In the News
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September 9, 2022
Jeff Sakamoto, professor of mechanical engineering, and Neil Dasgupta, associate professor of mechanical engineering, will lead a new U.S. Department of Energy-funded research center that will explore the use of ceramic ion conductors in solid-state batteries, a powerful material that could revolutionize the automotive industry. “If you think of ceramics, like pottery or plates, they don’t catch fire very easily,” Dasgupta said. “By replacing this kind of flammable component, we could potentially reduce the risk of fires, which is a really critical safety challenge.”
The Detroit News -
September 9, 2022
“We really don’t know what the properties of a new variant will be. There’s a lot of wiggle room in what could happen,” said Marisa Eisenberg, associate professor of epidemiology, mathematics and complex systems. “It’s still better to go ahead and get the booster because you’re building your immunity to a wider range of COVID variants than what you had before … and that will build the rest of your immunity.”
Bridge Michigan -
September 9, 2022
“Public colleges do not merely have a duty to defend their core mission. They also have an obligation to support and protect their faculty, staff and students. They must clearly insist on our people’s right not to be forced into pregnancy, not to be demeaned or disadvantaged due to their sexual orientation or gender identity, and to have all of their histories studied and told,” wrote Silke-Maria Weineck, professor of comparative literature and German studies.
The Chronicle of Higher Education -
September 8, 2022
“We don’t teach about labor unions in business schools. They’re just not a big enough factor in the private sector,” said Jerry Davis, professor of management and organizations, on the long, slow decline of private-sector unions because of endemic corruption and their inability to save jobs in decaying industries.
The Washington Post -
September 8, 2022
Consumers have “signaled strong concerns that inflation will continue to erode their incomes” and that while consumer spending has been robust, the deterioration of sentiment could lead Americans to “cut back on spending and thereby slow down economic growth,” says Joanne Hsu, director of the Surveys of Consumers at the Institute for Social Research.
The Wall Street Journal -
September 8, 2022
“If we’re taking energy as a human right, then that means no more shut-offs. Because we know that, whether that happens in extreme heat or extreme cold, this can lead to death,” said Justin Schott, project manager for the Energy Equity Project at the School of Environment and Sustainability, who believes moratoriums on shut-offs should continue while the government continues to tinker with electricity affordability and assistance programs.
Grist -
September 7, 2022
The impact of climate change depends on how much a community can adapt to change. For instance, heat waves may be more bearable for affluent residents who can afford to adjust their living circumstances. “For communities in which residents are facing greater economic challenges, the purchase of air conditioning units or weatherization of homes is simply not an option,” said Frank Marsik, an associate research scientist of climate and space sciences. Richard Rood, professor of climate and space sciences and engineering, said reducing greenhouse gas emissions would prevent further temperature increases, but more action to remove these gasses from the atmosphere is necessary to reverse the heat from human-induced climate change.
Detroit Free Press -
September 7, 2022
“President Biden has taken some criticism about doing some partisan action that has … not necessarily brought the country together,” said Aaron Kall, U-M director of debate, about the recent speech amid ongoing investigations by the Jan. 6 committee and the FBI search of Mar-a-Lago. “So with just over two months until the midterm elections, certainly something he wants to do.”
WLNS/Lansing -
September 7, 2022
“Right now, this solves some kind of need for sex, intimacy, companionship — whatever it is — but this does not have necessarily a long-term time horizon,” said Elizabeth Armstrong, professor of sociology, about “situationship,” a term that describes a hard-to-define stage of dating that experts say has skyrocketed in popularity among Gen Z.
BBC -
September 6, 2022
“The prognosis for the forest is not great,” said Peter Reich, director of the Institute for Global Change Biology at the School for Environment and Sustainability, of Michigan’s forests. “It may be we are at a tipping point beyond which these northern species just can’t hack it. Nature is really resilient, but we are pushing it really far, maybe up to its boundaries.”
Detroit Free Press
