RESEARCH Science 2000 2001

TOPICS: Agriculture | Archaeology | Astronomy |Atmospheric Sciences | Biology | Chemistry | Computers | Engineering |Environment | Geography | Medicine |Nutrition | Physics |Veterinary Medicine

AGRICULTURE
Farming: A UI scientist has developed a way to use the humble Mason jar to solve a longstanding problem, namely the accurate detection of the amount of nitrogen in the soil. (12/1/01)

Soil Fertility: In anticipation of federal standards regulating agricultural phosphorus use, the UI is at the forefront of efforts to develop phosphorus-management strategies for farmers. (12/1/01)

GMO Corn: Pollen from a genetically modified variety of corn dramatically reduced growth rates among black swallowtail caterpillars in UI field tests. (10/1/01)

Crop Sciences: By placing a nuclear gene in another location -- its original home in a plant -- researchers have successfully enhanced the production of an essential amino acid. (10/1/01)

Agronomy: This year's UI Agronomy Day (Aug. 23) will celebrate the original heart of agricultural research at the university: the 125-year-old Morrow Plots. (8/1/01)

Cattle: Cattle weaned early and put immediately on high-energy finishing diets produce better beef with less waste fat than traditionally raised cattle, a series of UI research projects show. (8/1/01)

Biology: Researchers are exposing soybeans to carbon dioxide -- and soon, ozone -- at levels expected in 2050 to test what effect the increase in greenhouse gases has on crop production. (7/1/01)

Farming: A virus common to poultry is outfoxing a long-used vaccine, apparently through natural genetic engineering and by using strategies to survive environmental insults. (5/1/01)

Environment: Genes resistant to tetracycline have been found in groundwater a sixth of a mile downstream from swine facilities that use antibiotics as growth promoters, scientists say. (5/1/01)

Farm Technology: A UI laboratory is geared toward establishing an information technology program that enables farmers to work more precisely and efficiently. (5/1/01)

Wood Substitute: UI scientists are raising kenaf, a fast-growing plant native to Africa that shows promise as a source of fiber that can be used as a substitute for wood. (3/1/01)

Natural Resources: With about $2.9 billion in sales, the "green industry" in Illinois has blossomed, surprisingly outdoing traditional agricultural front-runners corn and soybeans. (2/1/01)

ARCHAEOLOGY
Archaeology: A chunk of a wine bottle has provided the physical evidence of a well-documented but long-lost 18th century French village in what is now Peoria, Ill. (12/1/01)

Pre-Columbian Culture: A new analysis of Cahokian artifacts from southern Illinois disputes the idea that the ancient mecca traded extensively with cultures far to the northwest. (8/1/01)

Ancient Culture: A UI student, working with a team of archaeologists, recently found a cache of ax heads that help to shed light on Cahokian society and culture. (8/1/01)

Evolution: In the March 2 issue of Science, a UI scientist challenges conventional wisdom about Paleolithic technology and offers new hypotheses about our evolutionary odyssey. (3/1/01)

ASTRONOMY
Dwarf Star: Scientists have discovered what looks like a jet contrail, possibly left behind by a dwarf star traveling through interstellar space. (10/1/01)

Star Formation : UI astronomers have found discrete star-formation episodes that may help explain the prodigious star-formation rates that occurred in the early universe. (5/1/01)

Science Education: In his latest book, UI astronomer James Kaler uses clear, precise and light-hearted prose to bring the subject of stars down to Earth for the general reader. (2/1/01)

Nebulae: Hot gas from a shocked stellar wind is responsible for the complex shape of a planetary nebula known as the Cat's Eye, say astronomers using NASA's Chandra observatory. (2/1/01)

ATMOSPHERIC SCIENCES
Weather Forecasting: A mechanism to explain how the behavior of the stratosphere may affect tropospheric weather patterns has been proposed by UI scientists. (12/1/01)

Global Warming: Sea-level measurements of aerosol properties, obtained in the Pacific Ocean, are helping to quantify aerosol optical properties related to climate change. (12/1/01)

Global Warming: The uncertainty of climate change is much greater than previously thought, and as a result, policy-makers should plan to cope with potential consequences. (10/1/01)

