In the News
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June 16, 2021
“If it was in trouble, it clearly would have a significant impact on the Chinese housing market and the general economy,” said Lan Deng, professor of urban and regional planning, of Chinese billionaire Hui Ka Yan’s flagship property company. “Not only would it expose its lenders to greater financial risk, there could also be possible chain effects spreading across the different sectors of the Chinese economy.”
Bloomberg -
June 16, 2021
Omolola Eniola-Adefeso, professor of chemical and biomedical engineering, says a new plan by the National Institutes of Health to address funding disparities by increasing support for health equity research is itself siloing. “Health care disparities are important, but Black P.I.s are also interested in robotics, gene therapy and CRISPR. … That’s saying you should tell a young Black girl who wants to study nanotechnology to study health disparities instead.”
STAT -
June 9, 2021
“I see the language in this bill as being very, very strategic and trying to get everybody to talk less about race, racism, and whiteness and white supremacy,” said Maren Oberman, clinical assistant professor of education, commenting on a state bill that would bar Michigan school districts from teaching about the role of systemic racism across society.
Detroit Free Press -
June 9, 2021
“To insist on politicized sexual identity is grating to the ears of people who are more conservative. They may have a friend who has sex with a same-sex partner, but they are not wanting them to be mainstreamed,” said Jennifer Robertson, professor emerita of anthropology and the history of art, on Japan’s lack of political support for equal rights for the LGBTQ community despite evolving cultural acceptance.
The New York Times -
June 9, 2021
“The environment of Jupiter is pretty fierce. So I wouldn’t be terribly thrilled about being the person to land on Ganymede,” said Margaret Kivelson, research professor of climate and space sciences and engineering, who was on the science team of NASA’s Galileo mission to Jupiter — the last one to visit Jupiter’s moon Ganymede close up more than two decades ago.
National Public Radio -
June 9, 2021
“Highly educated urban young women … worry about losing the right to choose not to have children. Rather than seeing the end of (China’s) one-child era as a relief, they fear it would reimpose an obligation to have children, with greater pressure from family members and the government,” wrote Yun Zhou, assistant professor of sociology.
The Washington Post -
June 2, 2021
Because the surface of Mars is largely dust, massive storms can create dust clouds that block out the sun, says Nilton Renno, professor of climate and space sciences and engineering: “It’s almost like midnight on the surface of Mars for two months. If you are there with solar panels for power, you very likely don’t survive. You don’t have enough energy to keep things warm enough.”
Bloomberg/Quint (India) -
June 2, 2021
When it comes to understanding what math research looks like or what the point of it is, many folks are still stumped, says Wei Ho, associate professor of mathematics. “My cocktail party spiel is always about elliptic curves,” said Ho, who often asks partygoers, “You know middle school parabolas and circles? Once you start making a cubic equation, things get really hard. … There are so many open questions about them.”
Scientific American -
June 2, 2021
“It’s what I like to call bonkers. When you look at it from a 20,000-foot view, it means each individual crash was substantially more deadly,” said Carol Flannagan, research professor at the U-M Transportation Research Institute, commenting on data that shows more people died in traffic crashes last year than the year before despite fewer motorists on Michigan roads.
The Detroit News -
June 2, 2021
“For so long sports teams have gotten a lot of criticism for just looking at the bottom line, not really caring about the health and wellness and overall well-being of their consumers. … It’s really tricky because the other side of the coin is, ‘Well why did I have to reveal to you my vaccination status?'” said Ketra Armstrong, professor of sport management, on stadiums requiring fans to show proof of vaccination.
Reuters
