blog navigation

Life Sciences
Sort by

blog posts

  • Fred Kummerow

    100-year-old trans fat pioneer celebrates news of an FDA ban

    Jun 4, 2015 1:00 pm2380 views

    A Minute With™... Fred Kummerow, trans fat expert

  • $1.5 billion needed to ensure 12-month stockpile of pediatric vaccines

    Apr 18, 2006 9:00 am31 views

    CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - A six-month stockpile of recommended pediatric vaccines would cost $1 billion and could cover more than 90 percent of U.S. children during a six-month interruption in production, say researchers at two Illinois universities.

  • The annual Carbon Budget Project report found that among other trends, the global COVID-19 pandemic restrictions caused a record drop in CO2 emissions for 2020, says Illinois atmospheric sciences professor and report co-author Atul Jain.

    2020 a bad year in many respects, but what about global carbon emissions?

    Dec 15, 2020 9:45 am781 views

    The Global Carbon Project recently published the Global Carbon Budget 2020, giving world leaders access to data on atmospheric carbon concentrations, emissions and trends. Illinois atmospheric scientist Atul Jain was part of an international team of scientists that contributed data to the report. Jain talked about the carbon budget and this year’s findings with News Bureau physical sciences editor Lois Yoksoulian.

  • A new 3-D imaging technique for live cells uses a conventional microscope to capture image slices throughout the depth of the cell, then computationally renders them into one three-dimensional image. The technique uses no dyes or chemicals, allowing researchers to observe cells in their natural state.

    3-D imaging provides window into living cells, no dye required

    Jan 21, 2014 9:00 am328 views

    CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Living cells are ready for their close-ups, thanks to a new imaging technique that needs no dyes or other chemicals, yet renders high-resolution, three-dimensional, quantitative imagery of cells and their internal structures - all with conventional microscopes and white light.

  • Xiaohui Zhang, left, Andrew Smith, Kelly Swanson, Erik Nelson, Mark Anastasio and Junlong Geng are part of a team working to clarify the relationship between obesity and inflammation while on the hunt for obesity-fighting drug therapies.

    3D microscopy clarifies understanding of body's immune response to obesity

    Feb 17, 2021 1:00 pm988 views

    Researchers who focus on fat know that some adipose tissue is more prone to inflammation-related comorbidities than others, but the reasons why are not well understood. Thanks to a new analytical technique, scientists are getting a clearer view of the microenvironments found within adipose tissue associated with obesity. This advance may illuminate why some adipose tissues are more prone to inflammation – leading to diseases like type 2 diabetes, cancer and cardiovascular disorders – and help direct future drug therapies to treat obesity.

  • Freeform printing allows the researchers to make intricate structures, such as this model of a heart, that could not be made with traditional layer-by-layer 3-D printing. The structures could be used as scaffolds for tissue engineering or device manufacturing.

    3-D printed sugar scaffolds offer sweet solution for tissue engineering, device manufacturing

    May 23, 2018 2:00 pm4909 views

    University of Illinois engineers built a 3-D printer that offers a sweet solution to making detailed structures that commercial 3-D printers can’t: Rather than a layer-upon-layer solid shell, it produces a delicate network of thin ribbons of hardened isomalt, the type of sugar alcohol used to make throat lozenges.

    The water-soluble, biodegradable glassy sugar structures have multiple applications in biomedical engineering, cancer research and device manufacturing.

  • Photos of both halves of the fossil, showing the assassin bug's banded legs and abdomen, and with a view of the genital capsule called the pygophore, which is shaped like a tiny almond with some hard structures inside.

    50 million-year-old fossil assassin bug has unusually well-preserved genitalia

    Jan 19, 2021 8:30 am1096 views

    The fossilized insect is tiny and its genital capsule, called a pygophore, is roughly the length of a grain of rice. It is remarkable, scientists say, because the bug’s physical characteristics – from the bold banding pattern on its legs to the internal features of its genitalia – are clearly visible and well-preserved. Recovered from the Green River Formation in present-day Colorado, the fossil represents a new genus and species of predatory insects known as assassin bugs.

