Illinois project takes on quantitative disease resistance in corn
URBANA, Ill. – Like the virus that causes COVID-19, pathogens that attack crops change constantly to evade host immunity, or disease resistance in plant parlance. Sometimes, a single gene makes the difference between a resistant crop and one that’s susceptible. In those cases, the gene typically blocks the pathogen for a while, until the microbe makes a change.
Waiting for the sun to set to find a rare bird
When most people are just getting home from their workdays, I’m about to start mine. I am a researcher studying the breeding behavior of the Eastern whip-poor-will (Antrostomus vociferus), a cryptic bird that is primarily active after sunset as it forages on the wing for moths. So – for the summer, at least – I also am nocturnal.
How intimate partner violence affects custody decisions
URBANA, Ill. – Intimate partner violence (IPV) can have significant implications for the wellbeing of mothers and children during separation and divorce. Yet IPV is often not included in custody cases or factored into court decisions, a new University of Illinois study shows.
How much spring nitrogen to apply? Pre-planting weather may provide a clue
URBANA, Ill. – With the rising cost of nitrogen fertilizer and its impacts on air and water quality, University of Illinois researchers want to help farmers make more informed fertilizer rate decisions. Their latest modeling effort aims to do that by examining the role of pre-growing season weather on soil nitrogen dynamics and end-of-season corn yield.
How mother-youth emotional climate helps adolescents cope with stress
URBANA, Ill. – Transition to middle school can be a stressful time for adolescents. They must adjust to a new peer group and social environment while going through the developmental changes of puberty. A recent University of Illinois study looks at how emotional aspects of parenting can help youth better cope with peer stressors during this transitional period.
Cover crops not enough to improve soil after decades of continuous corn
URBANA, Ill. – Although about 20% of Illinois cropping systems are planted to continuous corn, it’s nearly impossible to find fields planted this way for decades at a time. Yet long-term experiments like one at the University of Illinois, including over 40 years of continuous corn under different nitrogen fertilizer rates, provide incredible learning opportunities and soil management lessons for researchers and farmers alike.
$3.9M USDA NIFA grant funds ‘Farm of the Future’
Urbana, Ill. — The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced today that it is funding a new collaboration between two institutes and a research center at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign that will create an integrated farm of the future in the U.S. Midwest.
Wine as scapegoat in trade disputes means consumers pay the price
URBANA, Ill. – When you sit down for a nice dinner and sip a glass of wine, is your bottle of choice from France, Australia, or South America? Chances are the fine beverage you’re enjoying is imported from a major global wine producer.
Wine is one of the most heavily traded products worldwide. It is also a prime target for import tariffs, even though wine rarely has anything to do with the conflicts that trigger these measures.
Producers and consumers must share burden of global plastic packaging waste
URBANA, Ill. – Plastic packaging waste is everywhere. Our plastic bottles, food wrappings, and grocery bags litter the landscape and pollute the global environment.
The Great Pacific Garbage Patch, an area twice size of Texas, consists of plastic waste from all over the world, carried by currents to converge in the Pacific Ocean near Hawaii. The floating waste breaks down into microplastics, which are consumed by fish and in turn by humans who eat those fish.
Dietary cholesterol worsens inflammation, sickness in mice with influenza
URBANA, Ill. – New research from the University of Illinois suggests high levels of dietary cholesterol make mice sicker when infected with influenza. The study is the first to link cholesterol in the diet with exacerbation of a viral infection.