Global Warming: Researchers have shown that the probability of severe climate change is much greater than many scientists or policy-makers had thought. (6/1/01)

Climate Change: A laser radar system, first used to observe a 1998 meteor shower, has been used to probe temperatures in the upper atmosphere over both geographic poles. (4/1/01)

Global warming: While Earth has warmed during the last 50 years, much of the continental United States has grown slightly colder due to warmer ocean temperatures, a UI scientist says. (2/1/01)

BIOLOGY
Reproduction: Researchers tapping into the estrogen pathway that regulates fertility in males may have uncovered a new approach for developing a male contraceptive. (12/1/01)

Cats and Dogs: A technique developed to look for cancer-associated enzyme activity in humans is showing dramatic sensitivity to malignant tumors in cats and dogs. (12/1/01)

Ecology: A combination of human sewage and shipyard discharge may be causing the growth and spread of deadly black band disease in corals, UI scientists say. (12/1/01)

Entomology: A protein targeted by drug treatments in some patients with Alzheimer's disease also appears to play an important role in honeybees (Apis melifera), researchers say. (10/1/01)

Zoology: A collaborative program has led to the creation of databases on demographics, habitats, diseases, genetics and reproductive issues related to the animals of Namibia. (10/1/01)

Animal Behavior: Caterpillars defend their homes by drumming vibrations with their mandibles to drive off intruders, a behavior not previously known in such organisms, scientists say. (10/1/01)

Cellular Biology: Researchers believe they have found the mechanism that regulates movement in cells, a discovery that might lead to new drugs to stop replication of cancer cells. (9/1/01)

Mapping the Brain: A non-invasive diagnostic tool that can study changes occurring at the surface of the brain because of brain activity has been developed by UI scientists. (8/1/01)

Biosciences: Rodents given estrogen or diet rich in a soy-based equivalent have much less post-operative damage after heart surgery, UI researchers have discovered. (8/1/01)

The Brain: Concentration drains glucose from a key part of the brains of young and old, findings that eventually may impact how schools schedule classes and meals. (6/1/01)

Muscular Dystrophy: A molecular therapy for treating the most common form of muscular dystrophy proved effective in mice affected with the illness, researchers report. (4/1/01)

Celluar Biology: Researchers have found that several drugs approved to treat bone disorders in humans are effective against malaria, sleeping sickness and other infections. (3/1/01)

Structural Biology: Scientists have determined why male zebra finches can sing -- their brains produce enough of the so-called female hormone estrogen at exactly the right time. (3/1/01)

Reproduction: Researchers have isolated a team of proteins vital to fertility because of their ability to send signals that allow sperm to pass through an egg membrane. (3/1/01)

Neuroscience: Scientists have discovered that an area of the brain, the amygdala, which was thought to store emotion-related memories, also initiates memory storage elsewhere in the brain. (2/1/01)

Cellular biology: Scientists have learned that a protein in the cytoplasm between a mammalian cell membrane and nucleus helps regulate cell growth and division. (2/1/01)

Entomolomovies: Visitors at the Insect Fear Film Festival at the UI Feb. 24 can learn the truth about beetles and see some cinematically inept renditions of them, too. (2/1/01)

CHEMISTRY
Chemistry: Characterizing the human proteome should be made easier by techniques UI researchers have developed to facilitate the identification and characterization of proteins. (11/1/01)

Cell Chemistry: By colliding two laser beams head-on, scientists at the UI can measure the movement of chromatin (tiny packets of DNA) in the nucleus of a living cell. (9/1/01)

Surface Chemistry: Fabricating pathways and manipulating fluid flow in microdevices just got a lot easier with the help of "virtual walls" -- sides that lack physical barriers. (2/12/01)

COMPUTERS
Technology: Companies that develop and distribute browsers, multimedia players and other Web-based software have yet to meet the needs of the physically disabled. (12/1/01)

Child Welfare Training: A new Web-based learning environment gives beginning child-welfare caseworkers on-the-job training without the on-the-job risks, a UI professor of social work says. (11/1/01)

Computers and the Law: The Internet has eliminated time, space and national borders but erected formidable legal hurdles the law has been slow to address, two scholars argue. (7/1/01)

