Innovation

  1. Cracking in lithium-ion batteries speeds up electric vehicle charging

    Rather than being solely detrimental, cracks in the positive electrode of lithium-ion batteries reduce battery charge time, a U-M research team reports. This runs counter to the view of many manufacturers, who try to minimize cracking because it decreases battery longevity.

  2. Largest U.S. investment in particle self-assembly seeks to deliver on nanotechnology’s promise

    With applications in transportation, energy, health care and more, the center includes African universities and creates opportunities for overlooked talent in the U.S.

  3. Dreaming and brain waves

    Professor Omar Ahmed’s lab explores how running, dreaming, and sleep are informed by communication between the left and right brain hemispheres.

  4. Researchers flash forward with psychedelics at M-PsyC

    U-M medical researchers are probing the healing power of 1960s-era hallucinogenic drugs to develop revolutionary treatments for chronic pain, depression, anxiety, psychiatric disorders, and other medical conditions.

  5. An eye on the sky

    The Extremely Large Telescope (or ELT) could change everything we know about the universe — including how the first galaxies were created and where life on other planets may exist. And U-M is the only U.S. university involved in helping develop it.

  6. A surprisingly simple way to foil car thieves

    Skyrocketing vehicle theft rates have drawn attention to an inconvenient truth: the increasing amount of technology in our vehicles can make them more vulnerable to hacking or theft. U-M researchers have found a solution, though, leveraging perhaps the lowest-tech feature of today’s vehicles — the cigarette lighter.

  7. Unlocking the mind

    Imagine an everyday brain-computer interface, where brain activity is translated into actionable insights. Two U-M alums behind the startup Neurable plan to make neurotechnology easily accessible to everyone, everywhere, so humans can participate in the world in a completely new way.

  8. U-M Health performs its first heart transplant after cardiac death

    For decades, surgical teams could only transplant hearts from patients who were irreversibly brain dead yet still had a beating heart. But physicians at U-M’s Frankel Cardiovascular Center have now completed a heart transplant using an organ from a donor who had recently died.

  9. A promising new target for antibiotics

    In an effort to prevent another global health crisis, scientists have discovered a promising target for new and improved antibiotics. Riboswitches are small stretches of RNA that regulate a process necessary for the production of proteins by the bacterial cell.