Research

Brazil’s “Dirty List,” a public registry that names employers found to have violated anti-slavery laws, is a key component of the country’s efforts to combat forced labor. Major meatpackers in Brazil signed sustainable sourcing commitments promising to not purchase cattle directly from ranchers on the Dirty List.

Scientists at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and five other research institutions are five years into a futuristic $25 million project that allows people and plants to communicate and collaborate to meet environmental challenges.

Majestic African antelopes known as gemsbok have been roaming the U.S. southwest since their introduction in the 1960s and 1970s. Brought to New Mexico as game species for hunting, gemsbok quickly settled in, expanding more than 100 kilometers from their introduction point. University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign researchers say that’s due to their exceptional adaptations to arid conditions, which they predict will dramatically expand under climate change.

Peyton Sorensen, a third-year doctoral student at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, has earned a predoctoral fellowship from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture to fund her research. 

When Caitlin Bloomer wrestled the massive Crawzilla crawdad — yes, that’s its actual common name — out of the muck during a bio-survey event in Kentucky, she was convinced it was the largest crayfish ever recorded. 

More than a century ago, the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign welcomed Illinois Extension as a vital partner in its mission to deliver research-backed solutions to the people and industries of Illinois.

Smallholder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa adopt agricultural inputs including fertilizer at a low rate, contributing to low agricultural productivity.

When a baby begins to cry, do you expect its caregiver to soothe it? Most infants do, according to a new study from researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. The study also found an association between the mental health of mothers and infants’ expectations about comforting behavior. 

All over the world, from Oregon’s old-growth forests to Queensland’s eucalyptus groves, creatures depend on trees for shelter. A new analysis from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign suggests that as the climate destabilizes, the world’s trees may become an even more important respite. That’s because, the study finds, trees everywhere buffer their animal tenants from temperature extremes.  

A bacterial protein fragment called corisin drives the process of pulmonary fibrosis by infiltrating and disrupting the cell’s quality-control system, researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and Mie University in Japan found in a new study. Meanwhile, blocking corisin with an antibody impeded the damage.