Devin Edmonds isn’t like most amphibian hobbyists. For one thing, he’s now a trained herpetologist, studying frogs and turtles as a doctoral student at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

You’ve probably heard of product recalls involving lettuce, spinach, or other leafy greens. Consuming these popular vegetables is among the main causes of food poisoning, affecting thousands of people every year. Leafy greens can become contaminated with pathogenic E. coli or other bacteria through splashes of soil or contaminated irrigation water in the field, or through processing and handling.

In the upper reaches of a Minnesota watershed, the water is so full of dissolved nitrous oxide that University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign hydrologist Zhongjie Yu

If you’re a crayfish, location is everything. Here in North America, times are tough for the mini crustaceans. Habitat destruction, damming, and pollution have decimated local populations, such that many species are in dire need of help. But when some of the same species were exported to Europe, they found a much more favorable environment and are thriving. A little too much — American expats bully European crayfish and spread disease, driving many local species to the brink.

Fungal contamination of cereal grains poses a substantial threat to food security and public health while causing hundreds of millions of dollars in economic losses annually.

A few years back, a group of weed scientists showed that soil-applied herbicides are less effective against agricultural weeds in the context of our changing climate.

Microbes might be invisible, but their teeming masses influence everything from agriculture to the environment to the food we eat. That’s why experience working with microbes has become a must for countless industries.

What if farmers could not only prevent excess phosphorus from polluting downstream waterways, but also recycle that nutrient as a slow-release fertilizer, all without spending a lot of money? In a first-of-its-kind field study, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign researchers show it’s possible and economical. 

Jordyn Chace is a huge fan of classic murder mysteries. As a geneticist and wildlife biologist, she considers herself an investigator.

But instead of solving human crimes, she uncovers clues that may help contribute to the recovery of a once-common North American mammal: the little brown bat, Myotis lucifugus, a species now on the brink of extinction.

Most corn and soybean fields in the U.S. are planted with herbicide-resistant crop varieties. However, the evolution of superweeds that have developed resistance to common herbicides is jeopardizing current weed management strategies. Agricultural robotics for mechanical weeding is an emerging technology that could potentially provide a solution.