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Source: https://michigantoday.umich.edu/feed/

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<title>Michigan Today</title>
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<title>Tumor-destroying histotripsy, explained by its inventor: A Q&A with Zhen Xu</title>
<link>https://news.engin.umich.edu/2025/08/tumor-destroying-histotripsy-explained-by-its-inventor-a-qa-with-zhen-xu/</link>
<comments>https://news.engin.umich.edu/2025/08/tumor-destroying-histotripsy-explained-by-its-inventor-a-qa-with-zhen-xu/#respond</comments>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Deborah Holdship]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Fri, 12 Sep 2025 15:49:46 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Innovation]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Research News]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Science and Technology]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[cancer]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[COE]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[health care]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Medicine]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Michigan Medicine]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[sound waves]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://michigantoday.umichsites.org/?p=49170</guid>
<description><![CDATA[U-M scientists have developed a cancer treatment that is non-invasive — no incisions and no harmful side effects — by harnessing sound waves. Using ultrasound technology created at U-M, histotripsy could be a welcome alternative to chemotherapy and radiation.
]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[U-M scientists have developed a cancer treatment that is non-invasive — no incisions and no harmful side effects — by harnessing sound waves. Using ultrasound technology created at U-M, histotripsy could be a welcome alternative to chemotherapy and radiation.
]]></content:encoded>
<wfw:commentRss>https://news.engin.umich.edu/2025/08/tumor-destroying-histotripsy-explained-by-its-inventor-a-qa-with-zhen-xu/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
</item>
<item>
<title>At-home melanoma testing with skin patch test</title>
<link>https://news.umich.edu/at-home-melanoma-testing-with-skin-patch-test/</link>
<comments>https://news.umich.edu/at-home-melanoma-testing-with-skin-patch-test/#respond</comments>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Jim Lynch]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Mon, 08 Sep 2025 16:41:59 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Research News]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Science and Technology]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[cancer]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[melanoma]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Michigan Medicine]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://michigantoday.umichsites.org/?p=49167</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Melanoma testing could one day be done at home with a skin patch and test strip with two lines, similar to COVID-19 home tests, according to U-M researchers. Developed with funding from the National Institutes of Health, the new silicone patch with star-shaped microneedles, called the ExoPatch, distinguished melanoma from healthy skin in mice.
]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[Melanoma testing could one day be done at home with a skin patch and test strip with two lines, similar to COVID-19 home tests, according to U-M researchers. Developed with funding from the National Institutes of Health, the new silicone patch with star-shaped microneedles, called the ExoPatch, distinguished melanoma from healthy skin in mice.
]]></content:encoded>
<wfw:commentRss>https://news.umich.edu/at-home-melanoma-testing-with-skin-patch-test/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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<item>
<title>U-M donors give $886M in fiscal year ’25</title>
<link>https://record.umich.edu/articles/u-m-donors-give-886m-in-fy-25/</link>
<comments>https://record.umich.edu/articles/u-m-donors-give-886m-in-fy-25/#respond</comments>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Deborah Holdship]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Mon, 08 Sep 2025 15:01:30 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Campus Life]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[development]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[fundraising]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[OUD]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://michigantoday.umichsites.org/?p=49165</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Philanthropic activity at U-M was strong in fiscal year 2025, with donors giving $886 million, up 13% from the previous fiscal year. This generous support made FY ’25 the University’s second-highest fundraising year ever. Giving was buoyed by U-M’s launch in October of the most ambitious campaign in public higher education, Look to Michigan, with a $7 billion goal.]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[Philanthropic activity at U-M was strong in fiscal year 2025, with donors giving $886 million, up 13% from the previous fiscal year. This generous support made FY ’25 the University’s second-highest fundraising year ever. Giving was buoyed by U-M’s launch in October of the most ambitious campaign in public higher education, Look to Michigan, with a $7 billion goal.]]></content:encoded>
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<title>Larry Prout Jr.’s story illustrates impact of interprofessional care</title>
<link>https://record.umich.edu/articles/larry-prout-jr-s-story-illustrates-impact-of-interprofessional-care/</link>
<comments>https://record.umich.edu/articles/larry-prout-jr-s-story-illustrates-impact-of-interprofessional-care/#respond</comments>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[UMC Admin]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Mon, 08 Sep 2025 14:56:02 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Research News]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Science and Technology]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Michigan Center for Interprofessional Education]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Michigan Medicine]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[spina bifida]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://michigantoday.umichsites.org/?p=49160</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Diagnosed with spina bifida, short bowel syndrome, and other complex conditions, Larry has received care from more than 15 different clinical teams across C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital. His life has been shaped by moments when people across disciplines came together to listen, collaborate, and do what was best for him. 'His care can’t exist in silos,' says his mother, Kathryn Prout.
