URBANA, Ill. – Ashli Trudeau wrapped her hand around the little bird ever so gently, carefully following instructions to keep the American Goldfinch safe. She could feel the bird’s tiny feathery heart racing against her fingers, and her own skipped a beat.

“Its feathers were one of the softest things I have ever felt,” she recalls. “I only held the bird for 10 or 15 seconds, but that memory will stay with me forever.”

URBANA, Ill. – We don’t know precisely how hot things will get as climate change marches on, but there’s reason to believe animals in the tropics may not fare as well as their temperate relatives. Many scientists think tropical animals, because they’re accustomed to a more stable thermal environment, may be pushed beyond their limits quickly as temperatures soar. And that could lead to massive species loss. 

URBANA, Ill. – The transition to middle school is undeniably tough for many sixth-graders, even in the best of times. Mounting academic demands, along with changes in peer dynamics and the onset of puberty, result in a predictable and sometimes irreversible slump in academic performance.

A new University of Illinois study suggests an unexpected but potentially potent remedy: trees.

URBANA, Ill. – Continuing its legacy of leadership in the area of sustainable agriculture, the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences (ACES) at the University of Illinois is pleased to announce a generous gift of aerial imagery from Aerial Agronomy, Inc. Two multispectral agricultural data sets, valued at $1.5 million, will be used in teaching and research, including efforts towards estimating soil health and carbon flux from agricultural land in the Midwest.

URBANA, Ill. – Poverty is one of the greatest challenges facing humanity. Globally, one in 10 people lives on less than $1.90 per day. If current trends continue, the World Food Programme predicts the number of hungry people will reach 840 million, or one ninth of the world’s population, by 2030.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – It is snowing again, and I turn to look through the bus window as it slowly pulls into the final stop. I hide my face in my scarf, hoping to stop the cold air sneaking in. It has been almost six years since I moved to the Midwest from Taiwan, but I still cannot deal with winter and snow. Once off the bus, I follow footprints to the Wildlife Veterinary Epidemiology Laboratory and push open the glass door.

URBANA, Ill. – The University of Illinois has been awarded $4.5 million from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) through its “Systems for Monitoring and Analytics for Renewable Transportation Fuels from Agricultural Resources and Management” (SMARTFARM) program. The funding will be used to calculate farm-scale carbon credits, allowing individual farmers to understand the value of their land and practices towards carbon trading markets.

URBANA, Ill. – Imagine a tropical forest and you might conjure up tall trees hung with vines, brightly colored birds, howling monkeys, and … rain. Indeed, precipitation patterns, along with temperature, dictate where tropical forests are distributed around the world, but surprisingly, scientists know very little about the direct effects of rainfall on animals.

MORRIS, Ill. – We are never more conscious of the summer sun than while struggling to unpack a trap full of turtles, watching with resignation as the wind slowly drags us and our kayak across the marsh. We are in Goose Lake Prairie State Natural Area, about 50 miles southwest of Chicago. We visit these wetlands two weeks per month during the field season, which runs from May to October.

CHAMPAIGN COUNTY, Ill. – It’s early evening as I follow the researchers to their work site on the Phillips Tract, just east of Urbana. When we get there, I immediately notice two things: We are standing in a vast grid of prairie plots with neatly mowed paths between them, and there are tents – dozens of dollhouse-sized tents.