The Internet: The UI, which produced Mosaic, the browser that helped accelerate the growth of the World Wide Web, has created a graphical solution for searching the Web's resources. (6/1/01)

The Natural World: A UI professor of library and information science is collaborating with researchers from other fields to improve the standard system of identifying butterflies. (6/1/01)

Music: The conventional way for student conductors to hone their craft -- before a mirror -- will change when UI researchers finish creating a virtual training environment for conducting. (4/1/01)

Elderly & Computers: A group of high school students in Champaign, Ill., are working with a local nursing home to help residents surf the Web and send and receive e-mail. (2/1/01)

Print vs. Online News: A study confirms what many experts have suspected about people's use of Internet news sites: Online readers tend to avoid goings-on in the larger world. (2/1/01)

ENGINEERING
Education: A UI alumnus and former president of the Montgomery Elevator Co. has arranged funding to expand the campusÕs pioneering Technology and Management Program. (11/1/01)

Ultrasonics: By picking up the tiny vibrations of thermal energy that exist in all objects, UI researchers have performed ultrasonic measurements without using a source. (11/1/01)

Refrigeration: Microchannel tube technology -- used in the automotive industry for heat exchangers -- offers an excellent opportunity to rethink the use of ammonia as a refrigerant. (8/1/01)

Materials Science: A fundamentally new approach for tailoring the stability of colloidal suspensions -- used in advanced materials and drug delivery -- has been developed by UI researchers. (8/1/01)

Aviation Safety: A system being developed at the UI would sense ice buildup on aircraft wings, then alert the pilot and protect the aircraft from dangerous maneuvers. (7/1/01)

Bioengineering: Using a lithographic technique, a UI scientist has produced patterned surfaces on glass substrates that integrate biocompatible materials and live nerve cells. (7/1/01)

Climate: By adding topographic features to their hydrologic model, researchers can better assess the impact of climate variability on stream ecology and water resources management. (6/1/01)

Neural Networks: By recognizing both visual and audio cues, a self-aiming camera being developed at the UI can differentiate between an airplane and an albatross. (5/1/01)

Astronautical engineering: This year's launch of the "Cosmos 1" may usher in the age of solar sailing, which could be enhanced with a control strategy developed by UI scientists. (4/1/01)

Civil Engineering: UI scientists have designed what they call canoe chutes, passageways that allow boating enthusiasts to avoid the risks of trying to navigate dam spillways. (4/1/01)

Technology: Scientists at the University of Illinois have signed an agreement with a company to commercialize a revolutionary intelligent hearing aid that can spatially separate sounds. (4/1/01)

Water Quality: Researchers are developing a cost-effective treatment strategy for providing drinking water free of a dangerous and sometimes deadly parasite. (3/1/01)

Materials Science: Inspired by biological systems in which damage triggers an autonomic healing response, researchers at the UI have developed a synthetic material that can heal itself when cracked or broken. (2/14/01)

Blackouts: The root cause of the California power crisis was flawed legislation that traded economic realities for short-term fixes to satisfy consumers and utilities, a UI expert contends. (2/1/01)

Railroads: Researchers at the UI are fabricating fiber-optic sensors that can improve train safety by detecting flaws in rails and wheels. (2/1/01)

ENVIRONMENT
Geology: UI geologists have shown that groundwater in aquifers is generally older than expected, a finding with key implications for estimating the sustainable yield of a water supply. (12/1/01)

Environmental Engineering: Scientists recently conducted a successful test of a process using corn-derived activated carbon for removing mercury emissions from coal-fired power plants. (9/1/01)

Climate Change: Two previous lengthy periods of climatic warmth appear to have occurred in the foothills of the Alaska Range during the last 2,000 years, scientists have discovered. (9/1/01)

Land Use Ethics: People are reinvigorating their ties to the land practically and in the ways they think about themselves and their communities, a scholar says in a forthcoming book. (9/1/01)

GEOGRAPHY
Cartography: A new book, thought to be the largest published checklist of maps of Africa, catalogs all the maps of the continent drawn up to 1900 in the UI Library collections. (5/1/01)

MEDICINE
Disability Research: When trying to interact with children with severe disabilities, therapists have found that nothing gets their attention like a visit with an animal. (12/1/01)

