled how affluent homeowners use what she calls “ownership environmentalism” […]

Agriculture Graduate student Andrea Jimena Valdés-Alvarado, left, and food science professor Elvira Gonzalez de Mejia standing in the Edward R. Madigan Laboratory holding samples of the legume pulses they used in the study.

Graduate student Andrea Jimena Valdés-Alvarado, left, and food science professor Elvira Gonzalez de Mejia standing in the Edward R. Madigan Laboratory holding samples of the legume pulses they used in the study.

Fermenting legume pulses boosts their antidiabetic, antioxidant properties

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Food scientists at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign identified the optimal fermentation conditions for pulses ― the dried edible seeds of legumes ― that increased their antioxidant and antidiabetic properties and their soluble protein content. Using the bacteria Lactiplantibacillus plantarum 299v as the microorganism, the team fermented pulses obtained from varying concentrations […]

Read Next

Review: Heat-resilient crops are within reach — given enough time and money

Book explores how ‘domestication’ of environmentalism limits who it protects

Fermenting legume pulses boosts their antidiabetic, antioxidant properties