News Bureau

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have developed a simple, disposable sensor for detecting hazardous uranium ions, with sensitivity that rivals the performance of much more sophisticated laboratory instruments.

Researcher Ryan Corey recently heard from a friend who teaches at a school where some of the students have hearing loss. The friend wanted to know if he had any ideas to help her communicate with these students while wearing a mask to slow the spread of COVID-19. Corey, who also has hearing loss, did not know what to tell her. So, he headed to the Illinois Augmented Listening Laboratory to look for solutions.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- William J. Welch, a professor of electrical engineering and of astronomy at the University of California at Berkeley, will present the fifth talk in the department of astronomy's Icko Iben Jr. Distinguished Lectureship at 4 p.m. Oct. 28 in Foellinger Auditorium, 709 S. Mathews Ave., Urbana. The talk, "The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence," is free and open to the public.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. Wallace L.W. Sargent, the Ira S. Bowen Professor of Astronomy at the California Institute of Technology, will present the fourth talk in the department of astronomys Icko Iben Jr. Distinguished Lectureship at 4 p.m. April 24 in Foellinger Auditorium, 709 S. Mathews Ave., Urbana. The talk, "Large Optical Telescopes: The Next Generation," is free and open to the public.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Reinhard Genzel, director of the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics in Garching, Germany, will discuss black holes during a talk Nov. 17 at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - David Morrison, a senior scientist at the NASA Astrobiology Institute, will present the sixth talk in the department of astronomy's Icko Iben Jr. Distinguished Lectureship at 4 p.m. Nov. 5 in Foellinger Auditorium, 709 S. Mathews Ave., Urbana. The talk, "Cosmic Collisions: How Astronomers are Saving the World," is free and open to the public.

A Minute With™... computer science professor Sheldon H. Jacobson

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Illinois chemists have used DNA to do a protein's job, creating opportunities for DNA to find work in more areas of biology, chemistry and medicine than ever before.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - A new method for manipulating macromolecules has been developed by researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The technique uses double-stranded DNA to direct the behavior of other molecules.

A new synthetic enzyme, crafted from DNA rather than protein, flips lipid molecules within the cell membrane, triggering a signal pathway that could be harnessed to induce cell death in cancer cells. It is the first such synthetic enzyme to outperform its natural counterparts.

Proteins play a large role in DNA regulation, but a new study finds that DNA molecules directly interact with one another in a way that’s dependent on the sequence of the DNA and epigenetic factors. This could have implications for how DNA is organized in the cell and even how genes are regulated in different cell types, the researchers say.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Single walled carbon nanotubes wrapped with DNA can be placed inside living cells and detect trace amounts of harmful contaminants using near infrared light, report researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Their discovery opens the door to new types of optical sensors and biomarkers that exploit the unique properties of nanoparticles in living systems.

A Minute With™... Ed Kieser, the chief meteorologist at WILL AM-FM-TV

Urban planners may soon have a new way to measure traffic congestion. By capturing the different routes by which vehicles can travel between locations, researchers have developed a new computer algorithm that helps quantify regions of congestion in urban areas and suggests ways around them

Cellphones and other devices could soon be controlled with touchless gestures and charge themselves using ambient light, thanks to new LED arrays that can both emit and detect light.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Scientists have ended a 9-year-old debate by proving that Earth's core rotates faster than its surface, by about 0.3 to 0.5 degree per year.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Seismic waves are helping scientists to plumb the world's deepest mystery: the planet's inner core.

The first Roger Ebert Symposium will explore the cinematic presentation of science with help from an IMAX film shot from space, a former astronaut and a diverse group of academics and experts.

A Minute With™... Marcelo Garcia, an expert in river hydrology

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Eight professors at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have been elected 2019 Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Eight University of Illinois faculty members have been elected fellows in the American Association for the Advancement of Science: Fouad Abd-El-Khalick, Rashid Bashir, Debasish Dutta, K. Jimmy Hsia, Keith W. Kelley, Wilfred van der Donk, M. Christina White and James Whitfield.

Eight University of Illinois researchers have been named to the Thomson Reuters / Clarivate Analytics Highly Cited Researchers list for 2016. The list identifies scientists “whose research has had significant global impact within their respective fields of study."

Eight University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign projects are among 26 to receive the first C3.ai Digital Transformation Institute awards for artificial intelligence techniques to mitigate the COVID-19 pandemic. The institute will provide a total of $5.4 million over the next year to projects that examine the medical, social and economic impacts of the novel coronavirus and inspire researcher collaboration in advanced machine learning and other AI disciplines. 

A new technique that uses tiny elastic balls filled with fluorescent nanoparticles aims to expand the understanding of the mechanical forces that exist between cells, researchers report. A University of Illinois-led team has demonstrated the quantification of 3-D forces within cells living in petri dishes as well as live specimens. This research may unlock some of the mysteries related to embryonic development and cancer stem cells, i.e., tumor-repopulating cells.

Owners of electric multicookers may be able to add another use to its list of functions, a new study suggests: sanitization of N95 respirator masks.

