In the News
-
December 11, 2025
“For many consumers, a travel card with an annual fee can be worthwhile with just one or two meaningful trips per year, as long as they actively use the card’s rewards and benefits,” said Carolyn Yoon, professor of marketing. “From a practical standpoint, the card makes sense only if the value of rewards, credits and protections clearly exceeds the annual fee in real dollars, not just on paper.”
WalletHub -
December 11, 2025
By informing listeners of their “listening age,” Spotify Wrapped is “a way by which we’re able to project our identity based upon our cultural consumption,” said Marcus Collins, clinical assistant professor of marketing. “It creates another identity project force, another … shock to the system for us to talk about. If you’re 20 and your listening age is 70, what does that say about you?”
National Public Radio -
December 10, 2025
Large-scale data centers raise concerns about noise, environmental impact and rising energy bills, but they also generate enthusiasm over job creation and economic benefits. “The construction of a billion-dollar data center is going to have a significant impact on the local property tax base, and that goes to help everything from public schools to parks and road maintenance,” said Brian Connolly, assistant professor of business law.
WXYZ Detroit -
December 10, 2025
Many of Michigan’s most popular fish are getting smaller as climate change warms inland lakes, according to research led by Peter Flood, research fellow in environment and sustainability: “We’re seeing most of the shrinkage in juvenile fishes. That’s when (fish) need the conditions to be ripe to be able to undergo that sort of rapid and dramatic growth.”
MLive -
December 10, 2025
Google plans to launch an 81-satellite constellation into low Earth orbit to harvest sunlight to power the next generation of AI data centers in space. “As a technology entrepreneur, I applaud Google’s ambitious plan. But as a space scientist, I predict that the company will soon have to reckon with a growing problem: space debris … the collection of defunct human-made objects in Earth’s orbit,” wrote Mojtaba Akhavan-Tafti, associate research scientist in climate and space sciences and engineering.
Fortune -
December 9, 2025
“There’s no physical reason, no engineering reason, why a data center is any different than more homes being built in Michigan … except the size of the data center demand is way larger and it’s concentrated in one place,” said Michael Craig, assistant professor of environment and sustainability. Molly Kleinman, managing director of the Ford School’s Science, Technology, and Public Policy program, questions whether the large scale of data center projects is necessary: “Are the products that they’re running … serving a purpose in society? Those start to become big questions, but when you think about the trade-offs, I think they’re worth asking.”
Michigan Advance -
December 9, 2025
Breakthroughs in weight-loss medicine are presenting state Medicaid officials with what looks like a sure bet: Spend big now to cover the drugs and reap savings when diabetes, heart disease and cancer rates drop. But states are hesitating to take it. “The issue is that this is a highly, highly prevalent condition for which there is a treatment. For Medicaid, it’s not even the price point, it’s the fact that a huge portion of your beneficiary population has this condition,” said Anand Parekh, chief health policy officer at the School of Public Health.
Politico -
December 9, 2025
While a phone grants children greater independence and the ability to easily communicate, it can also open up apps and websites that aren’t safe for kids. “If you do decide to get a phone for your child, make the effort to know what kinds of features there are to support safe and positive media use. … Parental controls, settings, filters, timers and other digital wellness tools are available on devices and apps,” said Jenny Radesky, associate professor of pediatrics.
The Hill -
December 8, 2025
U-M is supporting the construction of the Multi-Object Spectrograph — part of the Extremely Large Telescope, which will be the world’s largest optical telescope when completed. “This instrument and this telescope will be, in almost all cases, better than the (James Webb Space Telescope) in terms of its power to see the distant past and in terms of its fineness of detail,” said Christopher Miller, professor of astronomy. Michael Meyer, professor of astronomy, said, “It combines the light-gathering power of the ELT with the advantages of a multi-object spectrograph to undertake surveys that cannot be done with any other capability.”
DBusiness -
December 8, 2025
More than half of pesticides and herbicides used in Nigeria are considered highly hazardous, and at least 40% of those can’t be sold in Europe, according to the nonprofit Alliance for Action on Pesticides in Nigeria. “There’s substantial scientific proof of links between certain chemicals banned by the European Union and the development of health conditions such as cancer and neurological disorders,” said Muhammad Kabir Musa, doctoral student in pharmacy.
Bloomberg
