RESEARCH Science 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004

TOPICS: Agriculture | Anthropology |Astronomy | Biology | Chemistry | Computers | Engineering | Food Science | Geology | Health | Materials Science| Medicine | Physics | Psychology

AGRICULTURE
Swine: 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. (11/17/04)

ANTHROPOLOGY
Evolution: Advances in genetics during the last decade not only have influenced modern medicine, they also have changed how human evolution is studied, says an anthropologist from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. (2/16/04)

ASTRONOMY
Asteroid naming: James B. Kaler, professor emeritus of astronomy at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, now has even more reason to be gazing at the night sky. He has had an asteroid named after him. (8/3/04)

ATMOSPHERIC SCIENCE
Circulation pattern shutdown: If global warming shuts down the thermohaline circulation in the North Atlantic Ocean, the result could be catastrophic climate change. The environmental effects, models indicate, depend upon whether the shutdown is reversible or irreversible.

“If the thermohaline shutdown is irreversible, we would have to work much harder to get it to restart,” said Michael Schlesinger, a professor of atmospheric sciences at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a co-author of a report to be presented at the American Geophysical Union meeting in San Francisco, Dec. 13-17. (12/13/04)

Climate-change: Doing a little now to mitigate long-term climate change would cost much less than doing nothing and making an adjustment in the future, say scientists whose paper appears in the Oct. 15 issue of the journal Science. (10/14/04)

BIOLOGY
Nanotube Sensors: Protein-encapsulated single-walled carbon nanotubes that alter their fluorescence in the presence of specific biomolecules could generate many new types of implantable biological sensors, say researchers from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign who developed the encapsulation technique. (12/13/04)

Antibiotic Resistance: A new approach to outwit resistance to antibiotics has been discovered by a team of researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. (11/12/04)

Information system: With a $5 million, five-year grant from the National Science Foundation, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign will create BeeSpace, a system to help scientists analyze all sources of information relevant to the mechanisms of social behavior. (9/16/04)

PECASE: Carla E. Cáceres, a professor of animal biology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, is among 57 young researchers named today as recipients of the 2003 Presidential Early Career Awards for Scientists and Engineers, the highest honor bestowed by the government on young professionals at the outset of their independent research careers. (9/9/04)

Myosin VI Movement: “Now that a third molecular motor has been found to move in the same hand-over-hand fashion, the argument for a rival ‘inchworm’ motion is getting pretty weak,” said Paul Selvin, a professor of physics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a co-author of a paper to appear in the Journal of Biological Chemistry. (8/30/04)

Internal clock: Feel like time is repeating itself and won’t move on? It could be your internal clock is backpedaling because your PKG-II is out of whack. That scenario was played out at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in experiments at a molecular level deep within the brain of rats where, like in all mammals, the primary circadian clock is located. The clock is a dynamic biological process with a near-24-hour cycle. PKG-II is an enzyme, a protein that triggers biochemical reactions. (8/18/04)

Illness and depression: Feeling sick can be “all in the head” for people with inflammatory disorders or for those receiving immunotherapy, say Robert Dantzer and Keith Kelley, professors in the department of animal sciences at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. (7/27/04)

Inflammation: After a series of studies in the laboratory of Dr. Gregory Freund, a clearer picture is emerging: A disruption of signaling proteins in the immune system may be responsible for the inflammation that makes someone with type 2 diabetes feel sick and increases the risk of serious complications. (7/27/04)

Eastern chipmunks: Eastern chipmunks (Tamias striatus) have upset the apple cart of assumptions on glacier-driven population migrations. Based on a mitochondrial DNA analysis of 244 chipmunks, it seems the majority of them living in Illinois and Wisconsin today descend from ancestors who survived the last North American ice age in what researchers believe were isolated pockets of forestland amid the cold tundra. (7/12/04)

Soybeans and Climate: One of the five newly named research themes of the Institute for Genomic Biology under construction at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign has landed the institute’s first major federal grant. (5/24/04)

IGB Themes: Although the doors of the Institute for Genomic Biology won’t open for two years, 31 faculty and 35 affiliates from 25 campus units have been chosen to be in five newly named research themes in the state-of-the-art facility under construction at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.(4/21/04)