The University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign study found that 50 minutes of dry heat in an electric cooker, such as a rice cooker or Instant Pot, decontaminated N95 respirators inside and out while maintaining their filtration and fit. This could enable wearers to safely reuse limited supplies of the respirators, originally intended to be one-time-use items. 

A new method safely extracts valuable metals locked up in discarded electronics and low-grade ore using dramatically less energy and fewer chemical materials than current methods, report University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign researchers in the journal Nature Chemical Engineering

Electronic filters are part of the inner workings of our phones and other wireless devices. They eliminate or enhance specific input signals to achieve the desired output signals. They are essential, but take up space on the chips that researchers are on a constant quest to make smaller. A new study demonstrates the successful integration of the individual elements that make up electronic filters onto a single component, significantly reducing the amount of space taken up by the device.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - A more effective method for closing gaps in atomically small wires has been developed by University of Illinois researchers, further opening the doors to a new transistor technology.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - To engineers, it's a tale as old as time: Electrical current is carried through materials by flowing electrons. But physicists at the University of Illinois and the University of Pennsylvania found that for copper-containing superconductors, known as cuprates, electrons are not enough to carry the current.

The process that makes gold-plated jewelry or chrome car accents is now making powerful lithium-ion batteries.

Researchers at the University of Illinois and the University of Massachusetts, Amherst have taken the first steps toward gaining control over the self-assembly of synthetic materials in the same way that biology forms natural polymers. This advance could prove useful in designing new bioinspired, smart materials for applications ranging from drug delivery to sensing to remediation of environmental contaminants.

Eleven faculty members at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have been named to the 2018 Clarivate Analytics Highly Cited Researchers list.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Eleven faculty members of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have been awarded the distinction of AAAS Fellow by the American Association for the Advancement of Science: Mark B. David, John A. Gerlt, Gregory S. Girolami, Steven C. Huber, Stephen P. Long, Yi Lu, Ken N. Paige, Edmund G. Seebauer, Scott K. Silverman, Gregory Timp and Donald J. Wuebbles.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Howard K. Birnbaum, a professor emeritus at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, has been selected as the 2002 recipient of the Von Hippel Award from the Materials Research Society. The award will be presented Dec. 4 at the MRS meeting in Boston.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - An astronomy expert looking for in-depth research about stars can consult the same new reference book that an undergraduate freshman with a limited knowledge of astronomy might use.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Facial reconstruction patients may soon have the option of custom-made bone replacements optimized for both form and function, thanks to researchers at the University of Illinois and the Ohio State University Medical Center.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Wild and wacky Rube Goldberg machines, robots launching mini basketballs, and more than 130 entertaining and educational exhibits are among the attractions awaiting visitors to the 85th annual Engineering Open House at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Wild and wacky Rube Goldberg machines, robots fighting for possession of wooden blocks, and more than 120 fun-filled exhibits are among the attractions awaiting visitors to the 84th annual Engineering Open House at the University of Illinois.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Remote-controlled robots rescuing "hostages" while running an obstacle course, wild and wacky Rube Goldberg machines, and more than 150 exhibits ranging from spacecraft design to shape-memory metals are among the attractions awaiting visitors to the 80th annual Engineering Open House at the University of Illinois.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Wild and wacky Rube Goldberg machines, robots fighting for possession of helium balloons, and more than 130 fun-filled exhibits are among the attractions awaiting visitors to the 83rd annual Engineering Open House at the University of Illinois.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Michael Loui, a professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, has been named a Carnegie Scholar by the Carnegie Academy for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning.

Green infrastructure is an attractive concept, but there is concern surrounding its effectiveness. Researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign are using a mathematical technique traditionally used in earthquake engineering to determine how well green infrastructure works and to communicate with urban planners, policymakers and developers.

The future of electronic devices lies partly within the “internet of things” – the network of devices, vehicles and appliances embedded within electronics to enable connectivity and data exchange. University of Illinois engineers are helping realize this future by minimizing the size of one notoriously large element of integrated circuits used for wireless communication – the transformer.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - On the road to smaller, high-performance electronics, University of Illinois researchers have smoothed one speed bump by shrinking a key, yet notoriously large element of integrated circuits.

A new report by University of Illinois civil and environmental engineering professor Tim Stark and colleagues details the factors that led to the deadliest landslide on record in the continental United States, along with steps that can be taken to mitigate landslide consequences and risk in the Pacific Northwest.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have found a way to significantly improve the performance of vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers by drilling holes in their surfaces. Faster and cheaper long-haul optical communication systems, as well as photonic integrated circuits, could be the result.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Scholars representing disciplines as diverse as architecture, urban planning, science, technology, cultural studies and library and information science - will gather May 6-8 at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign for a conference on "European Modernism and the Information Society: Informing the Present, Understanding the Past."

A series of events at the University of Illinois called Speculative Futures will bring artists together with technology innovators with the goal of sparking new creative projects at the intersection of computer science and science fiction.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. Evidence of a carbon-silicon compound found in a living colony of diatoms could lead to a variety of beneficial applications, from low-cost synthesis of high-performance materials to therapeutic treatments for osteoporosis.