Money and Happiness in Costa Rica
I expected the faculty-led study abroad program ACE 243 - Money and Happiness in Costa Rica to be a mix of travel and class content about well-being.
Microwave frying can help lower oil content for healthier French fries
Fried foods are popular with consumers, but their high fat content can contribute to health challenges like obesity and hypertension. If the food industry can offer lower-fat options of similar quality, people can more easily make health-conscious food choices.
An ACES alum with a hunger to serve
When Steve Ericson walked into the Illinois State Fair as a young exhibitor in 1974, he couldn’t have imagined that one day he’d return, not to show livestock, but to help connect Illinois-grown food to families in need. Now, as Executive Director of Feeding Illinois, Ericson turns his lifelong connection to agriculture into a mission to fight hunger across the state.
Illinois team tests the costs, benefits of agrivoltaics across the Midwest
In a world where increasing demands for food security and energy strain existing resources, scientists are looking for new ways to maximize both. One potential option, agrivoltaics, integrates solar photovoltaics with crops. A new study examines the agricultural and economic trade-offs that come with installing solar arrays on working farms across the Midwest.
Comprehensive genetic library for soybean cyst nematode could renew resistance, profitability for soybean growers
Few pests eat away at farm profitability as much as soybean cyst nematode (SCN). Causing at least $1.5 billion in yield losses annually, it’s soybean’s single biggest threat. Unfortunately, soybean’s most effective tool, genetic resistance, is starting to fail.
Study shows 20-year decline in nitrate pollution across portions of the Mississippi River Basin
A new accounting of nitrogen pollution in the Mississippi-Atchafalaya River Basin (MARB) reveals a significant decline in recent decades, suggesting positive momentum for water quality goals in local watersheds and the Gulf.
Nanoplastics can interact with Salmonella to affect food safety, study shows
Plastic products are ubiquitous in our food supply chain, shedding microplastics into every part of the human ecosystem. As they degrade, microplastics break down into even smaller fragments called nanoplastics — tiny particles that can affect biological molecules in ways not fully understood.
Voices of ACES Blog
How 'Humanities in Action' is shaping my path in human development
Growing up, I was an incredibly shy child. I would avoid talking to people at all costs. My mom didn’t like what she was seeing at all. Her solution was to put me in after-school programs where I could talk to other young girls. I wasn’t entirely for this decision at first, but the more I went to these meetings, the more I would find myself talking and participating, something I would have never thought to do before.
Against the Grain: Dr. Salah Issa on Innovating Ag Safety
Dr. Salah Issa’s career in agricultural safety began in an unexpected way. Starting out at a graduate program in Ecological Sciences and Engineering at Purdue University as a self-described “city kid”, he was unaware that agricultural engineering was even a career option. It wasn’t until he took a course in agrosecurity that the world of agriculture, and its hazards, opened up to him.
Gallbladder cancer could soon be detected in blood, study finds
Researchers at Tezpur University in Assam, India, working with scientists at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign