Webb Keane, @umichLSA professor of in the Department of Anthropology, discusses in his new book the ethical dilemmas posed by interactions with non-humans and near-humans, including animals and AI. "Rather than drawing the boundary of the moral circle crisply [...] Keane is interested in the circle’s permeability. 'What counts as human?' he asks. 'Where do you draw the line?' And, crucially, 'What lies on the other side?'

"We also argue that the human rights abuses and perils of today’s cobalt mining are new forms of old colonial practices. They strip the land and people of resources without proper pay. They offer green minerals to the global north at the cost of lives in the global south,” says @FinnBrandonMarc, assistant research scientist at @UMSEAS via @ConversationUS

As climate change intensifies pollen seasons across the country, new research from @UMich reveals a connection between pollen exposure and death rates among older adults with breathing problems. The study, published in @PubHealth_BMC, shows that high pollen days aren’t just an inconvenience for allergy sufferers—they could pose serious health risks for vulnerable populations. With pollen seasons growing longer and more intense, understanding these risks has become increasingly urgent for public health officials and health care providers. The study found that high levels of certain pollen, particularly from deciduous trees and ragweed, were linked to increased risk of death from breathing problems. The effects could last up to two weeks after exposure. The findings suggest that exposure to certain types of pollen can increase the risk of death from breathing-related problems, particularly for people with chronic conditions. This is especially concerning given expectations that climate change will exacerbate the severity of pollen seasons in coming years. “As pollen levels continue to rise and seasons get longer, more people may face serious health risks, especially older adults with existing breathing problems,” said Peter Larson, first author of the study and a research investigator in the Department of Epidemiology at the School of Public Health. To study the connection between pollen and serious health risks, researchers from @umichsph, @umisr and @UMengineering analyzed death records in Michigan from 2006 to 2017, focusing on deaths related to breathing problems. They looked at four types of pollen: deciduous tree pollen from trees that lose their leaves, evergreen tree pollen, grass pollen and ragweed pollen. Using advanced computer models, they estimated daily pollen levels across Michigan and studied how exposure to high pollen levels affected death rates over different time periods, from same-day effects to up to two weeks later. While not everyone is equally sensitive to pollen, the findings highlight the importance of tracking pollen levels and taking precautions during high pollen days, especially for older adults with breathing problems, the researchers say. And, they add, with predicted climate change, preparing for the risks will be increasingly important for public health. Additional authors: Allison Steiner, U-M College of Engineering; Marie O’Neill and Carina Gronlund, U-M School of Public Health; Alan Baptist, U-M School of Public Health and Henry Ford Health.

Briana Mezuk, professor of epidemiology @umichsph speaks on human life expectancy and public health. via @PopSci:

RT @umsi: 📰 Are paywalls changing what news gets covered? A new UMSI study finds newspapers cut local news by 5.1% post-paywall, shifting f…

How a University of Michigan chemist, Anne McNeil @MichiganChem, is trying to build on a "happy accident" to create filters that could sieve microplastics out of our drinking water. Listen on the Points North podcast @IPRNewsRadio.

