In the News
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June 25, 2025
Research by Erin Bonar, professor of psychiatry, shows that 21% of people 50 and older have used cannabis in the past year to relax, improve sleep, feel good, relieve pain and improve mental health or mood. But we still have much to learn about the right dosages … as well as the efficacy of cannabis compared with other treatments, she said.
The Washington Post -
June 25, 2025
“It’s a good example of kicking people while they’re down … The last thing you want to do for someone who is in a financially precarious position is to take away their health care,” said Michael Shepherd, assistant professor of health management and policy, about proposed Medicaid cuts by House Republicans that could cause an estimated 7.6 million Americans to lose health insurance.
NBC News -
June 25, 2025
“Trump has long said ‘no’ to a nuclear Iran while at the same time has expressed that he has no desire to drag the U.S. into another war. And this strike may allow Trump to achieve those seemingly contradictory goals. If U.S. initial assessments are correct, Iran’s nuclear program will have been severely compromised. But the strikes won’t necessarily pull the U.S. into the conflict fully ― unless Iran retaliates in such a way that necessitates further U.S. action,” wrote Javed Ali, associate professor of practice of public policy.
Detroit Free Press -
June 18, 2025
“The previous Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices was made up of technical experts who have spent their lives studying vaccines,” said Abram Wagner, assistant professor of epidemiology. Most people on the current list “don’t have the technical capacity that we would expect out of people who would have to make really complicated decisions involving interpreting complicated scientific data.”
The Associated Press -
June 18, 2025
Research shows that some gorillas forage for truffles, suggesting that their diets “are remarkably diverse and that there may be cultural preferences for certain foods in certain social groups,” said Stacy Rosenbaum, assistant professor of anthropology. Truffles might have antimicrobial, antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties, so “an intriguing, if speculative, possibility is that they might have medicinal benefits.”
Scientific American -
June 18, 2025
June is National Men’s Health Month, but Harold Neighbors, professor emeritus of health behavior and health equity, doesn’t think we need one: “We need a men’s health decade. … We need to have a men’s health day every day of every week of every month at least for 10 years and see if we can close the (male-femaile) gap in life expectancy.”
WDET Radio -
June 18, 2025
Before the industrialization of the U.S., fathers were directly responsible for their children’s upbringing, said Regina Morantz-Sanchez, professor emerita of history: “If the children ‘went bad,’ it was blamed on the father.” But the rise in industrial jobs “led to a new fatherly ideal. The men became the breadwinners, and the women stayed at home. This took child-rearing out of the traditional male role.”
Business Insider -
June 18, 2025
Climate change has a powerful effect on the physics of flight, but modern airplanes are designed to handle the world’s most extreme temperatures, said Carlos Cesnik, professor of aerospace engineering. Extreme heat “is completely accounted for nowadays in plane design, (but) not every airplane can operate everywhere, and some airports are more challenging than others.”
The New York Times -
June 11, 2025
“We were focusing on our most vulnerable populations, and I think that’s the reason that the money was … rescinded. It shows a kind of shortsightedness and, in a way, vindictiveness,” said Toni Antonucci, professor of psychology, who lost a $13 million federal grant that supported her research on health disparities among aging minority populations. Gary Harper, professor of health behavior and health equity, lost funding of $1.15 million: “I have been involved in activism, research, clinical work and policy work in the HIV field for 40 years … This is the first time in the history of my academic career that I’ve been without federal research or training funds.”
Detroit Free Press -
June 11, 2025
“Just as every licensed driver can sometimes cause an accident, so will autonomous vehicles. That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t deploy them to realize their benefits. But it does mean they should meet an objective safety standard, one that we all agree improves roadway safety over the status quo,” wrote Henry Liu, director of the U-M Transportation Research Institute, and Greg McGuire, managing director of Mcity.
The Hill