]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[Diagnosed with spina bifida, short bowel syndrome, and other complex conditions, Larry has received care from more than 15 different clinical teams across C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital. His life has been shaped by moments when people across disciplines came together to listen, collaborate, and do what was best for him. 'His care can’t exist in silos,' says his mother, Kathryn Prout.
]]></content:encoded>
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<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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<item>
<title>Pure Michigan at risk — The importance of protecting Great Lakes science</title>
<link>https://research.umich.edu/news-and-issues/michigan-research-august-2025/</link>
<comments>https://research.umich.edu/news-and-issues/michigan-research-august-2025/#respond</comments>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[UMC Admin]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Fri, 05 Sep 2025 21:42:25 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Environment]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Research News]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[climate change]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Great Lakes]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[SEAS]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://michigantoday.umichsites.org/?p=49153</guid>
<description><![CDATA[The Great Lakes shape Michigan’s identity, economy, and way of life. With federal support for science in question, the choice is clear: Invest in the research that safeguards our waters — or risk losing decades of progress. In this issue of 'Michigan Research,' U-M experts say the Great Lakes' future depends on the decisions we make today.
]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[The Great Lakes shape Michigan’s identity, economy, and way of life. With federal support for science in question, the choice is clear: Invest in the research that safeguards our waters — or risk losing decades of progress. In this issue of 'Michigan Research,' U-M experts say the Great Lakes' future depends on the decisions we make today.
]]></content:encoded>
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<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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<item>
<title>EVs reduce climate pollution, but by how much? New U-M research has the answer</title>
<link>https://michigantoday.umich.edu/2025/09/04/evs-reduce-climate-pollution-but-by-how-much-new-u-m-research-has-the-answer/</link>
<comments>https://michigantoday.umich.edu/2025/09/04/evs-reduce-climate-pollution-but-by-how-much-new-u-m-research-has-the-answer/#respond</comments>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Matt Davenport]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Thu, 04 Sep 2025 16:35:37 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Environment]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Research News]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Science and Technology]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[autos]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[climate change]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[emissions]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[EVs]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://michigantoday.umichsites.org/?p=49146</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Choosing a more electrified vehicle will reduce drivers’ greenhouse gas emissions, regardless of where they live in the contiguous U.S. A new study estimates emissions per mile driven across 35 combinations of vehicle class and powertrains: conventional gas pickups, hybrid SUVs, and fully electric sedans, among others.
]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[Choosing a more electrified vehicle will reduce drivers’ greenhouse gas emissions, regardless of where they live in the contiguous U.S. A new study estimates emissions per mile driven across 35 combinations of vehicle class and powertrains: conventional gas pickups, hybrid SUVs, and fully electric sedans, among others.
]]></content:encoded>
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<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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<item>
<title>U-M ‘Battery Lab 2.0’ expansion open for innovation</title>
<link>https://news.umich.edu/u-m-battery-lab-2-0-expansion-open-for-innovation/</link>
<comments>https://news.umich.edu/u-m-battery-lab-2-0-expansion-open-for-innovation/#respond</comments>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Jim Lynch]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Thu, 04 Sep 2025 16:26:26 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Innovation]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Research News]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Science and Technology]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[battery lab]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[North Campus]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://michigantoday.umichsites.org/?p=49141</guid>
<description><![CDATA[U-M has expanded its open-access U-M Battery Lab with a second off-campus facility in Ann Arbor. Open to both academic and industry researchers, Battery Lab 2.0 adds 4,000 square feet of lab and production space with a machinery lineup that includes an industry-standard automatic laser welder for assembling battery modules and packs. ]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[U-M has expanded its open-access U-M Battery Lab with a second off-campus facility in Ann Arbor. Open to both academic and industry researchers, Battery Lab 2.0 adds 4,000 square feet of lab and production space with a machinery lineup that includes an industry-standard automatic laser welder for assembling battery modules and packs. ]]></content:encoded>
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<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
</item>
<item>
<title>Keep it moving</title>
<link>https://michigantoday.umich.edu/2025/08/23/keep-it-moving/</link>
<comments>https://michigantoday.umich.edu/2025/08/23/keep-it-moving/#comments</comments>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Deborah Holdship]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Sat, 23 Aug 2025 11:14:39 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Columns]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Editor's Blog]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://michigantoday.umichsites.org/?p=49088</guid>
<description><![CDATA[It's move-in day in the year 1890. Get thee to the railway station and collect that steamer trunk.]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<h2>Pack it in</h2>
It’s a sight that defines the college campus each fall: the harried parent guarding the double-parked car. The elder looks hot, tired, and overwhelmed after a long day hauling the younger’s belongings from the childhood bedroom to the college digs. Each August, it’s the same routine in our little town — just swap out the car, the parent, and the kid to reflect this year’s model.
