Features

Every time you buckle up, there’s a good chance Michigan State University research is helping keep you safe. With more than 50 faculty across MSU Mobility and the College of Engineering, Spartan researchers are tackling transportation challenges from every angle, including safer roads, stronger vehicles, smarter infrastructure and secure autonomous systems.

On a crisp spring morning in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, a web of tubing threads through a stand of maples. Clear sap drips into collection lines, destined not only for syrup but for research that could reshape medicine, food safety and even the whiskey industry.

As Lake Michigan’s water levels surged between 2014 and 2020, coastal erosion drove a dramatic rise in shoreline armoring—offering protection for property owners but raising new concerns for the lake’s ecosystems.

Researchers at Michigan State University have discovered how to "draw" on demand the crystals used in many crucial technologies, from solar panels and LED lighting to medical imaging. Appearing in the journal ACS Nano, the breakthrough was achieved by striking gold nanoparticles with a single laser pulse.

College of Natural Science plant researchers are racing to build climate-resilient crops before global food systems reach a breaking point.

Michigan State University scientists have pinpointed the molecular “switch” that supercharges sperm for their final sprint to an egg — a breakthrough that could reshape infertility treatments and pave the way for safe, nonhormonal male contraceptives.

For decades, women’s midlife experiences have been largely overlooked by medical research. Despite previous assumptions about midlife mental health risks, relatively little research has systematically investigated the connections between hormonal fluctuations and psychological symptoms.

Digital tools make it easier to visualize how soil properties vary across our fields. Recent research suggests that using management zones to highlight these spatial patterns can help us understand field variations and how to better manage them.

Michigan State University Distinguished Professor Rufus Isaacs and CANR alumna Gabriela Quinlan (Ph.D. ’20), now an Assistant Professor at the University of North Carolina-Greensboro, collaborated with researchers from 19 countries to develop a framework for informing conservation policies to increase the quantity and enhance the quality of pollinator habitat in agricultural landscapes.

Maria Molina, Assistant Professor of Advertising and Public Relations, has been awarded the National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER Award. The five-year grant, totaling more than $500,000, will support Molina's groundbreaking research on human-AI interaction, specifically how people navigate trust and privacy in their use of generative AI systems.