How U-M Helps

Animals

Baby mammoth studies validate U-M researcher's techniques
Research featured in National Geographic cover story, TV program. Extensive studies of a 40,000-year-old baby mammoth carcass discovered in Siberia two years ago validate techniques developed by University of Michigan paleontologist Daniel Fisher for extracting information about prehistoric pachyderms' lives from their teeth and tusks. Photo courtesy of National Geographic

U-M News Service ( 4/20 )

Echolocating bats and whales share molecular mechanism
With high-pitched squeaks, clicks and chirps and ultra-sensitive hearing, toothed whales and some bats zero in on prey by emitting pulses of sound and interpreting the echoes that bounce back.

U-M News Service ( 1/25 )

Long-term study shows effect of climate change on animal diversity
Two species of giraffe, several rhinos and five elephant relatives, along with multitudes of rodents, bush pigs, horses, antelope and apes, once inhabited what is now northern Pakistan. But when climate shifted dramatically there some eight million years ago, precipitating a major change in vegetation, most species became locally extinct rather than adapting to the new ecosystem, an extensive, long-term study of mammal fossils spanning a five-million-year period reveals.

U-M News Service ( 8/18 )

Arts, Culture and Humanities

Slideshow: U-M among only three sites for prestigious Paul Taylor dance training
"U-M among only three sites for prestigious Paul Taylor dance training Acclaimed choreographer Paul Taylor selected the University of Michigan as the Midwest site for the Paul Taylor 2008 Summer Intensive."

U-M News Service ( 9/1 )

iPhones are musical instruments in new course and ensemble
iPhones are being used as musical instruments in a new course at the University of Michigan.

U-M News Service ( 12/1 )

Video: Arts and Bodies
Arts on Earth Director talks about making body music. Check out the upcoming Body Music Mini Festival.

U-M YouTube Channel ( 10/21 )

Community, Social Services

The ride of their lives for kids with special needs
Falling off a bike is a basic experience of childhood: you fall, you get up again, and after a few more tries you wobble and shimmy your way jubilantly down the street.

U-M Philanthropy Network-Giving Impact ( 9/1 )

Service-Learning Comes Alive for Project Community Students
After a semester learning about social issues in Project Community (Sociology 389) courses, students translate knowledge into social action through capstone projects. Fall 2009 projects included on-campus sex education and writing workshops at county jail. Project Community (PC) is a partnership between the Ginsberg Center and the University's Department of Sociology.

The Ginsberg Center eNews ( 1/29 )

Alzheimer caregivers: Help us help ourselves, too
Alzheimer caregivers say their emotional and physical health along with sleep quality improved when they received a comprehensive skills training program that included a self-care component, according to a new University of Michigan study.

U-M News Service ( 1/19 )

Disaster Relief

Haiti Relief Efforts: From the Field - Calming Translation
Update from Dr. Sacha Montas: We arrived in Jimani, Dominican Republic, on Wednesday Jan. 20. The original plan was to work a few days in Jimani and then make our way to Leogane, a city about 20 miles West of Port-au-Prince.

U-M Haiti Relief Efforts ( 1/25 )

U-M experts available to comment on Haiti disaster and aftermath
The University of Michigan has many experts who can comment on Haiti and the issues facing it in the aftermath of a massive earthquake that may have killed thousands.

U-M News Service ( 1/27 )

Coal mining hazard resembles explosive volcanic eruption, study shows
Worldwide, thousands of workers die every year from mining accidents, and instantaneous coal outbursts in underground mines are among the major killers. But although scientists have been investigating coal outbursts for more than 150 years, the precise mechanism is still unknown.

U-M News Service ( 10/1 )

Diversity

U-M students take "Initiative" to mentor Detroit kids
Several University of Michigan students spend at least one day a week interacting and teaching children at Latino Family Services in Detroit.

U-M News Service ( 9/30 )

Race-based misdiagnosis still remains a health care problem
Black men are over-diagnosed with schizophrenia at least five times higher than any other group—a trend that dates back to the 1960s, according to new University of Michigan research.

U-M News Service ( 1/6 )

Black patients experience worse cardiac care
Black patients have lower rates of successful resuscitation and are less likely to survive an in-hospital cardiac arrest compared to white patients, according to a study in the Sept. 16 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

The University Record ( 9/21 )

Education

Video: Helping children succeed
New research shows that parents who want to help their children succeed in school may need to go back to school themselves.

U-M News Service ( 9/1 )

Public school teacher absenteeism declines when principals have more control
Public school teachers took less time off when principals had more flexibility to dismiss them without completing elaborate documentation or attending a hearing, one of two new University of Michigan studies shows.

U-M News Service ( 1/21 )

No cheating: Study finds plagiarism reduced by tutorial intervention
A 15-minute Web-based tutorial that teaches students what constitutes plagiarism and how to avoid it reduces cases of plagiarism by 65 percent, a new study shows.

U-M News Service ( 1/26 )

Emergency Aid

Two patients from Haiti arrive at UMHS
Two patients from Haiti have arrived at UMHS, transported by the Survival Flight fixed-wing aircraft, and are now receiving advanced specialized care from our teams.

UMHS News Service ( 1/21 )

Nursing students’ trip to rural Liberia ‘an eye-opener’
A School of Nursing researcher and three graduate students will spend three weeks working in rural Liberian hospitals and clinics next month. The students will be challenged to hone their midwife and nursing skills in an impoverished country still recovering from years of civil war.

