In the News
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April 16, 2026
People who avoid small talk may be missing out on meaningful connections, said Elizabeth Trinh, doctoral student at the Ross School of Business: “If people avoid talking to a co-worker at the coffee machine or a stranger at an event or a neighbor in the elevator because we assume it will be boring and unenjoyable, we may be depriving ourselves of small moments of connection that could improve our mood, our sense of belonging and decrease loneliness.”
NBC News -
April 15, 2026
A new dashboard developed by the U-M Institute for Firearm Injury Prevention aims to provide publicly accessible data on Michigan firearm fatalities at the county and state levels. “The idea is we want this data to be as useful as possible to the people who could use it. We would like to eliminate barriers to their work that timely data can help alleviate,” said Jason Goldstick, IFIP director of statistics and methods.
Michigan Public -
April 15, 2026
Adults over 50 who provide unpaid care for a senior are much more likely than those who have never been caregivers to say the government should shoulder the costs of such care. “While … adults over 50 appeared to be evenly split between seeing government and families as primary payers, when we took caregiver status into account, a clear divide emerged,” said Sarah Patterson, research assistant professor at the Institute for Social Research.
U.S. News & World Report -
April 15, 2026
The Trump administration has refused to spend money Congress has appropriated, like for foreign aid, and has spent money that Congress has not appropriated, like to pay DHS employees despite a shutdown. “We really are at a moment when the power of the purse is in a crisis,” said Sam Bagenstos, professor of law. “If Congress doesn’t stand up, I don’t see why every executive in the future isn’t going to follow some playbook like this.”
National Public Radio -
April 14, 2026
When the Artemis II crew re-entered Earth’s atmosphere and splashed down last week, it was one of the riskiest parts of the mission, said former astronaut Jim Bagian, professor of engineering practice: “Anyone that’s a crew member, you always know that this is a serious undertaking. It’s not flying an airliner to go on vacation to Disney World. If it was, nobody would be going to Disney World.”
WXYZ Detroit -
April 14, 2026
“Typically you get (an) energy response quickly, then it starts filtering into shipping costs … into consumer goods and then it shows up downstream in services. The pass-through into services is obviously weaker than … in energy prices, but it could still be quite meaningful,” said economist Daniil Manaenkov of the Research Seminar in Quantitative Economics, who notes it takes six to 12 months for rising energy prices to filter into everything else consumers pay for.
NerdWallet -
April 14, 2026
“We’ve known for a long time that chimpanzees will attack and kill their neighbors. It turns out they will do this even when those neighbors are former friends and allies,” said John Mitani, professor emeritus of anthropology, whose research chronicled a rare and deadly “civil war” between two factions of chimps in Africa that had lived together peacefully for 20 years.
The Wall Street Journal -
April 13, 2026
“Every local government has governing boards and volunteer commissions where important community business must be tackled, but in many communities, the small pool of residents to recruit from means they’re often relying on the same people over and over again, or seats just go unfilled,” said Debra Horner, senior program manager for the Center for Local, State, and Urban Policy. CLOSUP director Stephanie Leiser said, “Addressing these issues is going to take both practical discussions about incentives, barriers and constraints residents face, as well as broader discussions about how communities value public service.”
MLive -
April 13, 2026
“It turns out that there’s well over a hundred hobbies that Nobel laureates have had. They do puzzles. They ride a bike. Some play chess. One was a well-known yodeler. They sing in barbershop quartets,” said Thomas Annesley, professor emeritus of chemical pathology, whose recent book offers interesting and surprising insights of the everyday lives of Nobel Prize winners.
The Scientist -
April 13, 2026
“The impact of (admissions) test-optional policies on student success is still a pretty open question. There seem to be a really wide range of outcomes depending on the institution. At Michigan, we didn’t see big differences in success between submitters and non-submitters, but that’s not always the story. Institutions really need to be studying this on a case-by-case basis,” said Michael Bastedo, associate dean and professor of education.
Inside Higher Ed
