When international hydrology experts visit the University of Illinois, they often look for the “mighty” Boneyard Creek. They’re shocked to discover that it’s a tiny waterway winding through campus and “not much larger than...
When Heinz von Foerster was a child in Vienna, his grandmother hosted artists, philosophers and politicians, and von Foerster soaked it all in. He brought that same multidisciplinary spirit to Illinois in 1949 as...
Oscar Lewis was no stranger to controversy—or to accolades and honors. This was certainly the case after the U of I professor of anthropology published The Children of Sánchez in 1961. Critics bristled at...
When organizers of the Armour Institute in Chicago were seeking “the best man” to head their new library in 1893, they sought the advice of librarian Melvil Dewey, who created the Dewey Decimal Classification...
In October 1969, students protesting the Vietnam War charged toward the Morrow Plots located in the heart of the UI campus. In a bit of guerilla theater, they planned to run through the historic...
The Antarctic toothfish, which can weigh more than 200 pounds and grow as long as 5 feet, moves easily through the crystal-clear water beneath the thick ice. The toothfish, like other fish in these...
Beyond the main doors of Bevier Hall, the stairs rise to a landing adorned with a large painting of a larger-than-life woman—Isabel Bevier, for whom the building is named. In 1900, Bevier arrived at...
When Nathan Ricker graduated from the University of Illinois in 1873, he became the first person in the nation to receive a degree in architecture. He might have achieved that distinction even sooner but...
The world had not seen anything like it before. It was the 1920s and transportation planners had decided to build a tunnel directly below the Hudson River, connecting New York City with New Jersey....
Some called it “sonic surgery,” but William J. Fry described it as “surgery by sound.” Fry, a UI professor of physics, was one of the first to develop a system using ultrasound for surgical...
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