<div id="attachment_49090" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignright"><a href="https://michigantoday.umich.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/89/2025/08/MomWaitsAtCar-1980.jpg"><img fetchpriority="high" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-49090" class="size-medium wp-image-49090" src="https://michigantoday.umich.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/89/2025/08/MomWaitsAtCar-1980-300x217.jpg" alt="Black and white image, circa 1980, of woman standing by car with open trunk as the frenzy of move-in day unfolds around her." width="300" height="217" srcset="https://michigantoday.umich.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/89/2025/08/MomWaitsAtCar-1980-300x217.jpg 300w, https://michigantoday.umich.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/89/2025/08/MomWaitsAtCar-1980-768x554.jpg 768w, https://michigantoday.umich.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/89/mc-image-cache/2025/08/MomWaitsAtCar-1980.jpg 1000w" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /></a>In 1980, a woman stands by the family car (with open trunk) as the frenzy of move-in day unfolds around her. Is it just me, or does she look kind of sad? (Image courtesy of U-M’s Bentley Historical Library.)</div>
But long before the car craze took over campus, much of the annual move-in frenzy was confined to the Michigan Central Railroad station at 401 Depot St. Today we know it as the Gandy Dancer restaurant, but in 1886, the elegant location opened as a lively hub for some of the earliest scholars arriving in A2.
Detroit architect Frederick Spier, who also designed the original Kelsey Museum (in Newberry Hall on State Street), favored the popular Richardsonian Romanesque style for the station. The building’s exterior featured glacial stones quarried from Four Mile Lake between Chelsea and Dexter and cut at Foster’s Station on Huron River Drive near Maple Road.
The train station’s elegant interior boasted stained-glass windows, red oak ceilings and trim, and French tile floors. Ivy grew up the side of the building and a fountain sparkled just east of the shed where, each fall, burly “baggage smashers” handled thousands of student steamer trunks arriving on campus.
<h2>Junk in the trunk</h2>
For decades the station served as a bustling way station for passing politicians, dignitaries and artists. William Revelli, director of the Michigan Marching Band from 1935–71, enjoyed seeing off many of the musicians who performed on campus, including Victor Borge, Gene Krupa, and Benny Goodman. In 1960, John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon each addressed crowds from their campaign trains. Theodore Roosevelt and William Jennings Bryan had been there before them.
Once the interstate highway system opened cross-country travel to automobiles, train travel declined dramatically. In 1969, the C.A. Muer Corporation purchased the train station from the Penn Central Railroad and converted it into the fine-dining restaurant we’ve come to love. The Gandy Dancer — slang for the early railroad workers who engaged in the delicate dance of laying track — maintains much of the original site’s integrity, right down to the baggage scale that sits in one dining area.
Modern-day travelers now catch the train at Ann Arbor’s far less glamorous Amtrak station, just steps from its elegant ancestor. And those harried parents who’ve successfully placed their offspring in their new homes-away-from-home can now decamp to the Gandy Dancer, not to meet the baggage smashers, but to imbibe a refreshing reward after yet another hectic move-in day.
(Lead image: Michigan Central Railroad station in 1890. Today it is the Gandy Dancer restaurant. Image courtesy of U-M’s Bentley Historical Library.)
