A study led by the University of Nebraska–Lincoln’s Karl Reinhard was featured in National Geographic on Sept. 21. The article was among 20-plus national news stories featuring Husker faculty and programs in September.
Reinhard, a professor in the School of Natural Resources, recently led an international team that determined that Victoria della Rovere — grand duchess of Tuscany and member of the House of Medici — ingested cloves as medicine shortly before she died in 1694. The team reached the conclusion after identifying pollen from an embalming jar marked with the grand duchess’ name and personal seal. That jar, exhumed from a long-overlooked chamber of the San Lorenzo Basilica in Florence, contained bits of intestinal tissue from della Rovere.
Using light microscopes, researchers at Nebraska found an abundance of pollen, about 20,574 grains per gram, on the tissue. But they weren’t sure what it was at first.
“The cloves family produces pollen that is really, really, really small,” Reinhard told National Geographic.
The researchers were able to precisely identify the grains using an electron microscope. In addition, they found that some of the grains were clumped together, suggesting that the cloves were boiled in water to make a tea.
“The Medici family was among the first to encourage Renaissance folks to plant botanical and medicinal gardens,” Reinhard said in a Nebraska Today interview. “From that perspective, historically, Vittoria might have been reflecting a cultural practice that the Medicis got going during their Renaissance reign.”
The National Geographic story was picked up by MSN.
Other coverage:
Jeffrey Stevens, psychology, was interviewed for a Sept. 1 BTN.com article on his new Canine Cognition and Human Interaction Laboratory and the recent Husker DogFest. The lab will study how dogs think and how humans interact with dogs.
Susan Swearer, educational psychology, was quoted in a Sept. 2 Mashable article on four teens who started anti-bullying campaigns.
Brett Ratcliffe, entomology, was quoted in a Sept. 3 Washington Post article on two researchers who say they felt pressured by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service officials to downplay the threat big business poses to the American burying beetle, an endangered species.
Frans von der Dunk, space law, was quoted in a Sept. 5 Newsweek article about the U.S. Geological Survey expressing interest in mining asteroids, the moon and Mars. He was a recent panelist on Roundtable with David Foster. The topic was the commercialization of space. He was also interviewed by Lawless.tech. The interview was published Sept. 13 and 20.
Hernán Vázquez Miranda, a postdoctoral research associate in the School of Natural Resources, was interviewed for a Sept. 6 Popular Science article on the challenges of protecting museum artifacts. The story came in the aftermath of a Sept. 2 fire at Brazil’s National Museum that damaged or destroyed 20 million artifacts.
Sue Vagts, actuarial science, was interviewed for a Sept. 10 Bankrate.com ranking of most-valuable college majors. Actuarial science was at the top of the list, with an average income of $108,658 and a 2.3 percent unemployment rate.
Andre Maciel, marketing, was highlighted as an expert in a Sept. 11 WalletHub feature on Oktoberfest. He said many beer-festival organizers promote safety by advertising the importance of responsible drinking and partnering with private and public transportation companies.
A research team led by Donald Umstadter, physics, has confirmed a theory that plasma electrons within the path of intense laser-light pulses are almost instantly accelerated to almost the speed of light. Stories on the team’s experiment appeared in Evaluation Engineering, Research and Development, Science Daily, Universe Today and several other media outlets.
Andrea Basche, agronomy and horticulture, appeared on the National Public Radio podcast Science Friday on Sept. 14 to discuss how climate change is impacting soil.
A Sept. 23 SpaceNews article on a Federal Aviation Administration reauthorization bill with some commercial space provisions mentioned a recent Washington, D.C., space law conference hosted by the Space, Cyber and Telecommunications Law program in the University of Nebraska College of Law.
Stephen Morin, chemistry, and his team have developed a simpler, less expensive method for depositing circuits on curved, stretchable and textured surfaces. Research and Development ran an article on the research Sept. 24.
A research team led by the University of Nebraska–Lincoln and Huazhong Agricultural University in China recently discovered two new fatty acids in the oil of the Chinese violet cress. The oil has the potential to replace petroleum or synthetics as an engine lubricant. China Daily ran an article on the discovery Sept. 26.
Dennis Molfese, emeritus professor of psychology, was a contributing author of a study in which researchers identified a brain marker associated with aggression in toddlers. Science Codex published an article on the study Sept. 26.
Midwest Messenger ran a profile on Jenny Rees, Nebraska Extension educator for York and Seward counties, on Sept. 27. Rees earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Nebraska–Lincoln.
A recent study by researchers at the University of Nebraska at Omaha and University of Nebraska–Lincoln found that interventions for youth with the highest rates of school absenteeism were more successful than those for youth with fewer absences. Lindsey Wylie, research coordinator at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, coauthored the study and was quoted in a Sept. 28 article in Science Codex.
The University of Nebraska has received a $250,000 NASA pilot-program grant to create a nationwide network of students, faculty and practitioners interested in space law and policy. The project will be implemented by the Space, Cyber and Telecommunications Law program in the University of Nebraska College of Law. Stories on the grant announcement appeared in nine Nebraska media outlets and more than two dozen others across the United States, including the Houston Chronicle, Kansas City Star and Miami Herald.
Faculty, administration, student and staff appearances in the national media are logged at http://newsroom.unl.edu/inthenews. If you have additions to this list, contact Sean Hagewood at shagewood2@unl.edu or 402-472-8514. If you have suggestions for national news stories, contact Leslie Reed at lreed5@unl.edu or 402-472-2059.
