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  • This image shows a spectrograph of the visable light range.

    Visible light energy yields two-for-one deal when added to CO2 recycling process

    By combining visible light and electrochemistry, researchers have enhanced the conversion of carbon dioxide into valuable products and stumbled upon a surprising discovery. The team found that visible light significantly improved an important chemical attribute called selectivity, opening new avenues not only for CO2 conversion but also for many other chemical reactions used in catalysis research and chemical manufacturing. 

  • Professor Jim Best standing in front of a satallite image of a river basin.

    How do hurricanes impact inland regions hundreds of miles from coastal landfall locations?

    After making landfall, Hurricane Helene moved north and dumped an enormous amount of rainfall onto the mountainous regions of Western North Carolina and Eastern Tennessee, leading to catastrophic flooding hundreds of miles away from the storm's initial landfall location. University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign professor Jim Best, an earth science and environmental change expert, discussed the event and future ones like it with Illinois News Bureau editor Lois Yoksoulian.

  • This image shows air conditioner units in windows of an urban highrise building.

    Urban heating and cooling to play substantial role in future energy demand under climate change

    Existing global energy projections underestimate the impact of climate change on urban heating and cooling systems by roughly 50% by 2099 if greenhouse gas emissions remain high, researchers report. This disparity could profoundly affect critical sustainable energy planning for the future.

  • An graphic rendering of how the small-molecule SOX catalyst pulls together an alcohol and and alkene.

    Enzyme-inspired catalyst puts chemicals in right position to make ethers

    Taking inspiration from enzymes, chemists at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign developed a catalyst to simplify the synthesis of ethers, key functional components of many drugs, foods, personal care items and other consumer goods. The catalyst puts the two chemical ingredients in just the right proximity and position to come together, bypassing the need for the steps and quantities required under standard synthesis protocols. 

  • Researcher Jim Best standing in front of a project of one of the satellite image from his new atlas.

    More than maps: New atlas captures the state of global river systems through human context

    The word “atlas,” may conjure images of giant books chock full of maps and a dizzying array of facts and figures. However, the new book “The World Atlas of Rivers, Estuaries, and Deltas” tells the story of these waterways long before human intervention and how they continue to evolve in the presence of — and often at odds with — human civilization. The new atlas is a highly visual guide to the most up-to-date research on the world's river systems, with an emphasis on the mutual relationship between people and these vital landscapes. 

  • Researchers standing in laboratory with a projection of the modeled neutron star system

    Gravitational waves unveil previously unseen properties of neutron stars

    A better understanding of the inner workings of neutron stars will lead to a greater knowledge of the dynamics that underpin the workings of the universe and also could help drive future technology, said the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign physics professor Nicolas Yunes. A new study led by Yunes details how new insights into how dissipative tidal forces within double — or binary — neutron star systems will inform our understanding of the universe. 

  • A group of researchers stands in an atrium.

    Breaking open the AI black box, team finds key chemistry for solar energy and beyond

    Artificial intelligence is a powerful tool for researchers, but with a significant limitation: The inability to explain how it came to its decisions, a problem known as the “AI black box.” By combining AI with automated chemical synthesis and experimental validation, an interdisciplinary team of researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign has opened up the black box to find the chemical principles that AI relied on to improve molecules for harvesting solar energy. 

  • Portrait of Huimin Zhao in one of the biofoundry facilities on the U. of I. campus.

    NSF funds new iBioFoundry at Illinois

    A newly funded U.S. National Science Foundation iBioFoundry at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign will build on more than a decade of research at the U. of I. to integrate synthetic biology, laboratory automation and artificial intelligence to advance protein and cellular engineering. This is one of five new biofoundries to be established in the U.S.

  • Researchers in the lab

    Scientists use evolution to bioengineer new pathways to sustainable energy, pharmaceuticals

    Using evolution as a guiding principle, researchers have successfully engineered bacteria-yeast hybrids to perform photosynthetic carbon assimilation, generate cellular energy and support yeast growth without traditional carbon feedstocks like glucose or glycerol. By engineering photosynthetic cyanobacteria to live symbiotically inside yeast cells, the bacteria-yeast hybrids can produce important hydrocarbons, paving new biotechnical pathways to non-petroleum-based energy, other synthetic biology applications and the experimental study of evolution.

