blog posts

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

  Jun 4, 2015 1:00 pm2260 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 am20 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.

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

  Jan 21, 2014 9:00 am263 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.

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

  May 23, 2018 2:00 pm3741 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.

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

  Jun 5, 2013 9:00 am5541 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.

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

  Apr 11, 2013 9:00 am491 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 am45 views

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

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  Abstract thinking can make you more politically moderate

  Nov 2, 2012 9:00 am244 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.

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  A bumper crop...of weeds?

  Aug 18, 2014 9:00 am15 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 am8 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.

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  Advanced techniques yield new insights into ribosome self-assembly

  Feb 12, 2014 9:30 am93 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 am122 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.

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

  Sep 29, 2014 9:00 am766 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.

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  A glucose meter of a different color provides continuous monitoring

  Aug 25, 2014 9:00 am431 views

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

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  Agricultural fungicide attracts honey bees, study finds

  Jan 8, 2018 9:30 am3780 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.

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  Agricultural, health education goes global via cellphone animations

  Dec 10, 2012 9:00 am33 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 am2 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 am3 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 am13 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.

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  Alison Bell receives Animal Behavior Society Young Investigator Award

  Jun 18, 2012 9:00 am76 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.

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  A little java makes it easier to jive, researcher says

  Mar 30, 2009 9:00 am213 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.

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  Altruistic adolescents less likely to become depressed, new study suggests

  Apr 24, 2014 9:00 am378 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.

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  Amphetamine use in adolescence may impair adult working memory

  Oct 19, 2009 9:00 am125 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.

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  Ancient African herders had lasting ecological impact on grazed lands

  Aug 29, 2018 12:00 pm440 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.

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  Ancient bones, teeth, tell story of strife at Cahokia

  Aug 4, 2016 10:45 am2146 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. 

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

  Dec 5, 2013 9:00 am352 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.

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

  Nov 18, 2013 9:00 am51 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.

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  Anemonefish dads further fathering research

  May 3, 2017 8:30 am623 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.)

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

  Feb 6, 2007 9:00 am1 views

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

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  Animated videos bring Ebola education to West Africa

  Feb 19, 2015 9:00 am105 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.

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  An informatics approach helps better identify chemical combinations in consumer products

  Dec 12, 2016 9:15 am303 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.

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

  Feb 7, 2011 9:00 am292 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?

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

  May 10, 2017 12:00 pm3336 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.

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  Antibiotic-resistant infections in pets: What now?

  Oct 3, 2017 8:30 am3237 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.

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

  Jul 2, 2012 9:00 am22 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 am19 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.

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  Antimicrobials, perfumes, drugs pose challenges for sewage treatment

  Dec 19, 2011 9:00 am10 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 am199 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 am98 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.

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  A professor not afraid to cross academic boundaries

  Aug 23, 2018 11:30 am710 views

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

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  Are black bears and other large predators returning to Illinois?

  Jun 23, 2014 9:00 am735 views

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

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  Are insect populations rising with Earth's temperature?

  Sep 15, 2006 9:00 am2 views

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

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  As Arctic temperatures rise, tundra fires increase, researchers find

  Nov 17, 2010 9:00 am104 views

  CHAMPAIGN, lll. - In September, 2007, the Anaktuvuk River Fire burned more than 1,000 square kilometers of tundra on Alaska's North Slope, doubling the area burned in that region since record keeping began in 1950. A new analysis of sediment cores from the burned area revealed that this was the most destructive tundra fire at that site for at least 5,000 years. Models built on 60 years of climate and fire data found that even moderate increases in warm-season temperatures in the region dramatically increase the likelihood of such fires.

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  As CO2 levels rise, some crop nutrients will fall

  May 7, 2014 9:00 am400 views

  CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Researchers have some bad news for future farmers and eaters: As carbon dioxide levels rise this century, some grains and legumes will become significantly less nutritious than they are today.

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  A sense of control eliminates emotional distortions of time

  Oct 24, 2012 9:00 am34 views

  CHAMPAIGN, lll. - We humans have a fairly erratic sense of time. We tend to misjudge the duration of events, particularly when they are emotional in nature. Disturbingly negative experiences, for example, seem to last much longer than they actually do. And highly positive experiences seem to pass more quickly than negative ones.

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  A shortage of livestock veterinarians and its potential effect on human health

  May 23, 2006 9:00 am9 views

   A Minute With™... John A. Herrmann, a professor of veterinary clinical medicine

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  Aspiring scientists learning to translate their research into language public understands

  Apr 3, 2014 9:00 am58 views

  CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Communicating the relevance of one's scientific research to general audiences and developing educational outreach programs are critical to the career success of college professors and researchers, but graduate curricula often fail to help students cultivate these essential skills.

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  As the EPA begins to regulate greenhouse gases, climate change has already begun

  Apr 28, 2009 9:00 am0 views

  A Minute With™...atmospheric sciences professor Don Wuebbles

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  As the feds restart the FutureGen project in central Illinois, how do we know 'carbon sequestration' really works?

  Jun 23, 2009 9:00 am5 views

  A Minute With™... geology professor William Shilts

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  As the population ages, how can Medicare be made sustainable?

  Feb 28, 2013 9:00 am3 views

  A Minute With™... Thomas O'Rourke, an emeritus professor of community health