In the News
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April 2, 2026
“You’d have to do an ‘Ocean’s 11’-style” caper to actually succeed in stealing an election through ballot stuffing or data manipulation, said Ekow Yankah, professor and assistant dean at the Law School. “I don’t want to catastrophize. But I do think it is worth taking a moment to really think about where we are … if enough people create enough conspiracy blogs, and create enough doubt, such that they say, ‘Actually, I’m fine with this,’ then the American experiment will end.”
Concentrate -
April 1, 2026
America’s slower population growth “means there will be fewer young people in the labor force to continue national economic productivity and contribute to social programs that will support the rising senior population,” said William H. Frey, research professor at ISR’s Population Studies Center. “This places great importance on immigration as a source not only of total population growth, but to slow population aging, because immigrants and their children are younger than the rest of the population.”
Newsweek -
April 1, 2026
For a lot of allergy sufferers, spring starts with a routine — check the pollen count and brace for the day. But in Michigan, the number may not be based on real local measurement at all, said Allison Steiner, professor of climate and space sciences and engineering: “Pollen data over the U.S. is very sparse. In fact, we don’t have any sampling stations that are run by the National Allergy Bureau here in Michigan.”
WXYZ Detroit -
April 1, 2026
Sam Erman, professor of law, says the Trump administration’s arguments for ending birthright citizenship echo those put forward by jurists in the late 1800s — that a child’s citizenship is dependent on the parents’ nationality, not birth in the U.S. “I was really struck reading the government’s brief (by) how familiar it seemed from that period. The government argument to a large extent relies on … people who are repeating what (these 19th century legal scholars) said uncritically. If you strip that out of the government’s brief, it looks really weak.”
The Washington Post -
March 31, 2026
Oleg Gnedin, professor of astronomy, and graduate student Yingtian (Bill) Chen have massively expanded the number of rare stellar streams that could reveal the history of our galaxy and information about dark matter. Stellar streams are hard to spot, and as globular clusters interact with much larger star groups, tidal forces can wrest some of the stars from their path. “It’s like riding a bike with a bag of sand, only the bag has a hole in it. Those grains of sand are like the stars left behind along their trajectory,” Gnedin said.
Discover Magazine -
March 31, 2026
“The data center industry as an ecosystem is pretty big,” said Xiaofan Liang, assistant professor of urban and regional planning. “(It) has such a big infrastructure need that trickles down in many different ways. Now we need expanded utility infrastructure, grid, fiber, water, all these things. Construction of these infrastructure … could increase local employment.”
PBS Wisconsin -
March 31, 2026
“While most people who (have) these thoughts don’t act on them, the number is so high that the small proportion who do act turns into tens of thousands of fatal and nonfatal firearm injuries each year,” said Brian Hicks, professor of psychiatry, whose research found that 7% of Americans (about 19.4 million people) have thought about shooting someone.
U.S. News & World Report -
March 30, 2026
“We’re not only looking at waste and logistics and energy use, but we’re really looking to see … sustainable practices within production and how we can offer them solutions for that,” said Sarah Oliver, associate professor of theatre and drama, who, along with Shelie Miller, professor of sustainable systems, and graduate students, are looking for ways the Detroit Opera House can use less resources and be better for the environment, without compromising artistic quality.
Michigan Public -
March 30, 2026
“Right now, we have lax policies that harm residents, and our taxpayers pay huge sums to clean up toxic messes. On top of that, taxpayers often cover the health care and social services costs for people who were harmed. What if we took a different approach, one where we invested our public dollars in preventing environmental disasters and other harms from happening in the first place?” said Paul Fleming, associate professor of health behavior and health equity.
Bridge Michigan -
March 30, 2026
Gaslighting can be described as “crazy-making,” said Paige Sweet, associate professor of sociology: It’s like “watching something happen and then being told that’s not what’s happening … You feel that the thing is your fault or you’re bad for thinking that what’s happening is happening — making you mistrust yourself as a kind of witness to the world.”
National Public Radio
