Research

Illinois may be famous for being the Land of Lincoln and home of “Da Bears,” but few are familiar with one of its lesser claims to fame, which lies underground.

The commercial cultivation of horseradish in Southern Illinois took root in the 1850s, when German immigrant farmers discovered that the region’s sandy, nutrient-rich soil created an ideal environment for the unassuming crop to thrive. 

Life on Mars may sound like science fiction for some, but for Luis Rodríguez, it marked the beginning stages of his career in biosystems research. He laughs, remembering his first major project after completing his Ph.D. in industrial and systems engineering and bioresource engineering at Rutgers University: designing reliable zero-waste ecosystems capable of supporting crop production on Mars at NASA’s Johnson Space Center. 

Fertility rates in much of Sub-Saharan Africa remain high, despite declining child mortality and improved access to contraceptives and female education — factors that generally lead to smaller families and improved economic conditions in developing countries.

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign corn breeders know profitability is about more than yield.

Bathed in an otherworldly purple glow, James Santiago points to a curled leaf at the base of a spinach plant. “This is an issue we saw all the time at the vertical farm where I worked in Virginia. We don't know exactly what's going on, but I think it has something to do with water stress, which is weird because the plants are growing in water.”

The energy that plants capture from sunlight through photosynthesis provides the source of nearly all of humanity’s food. Yet the process of photosynthesis has inefficiencies that limit crop productivity, especially in a rapidly changing world. A new review by University of Illinois scientists and collaborators reflects on how improving photosynthesis can bring us closer to food security.

The U.S. is largely self-sufficient in agricultural food production, supported by a well-developed storage and interstate trade system. However, extreme weather events put increasing pressure on agriculture, potentially impacting the country’s ability to provide food for its growing population and underscoring the importance of maintaining a resilient food supply chain. 

The ubiquitous plastic beverage bottle makes up about half of plastic waste collected for recycling in the U.S. Most recycled plastic is processed domestically, but a portion is traded overseas.

Open-access biological databases have long served as pillars for life science research, providing freely accessible data that drive discovery across fields like genetics, ecology, and neuroscience.

 Scientists have long known that Black women with estrogen-receptor positive breast cancer and those who live in disadvantaged neighborhoods often have more aggressive forms of the disease and poorer survival rates. However, the underlying factors that link these outcomes with women’s living environments have remained unclear.