RESEARCH Science 2000

TOPICS: Agriculture | Astronomy | Biology | Biotechnology | Chemistry | Computers | Engineering | Environment | Geography | Medicine | Physics | Veterinary Medicine

AGRICULTURE

Genetics: Scientists studying cattle genes say their first-ever comparative map of cattle and human genomes show that many genes are configured in the same way in the two species. (10/1/00)

Crop Sciences: A new molecular diagnostic method is letting scientists send a message to various fungi that inhabit soybean plants and fields: We know where you are and what you are. (9/1/00)

Farm Work: A survey of 13 Illinois counties found that farmers are twice as likely to continue working beyond age 65 as are similarly aged peers in other jobs. (9/1/00)

Water Usage: Illinois needs a water law to regulate the withdrawal of water from streams before there is a crisis leading to rationing and poor water quality, an engineer recommends. (7/1/00)

GMO corn: In contrast to a study showing genetically modified corn harmed Monarch butterfly larvae, a UI study indicates a GMO corn variety had no adverse effect on swallowtail larvae. (7/1/00)

Social Science: Farmers who perceive scientists as "insensitive outsiders" may persist in practices that inhibit effective watershed management, a team of researchers says. (7/1/00)

Soybeans: Putting soy on the table is about to get easier, thanks to soybean scientists at the UI who have developed better-tasting soybeans for growing in home gardens. (6/1/00)

Drought: Communities in parts of Central, Southwestern and Western Illinois affected by drought conditions should take aggressive steps now to conserve water, UI experts say. (6/1/00)

Corn: A new filtering system being tested in the corn wet-milling process could result in increased incentive to produce ethanol and an expanded animal-feed industry. (5/1/00)

ARCHAEOLOGY

Anthropology: New analyses of artifacts found at the Cahokia mound complex may force scholars to rethink whether the ancient people traded widely as many researchers believe. (3/1/00)

Paleofashion: Archaeologists have discovered that the well-dressed Ice Age woman wore outfits that bore little resemblance to anything Wilma Flintstone ever put on. (2/1/00)

ASTRONOMY

Planetarium: A team of researchers collaborated on a 17-minute animated film, which simulates flying in space, and will be part of the grand opening of the new Hayden Planetarium. (2/1/00)

BIOLOGY

Geomicrobiology: Humans have a penchant for driving, sailing and flying all over the planet in search of new places to live; so apparently do microbes, UI researchers say. (12/1/00)

Geology: Researchers have found an approach that holds significant promise for extending the results of laboratory experiments to better understand microbial metabolism in nature. (12/1/00)

Neuroscience: Scientists have discovered that like axons, target cells have fingers that help in the connection process that creates synapses. (11/1/00)

Physiology: UI scientists postulate that many newborns don't have enough neurons to respond sufficiently to hypoxia, a deficit that may be a factor in sudden infant death syndrome. (11/1/00)

Entomology: A gene associated with the biological clock in many organisms has revealed yet another function in honeybees, perhaps related to the insects' division of labor. (7/1/00)

Geomicrobiology: Evidence of life in Martian meteorites or future rock samples from the Red Planet may be easier to identify thanks to microbes in springs at Yellowstone National Park. (5/1/00)

Health: UI scientists recently learned that a compartment in yeast, fungi and bacteria is an active cavity that one day might play a role in the fight against malaria. (5/1/00)

The Brain: A simple study of rat brains has added more substance to the idea that the adult brain is still a work in progress, even well after puberty, UI researchers say. (4/1/00)

Marine Biology: Consumer specialists say people shouldn't shop on an empty stomach because they'll buy more. As it turns out, sea slugs apparently shop the same way, scientists report. (4/1/00)

Animal Migration: A blue-light photoreceptor is the focus of researchers seeking the magnetic compass that lets creatures find home using the magnetic field of Earth. (3/1/00)

Insect Fear: “Bee” movie lovers will have a honey of a time Saturday, Feb. 26, at the 17th annual Insect Fear Film Festival at the UI. (2/1/00)

Entomology: Like aviators in training, honey bees preparing to forage learn their skills in a series of pre-flights to learn the landscape before undertaking new missions, scientists say. (2/1/00)

Neurophysiology: New research is believed to be the first to show that the rate of sound stimulation can markedly affect how sound amplitude, or volume, is perceived. (2/1/00)

BIOTECHNOLOGY

Genetics: Scientists studying cattle genes say their first-ever comparative map of cattle and human genomes show that many genes are configured in the same way in the two species. (10/1/00)