]]></content:encoded>
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<slash:comments>1</slash:comments>
</item>
<item>
<title>James Craig Watson, shooting star</title>
<link>https://michigantoday.umich.edu/2025/08/22/james-watson-shooting-star/</link>
<comments>https://michigantoday.umich.edu/2025/08/22/james-watson-shooting-star/#comments</comments>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[James Tobin]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Fri, 22 Aug 2025 21:55:34 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Heritage/Tradition]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[astronomy]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Detroit Observatory]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Faculty]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Franz Brünnow]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[heritage]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[James Craig Watson]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://michigantoday.umichsites.org/?p=49065</guid>
<description><![CDATA[James Craig Watson, second director of U-M's Detroit Observatory, was a gifted young astronomer when astronomy itself was young. Considered by Henry Simmons Frieze to be one of the 'most brilliant man we have ever raised up here,' Watson also was a first-class faker.]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<h2>A genius, for better and worse</h2>
James Craig Watson was a bit like one of the meteors he spotted through Michigan’s first telescope, streaking across the night sky in a flash that vanished almost before you knew you had seen it.
He was a brilliant young astronomer when astronomy itself was young. He was an explorer and a faker. He was a popular man who wronged his friends. He pursued scientific truth and money with equal ardor. To his teacher and mentor, he was a once-in-a-lifetime student; then Watson stole his mentor’s work. To his wife, who helped him study the heavens, a colleague said he was “simply abominable.” 
And yet when he was dead at 42, many mourned and praised him. Henry Simmons Frieze, the classics professor who served the University twice as interim president, said Watson was “the most brilliant man we have ever raised up here.”
<div id="attachment_49069" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><a href="https://michigantoday.umich.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/89/2025/08/Watson-ticket-to-observatory.jpg"><img decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-49069" class="size-medium wp-image-49069" src="https://michigantoday.umich.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/89/2025/08/Watson-ticket-to-observatory-300x150.jpg" alt="An orange ticket with ornate lettering for admittance to the Detroit Observatory in the 1860s." width="300" height="150" srcset="https://michigantoday.umich.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/89/2025/08/Watson-ticket-to-observatory-300x150.jpg 300w, https://michigantoday.umich.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/89/2025/08/Watson-ticket-to-observatory-768x384.jpg 768w, https://michigantoday.umich.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/89/mc-image-cache/2025/08/Watson-ticket-to-observatory.jpg 1000w" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /></a>A ticket to enter the Detroit Observatory. As director, Watson didn’t hand them out easily. (Image courtesy of U-M’s Bentley Historical Library.)</div>
Born in Ontario in 1838, Watson grew up in Ann Arbor, where his teachers realized he was a math prodigy. In his early teens he earned money as a self-taught machinist, then entered U-M at 15. He earned a bachelor’s degree in classical languages but shifted to science. Soon he was training with the German-born astronomer Franz Brünnow, director of the University’s brand new Detroit Observatory (named for the Detroit donors who funded it), the first such installation west of the Appalachians.
For a time, Watson was Brünnow’s only student. When the older man was asked to account for teaching a class of one, Brünnow replied: “That class consists of Watson.” He became Brünnow’s assistant before he completed the master’s degree and soon succeeded him as director of the observatory — and was appointed professor of physics and instructor in mathematics — by the time he was 25.
<h2>Bagging asteroids</h2>
<div id="attachment_49066" style="width: 288px" class="wp-caption alignright"><a href="https://michigantoday.umich.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/89/2025/08/Watson-vintage-portrait-younger-Bentley-Image-Bank.jpg"><img decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-49066" class="size-medium wp-image-49066" src="https://michigantoday.umich.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/89/2025/08/Watson-vintage-portrait-younger-Bentley-Image-Bank-278x300.jpg" alt="A photographic portrait of James C. Watson, 1860." width="278" height="300" srcset="https://michigantoday.umich.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/89/2025/08/Watson-vintage-portrait-younger-Bentley-Image-Bank-278x300.jpg 278w, https://michigantoday.umich.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/89/2025/08/Watson-vintage-portrait-younger-Bentley-Image-Bank-948x1024.jpg 948w, https://michigantoday.umich.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/89/2025/08/Watson-vintage-portrait-younger-Bentley-Image-Bank-768x829.jpg 768w, https://michigantoday.umich.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/89/mc-image-cache/2025/08/Watson-vintage-portrait-younger-Bentley-Image-Bank.jpg 1000w" sizes="(max-width: 278px) 100vw, 278px" /></a>Students said Watson was an easy grader; a student who died mid-semester still got a “pass.” (Image courtesy of U-M’s Bentley Historical Library.)</div>
Watson quickly became an international star in the game that was obsessing astronomers of the day. He called it “bagging asteroids.” He discovered 22 of these space rocks orbiting the sun, many of them through the lens of Michigan’s world-class telescope. He spotted six in 1868 alone. Colleagues attributed his skill in the competition to his meticulous plotting of star charts and a superb memory; he was uncanny in his ability to distinguish an unfamiliar celestial object for ones already known.
