In the News

  1. December 5, 2022
    • Parth Vaishnav

    “In new construction, installing a heat pump can be cheaper than extending a natural gas connection, installing a furnace, and installing an air conditioner,” said Parth Vaishnav, assistant professor of environment and sustainability, whose research found that 70 percent of U.S. households could reduce climate damages caused by CO2 emissions by installing a heat pump.

    Popular Science
  2. December 5, 2022
    • Frederic Blow

    The fraying of social networks and shutdowns during the pandemic exacerbated alcohol and drug abuse among older Americans, said Frederic Blow, professor of psychiatry and director of the U-M Addiction Center: “When you add that to feelings of loneliness and isolation, of feeling at the end of the world in some ways, it became an impetus for people to start using more than they ever had in the past.”

    The New York Times
  3. December 5, 2022

    “AI is like the nuclear power of this age,” said Kentaro Toyama, professor of information. “It has tremendous potential both for good and bad, but … I think if we don’t start practicing regulating the bad, all the dystopian AI science fiction will become dystopian science fact.”

    The Washington Post
  4. December 2, 2022
    • Sushil Atreya

    Despite claims that Jupiter is warming, there’s not enough data to show a global trend, says Sushil Atreya, professor of climate and space sciences and engineering: “The only systematic measurements of Jupiter’s heat balance were done by Voyager spacecraft four decades ago.” Limited data since then have shown temperature fluctuations in “different regions of the atmosphere and different parts of the planet, but they don’t represent the planet’s temperature as a whole.”

    USA Today
  5. December 2, 2022
    • Lori Ploutz-Snyder

    Exercise like an astronaut and you might avoid the unhealthy effects of sitting too much, says Lori Ploutz-Snyder, dean of the School of Kinesiology, whose research suggests that the right mix of scientifically tested exercises can stave off undesirable physical consequences from being weightless on the space station — or inactive for long hours on Earth: “Exercise is quite potent in these conditions.”

    The Washington Post
  6. December 2, 2022
    • Kenneth Lowande

    Legislative changes prompted by the diverse new Democratic leadership in the U.S. House of Representatives could still be years away, but it’s a crucial first step, says Kenneth Lowande, assistant professor of political science and public policy: “I’d say that really what this is is the groundwork for something bigger.”

    Time
  7. December 1, 2022
    • Monica Carvalho

    “We now know that, although flowers diversified in the dinosaur era, they took longer to come to dominate the forest, and that evolutionary opportunity arose for them, thanks to the ecological catastrophe unleashed” by the meteorite that hit the Yucatan Peninsula 66 million years ago, said Monica Carvalho, assistant professor of earth and environmental sciences and assistant curator of the Museum of Paleontology.

    Knowable Magazine
  8. December 1, 2022
    • Photo of Shelie Miller

    “From an energy perspective, that’s a pretty bad idea,” said Shelie Miller, professor of environment and sustainability, about the air-conditioning systems installed at Qatar’s World Cup stadiums. “There’s a reason that we close our windows when we run our air conditioners. If we really are trying to obtain a sustainable future, the cooling of open-air stadiums is not how we get there.”

    Scientific American
  9. December 1, 2022
    • Headshot of Aubree Gordon

    “Understanding the dynamics of how viruses surge and plunge helps explain why so many people, especially young children, are sick right now — or will be this winter. But as a society, we don’t have to be at the mercy of the dominant virus in a given season … The knowledge gained from the COVID-19 pandemic could help lower the toll of respiratory viruses for good,” co-wrote Aubree Gordon, associate professor of epidemiology.

    The New York Times
  10. November 30, 2022
    • Galit Levi Dunietz

    Transgender youth are five times more likely to have insomnia and three times more likely to to have sleep apnea than other young people, according to research by Galit Levi Dunietz and Ronald Gavidia Romero, both assistant professors of neurology. “Given this higher prevalence of sleep disorders in relation to cisgender youth, clinicians should consider screening and testing this population for such disorders,” Gavidia said.

    U.S. News & World Report