  • Researcher Rabin Bhattarai portrait

    Study tracks decades of extreme heat, cold in Upper Midwest

    Researchers analyzed meteorological data from nine Upper Midwest states from 1979-2021, tracking trends in extreme heat and cold over every 4-kilometer square of that territory. They found striking regional differences in the extremes. Many parts of the Upper Midwest experienced significant upticks in the number of extreme heat days over the 40 years — an increasing trend — while others saw a rise in extreme cold events. Some communities experienced more of both extremes. Others appeared to be more resistant to changes in extreme heat or cold.

  • Joseph Irudayaraj in the lab

    PFAS found in nearly all fish tested from four northern Illinois rivers

    Scientists tested nine fish species from four northern Illinois rivers for contamination with per- or polyfluoroalkyl substances, synthetic chemicals found in numerous industrial and commercial products and known to be harmful to human health. They found fish contaminated with PFAS in every one of their 15 test sites. Elevated levels of PFOS, one type of PFAS compound, were found in nearly all fish tested.

  • The researchers stand in a field at the U. of I. Energy Farm.

    Study identifies best bioenergy crops for sustainable aviation fuels by U.S. region, policy goals

    Researchers analyzed the financial and environmental costs and benefits of four biofuels crops used to produce sustainable aviation fuels in the U.S. They found that each feedstock — corn stover, energy sorghum, miscanthus or switchgrass — performed best in a specific region of the rainfed United States. Their study will help growers and policymakers select the feedstocks most suited to meeting goals like reducing production costs, lowering greenhouse gas emissions and building soil carbon stocks.

  • An overhead view of a large landslide showing a detachment and numerous land fractures

    Researchers clarify how soft materials fail under stress

    Understanding how soft materials fail under stress is critical for solving engineering challenges as disparate as pharmaceutical technology and landslide prevention. A new study linking a spectrum of soft material behaviors — previously thought to be unrelated — led researchers to identify a new parameter they call the brittility factor, which allows them to simplify soft material failure behavior. This will ultimately help engineers design better materials that meet future challenges.

  • The researchers in a laboratory. Between them is a fish tank with an octopus inside that has been placed in the temporary tank for the photograph.

    From 'CyberSlug' to 'CyberOctopus': New AI explores, remembers, seeks novelty, overcomes obstacles

    By giving artificial intelligence simple associative learning rules based on the brain circuits that allow a sea slug to forage — and augmenting it with better episodic memory, like that of an octopus — scientists have built an AI that can navigate new environments, seek rewards, map landmarks and overcome obstacles.

  • Two men in front of projected microscope images.

    A heart of stone: Study defines the process of and defenses against cardiac valve calcification

    The human body has sophisticated defenses against the deposition of calcium minerals that stiffen heart tissues, researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and collaborators at UCLA Health and the University of Texas at Austin found in a new study that provides the first detailed, step-by-step documentation of how mineralization progresses.

  • Aarya Mehta gets hoisted up as he throws his arms out to the eclipse as members of the Illini Astronomical Society celebrate witnessing the historic total solar eclipse

    The Great American Eclipse and all of its magic

    Crowds of people bustle about at the Martinsville Agricultural Fairgrounds on a Monday afternoon with their eyes on the sky. The air ripples with excitement as we eagerly await our chance to witness the moon consuming the sun — a total solar eclipse!

  • Graduate student Yingqi Jia, left, and professor Shelly Zhang in their lab

    Researchers introduce programmable materials to help heal broken bones

    Natural materials like bone, bird feathers and wood have an intelligent approach to physical stress distribution, despite their irregular architectures. However, the relationship between stress modulation and their structures has remained elusive. A new study that integrates machine learning, optimization, 3D printing and stress experiments allowed engineers to gain insight into these natural wonders by developing a material that replicates the functionalities of human bone for orthopedic femur restoration.

  • Portrait of researchers in a laboratory. They are sitting in front of two computer monitors displaying data and visualizations of their experiments.

    By listening, scientists learn how a protein folds

    By converting their data into sounds, scientists discovered how hydrogen bonds contribute to the lightning-fast gyrations that transform a string of amino acids into a functional, folded protein. Their report, in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, offers an unprecedented view of the sequence of hydrogen-bonding events that occur when a protein morphs from an unfolded to a folded state.

  • A collage of the portraits of the five honorees.

    Five Illinois faculty elected to American Academy of Arts and Sciences

    Five University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign faculty members have been elected members of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, one of the oldest honorary societies in the United States. Nancy M. AmatoRashid BashirAlison BellCharles Gammie and Paul Selvin are among the 250 inductees for 2024.

