Michigan Today

Elvis at the end

Just before he died at 42, the King rocked Crisler Arena in a slightly strange and thoroughly unforgettable concert.

The best possible parent

Parents facing such stresses as poverty, incarceration, or mental health issues may pass that stress along to young children, impacting the child’s health for years.
- Education & Society
- Research News
Have a heart

Protect your heart this Valentine’s Day with tips from a Michigan Medicine expert who changed the course of his health with daily exercise.
- Education & Society
From talking the talk to walking the walk

U-M geneticist and researcher at the Life Sciences Institute is the first Saudi woman to be named a Rhodes Scholar. And it all started with a podcast.
Winners take all

Former New York Times columnist Anand Giridharadas delivers a new book that exposes ‘the elite charade of changing the world.’
Forecast 2019

Can industry reverse climate change? Can startups survive the trade war? And what’s up with that ‘nice’ penalty at work? U-M experts explain.
- Research News
Historic gift for Law

Lisa and Christopher Jeffries have committed the largest gift in the school’s history: $33 million to support student scholarships, financial aid, debt management, and more.
- Law & Politics
- Philanthropy

Columns

Editor's Blog
Super exciting

Former Wolverine Tom Brady logs his third consecutive Super Bowl and Michigan Today wraps its 25th podcast. Coincidence?
Talking About Movies
Aesthetics, appeals, and Alfonso

Film scholar Frank Beaver revels in the aesthetics and authenticity of Alfonso Cuarón’s ‘Roma.’
Talking About Books
The road not taken

Nicholas Delbanco asks: How does one ensure the road not taken is the road to creative freedom?
Health Yourself
The environment is hurting, and so are we

There’s something in the air (and the water and the ground), and we need to watch out, says Victor Katch.

Listen to the latest podcast

In the news

You can’t take it with you

After the Ruthven Museums building officially closed its doors to the public last year, Michigan Today explored its deserted halls, cupboards, and cabinets to find a trove of fascinating and forgotten artifacts. A renovated Ruthven will be home to classrooms, labs, and offices for the University’s central administration staff. Ruthven’s former occupants now live in the new Biological Sciences Building.

Notions and potions

The origins of the University’s natural history collections date to 1837 when the state legislature created the University of Michigan. The charter gave the Board of Regents the “authority to spend so much of the University fund to purchase a ‘Cabinet of Natural History.’”

Pictured here is a different kind of cabinet: one that housed some mysterious potions, oil, and rubber gloves in an artichoke jar.
A work in progress

Here’s a sight you don’t often see in the normal course of business hours.
Vanished!

We wish there was a more exciting story to tell about this photo. Alas, no heist to report. Just a move in progress.
Occasional papers

The University’s collections have inspired generations of students, alumni, schoolchildren, families, and other visitors to discover the excitement of science and the natural world. But the “occasional papers” shown here best served scholars behind the scenes.
Lights on, nobody’s home

And for our next exhibit: “Abandoned Office.”
Destination: A2

Long-lost scraps of paper, notes, and other ephemera leave a haunting impression of long-ago adventures, expeditions, and excursions.
It’s another language

We can’t pretend to know what this chart is for, and we can only guess how long it’s been taped to the wall in someone’s laboratory.
It takes all kinds

One University scientist expressed unique anti-war sentiment in a wacky sticker on their office door. Come to think of it, slugs are pretty peaceful creatures. Maybe it’s not so wacky after all.
Gone fishing

Mysteries abound in an empty and deserted museum building. Each drawer holds secrets, discoveries, folios — even “fish serials…”
Turn it up to 11!

Who can tell us what the Volt Meter is used for? There’s just something indescribably cool about those knobs and switches, right?
It’s not easy being green

These tools of the trade have seen better days.
A pop of color

Stacked in the back halls of Ruthven, we found this cluster of colorful chairs. They, too, are relics of a sort!
Hang it up

Someone definitely knew how to leave their past behind … on to new adventures.