In the News
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August 6, 2025
“Changes to the federal share of Medicaid spending will cause states to either cut enrollment, cut benefits, cut payments to providers or greatly increase their spending,” said Susan Goold, professor of internal medicine and health management and policy, who believes Medicare will also be indirectly affected, via increases in income tax deductions, which “means less revenue to both Medicare and Social Security.”
Newsweek -
August 6, 2025
“This not only refines our understanding but also opens the door to entirely new lines of research into how our nervous system processes different kinds of sensory information,” said Bo Duan, associate professor of molecular, cellular, and developmental biology, who found for the first time that humans perceive warm and cool temperatures on completely different neural pathways.
Live Science -
August 6, 2025
“A fair-skinned person with moles must (now) go to the doctor about every six months to send off a biopsy to see if they’re malignant or benign. With this test, they could … get the results right away and follow up with a dermatologist for a positive result,” said Sunitha Nagrath, professor of chemical engineering, who is developing an at-home skin patch test that can detect melanoma.
U.S. News & World Report -
July 30, 2025
Doug Zytko, associate professor of computer science at UM-Flint, says safety “has not been prioritized” for most dating apps, which explains the popularity of Tea, an app that lets women review men they’ve gone out with and run background checks on potential matches: “The dating app safety features that exist are largely reactive in nature. They’re not about keeping people safe, but are punitive actions one can take after something has occurred.”
CBS News -
July 30, 2025
“We know that exercise matters, and we know that intensity matters. I think it’s caught on because it’s so sustainable—it’s short, it’s doable, you don’t have to be in a gym, and there are lots of benefits to walking,” said Laura Richardson, clinical associate professor of kinesiology, about the trend of interval walking — alternating between periods of fast, high-intensity walking and slower, recovery-paced walking.
TIME -
July 30, 2025
“The complaint is full of sound and fury but lacks legal merit. It shouldn’t intimidate a news organization with good lawyers. The Wall Street Journal has those,” said Leonard Niehoff, professor from practice of law, on Donald Trump’s recent lawsuit against the newspaper after it published a story alleging that Trump wrote a “bawdy” birthday letter to financier and deceased sexual predator Jeffrey Epstein.
The Washington Post -
July 30, 2025
The GOP’s recent tax and spending law shifts costs of the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program to states and makes it harder for people to qualify by expanding existing work requirements. “People are going to have to rely on cheaper food, which we know is more likely to be processed, less healthy. It’s, ‘Oh, we care about health — but for the rich people,’” said Kate Bauer, associate professor of nutritional sciences.
CNN -
July 30, 2025
A recent study shows that neurotic traits in robots can make them seem more relatable. Lionel Robert, professor of robotics and information, says while this could potentially be useful for some applications, there’s been very little research on neuroticism in robots: “Imagine if your autonomous vehicle was neurotic. That’s not a trait you would be happy with, right? You get in the car, and it’s just not something you would like.”
National Public Radio -
July 23, 2025
“It has become routine for Trump to fire people in independent agencies or civil servants, or to impound funds and even close agencies. … While the courts are not making definitive rulings on such powers, they are allowing Trump to exercise them. Maybe they will clip Trump’s wings later, but in the meantime enormous damage will be done and undoing that damage will be extraordinarily difficult,” said Donald Moynihan, professor of public policy.
The New York Times -
July 23, 2025
“For a plant that can’t move, being able to create a home for the ants so that they give services is such an incredibly cool innovation. It’s like using this amazing built-in army,” said Marjorie Weber, associate professor of ecology and evolutionary biology, about plants called epiphytes that grow on trees and have a unique internal structure that allows rival ant colonies to coexist within the plants themselves.
Smithsonian Magazine