Watson ventured to the American West, Egypt, and China to study the skies. For a time it was thought he had bagged the biggest prize in his field — confirmation of the “phantom planet” Vulcan, which astronomers suspected was circling the sun inside the orbit of the first planet, Mercury. In Wyoming, where he traveled with a party (including Thomas Edison) to observe a total eclipse of the sun, Watson thought he spied the fugitive Vulcan racing across the eclipse. As it turned out, what he saw was either a star or an optical illusion — and there is no Vulcan — but the report inflated Watson’s global reputation.
His published findings mounted swiftly, culminating in a textbook, Theoretical Astronomy, that experts and students relied on for 30 years. Honors rained down from both sides of the Atlantic. His most mellifluous recognition: Knight Commander of the Imperial Order of the Medjidie of the Ottoman Empire. After he measured the Pyramids, the Khedive of Egypt loaned him a houseboat to cruise up the Nile.
<h2>‘He does not shrink from adorning himself’</h2>
<div id="attachment_49067" style="width: 288px" class="wp-caption alignright"><a href="https://michigantoday.umich.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/89/2025/08/1-Watson-cartoon-Palladium-Bentley-Image-Bank-2.jpg"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-49067" class=" wp-image-49067" src="https://michigantoday.umich.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/89/2025/08/1-Watson-cartoon-Palladium-Bentley-Image-Bank-2-241x300.jpg" alt="Vintage cartoon of James Watson, being honored by the Ottoman Empire and caricatured by the Palladium, a University of Michigan student publication." width="278" height="346" srcset="https://michigantoday.umich.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/89/2025/08/1-Watson-cartoon-Palladium-Bentley-Image-Bank-2-241x300.jpg 241w, https://michigantoday.umich.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/89/mc-image-cache/2025/08/1-Watson-cartoon-Palladium-Bentley-Image-Bank-2.jpg 680w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 278px) 100vw, 278px" /></a>Watson, honored by the Ottoman Empire and caricatured by the Palladium, a student publication. (Image courtesy of U-M’s Bentley Historical Library)</div>
People liked Watson wherever he went, at least until they got to know him better. Burly and black-bearded, with a booming voice, he made a big impression. He was funny and playful. He bubbled over with self-confidence. As a student, he would decorate his lab notebooks with his own autograph, once appending the title “Astronomer Royal.” In a write-up to promote a telescope he designed, he blythely referred to himself as “one of the greatest astronomers that this country has ever produced to whom … science owes some of its greatest blessings.”
Watson was stingy about letting students use the observatory’s telescopes, but they loved him anyway. (For one thing, he was an easy grader; he once awarded a “pass” to a student who had died mid-semester.) When he asked the University’s Board of Regents to build him a house by the Observatory, they agreed, just to keep him happy.
Yet many associates realized quite soon that something was awry in Watson’s character.
No one had done more for him than his mentor, Professor Brünnow, who nurtured Watson’s prodigious abilities and greased the path to his faculty appointment. But not long after Brünnow left Ann Arbor to teach in Germany, he found himself reading some of his own formulae published under Watson’s name in an American scientific journal. They were straight from Brünnow’s classroom lectures, yet unattributed.
In sadness, Brünnow reported the incident to a former colleague at Michigan. If Watson had asked his permission, Brünnow said, he would have warned his former student that “it would injure his reputation with European Astronomers at least, who would see that he does not shrink from adorning himself with the merits of others.”