  • Former University of Illinois graduate student Neha Gothe and colleagues found that 20 minutes of yoga significantly improved participants' reaction time and accuracy in tests of cognitive function. Gothe is now a professor of kinesiology at Wayne State University.

    A 20-minute bout of yoga stimulates brain function immediately after

    Jun 5, 2013 9:00 am7210 views

    CHAMPAIGN, lll. - Researchers report that a single, 20-minute session of Hatha yoga significantly improved participants' speed and accuracy on tests of working memory and inhibitory control, two measures of brain function associated with the ability to maintain focus and take in, retain and use new information. Participants performed significantly better immediately after the yoga practice than after moderate to vigorous aerobic exercise for the same amount of time.

  • A thin plastic ribbon printed with advanced electronics is threaded through the eye of an ordinary sewing needle. The device, containing LEDs, electrodes and sensors, can be injected into the brain or other organs.

    A bright idea: Tiny injectable LEDs help neuroscientists study the brain

    Apr 11, 2013 9:00 am963 views

    CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - A new class of tiny, injectable LEDs is illuminating the deep mysteries of the brain.

  • Absence of critical protein linked to infertility

    Jan 17, 2006 9:00 am123 views

    CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - The absence of a key protein may lead to infertility.

  • A new study found that a simple intervention could moderate otherwise polarized political attitudes, such as those toward a proposed Islamic community center and mosque near the World Trade Center site in New York City.

    Abstract thinking can make you more politically moderate

    Nov 2, 2012 9:00 am532 views

    CHAMPAIGN, lll. - Partisans beware! Some of your most cherished political attitudes may be malleable! Researchers report that simply answering three "why" questions on an innocuous topic leads people to be more moderate in their views on an otherwise polarizing political issue.

  • Aaron Hager

    A bumper crop...of weeds?

    Aug 18, 2014 9:00 am28 views

    A Minute With™... crop sciences professor and weed expert Aaron Hager

  • Abundance of protein in infected swine may result in reduced muscle mass

    Nov 17, 2004 9:00 am15 views

    CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - A study looking at chronic infectious respiratory diseases that affect most swine during their critical growing stage has shed new light on the reasons for restricted weight gain and reduced muscle mass.

  • Advanced techniques yield new insights into ribosome self-assembly

    Feb 12, 2014 9:30 am151 views

    Ribosomes, the cellular machines that build proteins, are themselves made up of dozens of proteins and a few looping strands of RNA. A new study, reported in the journal Nature, offers new clues about how the ribosome, the master assembler of proteins, also assembles itself.

  • After more than 100 years apart, webworms devastate New Zealand parsnips

    Jan 30, 2008 9:00 am237 views

    CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - What could be lower than the lowly parsnip, a root once prized for its portable starchiness but which was long ago displaced by the more palatable potato? Perhaps only the parsnip webworm gets less respect. An age-old enemy of the parsnip, the webworm is one of very few insects able to overcome the plant's chemical defenses. The tenacious parsnip webworm has followed the weedy version of the parsnip in its transit from its ancestral home in Eurasia to Europe, North America and - most recently - New Zealand.

  • Kinesiology and community health professor Charles Hillman and his colleagues found that children who engaged in an after-school physical activity program performed better on several measures of cognitive function at the end of the intervention.

    After-school exercise program enhances cognition in 7-, 8- and 9-year-olds

    Sep 29, 2014 9:00 am1178 views

    CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - A nine-month-long, randomized controlled trial involving 221 prepubescent children found that those who engaged in moderate-to-vigorous physical activity for at least 60 minutes a day after school saw substantial improvements in their ability to pay attention, avoid distraction and switch between cognitive tasks, researchers report in the journal Pediatrics.

