What began as a doctoral project at U-M is now spreading like red clover across the Great Lakes region to help farmers improve their soil and prevent fertilizer from washing into waterways. The Great Lakes Cover Crops Project officially launched about five years ago. Between then and fall 2025, more than 225 farmers from six states have enrolled nearly 600 fields in the project.

New economic evidence shows migration grows the economies migrants leave behind. Plus: A starlight-splitting instrument bound for the world’s largest telescope and a case for why U-M’s expertise is only as valuable as our willingness to learn. Check out the partnerships, instruments and ideas reshaping how Michigan research gets done.

A research collaboration, including a team of U-M students, recently published a report that dives into an understudied aspect of the changing ice cover on the Great Lakes. The study explores how such changes are affecting recreation, business, and even the identities of coastal communities.

Using machine learning and natural language processing, U-M researchers examined thousands of officer-worn camera recordings and found evidence of underreported police stops, racial disparities in officer interactions, and widespread use of unclear language during consent searches — raising constitutional concerns under the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments.

Lockable phone pouches in middle and high schools may not be impacting test scores or attendance, but they appear to be helping student well-being overall. While studies have been conducted in other countries, a U.S. study led by a U-M researcher provides a more comprehensive assessment of how restrictive phone policies affect students by incorporating teacher and student surveys.

In this pivotal election year, political maps could decide this fall’s winners and losers. Gerrymandering, the practice of drawing electoral districts to favor specific political parties or demographic groups, remains one of the most powerful yet invisible forces determining whose voices and votes truly count. Professor Tyler Simko is fighting back, using artificial intelligence and big data to expose and correct the biases that distort equal representation.

During the historic Artemis II mission, NASA tested a pair of new solar radiation forecasts, developed at University of Michigan Engineering, designed to protect astronauts venturing away from Earth. The 10-day mission concluded with a breathtaking splashdown off the coast of San Diego on April 10.

A common plant fiber — engineered into a gut-sticking gel — may be the missing link that makes immunotherapy work for more cancer patients. U-M researchers are now testing it in clinical trials. Read about this medical advancement as well as other amazing achievements coming from Michigan Research.

When it comes to opinions about paying for, and getting access to, care for older adults, direct experience appears to matter a lot, a new U-M study finds. Research shows levels of concern about costs of long term care, and access to it, are higher among those who are unpaid caregivers to people over 65, compared with those who aren’t.