Illinois Featured Content

Future proofing photosynthesis

Nov 20, 2024 2:00 pm

C&EN (Nov. 18) Integrative biology professor Stephen Long admits that success in increasing photosynthetic efficiency is a long shot, but one upon which the future of the planet depends.

stock photo shows pills and syringe in front of dumbells. (Photo/Shutterstock)

No banned substances: ‘Enhanced Games’ aim to push physical limits to extremes

Nov 14, 2024 3:00 pm

Gear Junkie (Nov. 13) 'An assumption of the Enhanced Games is that if athletes have unrestricted drug use, it will lead to world-record performances. It won’t be that simple,' said Illinois professor Julian Woolf.

Are AI chatbots safe for children? Experts weigh in after teen's suicide

Nov 14, 2024 9:00 am

Newsweek (Nov. 13) 'It's important to recognize that chatbots are not mere ... glorified autocompletes but instead are closer to having real minds with beliefs and perhaps even desires about the world,' writes U of I's Ben Levinstein.

uncredited graphic shows image of a padlock surrounded by digital, computer looking stuff

Quantum computing threatens cybersecurity: Are we prepared?

Nov 11, 2024 1:45 pm

SciTechDaily (Nov. 10) 'The problem is urgent because practical quantum computers will break classical encryption in the next decade,' says Phuong Cao, a cybersecurity researcher at the U. of I.

New school at Beardstown. Rising property values have meant more tax revenue, allowing Beardstown to build a new library and new schools.

Can an immigrant workforce save dying factory towns?

Nov 7, 2024 10:15 am

Reason (Nov. 6) For U of I's Faranak Miraftab, the villification of Haitian immigrants in Springfield, OH, brought to mind Beardstown, IL. 'Towns around (it) are boarded up ghost towns. Beardstown shines thanks to its immigrants.'

uncredited, unexplained graphic presumably related to skin at the molecular level

Skin’s secret strength shields against puncture damage

Nov 6, 2024 11:45 am

Earth.com (Nov. 1) Researchers at Illinois have discovered that our skin is not just an exterior shell. It plays an active role in lessening the internal damage when punctured - even better than synthetic materials.

A competiter in the men's wheelchair division makes his way across the Verrazzano Narrows Bridge during the NYC Marathon on November 3, 2024. Photo by Yuki Iwamura for AP.

Romanchuk wins men’s wheelchair race at NYC Marathon, Scaroni wins women’s event

Nov 5, 2024 1:15 pm

AP (Nov. 3) Illinois alumna Susannah Scaroni, who still trains with the university’s wheelchair track team, won the New York City Marathon. Daniel Romanchuk, who also trains at the U. of I., won the men’s race.

Donald Trump at the "Stop the Steal" rally in Washington on Jan. 6, 2021.Tasos Katopodis / Getty Images, file

If Kamala Harris pulls off a victory, Trump’s efforts to overthrow the election won’t work

Nov 4, 2024 1:30 pm

MSNBC (Nov. 2) U. of I. political science professor Nicholas Grossman writes about the Jan. 6 attack and why Donald Trump’s efforts to overthrow the election won’t work if Vice President Kamala Harris wins the election.

Election officials count ballots at the Allegheny County elections warehouse in Pittsburgh in 2020. Jeff Swensen/Getty Images

People who research elections look at what to expect on election night

Nov 1, 2024 4:30 pm

U of I's John Murphy warns: 'Partisans want that beautiful picture of triumph, blue or red seas cascading across screens on election night.' But, that might be a mirage — and realizing it’s a mirage means one thing: 'Wait. … Wait until we know it’s real.'

Three Mile Island Unit 1 (right) in Pennsylvania is one of the first two shutdown US reactors to be on path of being restarted to generate electricity again. Photo via Wikimedia Commons.

What it will take to restart decommissioned US nuclear plants

Oct 30, 2024 10:30 am

Bulletin of Atomic Scientists (Nov. 29) Nuclear engineering professor Kathryn Huff and grad student Nathan Ryan write about plans to restart Palisades Nuclear Power Plant in Michigan and Three Mile Island Unit 1 in Pennsylvania.