Medical Diagnostics: A new approach to improving the detection and removal of tumors has been developed by scientists at the University of Illinois. (11/1/01)

Kinesiology: Frequent hydration and consumption of beverages high in carbohydrates and electrolytes appear to reduce the serious health risks of heat strain that firefighters face. (11/1/01)

Telemedicine: A project will use the Internet to connect radiologists at small hospitals with professionals at big-city hospitals to help stroke victims with dysphagia -- difficulty swallowing. (11/1/01)

Uncertainty: People should back off a bit from information seeking, if only from time to time, because, in some cases, too much information can be hazardous to oneÕs mental health. (11/1/01)

Sunburn: Although most sunscreeens are ineffective against ultraviolet light, adding antioxidants such as vitamins E or C to them can help prevent skin cancer, a researcher says. (9/1/01)

Mental Health: A new study indicates that what appear as signals of distress among Asian Americans simply may reflect a culturally adaptive sensitivity in social situations. (9/1/01)

Health Diagnostics: Higher doses of energy may produce better ultrasound images, but they pose a greater risk of lung damage than many scientists previously believed. (9/1/01)

Cancer: A new study indicates that there the more female sexual partners a middle-aged man has had, the greater his propensity for developing prostate cancer. (7/1/01)

Ultrasound Surgery: Researchers are developing transducers to improve the performance of ultrasound surgical beams used to treat prostate cancer and benign prostate enlargement. (7/1/01)

Health: PCB-laden fish from Lake Michigan affect not only young children but also adults over age 49 who have been heavy consumers of the sport-caught fish, scientists say. (6/1/01)

Health Care: New ultrasonic sensor technology being developed at the UI may permit the rapid and accurate detection and diagnosis of cancer, without the need for a traditional biopsy. (5/1/01)

Sexual Lies: Everyone's dishonest at times in sexual situations, but people say they're more honest when it comes to things that might threaten their partner's health, a UI scholar says. (2/1/01)

NUTRITION
Soy: A plant estrogen linked to the health benefits of soy has been shown to stimulate the growth of estrogen-dependent human breast-cancer cells implanted into mice. (11/1/01)

Food Safety: Food-borne pathogens long considered rare in North America are an emerging problem, and restaurant and home chefs should be more diligent about washing fresh produce. (7/1/01)

Diet: New research suggests a diet higher in protein and lower in carbohydrates than currently recommended may help people maintain desirable body weight and overall health. (4/1/01)

Nutrition: Researchers have found that legumes contain a resistant starch that travels into the colon and is converted into a fatty acid desirable for its cancer-preventing qualities. (2/1/01)

PHYSICS
Friction: New research disproves conventional thinking about how fluid behaves on surfaces, a finding that could lead to cheaper means of lubrication and transport of liquids by pipeline. (9/1/01)

Missi le Defense: If the proposed missile shield is proven reliable, any future U.S. adversaries will circumvent it by choosing another method of attack, a UI scholar says. (8/1/01)

Plate Tectonics: The discovery of a large amount of subducted lithosphere beneath the Fiji Islands suggests that the tectonic mixing of EarthÕs mantle occurs less than previously thought. (2/1/01)

Physics of Earthquakes: Snap, crackle, pop -- the sounds emanating from a bowl of crisped-rice cereal and earthquake fault zones have behavior in common, a researcher says. (6/1/01)

Superconductivity: By measuring how long it takes phonons to travel through a crystal, researchers found evidence of an unusual spin-density-wave ground state in lead superconductors. (4/1/01)

Quantum Mechanics: Researchers have demonstrated a way to 'purify' entanglement, the bizarre quantum mechanical connection that can exist between particles. (2/20/01)

Particle Physics: A high-precision measurement of the muon spin anomaly has shown a tantalizing discrepancy with the Standard Model of particle physics that may require new physics to explain, say UI researchers who participated in the experiment. (2/8/01)

Particle Physics: To help unlock the innermost secrets of the proton, a doughnut-shaped superconducting magnet 14 feet in diameter is now being tested by researchers at the UI. (2/1/01)

VETERINARY MEDICINE
Feline Cancer: A study beginning in April at the UI College of Veterinary Medicine will for the first time examine in detail why cats suffering from cancer lose weight. (4/1/01)