In the News
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February 24, 2026
“Loneliness is the psychological experience of a lack of social connections. It’s the way you feel when your social relationships don’t match what you would ideally want them to be. This is different from social isolation. You can be surrounded by people and still feel lonely or be alone and feel completely content,” said Lindsay Kobayashi, associate professor of epidemiology.
Medium -
February 24, 2026
“Copper is the fundamental linchpin for socioeconomic development, acting as the connective artery for infrastructure, digital intelligence, and electricity generation, transmission and storage,” said Adam Simon, professor of earth and environmental sciences. “Without substantially increasing copper supply, global development will not happen.”
Earth.com -
February 24, 2026
Milliken v. Bradley, a 1974 landmark Supreme Court case that originated in Michigan, limited the scope of school desegregation in the North. “One of the reasons why this case is so important is because it dealt with … the Jim Crow that was happening in the North that not so many folks are aware of,” said Michelle Adams, professor of law, who believes that if decided differently, the case could have moved us “in a direction of having a more integrated and more unified United States of America.”
WKAR Radio -
February 23, 2026
Universities vary widely on vaccine requirements, but new outbreaks of measles are forcing them to rethink their vaccine strategies. “What keeps campuses safest are high levels of vaccines and whether it’s through requirements or encouragement … people don’t really want to be told what they have to do,” said JoLynn Montgomery, senior manager of applied public health. “So, making sure that … college health centers are places filled with professionals who can be trusted … is really crucial.”
The Hill -
February 23, 2026
A new treatment for age-related macular degeneration pioneered by U-M researchers helped patients read 21 more letters on an eye chart after one year. “This is slightly more than four full lines of vision,” said Rajesh Rao, professor of ophthalmology and visual sciences. “It might mean going from barely discerning large shapes to being able to read larger print with magnification, recognizing faces more clearly, navigating indoor spaces independently, or enjoying activities like watching TV with less strain.”
Forbes -
February 23, 2026
“It looks like the department has abandoned its commitment, which is required by law, to provide equal access to program services and activities for people with disabilities. It’s doing that in a way that is dangerous, and people are going to die as a result,” said Margo Schlanger, professor of law, about the dismantling of the DHS civil rights office that investigates violations in immigrant enforcement and other departmental work.
Mother Jones -
February 20, 2026
More than 40% of people over 50 did not receive a shot for COVID-19 or the flu in the past six months, according to U-M’s National Poll on Healthy Aging. “For people in that age group … we would recommend that they receive those vaccines in order to reduce their risk for adverse outcomes,” said Jeffrey Kullgren, associate professor of internal medicine and public health. “I think coming from a place of concern and of benevolence … is important in this messaging at a time where many people continue to be distrustful of vaccines in general.”
Michigan Advance -
February 20, 2026
While phonics-related skills are indeed critical for young students, they are far from the only skills required to master true literacy, says Elizabeth Birr Moje, professor and dean of the Marsal Family School of Education: “There is so much more to reading and learning to read than just decoding. … If all I’m doing is reading stories that are meant to just help me decode, and I’m never asked, ‘What do you think about that? Why do you think that happened?’ I’m not developing the skills I need.”
Michigan Public -
February 20, 2026
“Society has brainwashed us all to certain beauty standards that are not always in alignment with health standards … just because someone can starve themselves to get down to a lower weight doesn’t mean that we should make that easier by giving them an injection to promote anorexia,” said Andrew Kraftson, clinical associate professor of internal medicine, about patients who want to continue to take weight loss drugs even when there was no clear medical benefit to doing so.
The New York Times -
February 19, 2026
Although the climate is changing, Michigan’s forests provide a buffer that mitigates the impact. “Michigan, with and without forests, would be a completely different climate,” said Inés Ibáñez, professor of environment and sustainability and of ecology and evolutionary biology. “If you think about winds coming from the west, the reason we don’t experience the full force is that we have all these forested areas,” that slow down the winds and make tornadoes less common here.
Planet Detroit
