University of Michigan Athletic Director Dave Brandon sounded more like a corporate turnaround specialist than jock in a recent presentation at the state capital, describing the transformation of U-M sports during his two-year tenure from a fractious culture that clung to the past to one that is working together and embracing change. And, he didn’t fail to mention, winning football games.

On May 21, the University of Michigan Law School, in conjunction with the Center on Wrongful Convictions at the Northwestern University School of Law, released the first-ever National Registry of Exonerations. The searchable online database is the most credible and comprehensive resource on wrongful convictions in the United States. Peter Neufeld, the co-founder and co-director of the Innocence Project, has called it the “Wikipedia of Innocence.” The registry, which can be viewed at exonerationregistry.org, currently counts 891 cases since 1989, the year of the first exoneration achieved using DNA.

Using DNA, fossils, and other clues, scientists have been able to work out the relationships of many groups of organisms, making rough sketches of the entire tree of life—a tree, that is, with about two million branches. Stephen A. Smith, a member of the team from the University of Michigan, hopes the Open Tree of Life will allow scientists to tackle some major questions, including some that extend beyond evolutionary biology.

Married men may eat their broccoli to keep the peace at dinner, but they may be likely to binge on unhealthy food when they leave the house, a recent study by University of Michigan researchers found. The problem is that wives are making changes to couples’ diets without consulting their husbands, the authors of the study suggest. To get men on board with healthy eating, the authors say, communication may be key.

The building boom at the University of Michigan shows no sign of abating, with the tab for current and upcoming construction at the Ann Arbor campus edging past $1 billion.The school is undertaking $460 million in current construction projects—including the $163 million retrofitting of the old C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital and Von Voigtlander Women’s Hospital facility and the $116 million renovation of the 800-plus-bed East Quadrangle residence hall. Another half-billion worth of construction is on the horizon.

Surgeons in Michigan have found a new way to cut hospital waste, using management practices from the auto industry to pare down turnaround time between surgeries and halve overtime hours. In the first study of its kind, head and neck surgeons at the University of Michigan applied lean management techniques—most famously used by Toyota Motor Corporation—to the operating room.

Can off-the-shelf video games spark a breakthrough in treating autism? That’s the question researchers are asking as educators quietly discover the therapeutic uses of motion-controlled sensors. The devices are popular with gamers: Microsoft recently reported it had sold more than 19 million Kinect motion-sensor units since introducing it in November 2010. Now autism researchers, teachers, and therapists are installing them in classrooms and clinics, reporting promising results for a fraction of the price of typical equipment.