Molecular Biotechnology: Researchers have discovered a way to make chemicals spontaneously self-assemble into ribbon-like tubules that resemble bacterial cell walls. (2/1/00)

CHEMISTRY

Lead Detector: Researchers have developed a simple and inexpensive technique involving DNA to detect for the presence of lead, a potentially serious health hazard. (11/1/00)

Nose Knows : University of Illinois chemists have developed an artificial nose that is simple, fast and inexpensive - and works by visualizing odors. (9/1/00)

Spectroscopy: By combining ultrashort pulses from a mid-infrared laser with pulses of visible light, chemists have added an important new dimension to vibrational spectroscopy. (9/1/00)

Glass: By measuring the heat capacity of a glassy substance, UI researchers have found a way to explain the odd behavior of its kinetic transitions. (4/1/00)

COMPUTERS

Community Computing: A new program initiated by the University of Illinois and community organizations will help residents of East St. Louis, Ill., get aboard the Internet. (12/1/00)

Fear of Technology: The fictional home of the world's first diabolical computer and the actual home of one of the top computer science programs is holding a "Computer Fear Film Festival." (9/1/00)

Music and Technology: The continuum fingerboard -- a new breed among electronic instruments -- resembles a piano keyboard, except that it doesn't have discrete pitches. (8/1/00)

Education: Those who see the computer as a panacea in education place too much faith in the technology, while those who would ignore the computer are making as big a mistake. (2/1/00)

ENGINEERING

Aeronautical Engineering: Small flaps mounted in jet-engine inlet ducts may allow supersonic aircraft to fly faster and farther at less cost, University of Illinois researchers say. (12/1/00)

Electronics: Researchers have fabricated silicon thin-film transistors -- key components of numerous display technologies - using soft lithographic block-printing techniques and polymer inks. (11/1/00)

Remote Sensing: Archaeologists soon may be using sound waves to survey sites for artifacts, say researchers who recently demonstrated a system capable of detecting small buried objects. (10/1/00)

Power Failures: Illinois needs to produce more electricity to avoid the kind of price hikes that shocked Californians during the summer, a University of Illinois energy expert says. (10/1/00)

Environmental Engineering: UI researchers have developed a device for capturing and recovering dilute volatile organic compounds and other hazardous air pollutants. (10/1/00)

Materials Science: Scientists have fabricated ultrathin organic films that can be stacked and "erased" by environmental stimuli, an advance with possible applications in medicine. (10/1/00)

MEMS Research: By applying mechanical stress to offset the effects of residual stress in a piezoelectric ceramic film, researchers can enhance the film's performance significantly. (9/1/00)

Materials Processing: A model developed at the UI promises to improve both the quality and reliability of fiber-reinforced composites. (9/1/00)

MEMS Technology: UI engineers have developed numerical techniques to help analyze MEMS devices and aid in the development of computer simulation systems. (8/1/00)

Materials Science: Contrary to what scientists thought, recent experiments revealed that flexible polymers on a solid surface move differently than they would in the bulk. (8/1/00)

Civil Engineering: UI engineers have developed visual inspection procedures to assess the corrosion damage in deck beams of bridges and ensure public safety. (7/1/00)

Materials Science: Crystals grown in space may be the next big step toward improved semiconductor materials for use in advanced communication systems and computers. (6/1/00)

Instrumentation: UI researchers have developed a film-thickness measurement technique with potential applications in power plants and oil refineries. (6/1/00)

MEMS Research: Research on how smart materials -- such as piezoelectric ceramics -- change as a function of size has yielded a few surprises, including how smaller sizes affect performance. (6/1/00)

MEMS Technology: A novel fabrication technique developed at the UI could provide a reliable and robust method for assembling large arrays of three-dimensional microstructures. (5/1/00)

Mechanical Engineering: Researchers have developed a mathematical model that predicts when costly clogs are about to occur in a nozzle critical in the steel-making process. (4/1/00)

Molecular Electronics: Researchers can now put individual molecules at specific sites on silicon, a precursor to the merging of molecular electronics and silicon-based technology. (4/1/00)

Technology: Researchers have developed a process for creating nano-sized particles with many potential applications, including single-electron transistors and semiconductor lasers. (3/1/00)

Electric Utilities: A new visualization system could help power industry officials better monitor power demand and make timely decisions about buying and selling electricity. (3/1/00)

Rocket Science: Shock-tube experiments at the UI indicate that propellants containing fluorine can significantly enhance combustion of energetic boron particles. (2/1/00)

