There may not be anything more difficult to evaluate in baseball than a swing. No two swings are alike and there is no “textbook” swing, a blueprint all players should follow. There are pretty swings and there are ugly swings, but neither is guaranteed to work or fail. In an effort to measure and better evaluate swings, engineers at the University of Michigan have been working on a small device—seen in this video—that records reaction time, bat speed, bat control … all sorts of neat stuff.

You can learn a lot from a zombie. At least that’s what a University of Michigan professor of public health hopes her 31 graduate students took away from a recent bizarre, albeit bloody, “zombie apocalypse.”

A recent poll suggests 40 percent of all parents are giving their young children medications to which they should not yet be exposed. The National Poll on Children’s Health, conducted by the C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital of the University of Michigan, found many parents are treating children under the age of four with inappropriate medications. Cough medicines, decongestants and multi-symptom cough and cold medications were all given to the young kids of 40 percent of the parents who participated in the poll, the website Science Recorder learned.

We’ve all heard the saying, “Money doesn’t buy happiness.” But those sayings might be wrong. A new study by U-M economists says money can bring happiness. Is it true?

When it comes to your mental health, it’s true that being alone is better than being in bad company, according to a new study from the University of Michigan. Psychiatrist Dr. Alan Teo, who led the study, found that people with unsupportive or critical spouses were significantly more likely to be depressed than people who were not in a “steady, marriage-like relationship.” The quality of your relationships matters more than quantity when it comes to depression, Teo told NPR.

About 80 students from a Detroit high school braved a wet, chilly spring morning recently to conduct a biodiversity survey on Belle Isle with help from University of Michigan researchers and volunteers. The project involves locating and identifying various animals, mammals, plants, birds, and insects. Organizers say the purpose is to promote local ecological knowledge.

When given the option to either exercise or pay more for their insurance, obese people chose to exercise and stuck with the plan, according to a study published in the journal Translational Behavioral Medicine. “Our evaluation of Blue Care’s incentivized program showed a surprisingly high rate of people who enrolled in the Internet-mediated walking program and stuck with it—even among those who were initially hostile to the idea,” senior author Caroline R. Richardson, M.D., assistant professor in the University of Michigan Department of Family Medicine, said in a statement. “Wellness interventions like this clearly hold significant promise for encouraging physical activity among adults who are obese.”