As climate change continues to alter weather patterns around the planet including the Midwest, researchers at Michigan State University are modeling the impact on crops such as corn.
Michigan State University’s Facility for Rare Isotope Beams (FRIB), a user facility for the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science, opened its doors to discovery with a ribbon-cutting ceremony on 2 May. U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer M. Granholm and MSU President Samuel L. Stanley Jr., M.D., cut the ribbon to officially mark the start of FRIB’s scientific mission.
Thanks to a lesser-known feature of microbiology, Michigan State University researchers have helped open a door that could lead to medicines, vitamins and more being made at lower costs and with improved efficiency.
Michigan State University’s Seth Jacobson and colleagues in China and France have unveiled a new theory that could help solve a galactic mystery of how our solar system evolved. Specifically, how did the gas giants — Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune — end up where they are, orbiting the sun like they do?
Working with tiny bacteria, Michigan State University researchers led by Lee Kroos have made a discovery that could have big implications for biology.
The researchers revealed a new way that nature can inhibit or switch off important proteins known as intramembrane proteases — pronounced “pro tea aces” — which the team reported April 26th in the journal eLife.
An international study led by Michigan State University scholars has provided a "dismal picture" of mathematics textbooks across the globe—and it has serious implications for the next generation of learners.
Climate change doesn’t just mean warmer weather. Cold spells can hit unusual lows, too, and the fluctuations between warm and chilly are becoming more extreme.
Cancer alters the circadian rhythm functions, which results in fatigue and disrupted sleep/wake patterns. Dr. Horng-Shiuann Wu studies how using extremely bright light to “reset” a female breast cancer patient’s internal clock can help them sleep better.
Michigan State University’s Thomas D. Sharkey published new research describing what they call a pilot light for photosynthesis. By understanding how plants stay primed to produce sugars in varying degrees of sunlight, Spartans are working toward a future when growers can raise more efficient crops used as food and biofuel.
A recent study by an interdisciplinary team of MSU researchers shows that watching a little TV or streaming something on your iPad or smartphone can actually be beneficial to night-time slumber. Allison Eden of the MSU College of Communication Arts and Sciences said she was surprised by the research results, but intrigued by support for a more nuanced view on the effects of media on sleep.
Artificial intelligence has aided one Michigan State University researcher and his team in finding answers about the new omicron variant. The MSU researchers report omicron and other variants are evolving increased infectivity and antibody resistance according to an artificial intelligence model. Therefore, new vaccines and antibody therapies are needed, the researchers say.
A blood test could help doctors predict which pregnant women are likely to develop a life-threatening condition called pre-eclampsia, a study co-authored by a Michigan State University researcher found.
New research from Michigan State University and the Ohio State University reveals how CEO narcissism during a crisis can influence the behavior of middle managers, which may have implications for the firm overall.
In collaboration with an international team of researchers, Michigan State University has helped create the world’s lightest version, or isotope, of magnesium to date. Forged at the National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory at MSU, or NSCL, this isotope is so unstable, it falls apart before scientists can measure it directly. Yet this isotope that isn’t keen on existing can help researchers better understand how the atoms that define our existence are made.
The new Netflix movie “Don’t Look Up” may be a fictional comedy but in real life Michigan State University’s researchers have been leading breakthrough research on asteroid deflection for years.
The Michigan State University researchers who created the first miniature human heart model with primary heart cell types, vascular tissue and a functioning structure of chambers have taken another step forward: developing new therapies for congenital heart disease.
As public health leaders worldwide scramble to contain COVID-19’s delta variant, researchers at Michigan State University know what can provide early signs of the virus and help with critical decisions — sewage.
Stephan Carey, associate chairperson in the Department of Small Animal Clinical Sciences at Michigan State University’s College of Veterinary Medicine, answers questions about the warning signs of kennel cough and explaining how its outbreak is connected to the COVID-19 pandemic.
As we live and breathe, ancient-looking fish known as bowfin are guarding genetic secrets that that can help unravel humanity’s evolutionary history and better understand its health.
Closing the racial gap in health outcomes and COVID-19 vaccination rates in Michigan as well as other states is the aim of Michigan State University researchers funded through a $6 million, one-year grant from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
If heart attacks blared a warning signal, patients would have a better chance of avoiding them. That’s the idea behind a new imaging technique developed by a Spartan-led team of researchers.
One in ten babies is born prematurely in the United States, but a blood test during a routine prenatal visit could reveal if a woman is at risk of a preterm delivery, according to a Michigan State University researcher.
“Preterm births are common,” said Hanne Hoffmann, an assistant professor in the Department of Animal Science in the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources. “If we know the mother is at risk for a preterm birth, her doctor can monitor her more closely.”
In the wild, inheriting advantageous physical traits may be the difference between a long life and a short one. But for the spotted hyena, another kind of inheritance, one that has nothing to do with genetics, turns out to be extremely important for health and longevity — social networks inherited from their mothers.
Diagnosing a rare medical condition is difficult. Identifying a treatment for it can take years of trial and error. In a serendipitous intersection of research expertise, an ill patient in this case a child and innovative technology, Bachmann-Bupp Syndrome has gone from a list of symptoms to a successful treatment in just 16 months.