  • a gif showing molecules in motion

    Electron videography captures moving dance between proteins and lipids

    In a first demonstration of “electron videography,” researchers have captured a microscopic moving picture of the delicate dance between proteins and lipids found in cell membranes. The technique can be used to study dynamics of other biomolecules, breaking free of constraints that have limited microscopy to still images of fixed molecules, say University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign researchers and collaborators at the Georgia Institute of Technology.

  • Portraits of all seven professors named new fellows of the AAAS

    Seven Illinois professors elected AAAS Fellows

    Seven University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign professors have been elected 2023 Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. They are among the 502 scientists, engineers and innovators recognized for their scientifically and socially distinguished achievements by the world’s largest general scientific society. 

    The new U. of I. fellows are computer science professor Sarita Adveevolution, ecology and behavior professor Rebecca Fullercivil and environmental engineering professor Praveen Kumarchemistry professor Christy Landescommunication professor Marshall Scott Poolenatural resources and environmental sciences professor Cory Suski; and crop sciences and NRES professor Martin Williams, an ecologist in the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service.  

  • Researchers

    Nothing is everything: How hidden emptiness can define the usefulness of filtration materials

    Voids, or empty spaces, exist within matter at all scales, from the astronomical to the microscopic. In a new study, researchers used high-powered microscopy and mathematical theory to unveil nanoscale voids in three dimensions. This advancement is poised to improve the performance of many materials used in the home and in the chemical, energy and medical industries — particularly in the area of filtration. 

  • Carl Bernacchi stands in front of a large image of a solar eclipse.

    What can researchers learn about ecosystems and the environment during the total solar eclipse?

    Scientists across the U.S. and Mexico are engaging in a one-day data-gathering operation to record how the 2024 total solar eclipse affects various aspects of life on Earth. At the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, crop sciences and plant biology professor Carl Bernacchi and his colleagues will focus on atmospheric and ecosystem-scale responses to the eclipse. Bernacchi describes what is planned and how it fits into the bigger research effort.

  • Professor Leslie Looney

    Expert advises eclipse watchers to get the best vantage point – are you ready?

    Leslie Looney is an astronomy professor at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and director of the Laboratory for Astronomical Imaging. He spoke with News Bureau physical sciences and media editor Lois Yoksoulian about the significance of solar eclipses and what to expect on April 8.

  • A researcher is holding a vial of gold that has been extracted from disgarded electronics in the background

    Electrochemistry helps clean up electronic waste recycling, precious metal mining

    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

  • Public domain of plants growing in laboratory designed to be used in space.

    Study brings scientists a step closer to successfully growing plants in space

    New, highly stretchable sensors can monitor and transmit plant growth information without human intervention, report University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign researchers in the journal Device. The polymer sensors are resilient to humidity and temperature, can stretch over 400% while remaining attached to a plant as it grows and send a wireless signal to a remote monitoring location, said chemical and biomolecular engineering professor Ying Diao, who led the study with plant biology professor and department head Andrew Leakey.

  • Two researchers sit with an image of an atomic-level simulation of DNA, shown in red, packed into a viral capsid, shown in blue

    First atom-level structure of packaged viral genome reveals new properties, dynamics

    A computational model of the more than 26 million atoms in a DNA-packed viral capsid expands our understanding of virus structure and DNA dynamics, insights that could provide new research avenues and drug targets, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign researchers report in the journal Nature.

  • Flooded farm field draining into stream

    Study: 'Legacy' phosphorus delays water quality improvements in Gulf of Mexico

    The same phosphorous that fertilizes the thriving agriculture of the Midwest is also responsible for a vast “dead zone” in the Gulf of Mexico near the Mississippi Delta. Efforts to reduce the amount of phosphorus that enters the Mississippi River system are underway, but research led by the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign suggests that remnants of the contaminant are left behind in riverbeds for years after introduction and pose an overlooked – and lingering – problem.  

  • A NASA image containing visible and infrared data revealing the presence of dissolved organic matter – including potential antibiotic-resistant pathogens – in the waterways along coastal North Carolina after Hurricane Florence.

    Genetic sequencing uncovers unexpected source of pathogens in floodwaters

    Researchers report in the journal Geohealth that local rivers and streams were the source of the Salmonella enterica contamination along coastal North Carolina after Hurricane Florence in 2018 – not the previously suspected high number of pig farms in the region. 

  • Atul Jain

    Why are global carbon emissions starting to increase again?