Poxvirus: Scientists at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign studying vaccinia virus, a close relative of smallpox, have determined that a gene necessary for virus replication also has a key role in turning off inflammation, a crucial anti-viral immune response of host cells. (4/6/04)

Fish toxins: A news study focuses on the effects of combined exposure of the two commonly found environmental contaminants on motor function driven by the cerebellum. (3/1/04)

Improved insecticides: One of the most damaging crop pests, the corn earworm, may be outwitting efforts to control it by making structural changes in a single metabolic protein, but new insights uncovered by molecular modeling could pave the way for more efficient insecticides, say researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. (2/24/04)

Insect Fear: The world’s latest most-feared technological nightmare comes true Feb. 28, but only for about six hours. Genetically engineered insects will be running amok – though just on the big screen – during the 21st annual Insect Fear Film Festival at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. (2/10/04)

New antibiotics: Chemists at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have uncovered the molecular activity of an enzyme responsible for naturally turning a small protein into a potent antibiotic known as a lantibiotic. (1/29/04)

CHEMISTRY
Heat Conduction: Too much heat can destroy a sturdy automobile engine or a miniature microchip. As scientists and engineers strive to make ever-smaller nanoscale devices, from molecular motors and switches to single-molecule transistors, the control of heat is becoming a burning issue. (9/23/04)

Serotonin: From mollusks to mammals, newly discovered chemical pathways of serotonin in the nervous system are paving a path toward future pharmaceutical treatments for depression and other disorders. (9/9/04)

Fatty Acid: Scientists at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have designed a potential roadmap to use a biosynthetic pathway taken from a common microorganism to produce compounds that could serve as precursors to explosives or components in everyday devices such as liquid crystal displays or anti-cancer agents. (4/1/04)

Nanocomposite Materials: In what may sound like a project from a high school science fair, scientists are using a household humidifier to create porous spheres a hundred times smaller than a red blood cell. The technique is a new and inexpensive way to do chemistry using sound waves, the researchers say. (3/29/04)

Brain research: A pioneering interdisciplinary research initiative that will combine neuroscience, chemistry and materials science in an effort to find new treatments for brain diseases and damage is being launched at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign with a $1.2 million grant from the W.M. Keck Foundation. (1/13/04)

COMPUTERS
Chinese firewall: The fact that the People’s Republic of China goes to great lengths to restrict citizen access to the Internet has been known for years and is part of an official government policy that bars information promoting sex, gambling or politically sensitive material. What is less well known is how U.S. technology firms have aided in the erection of the government’s cyber barrier. (8/9/04)

Industry Partnership: The National Center for Supercomputing Applications at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign will present the 2004 Grand Challenge Award to Chicago-based Boeing Co. at noon Tuesday (April 27). (4/27/04)

ENGINEERING
Transistors: Researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have developed a technique that uses surface chemistry to make tinier and more effective p-n junctions in silicon-based semiconductors. The method could permit the semiconductor industry to significantly extend the life of current ion-implantation technology for making transistors, thereby avoiding the implementation of difficult and costly alternatives. (9/27/04)

Colloidal Adsorbent: Microbial degradation products and other forms of natural organic matter can make water look, smell and taste bad. Natural organic matter also can foul the membranes used in water treatment plants, significantly reducing their efficiency.

Now, a polymer-based colloidal adsorbent developed at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign offers an environmentally friendly and cost-effective way of removing troublesome natural organic matter from municipal water supplies. (8/24/04)

Nuclear Reactor: The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign has begun the process of decommissioning its nuclear research reactor. The process will take several years to complete and will be carried out under the scrutiny of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the U.S. Department of Energy.(8/5/04)

Entangled Photons: Like virtuosos tuning their violins, researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have tuned their instruments and harmonized the production of entangled photons, pushing rates to more than 1 million pairs per second. (7/15/04)

Railroad journalism: Thanks to a new grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, thousands of endangered pages of American history dealing with railroads will be reclaimed at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. (7/14/04)