  • Even when they dominate a wetland site, native plants, right, tend to coexist with a greater diversity of other native plants than when non-native plants, left, are dominant.

    Aggressive, non-native wetland plants squelch species richness more than dominant natives do

    Jun 19, 2019 8:30 am914 views

    Dominant, non-native plants reduce wetland biodiversity and abundance more than native plants do, researchers report in the journal Ecology Letters. Even native plants that dominate wetland landscapes play better with others, the team found.

  • Professor Paul Braun and graduate student Chunjie Zhang developed a continuous glucose-monitoring system that changes color when glucose levels rise.

    A glucose meter of a different color provides continuous monitoring

    Aug 25, 2014 9:00 am574 views

    CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - University of Illinois engineers are bringing a touch of color to glucose monitoring.

  • May Berenbaum, left, and Ling-Hsiu Liao found that honey bees have a slight preference for food laced with the fungicide chlorothalonil at certain concentrations.

    Agricultural fungicide attracts honey bees, study finds

    Jan 8, 2018 9:30 am4693 views

    When given the choice, honey bee foragers prefer to collect sugar syrup laced with the fungicide chlorothalonil over sugar syrup alone, researchers report in the journal Scientific Reports.

  • University of Illinois entomology professor Barry Pittendrigh (back right) and his colleagues create animated educational videos as part of the Scientific Animations Without Borders project. Pictured: back row left: entomology research scientist Weilin Sun; front row from left: SAWBO co-founder Julia Bello-Bravo, who also is assistant director of Illinois Strategic International Partnerships; graduate students Laura Steele and Alice Vossbrinck; and research specialist Susan Balfe.

    Agricultural, health education goes global via cellphone animations

    Dec 10, 2012 9:00 am165 views

    CHAMPAIGN, lll. - They're watching them in Benin, Brazil, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, India and Niger. They're learning how to stop the spread of dengue, malaria, tuberculosis, cholera and food-related illness. They're learning how to protect their crops from insect damage or post-harvest losses. And they're coming up with new ideas for similar lessons to share with their neighbors or others around the world.

  • Airport baggage screeners may need continuing education, study indicates

    Apr 27, 2004 9:00 am10 views

    CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Baggage screeners have just seconds amid loud airport noises and the pressure of rushed airline travelers to scan X-rays of carry-on items for weapons. How good they are at finding one may depend on the specificity of their training, say researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

  • Alejandro Lleras receives National Science Foundation CAREER Award

    Apr 16, 2008 9:00 am12 views

    CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Alejandro Lleras, a professor of psychology at the University of Illinois and an affiliate of the Beckman Institute, is a recipient of an Early Faculty CAREER award from the National Science Foundation. The $400,000 award will be distributed over five years, beginning in 2008.

  • 'Alien Arthropods!' invade 19th annual Insect Fear Film Festival on Feb. 9

    Jan 22, 2002 9:00 am40 views

    CHAMPAIGN, Ill. Millions of alien invaders live in the United States, and a select bunch of them cause an estimated $20 billion in damage each year. These are not repulsive life-threatening beings from Mars and beyond; rather they are insects and other arthropods, some barely distinguished from homegrown varieties. Some of these aliens will star in this years Insect Fear Film Festival on Feb. 9.

  • Animal biology professor Alison Bell received the Young Investigator Award from the Animal Behavior Society for "remarkable research contributions ... and the early training of young scholars" in her laboratory.

    Alison Bell receives Animal Behavior Society Young Investigator Award

    Jun 18, 2012 9:00 am323 views

    CHAMPAIGN, lll. - Alison Bell, a University of Illinois animal biology professor, is a recipient of the 2012 Young Investigator Award from the Animal Behavior Society. The society recognized Bell for her "remarkable research contributions to the field of animal behavior and the early training of young scholars" in her laboratory.