A Michigan State University researcher is leading an international team of scientists to develop a low-cost, practical biopolymer dressing that helps heal these wounds.
Michigan State University ecologists led an international research partnership of professional and volunteer scientists to reveal new insights into what’s driving the already-dwindling population of eastern monarch butterflies even lower.
While invasive zebra mussels consume small plant-like organisms called phytoplankton, Michigan State University researchers discovered during a long-term study that zebra mussels can actually increase Microcystis, a type of phytoplankton known as “blue-green algae” or cyanobacteria, that forms harmful floating blooms.
The original Star Trek television series took place in a future when space is the final frontier, but humanity hasn’t reached that point quite yet. As researchers like Michigan State University entomologists Sarah Smith and Anthony Cognato are reminding us, there’s still plenty to discover right here on Earth.
Working in Central and South America, the duo discovered more than three dozen species of ambrosia beetles — beetles that eat ambrosia fungus — previously unknown to science. Smith and Cognato described these new species on June 16 in the journal ZooKeys.
It can be easy to forget that the human skin is an organ. It’s also the largest one and it’s exposed, charged with keeping our inner biology safe from the perils of the outside world.
But Michigan State University’s Sangbum Park is someone who never takes skin or its biological functions for granted. He’s studying skin at the cellular level to better understand it and help us support it when it’s fighting injury, infection or disease.
New research from MSU shows that an infant’s gut microbiome could contain clues to help monitor and support healthy neurological development
Why do some babies react to perceived danger more than others? According to new research from Michigan State University and the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, part of the answer may be found in a surprising place: an infant’s digestive system.
When the Indianapolis 500 commences on May 30, it will be the first in the race’s 105-year history to feature a female-forward group of a driver, owner and team. It is a big step in the sport’s commitment to improving equality and inclusion—and research from Michigan State University is helping define that path.
If there’s one take-home message for the general public about the coronavirus vaccines approved in the U.S., it’s that they are remarkably effective. But Michigan State University’s Morteza Mahmoudi is raising awareness about an important subtlety: The vaccines developed by Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech appear to work slightly better for men than for women.
During a 15-year study of wild bees visiting blueberry fields during their blooming season, researchers caught an unexpected glimpse of how extreme weather events can impact bee populations highlighting the need for more long-term studies, says a Michigan State University researcher.
As climate change heats up the air and land making them hotter and dryer, warmer nighttime temperatures make it more difficult to grow beans -- a critical source of protein for populations. Researchers are working against this to build more resilient beans.
An acute loss of smell is one of the most common symptoms of COVID-19, but for two decades it has been linked to other maladies among them Parkinson’s disease and dementia. Now, a poor sense of smell may signify a higher risk of pneumonia in older adults, says a team of Michigan State University researchers.
Social media may make it easier for people to engage online, but I does not provide certain benefits of real-life human interactions, says a Michigan State University researcher.
Tomorrow’s cutting-edge technology will need electronics that can tolerate extreme conditions. That’s why a group of researchers led by Michigan State University’s Jason Nicholas is building stronger circuits today. Nicholas and his team have developed more heat resilient silver circuitry with an assist from nickel. The team described the work, which was funded by the U.S. Department of Energy Solid Oxide Fuel Cell Program, on April 15 in the journal Scripta Materialia. The types of devices that the MSU team is working to benefit — next-generation fuel cells, high-temperature semiconductors and solid oxide electrolysis cells — could have applications in the auto, energy and aerospace industries.
Nine of the hottest years in human history have occurred in the past decade. Without a major shift in this climate trajectory, the future of life on Earth is in question, which poses a new question: Should humans, whose fossil fueled society is driving climate change, use technology to put the brakes on global warming?
Michigan State University community ecologist Phoebe Zarnetske is co-lead of the Climate Intervention Biology Working Group, a team of internationally recognized experts in climate science and ecology that is bringing science to bear on the question and consequences of geoengineering a cooler Earth.
Just 51% of Americans expressed a clear willingness to take the COVID-19 vaccine compared to 71% of residents in the United Kingdom, according to a new study conducted by Michigan State University's Quello Center during the first nine months of the pandemic. “The data suggests that due to the confusion that existed in American politics, with even our leaders at the highest levels casting doubt on the pandemic, the scientific message was muddled in the U.S., whereas in the U.K. there was a unifying voice,” said Johannes Bauer, director of MSU’s Quello Center and co-principal investigator on the research.
Third grade literacy has improved in Michigan according to a new report on Michigan’s Read by Grade 3 law from Michigan State University’s Education Policy Innovation Collaborative, the strategic research partner of the Michigan Department of Education. But progress is threatened because of insufficient targeted funding and concerns that students have fallen behind during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Normally, electron antineutrino would zip right through the Earth at the speed of light as if it weren’t even there. But this particle just so happened to smash into an electron deep inside the South Pole’s glacial ice, and was caught by the IceCube Neutrino Observatory. This enabled IceCube to make the first ever detection of a Glashow resonance event, a phenomenon predicted 60 years ago by Nobel laureate physicist Sheldon Glashow.