Spiral Structures: Developing novel ways to control the motion of atoms on surfaces is essential for the future of nanotechnology. Now, researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have found a phenomenon of dislocation-driven nucleation and growth that creates holes that spiral into a surface and pull atoms into crystalline solids. (6/7/04)

Blackouts: As the peak electricity season approaches, little has been done in Washington to prevent a recurrence of last August’s power failure that produced a huge blackout in the Northeast, an expert at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign says. (6/4/04)

Lemelson-MIT Prize: Nick Holonyak Jr., a John Bardeen Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Physics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, has been selected as the 2004 recipient of the Lemelson-MIT Prize. (4/21/04)

Meteoric Iron: Polar clouds are known to play a major role in the destruction of Earth’s protective ozone layer, creating the springtime “ozone hole” above Antarctica. Now, scientists have found that polar clouds also play a significant role in removing meteoric iron from Earth’s mesosphere. The discovery could help researchers refine their models of atmospheric chemistry and global warming. (4/15/04)

Photonic Crystals: Researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have found a way to significantly improve the performance of vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers by drilling holes in their surfaces. Faster and cheaper long-haul optical communication systems, as well as photonic integrated circuits, could be the result. (2/10/04)

EOH: Wild and wacky Rube Goldberg machines, robots fighting for possession of wooden blocks, and more than 120 fun-filled exhibits are among the attractions awaiting visitors to the 84th annual Engineering Open House at the University of Illinois.(2/9/04)

Polar clouds: Scientists have discovered why polar mesospheric clouds over the South Pole are nearly two miles higher than those over the North Pole. A variation in solar radiation – a result of Earth’s elliptical orbit – is responsible, they say. (1/26/04)

Light-emitting transistor: Professors Nick Holonyak Jr. and Milton Feng at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have uncovered a light-emitting transistor that could make the transistor the fundamental element in optoelectronics as well as in electronics. The scientists report their discovery in the Jan. 5 issue of the journal Applied Physics Letters. (1/5/04)

ENVIRONMENT
Cookstove emissions: A new method of measuring emissions from cookstoves could help improve human health and enhance the accuracy of global climate models. (12/13/04)

FOOD SCIENCE
Isoflavones: A multidisciplinary team of scientists at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is embarking on a comprehensive five-year study of the effects of soy isoflavones found in dietary supplements on various body tissues. (9/29/04)

Breast Cancer: 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. (8/31/04)

GEOLOGY
Arsenic-contamination: Microbial processes ultimately determine whether arsenic builds to dangerous levels in groundwater, say researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Remediation may be as simple as stimulating certain microbes to grow. (10/26/04)

Climate indicator: Sediment samples dating back thousands of years and taken from under the deep water of West Olaf Lake in Minnesota have revealed an unexpected climate indicator that can be factored into future projections. (1/13/04)

HEALTH
Water: A recently discovered disinfection byproduct (DBP) found in U.S. drinking water treated with chloramines is the most toxic ever found, says a scientist at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign who tested samples on mammalian cells. (9/14/04)

Breast Cancer: 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.(8/31/04)

Estrogen and Cognition: Does estrogen help cognition? Many women ponder that question as a quality-of-life issue while deciding on estrogen therapy since it has been linked to potential disease complications. Now, a new study at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign suggests that the stress of any given task at least partially determines if hormones will help the mind. (8/27/04)

Soy protein and diabetes: Isolated soy protein added to the diets of 14 men, all military veterans under treatment for advanced stages of type 2 diabetes, significantly lowered unwanted proteins in their urine and slightly raised desired HDL cholesterol levels in their blood, researchers say. (7/30/04)

Oral cancer: Oral cancer probably hasn’t been high on the average pot smoker’s list of concerns – despite the fact that marijuana smoke contains known carcinogens. It may be even less of a concern now in light of new research that found no link between marijuana use and risk of developing oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC). (6/8/04)

Long-term care: How to pay for the long-term health-care needs of aging baby boomers will become a major crisis unless steps are taken to rationalize the current hodge-podge of federal regulations and restricted coverage, according to a health-law expert at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. (3/30/04)

Exercise: Aging adults who give up a sedentary lifestyle and replace it with a cardiovascular fitness regimen as simple as brisk walks reap greater focus and reduced decision-making conflict as they perform a variety of tasks, scientists say.
(2/16/04)

