In the News
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March 13, 2020
“People should not be caught short of having enough heart medications, diabetic medications or any potentially life-saving medication that they need on a routine — daily or weekly or monthly — basis,” said Peter Jacobson, professor emeritus of health management and policy, on the CDC recommendation that people stock up on prescription drugs they routinely take for chronic conditions.
National Public Radio -
March 13, 2020
“There was a kind of misfit about some of the early music and playing it on the modern piano. Music for me totally comes alive when you’ve got this instrument that the composers wrote for so perfectly,” said Matthew Bengtson, assistant professor of music and piano literature, who performs on the fortepiano.
Chicago Tribune -
March 13, 2020
Aubree Gordon, associate professor of epidemiology, says diners worried about the coronavirus should be mindful of buffets and come prepared with hand sanitizer or plans to wash their hands. Even though a contaminated buffet utensil probably doesn’t have a lot of the virus on it, she says, “The big risk is that it’s on the spoon, and you touch that, then you touch your face — or you touch your phone which later touches your face.”
The Washington Post -
March 12, 2020
Research by Lindsey Lepley, assistant professor of kinesiology, and Adam Lepley, clinical assistant professor of kinesiology, found that ACL reconstruction in the knee causes changes in the structure of the brain because of a smaller pathway from brain to muscle. “We think that this is a protective mechanism, in which our body is trying to limit unwanted movement around a joint injury … and can be applied to not just ACL injuries, but other musculoskeletal injuries as well,” Adam Lepley said.
UPI -
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