Are Super Bowl cheers bad for your ears? The Super Bowl is America’s most-watched broadcast and also, it seems, the nation’s loudest single event—a distinction that means the cheers, jeers, parties, bars and big screens may be as rough on the eardrums as a defensive end is on a quarterback. Researchers at @UMich and @Apple tackled the topic of Super Bowl noise by analyzing data from the Noise app on Apple Watches of more than 115,000 participants in the Apple Hearing Study. They found that on Super Bowl Sundays vs. the quieter, regular Sundays following the Super Bowls, noise exposure doubled. In the study summary, researchers “encourage people to monitor their noise exposure (using the Noise app on Apple Watch or iPhone app, for instance) and to protect their hearing (by wearing earplugs, for instance) when they attend or watch noisy events to ensure that they can have fun safely.” The ongoing hearing study is believed to be the first to capture an increase in sound from a brief event being simultaneously experienced by people across the U.S. “The Apple Hearing Study shows the tremendous power of crowdsourced data collection across the entire United States and lets us conduct analyses that were simply impossible before the advent of wearable technologies and smart devices,” said noise exposure scientist Richard Neitzel, professor of environmental health sciences and global public health at @umichsph, which leads the research into risks, causes and prevention of increasingly common hearing loss. To get a grasp on the sounds generated by the Super Bowl, researchers compared data from Super Bowl Sundays in the years 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024 to noise levels, measured in decibels, on Sundays following those Super Bowls. They found that sound levels increased by as much as 3 decibels to 68-70 decibels, overall, on days of the big game. For reference, 65 decibels is about as loud as a normal conversation, and 70 decibels is about as loud as a vacuum cleaner. An increase of 3 decibels represents a doubling of sound energy and an increase of 10 decibels represents a tenfold increase in sound energy—neither being a goal if preventing hearing loss is the game plan. “Small changes in decibel levels represent a big change in how much noise our ears are exposed to, and those small changes are barely noticeable to us,” Neitzel said. “It’s important to remember that even small changes in decibel levels that are hardly noticeable can have a big effect on hearing.” When length of exposure time to that noise increases and is sustained, it can be more damaging. On Super Bowl days that was the case, the data showed: Exposure began three hours before the game and lasted until three hours after. The #SuperBowl is the latest focus of the Apple Hearing Study, a data-driven effort started in 2019 to understand how noise affects hearing and overall health and to recommend ways to prevent the health consequences of hearing loss.

Craig Rodriguez-Seijas, assistant professor of psychology @umichLSA, says a federal court's refusal to block a Michigan law that bans conversion therapy on LGBTQ minors follows the determination that conversion therapy is not a recognized practice. via @WEMU891:

Sarah Stillwell, Research Investigator, University of Michigan Institute for Firearm Injury Prevention, on Michigan’s new gun violence prevention laws for schools, including the requirement that all schools form behavioral threat assessment teams. via @michigan_public:

RT @FuturityNews: New tech helps turn seawater into drinking water: #Research #Science @UMich @UMichiganNews

“The hue and cry over the minimum wage is often disproportionate to the actual economic impact — in terms of how the economy broadly is impacted. Firms offset (minimum wage increases) with new revenues, but workers get substantially larger incomes,” said Nirupama Rao, assistant professor of business economics and public policy @MichiganRoss, whose research shows that minimum wage hikes generally benefit lower-wage workers with minimal impacts to independent businesses. via @CNN:

Despite falling wholesale electricity prices over the last year, that doesn’t necessarily mean consumers' actual bills are lower, says Catie Hausman, associate professor of public policy @fordschool. via @Marketplace:

Shannon Murphy, instructional outreach coordinator for the Department of Astronomy @umichLSA, discusses the planet parade that will be visible starting in late January and culminate in an alignment of seven planets Feb. 28. via @BridgeMichigan:

Yun Zhou, assistant professor of sociology @umichLSA comments on China's declining population as it falls for a third consecutive year. via @Reuters:

As newspapers navigate the shifting tides of digital journalism, paywalls have emerged as both saviors of the industry and controversial gatekeepers. A new @UMich study found that paywalls influence content coverage, as newspapers, on average, reduced their local news coverage by 5.1% post-paywall. The study’s researchers interpreted this as a strategic shift toward more widely appealing content. The research appears in the current issue of PNAS Nexus. “The findings underscore the complex trade-offs inherent in paywall adoption, as newspapers balance financial sustainability with journalistic integrity,” said lead author Paramveer Dhillon, U-M assistant professor of information at @umsi. As more online news sources turn to subscription models rather than relying solely on advertising revenue, concerns have arisen that newspapers might focus more on soft news—such as entertainment, lifestyle, sports and human interest—to attract subscribers. “As advertising revenues collapse, news organizations face a critical challenge: They must generate subscription revenue through paywalls to survive, but this may fundamentally alter what news gets covered,” @dhillon_p said. Content that may attract these paying subscribers can often come at the expense of news that serves broader civic needs—particularly local investigative reporting that monitors city councils, tracks public spending and investigates community issues that rarely make national headlines but profoundly impact daily life, he said. Dhillon and colleagues analyzed coverage changes in 17 major regional U.S. newspapers that implemented paywalls between 2006 and 2022. Perhaps surprisingly, many papers published less soft news after adopting paywalls, though the average decline—just 2.2%—was modest. Some of the study’s other findings: - In smaller markets (population less than 500,000), local news coverage decreased by 12.8% post-paywall—nearly triple the average decline—suggesting that market size significantly impacts a newspaper’s ability to sustain public interest journalism. - Markets with younger demographics saw a 19.1% decrease in local coverage, but a 3.5% increase in soft news—indicating that newspapers adjust coverage based on subscriber preferences rather than civic information needs. Overall, while paywalls offer a lifeline, their subtle reshaping of editorial priorities risks gradually degrading the media’s democratic responsibilities, Dhillon said. Collaborating on the study with Dhillon were School of Information doctoral student Anmol Panda and associate professor Libby Hemphill.