MATERIALS SCIENCE
Crystal growth: Self-organizing synthetic molecules originally used for gene therapy may have applications as templates and scaffolds for the production of inorganic materials. Using electrostatic interactions between oppositely charged molecules as the binding force, scientists are learning how to organize these synthetic molecules into more versatile complexes with large and controllable pore sizes. (8/31/04)

Von Hippel Award: Nick Holonyak Jr., a John Bardeen Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Physics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, has been selected as the 2004 recipient of the Von Hippel Award from the Materials Research Society. The award will be presented Dec. 1 at the MRS meeting in Boston. (8/25/04)

Atrazine: A new generation of high surface-area porous materials for removing atrazine from water supplies has been developed by researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The low-cost and wear-resistant fibers also can remove the hazardous contaminants chloroform and trichloroethylene, both byproducts of the commonly used chlorine disinfection process. (8/23/04)

Microstructured Silicon: By carving specks of single crystal silicon from a bulk wafer and casting them onto sheets of plastic, scientists at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have demonstrated a route to ultrahigh performance, mechanically flexible thin-film transistors. The process could enable new applications in consumer electronics – such as inexpensive wall-to-wall displays and intelligent but disposable radio frequency identification tags – and could even be used in applications that require significant computing power. (6/17/04)

Movement of Heat: Infrared cameras create images by detecting the heat given off by an object, including the body of a soldier hidden in the dark of night. Now, researchers have developed a technique for imaging how fast heat can move through an object. (4/5/04)

Polyelectrolyte Inks: Like spiders spinning webs, researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign are creating complex, three-dimensional structures with micron-size features using a robotic deposition process called direct-write assembly. Graphic only. (3/24/04)

Transistors: Printing circuits on sheets of plastic may offer a low-cost technique for manufacturing thin-film transistors for flexible displays, but maximizing the performance of such devices will require a detailed, fundamental understanding of how charge flows through organic semiconductors. (3/11/04)

Nanolaminates: Heat may be essential for life, but in some cases – such as protecting the space shuttle or improving the efficiency of a jet engine – materials with low thermal conductivities are needed to prevent passage of too much heat. As reported in the Feb. 13 issue of the journal Science, researchers at the University of Illinois have created a better thermal insulator by controlling material structure at the nanoscale. Graphic only (2/12/04)

Simulating complex fluids: Computer simulations play an essential role in the study of complex fluids – liquids that contain particles of different sizes. Such liquids have numerous applications, which depend on a fundamental understanding of their behavior. But the two main techniques for the atomistic simulation of liquids – the molecular dynamics technique and the Monte Carlo method – have limitations that greatly reduce their effectiveness. (1/23/04)

MATHEMATICS
PECASE Award: Robert W. Ghrist, a professor of mathematics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, is among 57 young researchers named today as recipients of the 2002 Presidential Early Career Awards for Scientists and Engineers. (5/4/04)

MEDICINE
Serotonin: From mollusks to mammals, newly discovered chemical pathways of serotonin in the nervous system are paving a path toward future pharmaceutical treatments for depression and other disorders. (9/9/04)

Inflammation: After a series of studies in the laboratory of Dr. Gregory Freund, a clearer picture is emerging: A disruption of signaling proteins in the immune system may be responsible for the inflammation that makes someone with type 2 diabetes feel sick and increases the risk of serious complications. (7/27/04)

Illness and depression: Feeling sick can be “all in the head” for people with inflammatory disorders or for those receiving immunotherapy, say Robert Dantzer and Keith Kelley, professors in the department of animal sciences at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. (7/27/04)

Relaxin research: The nationwide rise in induced labor and Caesarean deliveries could be eased by an experimental dual drug approach that not only safely jump-starts labor but also remodels the cervix to allow for speedy natural delivery, scientists report. (2/2/04)

PHYSICS
Transistor Laser: Researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have demonstrated the laser operation of a heterojunction bipolar light-emitting transistor. The scientists describe the fabrication and operation of their transistor laser in the Nov. 15 issue of the journal Applied Physics Letters. (11/15/04) Graphic only.