<h2>‘Dreadfully in debt’</h2>
<div id="attachment_49068" style="width: 407px" class="wp-caption alignright"><a href="https://michigantoday.umich.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/89/2025/08/2-James-Watson-and-wife-Credit-Find-a-Grave.jpg"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-49068" class=" wp-image-49068" src="https://michigantoday.umich.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/89/2025/08/2-James-Watson-and-wife-Credit-Find-a-Grave-300x251.jpg" alt="Side by side sepia-toned oval portraits of James Watson and his wife, circa 1870." width="397" height="332" srcset="https://michigantoday.umich.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/89/2025/08/2-James-Watson-and-wife-Credit-Find-a-Grave-300x251.jpg 300w, https://michigantoday.umich.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/89/2025/08/2-James-Watson-and-wife-Credit-Find-a-Grave-768x642.jpg 768w, https://michigantoday.umich.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/89/mc-image-cache/2025/08/2-James-Watson-and-wife-Credit-Find-a-Grave.jpg 1000w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 397px) 100vw, 397px" /></a>Watson and his wife, Annette Helena, whom he treated “abominably,” according to a colleague. (Image: FindaGrave.com.)</div>
It became clear, too, that Watson was at least as devoted to feathering his nest as he was to advancing science.
He had barely joined the faculty and gotten married when he bought four lots on South University for $5,000, a very large sum in the 1860s and far more than he could afford. He begged wealthier faculty colleagues for loans. He reneged on deals. An Ann Arborite wrote to a friend that “Prof. Watson’s affairs are much talked of now … He is dreadfully in debt and tradesmen of all kinds are crying out against him … It is a great pity for I suppose no young man ever began life with greater prospects than he did.”
Somehow he sidestepped disaster by pursuing business endeavors on the side. He sold his services as a mathematician to the U.S. Coast Survey. He speculated in real estate. He hawked life insurance.
President Henry Philip Tappan knew Watson well, not least because he was Franz Brünnow’s father-in-law and had founded the Detroit Observatory to help make Michigan’s name. He was flummoxed by the young prodigy’s recklessness.
“I had a free and kind conversation with him … and advised him to devote himself to his proper pursuits,” Tappan wrote later. “He replied that he was bound to make money …. I reminded him that if he were faithful to science, science would take care of him. He replied that he could do both.”
While Watson’s reputation soured at home, it flourished elsewhere, bringing more honors, and in 1879, he left U-M for the University of Wisconsin, which promised him better equipment for new explorations. Just a year later, he contracted peritonitis and died. His remains were returned for burial in Forest Hill Cemetery, within sight of the Detroit Observatory.
He was “one of the most energetic and able men I ever knew,” the Princeton astronomer C.A. Young confided to a friend at Wisconsin after Watson’s death, but “selfish and unscrupulous in pursuing his own interests … There is no need to expose his faults; but they should not be replaced by virtues he did not possess.” 
  
  
(Lead image of James Watson is courtesy of U-M’s Bentley Historical Library. Editorial sources included Patricia S. Whitesell, A Creation of His Own: Tappan’s Detroit Observatory (1998), and Kevin Brown, <a href="https://heritage.umich.edu/stories/vulcans-muddy-light/">“Vulcan’s Muddy Light,”</a> University of Michigan Heritage Project.)
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<item>
<title>A hot take on propaganda</title>
<link>https://michigantoday.umich.edu/2025/08/22/a-hot-take-on-propaganda/</link>
<comments>https://michigantoday.umich.edu/2025/08/22/a-hot-take-on-propaganda/#comments</comments>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Ricky Rood]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Fri, 22 Aug 2025 20:43:50 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Climate Blue]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Columns]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[climate]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[climate science]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[disinformation]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Faculty]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[global warming]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[misinformation]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[propaganda]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://michigantoday.umichsites.org/?p=49057</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Ricky Rood falls through the looking glass as the government reimagines climate science.
]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<h2>Reality check</h2>
As a university professor teaching about climate science, nothing challenged me more than grappling with misinformation, disinformation, propaganda, and lies.
Misinformation is the term for statements that are unintentionally incorrect. It is rampant on social media, where it is often believed and widely distributed.
Disinformation is insidious. It is treacherous, intentional, and easily disguised as misinformation.
Propaganda is organized and systematic, created with the intent to influence and control others. The goal is to convince people to support an ideological, political, or personal agenda.
Propaganda distorts information and sets people up for coercion. This can lead to behaviors that stand in stark contrast with what we know to be true, perhaps just.