Customers chat outside of Farm Bar’s Lake View restaurant at 1300 W. Wellington Ave., where AI is used to answer customer questions about hours, menus and reservations. Photo by Zubaer Khan/Sun-Times

Is AI making Chicago businesses better? Some say yes, the investment is worth it

Oct 28, 2024 4:45 pm

Chicago Sun-Times (Oct. 25) U. of I. professor Deming Chen says businesses adopting AI can face a few hurdles. It can be pricey to employ, and questions about ethics and a lack of federal regulation can further complicate things.

uncredited photo of Earth from space via The Quantum Insider

Quantum communication tech to be tested on upcoming SpaceX mission

Oct 25, 2024 8:45 am

The Quantum Insider (Oct. 24) An experiment, led by U. of I. professor Paul Kwiat, aims to advance quantum-level communication in space through the use of quantum entanglement technology.

In this photo of a musician performing on a street, the highlighted areas show where McAfee’s technology found the most evidence that the image was generated by AI. (Photo by cAfee)

To keep deepfakes from infiltrating its site, Yahoo News enlists help from McAfee

Oct 24, 2024 1:00 pm

Los Angeles Times (Oct. 23) Daniel Kang, a U. of I. expert in deepfake detection, warned that no AI detection tools today are good enough to catch a highly motivated and well-resourced attacker.

colorized still from the 1924 silent film, "The Last Man on Earth." It's the first depiction of a woman president in movie history.

A woman as president? It's happened before - in the movies

Oct 23, 2024 12:15 pm

BBC (Oct. 23) 'Just imagine,' says U. of I.'s Erika Cornelius Smith. 'Women boxing! Women in government! The only way audiences could cope with this type of thing in popular culture was that they knew it was absurd and it would never happen.'

An advanced ‘in memory’ computing chip developed by researchers from Princeton University, New Jersey, and US firm EnCharge AI.Credit: Scott Lyon

Fixing AI’s energy crisis wiht hardware that consumes less power

Oct 22, 2024 2:00 pm

Nature (Oct. 17) AI is energy-hungry, and companies that make AI models are trying to make the process more efficient. 'Usually people don’t care about energy efficiency when you’re training the world’s largest model,' says Professor Naresh Shanbhag

Angela Crosby of the Austin neighborhood beside her damaged, still-unrepaired 2018 Chevrolet Cruze.Pat Nabong / Sun-Times

Illinois’ most complained-about car insurance companies

Oct 21, 2024 2:45 pm

WBEZ-FM (Oct. 18) U of I Insurance researcher Lynne McChristian says nonstandard insurers, known for covering high-risk drivers, draw more complaints because of the 'churn' of customers seeking lower-cost policies to satisfy legal requirements.

U of I professors and students searching for rare comet - and you can, too

Oct 18, 2024 12:00 pm

WCIA-TV (Oct. 16) 'We'r e just starting to get a good show now because the comet has already passed the sun. As it’s moving away from the sun, it’s becoming visible in our night sky. That’s why everyone’s looking at it this week.'

Google and Amazon logos as signage on their buildings in California. Both are AP photos

Amazon, Google make dueling nuclear investments to power data centers with clean energy

Oct 17, 2024 11:30 am

AP (Oct.16) If new, clean power isn’t added as data centers are developed, the U.S. runs the risk of 'browning the grid,' says Kathryn Huff, a former U.S. assistant secretary for nuclear energy, now a U. of I. professor of nuclear engineering.

Illinois' homecoming tradition began in 1910 when it beat Chicago, 3-0. Image from that game courtesy of University of Illinois Alumni Association

Breaking down who truly started the long-held tradition of homecoming

Oct 16, 2024 4:30 pm

ESPN (Oct. 16) In early 1910, two Illinois students sat on the steps of what was then the school’s YMCA. It’s there, the story goes, that they first discussed the idea for an event to bring alumni back to campus.

Woman Shopping For Produce In Grocery Store. stock image from storyblocks

Can the next US president lower your grocery costs?

Oct 14, 2024 11:00 am

WMAQ-TV (Oct. 11) Inflation has cooled, yet grocery bills are still higher than they were prepandemic. 'Can politicians walk into office, flip a switch and lower food prices? No, that’s just not reality,' says U. of I. professor Jonathan Coppess.

Keturah Johnson, international vice president for flight attendant union AFA-CWA. Photo by John McDonnell for AP

More Black, Latina women are leading unions - and transforming how they work

Oct 9, 2024 10:15 am

AP (Oct. 6) While female-dominated fields have made strides in union leadership diversity, 'there is still a long way to go' for unions in male-dominated fields like building and manufacturing trades, said U. of I. labor historian Emily Twarog.

A Matternet drone makes a home delivery in Mountain View, Calif. Photo courtesy of Matternet

Drone deliveries, slow to take flight, arrive in Silicon Valley

Oct 8, 2024 12:45 pm

NBC News (Oct. 3) U. of I. professor Yanfeng Ouyang hopes some of the potential negative consequences can be curtailed. 'It’s right around the corner, and we will see very rapid development in the next year or two,' he says.

