ANN ARBOR — U.S. efforts to combat terrorism in Iraq and help Iraqis maintain the territorial integrity of their embattled country need to follow three approaches, according to a University of Michigan expert on politics and values in the Middle East. (more…)
ANN ARBOR — Sooner or later, everyone faces decisions about whether or not to have surgery, take a new medication or have a cancer-screening test.
A new University of Michigan study published in Health Expectations explores the costs and benefits patients say are important in making these kinds of medical decisions, and how those costs and benefits explain what they actually decide to do. (more…)
ANN ARBOR, Mich.— Text messaging is a surprisingly good way to get candid responses to sensitive questions, according to a new study to be presented this week at the annual meeting of the American Association for Public Opinion Research.
“The preliminary results of our study suggest that people are more likely to disclose sensitive information via text messages than in voice interviews,” said Fred Conrad, a cognitive psychologist and director of the Program in Survey Methodology at the University of Michigan Institute for Social Research. (more…)
ANN ARBOR, Mich.— Under the cold clear waters of Lake Huron, University of Michigan researchers have found a five-and-a-half foot-long, pole-shaped piece of wood that is 8,900 years old. The wood, which is tapered and beveled on one side in a way that looks deliberate, may provide important clues to a mysterious period in North American prehistory.
“This was the stage when humans gradually shifted from hunting large mammals like mastodon and caribou to fishing, gathering and agriculture,” said anthropologist John O’Shea. “But because most of the places in this area that prehistoric people lived are now under water, we don’t have good evidence of this important shift itself– just clues from before and after the change. (more…)
ANN ARBOR, Mich.— Angels are everywhere today—on lapel pins, magnetic dashboard figures, keepsake ornaments and in a Pulitzer Prize-winning play. But interest in angels is more than a contemporary fad. According to a University of Michigan historian, angels stirred intense interest in the early years of Christianity as well.
“Just as many people today think of pets as part of their families, many people in the first 500 years of Christianity were convinced that angels were part of their lives,” said Ellen Muehlberger, assistant professor of Near Eastern studies and history at the U-M College of Literature, Science, and the Arts. (more…)