Samuel Bagenstos, professor of law @UMichLaw, comments after President Trump ordered HHS to stop all communications until reviewed by one of his appointees. via @HuffPost:

Ahead of a Feb. 4 congressional briefing on #GreatLakes science, @UMich experts are available to speak on trends in policy, weather, water quality and more in the world’s largest freshwater system. Mike Shriberg is a professor of practice and engagement at @UMSEAS and associate director of @CIGLR_UM. CIGLR is co-hosting the briefing and Shriberg will be a panelist. He is also engagement director at Michigan Sea Grant and previously served as Great Lakes regional executive director for the @NWF and co-chair of the Healing Our Waters-Great Lakes Coalition. His expertise is on Great Lakes water policy and politics. “The Great Lakes are the great uniters of the region. But climate change, environmental injustice and partisan politics are pulling at the seams of this unity, creating chaos in the ecosystem and our social systems,” Shriberg said. “The first few months of this new presidential administration and congress will be a test of how unified support is for the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, which has traditionally enjoyed the most bipartisan support of any environmental issue in the region, and perhaps the nation. “Funding for drinking water and wastewater infrastructure has also traditionally enjoyed widespread support but will likely face significant resistance in the current political environment. In addition, I expect the strength of and support for the Clean Water Act, which was passed in large part due to pollution in the Great Lakes, to be severely challenged. Whether the Great Lakes and water protection can continue to be a uniting force in Michigan and across the region will be tested in novel ways over the coming months and years.” -------------------------- Ayumi Fujisaki-Manome is an associate research scientist at the Cooperative Institute for Great Lakes Research at the School for Environment and Sustainability, a collaboration with @NOAA's Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory. She is also an adjunct associate research scientist in climate and space sciences and engineering at the College of Engineering. Her research aims to improve our ability to predict hazardous weather, ice and water events in cold regions to better support coastal communities. “In the Great Lakes region, we are seeing colder-than-normal weather in early-to-mid January. While this has helped lake ice form in limited areas, such as bays, the water surface temperature remains above average due to the much warmer conditions experienced in the past months,” Fujisaki-Manome said. “Sustained cold air is needed for lake ice to develop further and reach levels typical of normal years. The El Niño-Southern Oscillation, whose positive phase usually brings warmer winters to the Great Lakes region, has switched to its negative phase. This shift may indicate the potential for more winter-like weather, with colder conditions. However, it also suggests the possibility of a wetter winter. Historical trends show that winter storms crossing the Great Lakes tend to carry more moisture. This long-term trend, along with potential anomalies, could lead to a wet winter for the region.” -------------------------- Jennifer Read is director of the Water Center in the @GrahamInstitute, which fosters collaborative research that informs the policy and management decisions affecting the Great Lakes and coastal estuarine waters. She was previously assistant director and research coordinator of Michigan Sea Grant and has held positions at the Great Lakes Commission and the Great Lakes Institute for Environmental Research. She currently serves on the advisory board for Great Lakes Blue Accounting and the federal advisory committee for the U.S. Integrated Ocean Observing System. “In the dead of winter, it’s easy to forget that harmful algal blooms, or HABs, remain a pressing concern for the Great Lakes, with blooms detected in Lake Superior for the first time last year,” Read said. “Algal blooms threaten recreation, public health and local economies. “While scientific advancements provide valuable tools to address HABs, eutrophication and other water quality challenges, they cannot solve the problem alone. Protecting Great Lakes water quality requires cross-sector collaboration to address the human behaviors and practices driving pollution. By uniting our efforts, we