Rochester Hills residents fight to prevent oil and gas drilling in town
By Danielle Prieur Spring evenings in Rochester Hills, Michigan, have been the same for decades. High school students move in a line in front of the glass windows of the gym. They practice their flag routine to the sound of whistles and the marching band that performs in the parking lot to their right. Their flags […]
The freeze-dried food diet: What Scott Kelly’s year in space can tell us about our gut
By Danielle Prieur Growing up, you might remember trying “astronaut food” like freeze dried ice cream while on a field trip to your local science museum. Now imagine living a whole year on a diet of freeze dried food. That’s exactly what NASA commander and astronaut Scott Kelly did, living on the International Space Station as part of […]
Recipe for modeling a dinosaur…
By Danielle Prieur Erin Fitzgerald and her dinosaur models (Courtesy of Fitzgerald/ University of Chicago) Erin Fitzgerald bends over a cast of a dinosaur as she creates a reptile-like texture for its skin, painting it alternately brown and black. She inserts its mountain lion eyes and glues brown and black feathers on its head. Fitzgerald isn’t […]
The battle between man and machine: AI meets world GO champ
By Danielle Prieur A game of Go will be streamed on YouTube starting March 9 in a match between man and machine. This game pits Korean Lee Sedol, the world Go champion, against AlphaGo, an artificial intelligence agent designed by Google DeepMind. Sedol will play against the AlphaGo computer program whose moves are projected on […]
New toothpaste: turning teeth green—to fight decay
By Danielle Prieur A new toothpaste is preventing decay by staining plaque green to make it easier to remove. Plaque HD, a plaque detection toothpaste, invented by Dr. Lawrence Hier, a Boynton Beach, Florida orthodontist, will be featured at the Chicago Dental Society’s 151st Midwinter Meeting that will beheld at McCormick Place from Feb. 25 […]
A vaccine for drug addiction is in the works
By Danielle Prieur Treating drug addiction with a vaccine might become a solution to combat prescription drug and heroin addiction and the rapid rise in overdose deaths. A vaccine, which has undergone tests in animal subjects so far, holds promise, said Dr. William Compton, deputy director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse. The vaccine […]
Listening to the universe – black holes give us ears to gravitational waves
By Danielle Prieur Scientists detected the gravitational light waves from two colliding black holes more than a billion light-years away. That means it took more than a billion years for that light to reach detectors on Earth. Yet the timing was perfect for physicist Gabriela Gonzalez, a professor at the Louisiana State University’s Department of Physics and […]
Union Station faces air pollution issue, EPA says
By Danielle Prieur Passengers on trains at Chicago’s Union Station are being exposed to high levels of air pollution on Metra and Amtrak trains, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Over a two-week period in July 2015, EPA researchers used portable aerosol monitors to measure microscopic particles in the air around the train platforms […]
How to build a super storm
By Danielle Prieur Jonas, the storm that broke records for snowfall in six states and shut down New York City and Washington D.C., seems like just another “super storm.” Historic tornadoes, hurricanes and floods seem to be plummeting the United States with greater force. But there’s nothing really unusual about Jonas except the amount of […]
Chicago: A City Divided on Dental Care
By Danielle Prieur and Neil Murthy T his is a tale of two clinics. At first glance, it may seem that Drs. Robert Krueger and Susana Torres share much in common. Both are dentists in the Chicago area who have practiced for many years. Both have a passion for their profession and share a special […]