Corn is harvested in late September on Nick Koeller's farm in Greenfield, Illinois. Prices for corn and other crops have fallen, meaning farmers expect to make less money this year. Photo by Sophie Proe

Farmers are making less money this year, which could have larger economic consequences

Oct 7, 2024 3:00 pm

WNIJ-AM (Oct. 7) 'The farm economy is in a downturn relative to what we have experienced in 2022 and 2023, which was kind of a boom in agriculture,' says Joe Janzen, a professor of agricultural and consumer economics at Illinois.

Illinois partnering with City Colleges of Chicago engineering program to diversify the industry

Oct 4, 2024 4:00 pm

Illinois has entered into an agreement that will allow some students who enroll in the engineering program at City Colleges of Chicago to simultaneously enroll at the university and receive additional advising from the university’s staff.

Port strikes extend a new era of American labor activism

Oct 2, 2024 4:45 pm

A database maintained by the School of Labor and Employment Relations at the U. of I. and Cornell recorded 250 strikes and other labor actions in 2024 as of Monday as U.S. dockworkers walked off the job this week.

Disaster evacuation in an EV

Sep 30, 2024 12:30 pm

The Washington Post (Sept. 30) Emergency planners need to build more fast chargers along evacuation routes, says civil and environmental engineering professor Eleftheria Kontou.

U.S. President Donald Trump discusses tariffs with Congressmen Sean Duffy, left, and Robert Aderholt in the White House on Jan. 24. Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images

Ex-Obama adviser warns Trump's promises could force fed to hike rates

Sep 27, 2024 2:00 pm

Benzinga (Detroit, Sept. 26) Trump would impose a hefty tariff on John Deere for moving production to Mexico. U. of I. professor Jonathan Coppess says relocating jobs has serious consequences, but Trump’s solution may not be effective.

Helene strengthened into a Category 3 storm on Thursday afternoon. Photo by NOAA

Storm chasers prepare to measure Hurricane Helene

Sep 26, 2024 3:00 pm

NBC News (Sept. 25) When Hurricane Helene makes landfall, U. of I. researchers Karen Kosiba and Josh Wurman plan to be at the center of it. 'We’re trying to position ourselves right where the eye is going to come on shore,' Wurman says.

a row of voting booths in Chicago. Photo by Chicago Tribune

Chicago Board of Elections objects to election workers’ union petition

Sep 25, 2024 3:30 pm

Chicago Tribune (Sept. 24) The board says union membership would constitute ‘political activity’ by the workers, which is prohibited. U. of I. labor expert Robert Bruno says the board’s reasoning is 'spurious and very speculative.'

Dr. Claire Malone uses Voiceitt to complete her PhD research using data from the ATLAS detector at CERN. iMAGE courtesy of oiceitt

AI-powered tech could help people with speech impairments to work remotely

Sep 24, 2024 1:45 pm

CNN (Sept. 23) The Speech Accessibility Project, led by U. of I.'s Beckman Institute, is collecting voice data from people with different conditions to build algorithms for supporting people with non-standard speech.

Supporters wait for the arrival of Democratic presidential nominee, Kamala Harris during a campaign rally at the McHale Athletic Center on Sept. 13, 2024, in Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania. Harris and her opponent, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, have been holding events across Pennsylvania, a crucial battleground state in the 2024 election. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty)

How the Electoral College concentrates candidate attention and why it matters

Sep 23, 2024 4:45 pm

Chicago Tribune (Sept. 22) The outcome of the 2024 presidential election will likely hinge on what happens in seven key states, writes U. of I. political science professor Scott Althaus.

Michael Ward, professor at the University of Illinois, and Kelly VanBeek, a biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, affix a GPS tag onto the back of a Common Grackle. Photo: Anne Readel

Where have all the common grackles gone?

Sep 19, 2024 2:00 pm

Audubon Magazine (Sept. 19) Professor Michael Ward is a leading scientist delving into why the Common Grackles are disappearing. Whatever is harming grackles is likely affecting adults, Ward says, because the chicks are fledging successfully.

If interest rates go down, do home prices go down? Not quite

Sep 18, 2024 3:00 pm

Vox (Sept. 17) 'There’s a lot of pent-up demand right now from first-time buyers, so I wouldn’t be surprised if we don’t see a big shift in prices right after the rate cut because there are a lot of people waiting on the sidelines,' says U of I's Julia Fonseca.

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