In the News
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January 29, 2026
“Seeing if your biological clock is in sync is a huge benefit because even if you’re giving yourself the right amount of time, if you’re sleeping at the wrong times, the sleep won’t be as efficient,” said Daniel Forger, professor of mathematics and of computational medicine and bioinformatics, who believes wearable sleep/fitness devices help keep the overlooked importance of sleep front of mind.
Inc. -
January 29, 2026
“This program is not intended to replace federal funding or create a long-term safety net. It is a targeted, one-time investment to help outstanding U-M researchers transition in a time of change and continue to do important work that serves the people of Michigan and the world,” said Arthur (Skip) Lupia, vice president for research and innovation, about a new research funding program that provides short-term support to help U-M faculty maintain research continuity, support research staff and remain competitive for future external funding.
The Detroit News -
January 28, 2026
“What this article is saying is that it’s actually quite interesting in how it models how jobs work, (but) a lot of this paper is based on a whole set of rickety assumptions that I would say (are) rickety enough that the final conclusion necessarily isn’t credible,“ said Kentaro Toyama, professor of information, about new research that claims AI substantially reduces wage inequality, while raising average wage prices by 21%.
WJR Detroit -
January 28, 2026
“If you think about movies and TV shows and music that we hear all around us, the norms really have changed. They’ve become more relaxed. So kids are hearing … swear words earlier and more often than they used to 10 or 15 or 20 years ago,” said Sarah Clark, co-director of Mott Children’s Hospital National Poll on Children’s Health, who found that only about half of parents say kids should never swear and more than a third say whether it’s acceptable depends on the situation.
WDIV Detroit -
January 28, 2026
As the Arctic continues to warm four times faster than the rest of the planet, a phenomenon known as Arctic amplification, dwindling sea ice exposes darker waters, which absorb more of the sun’s energy than ice does — resulting in less of a temperature contrast between the Arctic and warmer regions to the south. “When that happens, the jet stream tends to meander a lot, and that allows very cold air to come down to the south,” said Ayumi Fujisaki-Manome, associate research scientist in environment and sustainability.
Grist -
January 27, 2026
A Florida company’s plans to revive a shuttered nuclear plant on Lake Michigan may spur a nuclear breakthrough: America’s first commercial “small modular reactors” — mini nuclear power plants but cheaper, safer, faster to build and easier to finance. Michael Craig, associate professor of energy systems and climate, says SMRs are in a sweet spot right now: “They’re in this perfect ground where there’s lots of great ideas … and they have a lot of promise and potential.” Using this technology is “a very sensible approach” because it should ease the licensing and supply chain process, says Brendan Kochunas, associate professor of nuclear engineering and radiological sciences.
CNN -
January 27, 2026
AI might be able to help people undergoing balance training as part of their physical rehabilitation, new research shows. “Our machine learning model used data from wearable sensors to predict how physical therapists would rate patients’ performance on balance exercises, providing a basis to make recommendations about the most appropriate set of exercises to perform next,” said Kathleen Sienko, professor of mechanical engineering. Xun Huan, associate professor of mechanical engineering, said “it is very important to understand both the strengths and potential failure modes of machine learning in physical therapy, where people’s well-being is directly at stake.”
U.S. News & World Report -
January 27, 2026
“The price of vehicles has gone up in part because of fuel-efficient standards, but that’s only a small part of it. It’s gone up because cars are much more luxurious than they used to be. They’re bigger, they’re heavier and there’s other inflation,” said Erik Gordon, clinical assistant professor of entrepreneurial studies. “I think the real key to cheaper cars is to have … cars that are smaller, cars that are less expensive to build, cars that have less fancy stuff.”
CBS News Detroit -
January 26, 2026
“Improving overall diet quality may be one meaningful step women can take to support metabolic health when they aren’t getting enough sleep,” said Haneen Bou Ghanem, doctoral student in nutritional sciences, who found that among women who slept less than seven hours a night, those who ate a Mediterranean-style diet showed fewer signs of metabolic syndrome — a cluster of risk factors linked to heart disease and type 2 diabetes.
Earth.com -
January 26, 2026
New dietary guidelines urging Americans to eat far more meat and dairy products could have a large environmental cost via huge swathes of habitat razed for farmland and millions of tons of extra planet-heating emissions, said Benjamin Goldstein, assistant professor of environment and sustainability: “If we are adding more greenhouse gases to impose unnecessary ideas of protein intake, that’s going to destabilize the climate further. It’s going to have a big impact.”
Mother Jones