    On Dec. 5, the Global Carbon Project published the Global Carbon Budget 2023, giving world leaders access to data on atmospheric carbon concentrations, emissions and trends. University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign atmospheric scientist Atul Jain is among the many scientists worldwide who contributed data to the report. Jain talked about the current state of the carbon budget and this year’s findings with News Bureau physical sciences editor Lois Yoksoulian.

  • Photo of Stephen Long holding a soybean leaf in the sun.

    In TED Talk, Long describes three photosynthetic changes that boost crop yields

    In a newly released TED Talk, Stephen Long, a University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign professor of plant biology and crop sciences, described his and his colleagues’ efforts to boost photosynthesis in crop plants. He described three interventions, each of which increased crop yields by 20% or more.

  • Research led by the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign produced a new temperature dependent 3D-printed polymer composite that can react to its environment.

    Researchers engineer a material that can perform different tasks depending on temperature

    Researchers report that they have developed a new composite material designed to change behaviors depending on temperature in order to perform specific tasks. These materials are poised to be part of the next generation of autonomous robotics that will interact with the environment.

  • 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

    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.

  • Kaiyu Guan standing in an agriculutural field in Illinois

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

    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 tested in the Midwest, the new approach can be scaled up to national and global levels and help the industry grasp the best practices for reducing emissions.

  • Headshot of Naomi Oreskes

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

    Naomi Oreskes, a leader in examining efforts to undermine the scientific truth on the causes of global warming, will give a Center for Advanced Study MillerComm lecture on how free market ideology is preventing action on climate change.

  • A YouTube icon on a device screen

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

    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 system acted as a “rabbit hole,” leading users searching for vaccine-related videos to anti-vaccine content


  • 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. 

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

    Fast, automated, affordable test for cement durability

    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 less than $200. The researchers said the new study could help the cement industry move toward rapid and automated quality control of their materials.

  • 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

    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 infrared light multipixel displays that are 1,000 times more energy efficient than light-emitting devices.

  • 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?

    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 some advances his team is working on now.

  • 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

    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 untouched for tens of thousands of years reveals that humans lived in the area for at least 70,000 years – and likely even longer.

  • Portriat of researcher Lijun Liu

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

    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 remained structurally stable while their underbellies have experienced significant change.

  • 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

    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 extent of seawater desalination five times over their non-channeled counterparts to reach salinity levels below the freshwater threshold.

  • 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

    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 emit two distinct signals in response to just one beam of surgical light, a feature that could help doctors distinguish tumor borders and identify metastatic cancers.

  • Undergraduate student Lily Kettler, left, professor Joaquin Viera and graduate student Kedar Phadke photographed inside an astronomical observatory

    Webb Space Telescope detects universe’s most distant complex organic molecules

    Researchers have detected complex organic molecules in a galaxy more than 12 billion light-years away from Earth – the most distant galaxy in which these molecules are now known to exist. Thanks to the capabilities of the recently launched James Webb Space Telescope and careful analyses from the research team, a new study lends critical insight into the complex chemical interactions that occur in the first galaxies in the early universe. 

  • An artist's rendering of an implant with the smart coating

    Smart surgical implant coatings provide early failure warning while preventing infection

    Newly developed “smart” coatings for surgical orthopedic implants can monitor strain on the devices to provide early warning of implant failures while killing infection-causing bacteria, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign researchers report. The coatings integrate flexible sensors with a nanostructured antibacterial surface inspired by the wings of dragonflies and cicadas.

  • Image shows a large industral 3D printer depositing ink composite on to a surface

    New metric allows researchers to better understand soft material behavior

    The mechanics behind the collapse of soft materials structure have befuddled researchers for decades. In a new study, researchers uncover a metric that finally correlates microscopic-level processes with what is seen at the macroscopic level. 

  • Photo of the team members at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

    First-year chemistry students learn data analytics in new lab curriculum

    A laboratory curriculum created by scientists at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and Rice University exposes first-year chemistry students at a community college to advanced topics such as data analytics and physical chemistry.

  • photos of Tamer Basar, David Cahill and Vidya Madhavan

    Three Illinois scientists elected to American Academy of Arts and Sciences

    Three University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign scientists have been elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.


  • A NASA illustration showing a supernova in the backround and a planet in the foreground

    New stellar danger to planets identified by NASA'S Chandra program

    An exploded star can pose more risks to nearby planets than previously thought, according to a new study from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and other X-ray telescopes. This newly identified threat involves a phase of intense X-rays that can damage the atmospheres of planets up to 160 light-years away.