  • Former competitive cyclist Robert Motl, now a professor of kinesiology and community health, is studying the effects of caffeine on pain during exercise.

    A little java makes it easier to jive, researcher says

    Mar 30, 2009 9:00 am377 views

    CHAMPAIGN, lll. -Stopping to smell the coffee - and enjoy a cup of it - before your morning workout might do more than just get your juices flowing. It might keep you going for reasons you haven't even considered.

  • Honey bee hives placed near flowering prairies in late summer and early fall were much healthier than those left near soybean fields after August, the researchers found.

    A little prairie can rescue honey bees from famine on the farm, study finds

    Nov 25, 2019 2:00 pm1400 views

    Scientists placed honey bee hives next to soybean fields in Iowa and tracked how the bees fared over the growing season. To the researchers’ surprise, the bees did well for much of the summer. The colonies thrived and gained weight, building up their honey stores. But in August, the trend reversed. By mid-October, most of the honey was gone and the overwintering brood was malnourished, the team discovered.

  • University of Illinois psychology professor Eva Telzer and her colleagues found that adolescents who get pleasure from pro-social activities are less likely to become depressed.

    Altruistic adolescents less likely to become depressed, new study suggests

    Apr 24, 2014 9:00 am445 views

    CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - It is better to give than to receive - at least if you're an adolescent and you enjoy giving, a new study suggests.

  • University of Illinois psychology professor Joshua Gulley and his colleagues found that amphetamine use in adolescence can lead to long-term impairments in memory.

    Amphetamine use in adolescence may impair adult working memory

    Oct 19, 2009 9:00 am186 views

    CHAMPAIGN, lll. - Rats exposed to high doses of amphetamines at an age that corresponds to the later years of human adolescence display significant memory deficits as adults - long after the exposure ends, researchers report.

  • U. of I. anthropology professor Stanley Ambrose

    Ancient African herders had lasting ecological impact on grazed lands

    Aug 29, 2018 12:00 pm899 views

    Ancient animal herders added to the ecological richness and diversity of the African savanna thousands of years ago – an effect that persists to the present day, a new study finds. The herders’ practice of penning their cattle, goats and sheep at night created nutrient-rich grassy glades, called hotspots, that still attract wildlife and have increased habitat diversity in the region, researchers report in the journal Nature.

  • A new study of Cahokia finds that those buried in mass graves likely lived in or near the pre-Columbian city most of their lives.

    Ancient bones, teeth, tell story of strife at Cahokia

    Aug 4, 2016 10:45 am4443 views

    Dozens of people buried in mass graves in an ancient mound in Cahokia, a pre-Columbian city in Illinois near present-day St. Louis, likely lived in or near Cahokia most of their lives, researchers report in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology. 

  • Researchers analyzed the orthodentin and the cementum in the sloth tooth. Pits mark locations where samples were collected for analysis.

    Ancient extinct sloth tooth in Belize tells story of creature’s last year

    Feb 27, 2019 1:00 pm1412 views

    Some 27,000 years ago in central Belize, a giant sloth was thirsty. The region was arid, not like today’s steamy jungle. The Last Glacial Maximum had locked up much of Earth’s moisture in polar ice caps and glaciers. Water tables in the area were low.

    The sloth, a beast that stood up to 4 meters tall, eventually found water – in a deep sinkhole with steep walls down to the water. That is where it took its final drink.

  • Although it lived roughly 65 million years before the earliest known occurrence of figs, the fossil wasp's ovipositor closely resembles those of today's fig wasps.

    Ancient 'fig wasp' lived tens of millions of years before figs

    Dec 5, 2013 9:00 am747 views

    CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - A 115-million-year-old fossilized wasp from northeast Brazil presents a baffling puzzle to researchers. The wasp's ovipositor, the organ through which it lays its eggs, looks a lot like those of present-day wasps that lay their eggs in figs. The problem, researchers say, is that figs arose about 65 million years after this wasp was alive.

