The Robert M. Vogel Collection of Historic Images of Engineering & Industry includes nearly 23,000 photographs of civil engineering, industrial processes, and mechanization of the 19th century, as well as over 1,200 prints, books, ephemera and realia.

Using NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, a team of researchers, including astronomers from the University of Michigan, are closing in on the answer to a looming cosmic question. In probing the Flame Nebula, they’re finding out what’s the smallest celestial body that can form on its own from clouds of gas and dust in space.

The project assembles a team of experts from across the country for a mission called STARI — STarlight Acquisition and Reflection toward Interferometry. The goal is to showcase the viability of a new technique for studying exoplanets, or planets outside of our solar system.

For seven years, a CT scanner has been whirring away scanning specimens: snakes, lizards, frogs, bats, rodents, wasps, fish, a whole red fox, an armadillo. Recently the U-M MicroCT Scanning Laboratory completed its 10,000th scan: a 3D image of a wolverine skull, collected in British Columbia in 1948.

It’s like “Knight Rider” meets “Northern Exposure” in a future where AI-equipped mobile clinics help guide medical generalists through unfamiliar diagnoses and procedures. The goal is to widen access to quality health care for rural populations.

A brain-computer interface, surgically placed in a research participant with paralysis in all four limbs, provided him an unprecedented level of control over a virtual quadcopter — just by thinking about moving his unresponsive fingers. Such groundbreaking technology could impact one’s ability to socialize, work, and enjoy recreational activities.

Cutting acid and base treatments from conventional desalination plants could save billions of dollars globally, making seawater a more affordable option for drinking water, say experts at U-M. A study describing the new technology has been published in Nature Water by engineers at Michigan and Rice University.

The effort builds on a recently established research collaboration between the two institutions. A facility in Washtenaw County will house one computing center to support Los Alamos scientists and engineers focused on national security AI challenges. An adjacent academic computing center will align U-M faculty and students with Los Alamos researchers.

The technology works faster and more accurately than current standard of care methods for tumor detection and could be generalized to other pediatric and adult brain tumor diagnoses. U-M neurosurgeons believe it could serve as a foundational model for guiding brain tumor surgery going forward.