Fluid Physics: Researchers now are able to predict a morphological change that will occur as the surface tension in compressible foam is increased or the volume of the foam is expanded. (2/1/00)

ENVIRONMENT

Environmental Engineering: Researchers have come up with a way to use old tires and pistachio shells to remove mercury emissions from power plants. (8/1/00)

Atmospheric Sciences: Even if global warming doesn't persist year after year, people shouldn't be fooled into thinking that human effects are no longer of concern, a scientist says. (8/1/00)

Water Quality: To better protect human health, the role of uncertainty must be considered in cleaning up contaminated groundwater sites, researchers at the University of Illinois say. (8/1/00)

Water Usage: Illinois needs a water law to regulate the withdrawal of water from streams before there is a crisis leading to rationing and poor water quality, an engineer recommends. (7/1/00)

Psychology: Behaviors are influenced by how people perceive the world and how their environments provide opportunities for satisfying their preferences, a scholar says. (5/1/00)

Human Environment: Experts will meet in San Francisco this month to talk about research that suggests that better environmental design can reduce the incidence of crime. (5/1/00)

Ecology: Iguanas on the Galapagos Islands shrink to better survive during periods when there's less food as a result of weather changes caused by the phenomenon known as El Nino. (2/1/00)

Global Warming: Researchers recently met at a rural Illinois site to study the influence of aerosols on climate change and to compare results from two different measuring techniques. (2/1/00)

GEOGRAPHY

Cartography: Sub-Saharan Africa has an underappreciated but particularly rich tradition of indigenous mapmaking, says a geographer who has written one of the first reviews of such maps. (4/1/00)

MEDICINE

Eating Habits: You not only are what you eat, you also are what you slurp, at least according to a professor who has done a study that links soup choices to personality types. (12/1/00)

Aging and Excercise: Any physical activity is better than none, at any age, even if it doesn't fit common notions of exercise, says a leading advocate of "active aging." (12/1/00)

Diet: People with total cholesterol levels exceeding 240 could benefit substantially by eating 25 to 50 grams of soy protein daily, according to a recent scientific advisory. (12/1/00)

Biomedicine: Genetically modified tomatoes containing a vaccine have shown promise as a possible way of controlling a respiratory virus that strikes hardest at children and the elderly. (8/1/00)

Technology and Health Care: The failure to commit money and imagination to "e-medicine" has undercut the potential of using technology to deliver health-care services. (8/1/00)

Ritalin: Ritalin appears effective in helping children suffering from attention deficit hyperactivity disorder react as quickly as their peers who don't have the disorder. (8/1/00)

AIDS: A new study finds that for people living with AIDS or HIV, the conventional wisdom about "more information being better than less," doesn't always apply. (6/1/00)

Mental Health: Improving education about mental health services for Asian Americans can break down cultural barriers that may contribute to delayed treatment, a UI researcher says. (4/1/00)

Speech Therapy: People with hypernasal speech may find help by using a device for treating sleep apnea that involves a kind of weight-lifting for the soft palate, a researcher says. (4/1/00)

Food Chemistry: Cholesterol levels may reflect a person's diet, but they say little about cardiac health, a study of people with low cholesterol levels and serious artery blockages shows. (3/1/00)

PHYSICS

Geology: Experiments have shed light on how glassy materials are formed and how magmas in Earth's mantle can affect lava output through chemical, rather than thermal, reactions. (3/1/00)

Space Science: Information on the properties and distribution of clouds -- soon to be collected by a recently launched satellite -- could help scientists better predict climate change. (3/1/00)

Particle Physics: An experiment has provided new information about how the different "flavors" of quarks in the proton generate the magnetic moment, a UI researcher says. (2/1/00)

Fluid Physics: Researchers now are able to predict a morphological change that will occur as the surface tension in compressible foam is increased or the volume of the foam is expanded. (2/1/00)

Ion Channels: Scientists examining changes in ion channels -- critical components of the nervous system -- have reached a surprising conclusion about how they work. (2/1/00)

VETERINARY MEDICINE

Animal Health: A newly revised comprehensive book on cat and dog nutrition looks at current nutritional fads and fallacies, and provides a road map for choosing food. (9/1/00)

Feline Infectious Anemia: Scientists have proved that an organism long suspected as the cause of feline infectious anemia indeed is the culprit and is a mycoplasm, not a Rickkettsia. (3/1/00)

Pain Relief: Managing and alleviating pain is the focus of a new guidebook written by small animal specialists at the UI College of Veterinary Medicine. 7/1/00)(2/1/00)