News

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.

Thea Knowles, Ph.D., CCC-SLP, assistant professor in the Department of Communicative Sciences and Disorders at Michigan State University, and her collaborators have been awarded two competitive grants to support their innovative research on communication challenges in Parkinson’s disease and atypical parkinsonism.

What if a soft robot like Baymax in the Disney animated film Big Hero 6 were real? Xiaobo Tan, MSU Foundation Professor and Richard M. Hong Endowed Chair, and his team are working to bring that science fiction to life by designing robots made of soft materials that are safer for both human interaction and delicate objects.

Two recent peer-reviewed studies found that nonimmersive virtual reality, or VR — screen-based programs on devices like laptops or Chromebooks, rather than expensive VR headsets — improved how well students with intellectual and developmental disabilities performed tasks such as cooking on a stove, shopping from a list and using kitchen appliances.