can safeguard the Great Lakes and ensure clean and accessible water for everyone.” -------------------------- Gregory Dick is director for the Cooperative Institute for Great Lakes Research and director of the Great Lakes Center for Freshwaters and Human Health. He is also an Alfred F. Thurnau Professor at @MichiganEarth and the School for Environment and Sustainability. His research focuses on the role of microorganisms in shaping environmental processes, water quality and biogeochemistry. His lab is currently studying the microbial ecology of harmful cyanobacterial blooms that threaten freshwater ecosystems around the world, using Lake Erie as a natural laboratory. “Harmful algal blooms continue to be a persistent threat to the Great Lakes. In one of the biggest regions of concern, the Western Basin of Lake Erie, monitoring programs now mitigate the harm, and some progress has been made in management of the nutrients that cause algae blooms, but they continue to occur at levels that are unacceptable,” Dick said. “Meanwhile, climate change appears to be exacerbating the issue and facilitating their spread; we now see harmful algal blooms in all five Great Lakes. We are also still working to understand what algal toxins are present, what controls their production, and their impacts on human health.” -------------------------- Silvia Newell is director of Michigan Sea Grant and professor at the School for Environment and Sustainability. She is a nutrient biogeochemist and microbial ecologist whose research focuses on the effects of excess nutrients from fertilizer and wastewater on inland and coastal waters, particularly harmful algal blooms, or HABs. Her current collaborative work in the Lake Erie watershed focuses on engaging stakeholders—farmers, managers and policymakers—to develop realistic pathways for nutrient reduction. “Harmful algal blooms in the western basin of Lake Erie have persisted at medium severity over the last few years,” Newell said. “Overall, dissolved nutrient loading and water discharge to Lake Erie have been declining over the past five years, and precipitation has also decreased during the loading season. “While soluble reactive phosphorus loading from the Maumee River has been lower, the research community is still working to understand how much of the decline is because of reduced discharge compared with implementation of several new management practices in the watershed. The real test of management practices will occur during the next wet year, especially as storms are becoming more intense.” -------------------------- Casey Godwin is an associate research scientist in the School for Environment and Sustainability and part of the Cooperative Institute for Great Lakes Research. His group works closely with NOAA’s Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory on monitoring, experiments and modeling related to harmful algal blooms, hypoxia and changing nutrient dynamics in the lakes. “The timings of ice cover, water temperature and nutrient runoff are rapidly changing and becoming more variable between years. These drivers can affect processes in the lakes and problems including harmful algal blooms and hypoxia, but a historical lack of data and observations between November through March each year limits our ability to quantitatively connect changing winter to those ongoing problems,” Godwin said. “Scientists around the lakes are racing to study processes in winter, but those harsh conditions make it a logistically difficult period of the year to study. The past few years have greatly accelerated our observations of the lakes during the colder months, thanks to collaborative winter sampling by institutions around the lakes, limited sampling aboard vessels when safe to do so, and new instruments that give us samples and measurements even when it would not be possible to venture out on the lakes by boat or on ice.”

RT @umsi: For #DataPrivacyDay on Jan. 28, join UMSI's @floschaub and Sauvik Das of @cmuhcii for a special webinar, where they'll answer you…

RT @SantaJOno: Open Doors International has ranked the University of Michigan #1 among public universities and #2 overall in the U.S. for s…

“Republicans believe Trump’s policies are going to usher in growth, lower inflation in the future, whereas Democrats are quite worried that inflation’s going to come surging back,” said Joanne Hsu, director of the Surveys of Consumers @umisr, on the political divide in consumer spending. via @Marketplace: