URBANA, Ill. March 29, 2021 – Ever thought about buying or building a bat box to help bats? Think carefully about the design and where you put it, University of Illinois researchers say. Here’s why: Bats and their pups can overheat and die in poorly designed or placed bat boxes, and in a warming climate, […]
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Posted inEnviro
Indigenous tribe that worships tigers helps protect the species
URBANA, Ill. January 29, 2021– Spirituality isn’t usually considered a factor in conservation efforts. But indigenous peoples who worship wildlife may be helping protect endangered species from extinction. The Soligas tribe in the Western Ghats of India reveres the Bengal tiger. Their coexistence in India’s Biligiri Rangaswamy Temple Tiger Reserve has helped the tiger population flourish, says Shadi […]
Posted inEnviro
Human activity on rivers outpaces, compounds effects of climate change
June 19, 2020 – The livelihoods of millions of people living along the world’s biggest river systems are under threat by a range of stressors caused by the daily economic, societal and political activity of humans – in addition to the long-term effects of climate change, researchers report. A new paper by University of Illinois […]
Posted inSci/Tech
Do COVID-19 apps protect your privacy?
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. June 8, 2020 – Mobile apps are helping track the spread of COVID-19 to contain the outbreak, but the apps also raise concerns about personal privacy. Information sciences professor Masooda Bashir and doctoral student Tanusree Sharma at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign analyzed 50 COVID-19-related apps available in the Google Play store […]
Posted inWorld
International research community calls for recognition of forests’ role in human prosperity
URBANA, Ill. Oct. 21, 2019 – World leaders convened for the UN Climate Summit in September amid dire projections of climate instability. The problem is multifaceted, of course, but a recent IPCC report identifies deforestation as the main driver of land-based greenhouse gas emissions, which comprise almost a quarter of all human contributions to climate […]
Posted inSci/Tech
North American checklist identifies the fungus among us
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. Nov. 28, 2018 – Some fungi are smelly and coated in mucus. Others have gills that glow in the dark. Some are delicious; others, poisonous. Some spur euphoria when ingested. Some produce antibiotics. All of these fungi – and hundreds of thousands, if not millions, more – occur in North America. Of those […]
Posted inSci/Tech
Study shows diminished but ‘robust’ link between union decline, rise of inequality
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. Aug. 22, 2018 – Numerous studies have linked the decline of unions with the rise in wage inequality, but some prominent ones have come with questions. The questions arose because those studies relied on cross-sectional snapshots of the population, which could not follow individuals or their careers over time. That meant they could […]
Posted inSci/Tech
Cowbird moms choosy when selecting foster parents for their young
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. May 23, 2017 – Brown-headed cowbirds are unconventional mothers. Rather than building nests and nurturing their chicks, they lay their eggs in the nests of other species, leaving their young ones to compete for resources with the foster parents’ own hatchlings. Despite their reputation as uncaring, absentee moms, cowbird mothers are capable of […]