The University Record ( 2/1 )

Students help enable cleaner cooking fuel in Nicaragua
Cleaner cooking fuel for parts of the developing world that still rely on wood is the goal of a University of Michigan student project. Engineering students are designing and building better biodigesters, which turn animal waste and food scraps into a biogas to power a stove.

U-M News Service ( 1/26 )

Energy

The Energy Conservation Ideas Fair: Energy Fest
An annual University of Michigan event, Energy Fest is all about environmental and energy initiatives throughout the University and the Ann Arbor community. Watch this webpage for news and information about the 15th Annual Energy Fest - scheduled to take place at the beginning of Fall Semester 2010! It’s an opportunity to learn about energy conservation, energy efficiency, and alternative energy technologies.

U-M Utilities and Plant Engineering - Energy Mgmt ( 9/30 )

U-M to receive funds to prepare workforce for green technology
The University of Michigan will create courses to pave the way for a new generation of electric and hybrid vehicles, using $2.5 million in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funding announced Wednesday by the White House.

U-M News Service ( 8/5 )

U.S. energy demand on the decline due to population migration
As Congress and the White House explore ways to encourage Americans to conserve energy, a new study by the University of Michigan shows that the average individual energy demand for heating and cooling has decreased over the past 50 years.

U-M News Service ( 4/20 )

Environment

Video: Sustainable mobility
Automakers at the 2010 North American International Auto Show have big hopes for their new small vehicles—hipper, more fuel-efficient, environmentally sound cars.

U-M News Service ( 1/27 )

U-M research team begins first mapping project to determine health, future of the Great Lakes
A University of Michigan-led research team is creating a comprehensive analysis and mapping of threats to the Great Lakes that will guide decision-making in the United States and Canada for years to come.

U-M News Service ( 9/24 )

Video: Great Lakes in transition
University of Michigan scientists spend two days on Lake Michigan, studying the wide-ranging effects of invasive mussels.

U-M News Service ( 9/1 )

Health

In vitro pregnancy rates improve with new device that mimics motions in the body
Gently rocking embryos while they grow during in vitro fertilization (IVF) improves pregnancy rates in mice by 22 percent, new University of Michigan research shows.

U-M News Service ( 1/18 )

Outsmarting bacteria: Researchers develop faster method to generate new antibiotics
Researchers at the University of Michigan's Life Sciences Institute have developed a new method to rapidly generate and test novel antibiotic-drug candidates. The technique could provide scientists with a new tool in the fight against antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

U-M News Service ( 1/11 )

Study shows complication rates not best predictor of hospital quality
A compelling University of Michigan Health System study debunks assumptions about the role of complications in distinguishing good and bad hospitals.

UMHS Newsroom ( 9/30 )

International

The University Record ( 2/1 )

U-M News Service ( 1/26 )

Under the weather: Early-life rainfall has lasting effect on Indonesian women
Indonesian women born into rural communities in rainy years grow taller, stay in school longer and live in households with greater wealth than women born in years with lower rainfall, a new University of Michigan study suggests.

UMHS Newsroom ( 6/2 )

Political Activism

Video: Politics of health care reform
University of Michigan professor Michael W. Traugott discusses the politics of the proposed health care reforms.

U-M News Service ( 1/1 )

ADVISORY: U-M experts available to discuss State of the Union
University of Michigan experts are available to discuss President Obama's first State of the Union address, which will be delivered Wednesday.

U-M News Service ( 1/26 )

Banks and bailouts: Playing politics?
Banks with strong political connections were more likely to receive bailout money from the government—and more of it—in the past year than those with weaker ties, say University of Michigan researchers.

Michigan Today ( 1/1 )

Religion

Study shows how college major and religious faith affect each other
College students who major in the social sciences and humanities are likely to become less religious, while those majoring in education are likely to become more religious.

UMHS Newsroom ( 7/31 )

Older black men feel productive, achieve prestige at church
Older African American women may attend religious services more often than African American men, but men spend more hours per week in other activities at church, a new University of Michigan study found.

U-M News Service ( 6/8 )

Arab Americans continue to face both stigma and acceptance
Arab and Muslim Americans continue to face an unusual degree of both discrimination and acceptance, according to a University of Michigan researcher who headed an in-depth study of the nation's most visible Arab and Chaldean communities.

U-M News Service ( 9/9 )

True Blue

U-M remembers former President Robben Wright Fleming
Robben Wright Fleming, the imperturbable president of the University of Michigan who steered the school safely through the student unrest of the late 1960s and early 1970s, died Jan. 11 at The Care and Rehabilitation Center at Glacier Hills in Ann Arbor.

U-M News Service ( 1/11 )

U-M plans taking shape for 50th anniversary of Peace Corps
As preparations are being made locally and on the national level to celebrate 50 years of the Peace Corps, those at the University of Michigan where the idea was sparked are seeking stories from faculty, staff and students who have served as volunteers, staff or consultants in the program.

U-M News Service ( 2/1 )

Big year for U-M in tough times: $1 billion in research, new inventions, NCRC
In the midst of the most severe recession since the Great Depression, research spending at the University of Michigan topped $1 billion last year, researchers were awarded more than $218 million in federal stimulus grants and faculty members disclosed a record 350 inventions.

U-M News Service ( 1/21 )