Tag Archives: university of michigan

Was Beethoven’s music literally heartfelt?

Music straight from the heart: Could a cardiac arrhythmia have influenced famous works by the musical great?

ANN ARBOR, Mich. —  Could it be that when Ludwig van Beethoven composed some of the greatest masterpieces of all time that he was quite literally following his heart? (more…)

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Most of Earth’s carbon may be hidden in the planet’s inner core, new model suggests

ANN ARBOR — As much as two-thirds of Earth’s carbon may be hidden in the inner core, making it the planet’s largest carbon reservoir, according to a new model that even its backers acknowledge is “provocative and speculative.” (more…)

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Predators and isolation shape the evolution of ‘island tameness,’ providing conservation insights

ANN ARBOR — Charles Darwin noted more than 150 years ago that animals on the Galapagos Islands, including finches and marine iguanas, were more docile than mainland creatures. He attributed this tameness to the fact that there are fewer predators on remote islands. (more…)

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Microbot muscles: Chains of particles assemble and flex

ANN ARBOR — In a step toward robots smaller than a grain of sand, University of Michigan researchers have shown how chains of self-assembling particles could serve as electrically activated muscles in the tiny machines. (more…)

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The new American family: How and why we’ve changed

ANN ARBOR — Most young Americans plan to get married someday, but more than 40 percent of births now occur outside marriage, and the American family itself has become far more diverse and varied. (more…)

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Lake Erie increasingly susceptible to large cyanobacteria blooms

ANN ARBOR — Lake Erie has become increasingly susceptible to large blooms of toxin-producing cyanobacteria since 2002, potentially complicating efforts to rein in the problem in the wake of this year’s Toledo drinking water crisis, according to a new study led by University of Michigan researchers. (more…)

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The water in your bottle might be older than the sun

ANN ARBOR — Up to half of the water on Earth is likely older than the solar system itself, University of Michigan astronomers theorize.

The researchers’ work, published in the current issue of Science, helps to settle a debate about just how far back in galactic history our planet and our solar system’s water formed. Were the molecules in comet ices and terrestrial oceans born with the system itself—in the planet-forming disk of dust and gas that circled the young sun 4.6 billion years ago? Or did the water originate even earlier—in the cold, ancient molecular cloud that spawned the sun and that planet-forming disk? (more…)

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Heritage of Earth’s water gives rise to hopes of life on other planets

A pioneering new study has shown that water found on Earth predates the formation of the sun – raising hopes that life could exist on exoplanets, the planets orbiting other stars in our galaxy.

The ground-breaking research set out to discover the origin of the water that was deposited on the Earth as it formed.

It found that a significant fraction of water found on Earth, and across our solar system, predates the formation of the sun. By showing that water is ‘inherited’ from the environment when a star is born, the international team of scientists believe other exoplanetary systems also had access to an abundance of water during their own formation. (more…)

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