Crystal growth: Self-organizing synthetic molecules originally used for gene therapy may have applications as templates and scaffolds for the production of inorganic materials. Using electrostatic interactions between oppositely charged molecules as the binding force, scientists are learning how to organize these synthetic molecules into more versatile complexes with large and controllable pore sizes. (8/31/04)

Myosin VI Movement: “Now that a third molecular motor has been found to move in the same hand-over-hand fashion, the argument for a rival ‘inchworm’ motion is getting pretty weak,” said Paul Selvin, a professor of physics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a co-author of a paper to appear in the Journal of Biological Chemistry. (8/30/04)

Asymmetric Superconductivity: As will be reported in the journal Physical Review Letters, a team of scientists led by physics professor James Eckstein at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign has found a large particle-hole asymmetry in the density of states of excitations in high-temperature superconducting tunnel junctions embedded in a single crystal heterostructure. Since superconductors are supposed to possess particle-hole symmetry – according to current theories – new theoretical work may be required to explain the strange results.(7/30/04)

UV Detector: By depositing thin films of silicon nanoparticles on silicon substrates, researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have fabricated a photodetector sensitive to ultraviolet light. Silicon-based ultraviolet sensors could prove very handy in military, security and commercial applications. (7/19/04)

Switchable Nanotubes: In the May 21 issue of the journal Science, researchers from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign present experimental evidence that a nanotube’s electronic structure can be altered in response to a magnetic field. The research team consisted of physics professors Alexey Bezryadin and Paul Goldbart, postdoctoral research associate Smitha Vishveshwara and graduate students Ulas Coskun and Tzu-Chieh Wei. (5/20/04)

Missile-defense system: The American Physical Society’s 12-member Study Group on Boost-Phase Intercept Systems for National Missile Defense reviewed existing information and completed new research as well to cast doubt on feasibility of developing and deploying a boost-phase defense against long-range missiles. (5/3/04)

Superconductivity: Like the delicate form of an icicle defying gravity during a spring thaw, patterns emerge in nature when forces compete. Scientists at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have found a hidden pattern in cuprate (copper-containing) superconductors that may help explain high-temperature superconductivity.Graphic only. (2/12/04)

PSYCHOLOGY
Hands-Free Cell Phones: Driving with one hand on the wheel and another on a cell phone has led to legal restrictions and proposals to require drivers to use hands-free phones. Researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have tested the hands-free approach and found that drivers – young and old – struggled to see dangerous scenarios appearing in front of them. (11/12/04)

Peer Interaction: A comprehensive yearlong study led by researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign found that adolescents who think little of themselves tend to shy away from interactions with peers. This uncertainty and withdrawal then draws negative feedback from other students, prompting even more withdrawal and leaving them with few chances to have close friends and as targets for teasing or bullying. (7/26/04)

Homework help: What can parents do to help children doing poorly in school? Two new studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign suggest that supporting their children’s autonomy and refraining from being controlling will help kids do better on their homework and raise their grades. (5/11/04)

Brain day: Neuroscientists at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign invite children and their families to learn about their brains at the fourth annual Brain Awareness Day from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. May 23 (Sunday) at the Orpheum Children’s Science Museum, 356 N. Neil St., Champaign. (5/11/04)

Baggage screeners: 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. (4/27/04)

VETERINARY MEDICINE
Companion animal book: Cats, 77 million. Dogs, 65 million. Such are the estimated totals, as of 2002, of these popular companion animals living with people in the United States. Two-thirds of U.S. farms have dogs, but 90 percent of the canines are owned by city dwellers. Then there are the various birds, guinea pigs, hamsters, hedgehogs, lizards, mice, rabbits and turtles, to name only a few, that share space in human homes. (8/12/04)

Fish toxin: Pups of female rats exposed to a combination of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and methylmercury (MeHg) slip and fall more often trying to maneuver on a rotating rod than do pups from non-exposed moms, scientists say. (3/1/04)

Frog Research: During the last decade, Val Beasley of the University of Illinois College of Veterinary Medicine has led a team wanting to know why the world’s amphibian populations have been dwindling or riddled with limb deformities. (2/10/04)