  • Anthropology professor Ripan Malhi works with Native Americans to collect and analyze their DNA and that of their ancestors.

    Ancient, modern DNA tell story of first humans in the Americas

    Nov 18, 2013 9:00 am101 views

    CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - University of Illinois anthropology professor Ripan Malhi looks to DNA to tell the story of how ancient humans first came to the Americas and what happened to them once they were here.

  • Male anemonefish are the primary caregivers in the nest. A new study examines how hormones influence their commitment to fathering.

    Anemonefish dads further fathering research

    May 3, 2017 8:30 am763 views

    Like the dad in “Finding Nemo,” anemonefish fathers will do almost anything to support their offspring. Their parenting instincts are so strong that if you give a bachelor anemonefish a scoop of anemonefish eggs from an unrelated nest, he will care for them – constantly nipping at them to remove debris and fanning them with oxygen-rich waters – as if they were his own. (Any other fish would eat them, researchers say.)

  • Stephen P. Long is Illinois' lead investigator on a new Energy Biosciences Institute (EBI), a joint effort with the University of California at Berkeley and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

    A new biofuels research initiative and Illinois' leading role in developing renewable energy

    Feb 6, 2007 9:00 am9 views

    A Minute With™... Stephen P. Long, Illinois' lead investigator on a new Energy Biosciences Institute

  • Working with international collaborators, Scientific Animations Without Borders created an Ebola prevention video that is now being distributed in Sierra Leone. Pictured, clockwise, from back left: Enrique Rebolledo, the program coordinator for the Sierra Leone/YMCA Partnership; U. of I. entomology professor Barry Pittendrigh; U. of I. YMCA communications director Megan Flowers; SAWBO staffer Anna Prez Sabater; and Julia Bello-Bravo, the assistant director of the Center for African Studies.

    Animated videos bring Ebola education to West Africa

    Feb 19, 2015 9:00 am183 views

    CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - In early 2014, just before Ebola surged in West Africa, leaders of Scientific Animations Without Borders visited with faculty and students at Njala University in Sierra Leone. The SAWBO team was looking for potential collaborators to help create and distribute its animated health and agricultural videos in Sierra Leone. A few months later, the Njala students asked SAWBO to work with them on animated videos about Ebola.

  • An informatics approach helps better identify chemical combinations in consumer products

    Dec 12, 2016 9:15 am329 views

    An informatics approach can help prioritize chemical combinations for further testing by determining the prevalence of individual ingredients and their most likely combinations in consumer products.

  • Anatomical studies from the Renaissance, like this etching by a 16th century anatomist who went by the name Andreas Vesalius, are used throughout the Body Worlds exhibits and in promotional materials to potential donors to connect the display of human bodies to the age-old study of anatomy.

    Anthropologist: 'Body Worlds' visitors confront bodies but not death

    Feb 7, 2011 9:00 am513 views

    CHAMPAIGN, lll. - In two new works, an anthropologist tackles a perplexing question relating to the enormously successful "Body Worlds" exhibits: How does society tolerate - and even celebrate - the public display of human corpses?

  • Researchers have found a way to penetrate the cell wall of gram-negative bacteria, overcoming a major barrier to the development of new broad-spectrum antibiotics.

    Antibiotic breakthrough: Team discovers how to overcome gram-negative bacterial defenses

    May 10, 2017 12:00 pm3743 views

    Scientists report that they now know how to build a molecular Trojan horse that can penetrate gram-negative bacteria, solving a problem that for decades has stalled the development of effective new antibiotics against these increasingly drug-resistant microbes. The findings appear in the journal Nature.

  • Professor Jason Pieper

    Antibiotic-resistant infections in pets: What now?

    Oct 3, 2017 8:30 am11520 views

    Rates of antibiotic-resistant infections in companion animals are rising at an alarming rate. An Illinois veterinarian discusses what can be done about it.

