In the News
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March 12, 2020
Dan Herbert, associate professor of film, television, and media, says the decidedly lo-fi audiovisual quality of VHS tapes — glitchy freeze-frames, static lines, muffled soundtracks — is attracting consumers who have a taste for offbeat art objects: “Interestingly, vinyl records are super mainstream again, and among audiophiles, vinyl is considered high-quality. But with VHS, people are joyfully celebrating low quality.”
NBC News -
March 12, 2020
Research by Jacob Allgeier, assistant professor of ecology and evolutionary biology, and colleagues found that certain tropical fish promote a healthy ecosystem by spreading high levels of nitrogen throughout the water in their urine: “If we could predict how many (of these ‘super-urinators’) are that way and why, then we can better understand the nutrient dynamics of the system and that ultimately supports the entire food web above it.”
Detroit Free Press -
March 11, 2020
Mahshid Abir, associate professor of emergency medicine, says as coronavirus fears spread, hospitals — many of which are running close to capacity because of a bad flu season — will be burdened even more: “I think we’re going to see a lot of anxiety, and it will be not all coronavirus, necessarily. It could be a lot of people who are the ‘worried well.'”
National Public Radio -
March 11, 2020
Paul Cederna, professor of surgery and biomedical engineering, and Cindy Chestek, associate professor of biomedical engineering, have tapped latent signals from arm nerves and amplified them to enable intuitive, finger-level control of a robotic hand. Upon seeing the hand move, patients start to think of it as though it is actually theirs and not “some tool strapped to their body. It’s actually become part of them,” Cederna said.
The Scientist -
March 11, 2020
Michelle Segar, director of the Sport, Health, and Activity Research and Policy Center, says when it comes to exercise, any movement — walking, dancing, taking the stairs — is better than nothing: “I’ve been astounded that even up until today, very educated people don’t know — don’t believe — that walking actually ‘counts’ as valid exercise. … There are so many positives that happen when you move.”
National Public Radio -
March 10, 2020
The Affordable Care Act narrowed racial and ethnic gaps in access to health insurance and care, but it didn’t eliminate them, according to Tom Buchmueller, professor of business economics and public policy, and Helen Levy, research professor at the Institute of Social Research: “Medicaid expansion made a big difference for low-income Americans in the states that chose to opt in, but it did so for all racial and ethnic groups, so it did not make a significant difference in how much the gap between whites and blacks or Hispanics closed,” Levy said.
U.S. News & World Report -
March 10, 2020
Research by Julie Boland, professor of psychology and linguistics, and Robin Queen, professor of linguistics, English and German, found that people respond to writing errors based on their personality type: Conscientious people and those open to new experiences are more bothered by typos, less agreeable types are bothered more by grammatical gaffes, and less sociable people are bothered by both kinds of writing errors.
Fast Company -
March 10, 2020
While there are “some things that the Trump administration can tout to potentially appeal to a critical slice of black voters, e.g., criminal justice reforms, low unemployment, etc.,” Vincent Hutchings, professor of political science, says these issues will not “make much of a dent.” Group loyalties, both partisan and racial, “are far more important.”
The New York Times -
March 9, 2020
“(Artificial intelligence) might help us understand mechanisms underlying obstructive sleep apnea, so we can select the right treatment for the right patient at the right time, as opposed to one-size-fits-all or trial-and-error approaches. … We want to interface with industry in a way that will foster safe and efficacious use of AI software to benefit our patients,” said Cathy Goldstein, associate professor of neurology.
Medical Express -
March 9, 2020
“He was lauded in business schools, and many CEOs considered him a role model, but few today would praise his tactics. He left a bloated, hollow mess to his successors. GE went from being a titan of industry to a dismembered wreck,” said Erik Gordon, clinical assistant professor of business, on the recent death of Jack Welch, the innovative but ruthless leader of General Electric in the 1980s and ’90s.
CNBC
