In the News
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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 -
December 8, 2025
Naomi Levin, associate professor of earth and environmental sciences, helped discover that bones from the foot of an ancient human ancestor found in Ethiopia belong to a hominin species that walked differently and ate a different plant-based diet than another hominin species that lived at the same time: “It’s exciting that we can now associate these different ways of moving around on two feet with different diets. We can link different morphological adaptations with different behaviors.”
The Hindu (India) -
December 5, 2025
“We are the most cooperative, pro-social species ever in the world … (but) we have created a situation where we’re often extremely intolerant towards each other,” said Brian Stewart, associate professor of anthropology. “I’m not saying we have to completely do away with a capitalist system, but if we keep having this bottom-line-driven corporate culture that just sucks every possible resource out of the earth … then we’re not listening to the evolutionary success story that we were.”
Orkan Media (podcast) -
December 5, 2025
Jessica Roche, managing director of the Institute of Firearm Injury Prevention, said a significant amount of gun violence in Washtenaw County comes from stolen firearms: “Educational campaigns in our county on secure storage and how to limit an unauthorized person having access to your firearm could help with that.”
WEMU Radio -
December 5, 2025
“Weak and desperate autocrats are often much more dangerous and damaging than strong and popular ones. The risk of stirring up violence and inviting active military involvement in American cities is getting bigger rather than smaller as Trump’s popularity sinks,” said Dan Slater, professor of political science and faculty associate at the Institute for Social Research.
Huff Post -
December 4, 2025
“Anniversaries like this are really an opportunity for us to both reflect into the past and think about the achievements that happened during the past history of the school,” said Jacques Nör, dean of the School of Dentistry on its 150th anniversary. “At the end of the day, it’s not the building, it’s not the facilities, it’s not the equipment, it’s the people. The people at this school are what makes us No. 1.”
MLive