  • A child's temperament, sex and the type of bullying they experience all influence whether the child subsequently becomes depressed or more aggressive after being victimized, indicates a study by graduate student Niwako Sugimura, left, and psychology professor Karen D. Rudolph.

    Anti-bullying efforts should be tailored to victims' needs, study shows

    Jul 2, 2012 9:00 am52 views

    CHAMPAIGN, lll. - Girls with poor self-control become as physically aggressive as the average boy when they're bullied, suggests a new study by psychologists at the University of Illinois.

  • Anti-cancer compound found to block late-stage breast-cancer cell growth

    Aug 31, 2004 9:00 am34 views

    CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - A well known anti-cancer agent in certain vegetables has just had its reputation enhanced. The compound, in broccoli and other cruciferous vegetables, has been found to be effective in disrupting late stages of cell growth in breast cancer.

  • Dr. Martin Burke.

    Antifungal drug improves key cystic fibrosis biomarkers in clinical study

    Dec 17, 2020 9:15 am1212 views

    A drug widely used to treat fungal infections improved key biomarkers in lung tissue cultures as well as in the noses of patients with cystic fibrosis, a clinical study by researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and the University of Iowa found.

  • Ecologist Daniel Schneider, a professor of urban and regional planning, has written a book on sewage treatment and the industrial ecosystem.

    Antimicrobials, perfumes, drugs pose challenges for sewage treatment

    Dec 19, 2011 9:00 am26 views

    CHAMPAIGN, lll. - Think of it like sourdough. Or beer. Or yogurt. These popular products are all created through a process that involves using bacteria to systematically break down organic matter. Even though the process relies on living microorganisms, it can be mechanized or industrialized for large-scale production.

  • Ant invaders eat the natives, then move down the food chain

    Dec 18, 2007 9:00 am370 views

    CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - The Argentine ant, Linepithema humile, is one of the most successful invasive species in the world, having colonized parts of five continents in addition to its native range in South America. A new study sheds light on the secrets of its success.

  • Approach to school affects how girls compare with boys in math

    Feb 20, 2006 9:00 am156 views

    CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - More women are pursuing higher education and doctoral degrees than ever before, but women still are rare in the math-oriented professions. Yet, researchers say, girls perform just as well as boys on achievement tests and tend to earn better grades in math than do boys during the earlier school years.

  • Ruby Mendenhall discusses a point during a meeting last spring with collaborators on an art exhibition, one of her many interdisciplinary projects.

    A professor not afraid to cross academic boundaries

    Aug 23, 2018 11:30 am914 views

    Illinois professor Ruby Mendenhall is focused on issues of poverty, inequality and violence, but crosses many academic boundaries in search of answers.

  • Illinois Natural History Survey wildlife biologist Tara Hohoff holds a bat during mist netting to collect data on bat populations in central Illinois.

    Are bats to blame for the coronavirus crisis?

    Apr 24, 2020 8:15 am2953 views

    Horseshoe bats in China are a natural wildlife reservoir of SARS-like coronaviruses. Some health experts think wildlife markets – specifically in Wuhan, China – led to the spillover of the new coronavirus into human populations. Though not confirmed, the hypothesis has given bats around the world a bad rap, and public fears of exposure to bats are on the rise. Illinois Natural History Survey wildlife biologist Tara Hohoff, the project coordinator of the Illinois Bat Conservation Program, spoke to News Bureau life sciences editor Diana Yates about bat biology and conservation, and the flying mammals’ role in human health.

  • Are black bears and other large predators returning to Illinois?

    Jun 23, 2014 9:00 am2596 views

    A Minute With™... Peggy Doty, who provides educational programs about coexisting with large predators for the University of Illinois Extension.

  • Are insect populations rising with Earth's temperature?

    Sep 15, 2006 9:00 am7 views

    A Minute With™... U. of I. Extension entomologist Phil Nixon