As a professor, I had good resources for identifying misinformation and disinformation in my classroom. I taught about logical fallacies — how to identify them, preempt them, and counter them.
However, if people were simply going to lie, and others chose to believe those lies, I lacked effective strategies to counter that attack.
As I neared the end of my teaching career, the organized disinformation increased, seeking to discredit and stigmatize the science of climate change and the efficacy of renewable energy. I worked case studies into the curriculum to satisfy students who wanted to know more about countering disinformation.
But the disinformation turned into propaganda and escalated from one year to the next.
<h2>Down the rabbit hole</h2>
On July 23, 2025, the Department of Energy (DOE) published <a href="https://www.energy.gov/sites/default/files/2025-07/DOE_Critical_Review_of_Impacts_of_GHG_Emissions_on_the_US_Climate_July_2025.pdf">“A Critical Review of Impacts of Greenhouse Gas Emissions on the U.S. Climate.”</a>
To be explicit, this is propaganda with imprimatur of government. And it has been a long time coming.
There have been responses from the science community. There will be many more. For those interested, here is <a href="https://interactive.carbonbrief.org/doe-factcheck/index.html">a compendium of what is wrong with the Critical Review.</a>
I take this column, however, down a different path.
<div id="attachment_49061" style="width: 261px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><a href="https://michigantoday.umich.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/89/2025/08/AliceInWonderlandBookCover.jpg"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-49061" class=" wp-image-49061" src="https://michigantoday.umich.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/89/2025/08/AliceInWonderlandBookCover-200x300.jpg" alt="Book cover of Alice In Wonderland shows young Alice amid a shower of playing cards." width="251" height="377" srcset="https://michigantoday.umich.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/89/2025/08/AliceInWonderlandBookCover-200x300.jpg 200w, https://michigantoday.umich.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/89/mc-image-cache/2025/08/AliceInWonderlandBookCover.jpg 233w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 251px) 100vw, 251px" /></a>The original 1865 edition of “Alice in Wonderland” featured Illustrations By Sir John Tenniel.</div>
It starts with Alice in Wonderland and a scene in which Alice asks the Cheshire Cat:
“Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?”
“That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,” said the Cat.
“I don’t much care where—” said Alice.
“Then it doesn’t matter which way you go,” said the Cat.
“—so long as I get somewhere,” Alice added as an explanation.
“Oh, you’re sure to do that,” said the Cat, “if you only walk long enough.”
Alice felt that this could not be denied, so she tried another question. “What sort of people live about here?”
“In that direction” the Cat said, waving its right paw round, “lives a Hatter. And in that direction,” waving the other paw, “lives a March Hare. Visit either you like: they’re both mad.”
“But I don’t want to go among mad people,” Alice remarked.
“Oh, you can’t help that,” said the Cat. “We’re all mad here. I’m mad. You’re mad.”
The ultimate proof of her madness lies with this logic:
“How do you know I’m mad?” said Alice.
“You must be,” said the Cat, “or you wouldn’t have come here.”
Alice didn’t think that proved it at all; however, she went on, “And how do you know that you’re mad?”
“To begin with,” said the Cat, “a dog’s not mad. You grant that?”
“I suppose so,” said Alice.
“Well, then,” the Cat went on, “you see, a dog growls when it’s angry, and wags its tail when it’s pleased. Now I growl when I’m pleased, and wag my tail when I’m angry. Therefore I’m mad.”
<h2>Curiouser and curiouser</h2>
This logic, this absurdity, this nonsense has remained with me for decades.
No lies are being told. Each sentence makes sense. But as the sentences build from one to the next there is increasing discomfort in the message that is emerging.
We know that it is not right, that it makes no sense.
But what do we do with this?
If we examine what the Cat says, the sentences are short, with narrow focus. The Cat is intent on its words being taken literally. The Cat takes Alice’s words literally. The Cat does not seek context. 
