In the News
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April 2, 2025
Consumer sentiment is at its lowest level in more than two years, after plummeting 12% in March. “Consumers perceive a tremendous amount of uncertainty in the economy — policy uncertainty, market uncertainty, general economic uncertainty,” said Joanne Hsu, director of the Surveys of Consumers. “The fact that expectations worsened across the board suggests that consumers perceive more downside than upside risk for the foreseeable future.”
The Detroit News -
April 2, 2025
“Its fragile Afro-alpine ecosystems are crucial to biologists studying biodiversity. Its freshwater resources are southern Africa’s most important. Archaeologically, it is significant,” co-wrote Brian Stewart, associate professor of anthropology and curator of African archaeology at the Museum of Anthropological Archaeology, after Donald Trump described Lesotho as a country that “nobody has ever heard of.”
Nature -
April 2, 2025
A new wave of smaller, cheaper nuclear reactors may have a short window to succeed, given the regulatory scrutiny and advances in energy storage technologies to make wind and solar power more reliable and economical, says Brendan Kochunas, assistant professor of nuclear engineering and radiological sciences.
The Associated Press -
April 1, 2025
“I think if federal funds truly go away, universities will still exist, but they will just be smaller. They will not be globally competitive, and a lot of really important work that has been getting done will no longer happen,” said Elizabeth Popp Berman, professor of organizational studies.
Marketplace -
April 1, 2025
“What’s the real risk the UAW sees at the moment, and what are the possible benefits? One strategy is to make it look like they are on the administration’s side. It’s clear this administration will take actions with the apparent intent to harm whomever it sees as an enemy,” said Josh Pasek, professor of communication and media, on the UAW’s support of tariffs — a stark reversal of its campaign battles with Donald Trump.
Detroit Free Press -
April 1, 2025
Ending NIH clinical trials with no warning puts patients at risk and is “completely reckless,” says Katie Edwards, professor of social work, who has had three clinical trials terminated, including one testing whether an online mentoring program could reduce rates of depression, anxiety and self-harm among trans teens — which, she says, “could lead to a number of negative outcomes, including increasing suicidality.”
The Atlantic -
March 31, 2025
Highly educated people face a steeper brain decline following a stroke, according to research by Mellanie Springer, assistant professor of neurology, and Deborah Levine, professor of internal medicine and neurology. “Our findings suggest that attending higher education may enable people to retain greater cognitive ability until a critical threshold of brain injury is reached after a stroke. At this point, compensation may fail, and rapid cognitive decline occurs,” Springer said.
U.S. News & World Report -
March 31, 2025
“What will likely happen is that consumers will see auto prices rise. Certainly if a consumer is going to buy an imported automobile. What might happen is demand will shift for the American luxury cars like a Cadillac or a Lincoln, but that demand will start to push up the price of American-produced cars as well,” said Chris Douglas, professor of economics at UM-Flint, about a new 25% tariff on all vehicles and parts shipped into the United States.
WJRT Flint -
March 31, 2025
Research at the U-M Biological Station, which included more than 100 scientists over several decades, found that carbon storage in forests depends more on what’s happening within the ecosystem than how old it is. “It’s nice to see the … research team leverage our historic data sets and crunch real-time carbon sequestration information to illuminate what’s happening in our forests and inform future management,” said Jason Tallant, data manager and research specialist at the Biological Station.
Earth.com -
March 28, 2025
“Vibe coding” promises to make website creation easy for tech novices using generative AI models like ChatGPT, but Nikola Banovic, associate professor of computer science and electrical engineering, says it’s not that simple: “People who do not have programming expertise often struggle to use these kinds of models because they don’t have the right kinds of tools or knowledge to actually evaluate the output.”
The Economic Times
