Following the unexpected death of civil rights activist Erica Garner on Dec. 30, Vice reporter Deborah Douglas delved into how racism can contribute to health problems and shortened lives in a Jan. 2 article. Among her interview subjects was Bridget Goosby, Happold Associate Professor of Sociology at Nebraska. Goosby said low-income black women often experience heart problems and higher rates of obesity and diabetes and that middle-class black women often face social isolation in predominantly white workplaces. She also said black women are more likely than white women to give birth to low-weight or preterm babies.
Paul Blum, Bessey Professor of Biological Sciences at Nebraska and co-founder of startup company Neurocarrus, was quoted in a Jan. 11 Fast Company article on Neurotox, a pain treatment being developed by the startup that doesn't have the addictive properties of opioids. The treatment injects a protein from a class of bacteria called Clostridium botulinum, which is also used in Botox. The protein is naturally good at delivering materials into cells, but the molecules are too large to cross the blood-brain barrier to produce euphoria. Blum's team hopes to test it in people within 18-24 months.
Willa Cather Archive researchers Andrew Jewell, Melissa Homestead, and Emily Rau of the Department of English were interviewed for a Jan. 2 Lincoln Journal Star article on the recent publication of the Nebraska author's private letters. The story was picked up by at least nine other Nebraska media outlets and nearly 100 others in the United States and Canada, including ABCNews.com, Yahoo News and The Washington Post.
A recent study by University of Nebraska-Lincoln psychology researchers Abbey Riemer, Sarah Gervais and David DiLillo found that drinking alcohol makes men more likely to check out a woman's body as opposed to her face, especially if they consider that woman to be unfriendly or unintelligent. The study was featured in Men's Fitness on Jan. 2.
Max Perry Mueller, classics and religious studies, was interviewed for a Jan. 4 Religion News Service article on the expected appointment of Russell M. Nelson as the new leader of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The article later appeared in the Salt Lake Tribune.
Mueller was also quoted in a Jan. 15 Washington Post article on pastors across the United States responding to President Donald Trump's reported vulgarity about less-affluent nations. Mueller gave an account of a sermon by Steve Allen, associate pastor of Grace Chapel in Lincoln. Mueller attends the church. The story was picked up by MSN News and several others across the country.
The university's Extreme Light Laboratory contributed to the exhibition "light" at the KANEKO gallery in Omaha. Articles on the exhibition appeared in The Washington Post, Lincoln Journal Star and Omaha World-Herald.