<div id="attachment_49060" style="width: 262px" class="wp-caption alignright"><a href="https://michigantoday.umich.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/89/2025/08/CheshireCat.png"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-49060" class=" wp-image-49060" src="https://michigantoday.umich.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/89/2025/08/CheshireCat-217x300.png" alt="A drawing of Alice in Wonderland and the Cheshire Cat by Sir John Tenniel, 1871" width="252" height="348" srcset="https://michigantoday.umich.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/89/2025/08/CheshireCat-217x300.png 217w, https://michigantoday.umich.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/89/2025/08/CheshireCat-741x1024.png 741w, https://michigantoday.umich.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/89/2025/08/CheshireCat-768x1061.png 768w, https://michigantoday.umich.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/89/mc-image-cache/2025/08/CheshireCat.png 992w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 252px) 100vw, 252px" /></a>Alice in Wonderland and the Cheshire Cat by Sir John Tenniel, 1871.</div>
The Cat poses simple propositions and requests agreement. The Cat lays out the premise that dogs are not mad. Alice ambiguously agrees.
What of Alice? It is clear from her internal narrative that she does not buy the Cat’s conclusions. On the other hand, she does not challenge them in an outspoken way.
Alice posed her first question with, perhaps, absolute uncertainty, asking which way to go without knowing where she wants to go.
Alice is a participant in the nonsense.
Though at this point, Alice may seem resistant to the nonsense, one can reason that if immersed in a culture of nonsense, she might lose contact with the world she has always perceived as right.
<h2>Through the looking glass</h2>
The nature of DOE’s Critical Review has much in common with the Cheshire Cat. Efforts are made to assure that statements are narrow and correct. Any effort on seeking context is also narrow, because if the context is widened the document falls apart. The argument relies on specific observations, specific concepts that are valued above all others.
There is perhaps madness implied, as the work of others is interpreted in the narrow framing of the authors.
The document provides plenty of opportunities for lawyers and politicians to extract simple statements and compel agreement.
<aside class="callout left">The nature of DOE’s Critical Review has much in common with the Cheshire Cat. Efforts are made to assure that statements are narrow and correct. Any effort on seeking context is also narrow, because if the context is widened the document falls apart.</aside>We are easily led to a place, much like Alice’s, where we have to decide: Do we quietly accept that the logic is nonsense and move on with our own counsel? Do we peacefully meld ourselves into the logic of the alternative culture, complete with its smudged view of reality?
Are the issues important enough that we fight the nonsense?
In a large group of people, all of these options exist. All of the choices will occur.
Propaganda is full of premises, images, and reasoning designed to remove complex realities from their context.
Once reality is narrowed, it is easy to ignore all that hangs around it, and to pursue simple, indelicate, incomplete, and badly flawed policies framed as solutions.
It is easy to lie when you dismiss the evidence around you.
The purpose of propaganda is to unleash these flawed solutions. Sometimes this is for personal enrichment. Other times it is to eliminate things leaders hate or view as uncomfortable to their wellbeing.
It can be simply to support the expression of power, the elevation of self.
<h2>Complexity killed the Cat</h2>
<aside class="callout left">The assessments are produced following a process anchored in law. They seek to report results to the public, objectively, rather than through the lens of ideology. The results are not required to align with what we want to believe or want to be true.</aside> I realize there are those who will cast the climate science community as having run its own propaganda campaign for the past four decades. I have heard the <a href="https://openclimate.org/u-s-national-climate-assessments-complete/">National Climate Assessments</a> described as propaganda documents designed to cause fear and anxiety.
In the absurd world — where we dismiss the appeal to reason in favor of the appeal to emotion and the appeal to values — we can cast all of those we disagree with as propagandists.
There are many differences between the Critical Review and the National Climate Assessments.
The National Climate Assessments seek to encompass evidence, place that evidence in context, reconcile inconsistencies, describe uncertainty, and seek critical review. The work takes on the harrowing job of trying to describe and explain our climate’s complexity and the consequences of its warming.
The assessments are produced following a process anchored in law. They seek to report results to the public, objectively, rather than through the lens of ideology.
The results are not required to align with what we want to believe or want to be true.
<h2>Go ask Alice</h2>
I am continually frustrated by my lack of strategies for managing propaganda. I hold on to my self-counsel that there is growing absurdity, and I need to ground myself.
I see the appeal in propaganda framing a simple world, with narrowed truth, that people find more suitable.
I see the requirement that an evidence-based reality, with all of its messiness, ultimately serves our ability to strive, thrive, and survive.
I believe that recognizing the absurdity in propaganda provides value. It makes it easier to remove oneself and avoid being drawn into a world where reality is being distorted.
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