A large new genetic and dietary study of snakes, from an international team led by University of Michigan biologists, suggests these legless wonders are ‘evolutionary winners.’ Massive shifts in traits associated with feeding, locomotion, and sensory processing have allowed them to be ‘evolutionarily flexible,’ researchers say.

The Michigan Alternate Route to Certification, offered in U-M’s Marsal Family School of Education, was designed for anyone with a bachelor’s degree interested in becoming a teacher in Michigan. Participants work as certified teachers (with salary and benefits) for three years while enrolled in and supported by the program to earn their standard teaching certificates.

Though it’s only February, many of the millions of people who resolved to lose weight in 2024 have already fled the dreaded bathroom scale. Focusing primarily (on) the numbers is not an effective way to track our progress, says clinical exercise physiologist Laura Richardson. Start thinking about how you feel, not how much you weigh.

Performances by students at U-M’s School of Music, Theatre & Dance mark the first recordings with full orchestration of music from “La, La, Lucille,” George Gershwin’s first complete score, written when he was just 21 years old. The production opened on Broadway in May 1919, toured the Northeast in 1920 and California in 1922, and then was lost to history.

All good origin stories contain at least a kernel of myth at the center of the plot. If there’s any such myth in the University’s origins, it’s not about heroes or grandiose works. It’s an idea embedded in the Northwest Ordinance of 1787 — that these Great Lakes states should provide public education to the region’s children.

SuperAgers are showing us it’s possible to enjoy quality cognition as we age, says neuropsychologist Amanda Maher. She is leading U-M’s site for the SuperAging Research Initiative, one of six hubs in the U.S. and Canada studying the biological, genetic, and psychosocial factors contributing to resilient cognition.