University of Nebraska–Lincoln researchers helped develop two prototypes that made national headlines in February. The news coverage was among 25-plus stories featuring Husker faculty, staff, students, centers and programs during the month.

Xiao Cheng Zeng, Chancellor’s University and Willa Cather Professor of chemistry at Nebraska, recently helped explain the chemistry behind a promising new droplet-based prototype from colleagues at the City University of Hong Kong. After enough continuous water droplets have struck its surface, the small electricity generator can house enough charge to power 100 LED lights.

“The significance of this technology is the much-enhanced electric power per falling rain droplet, which makes the device much more efficient to convert energy from a falling droplet to electricity,” Zeng told Vice.

Stories on the research also appeared in Popular Mechanics, SYFY Wire and several other media outlets.

Husker researchers, along with colleagues from the University of Connecticut and Harvard Medical School, have also created a smart bandage design to better heal chronic skin wounds. The wirelessly controlled bandage uses an array of tiny needles to deliver therapeutic drugs directly to still-living but damaged tissue.

Stories on the smart bandage have appeared in Considerable, Popular Mechanics and several other news outlets.

More coverage:

Susan Harris-Broomfield, Nebraska Extension educator for rural health, wellness and safety, was interviewed for a Market Journal segment on sleep deprivation in the ag industry. Growing America ran the video on its website Feb. 3.

Campus Rec Magazine published a Feb. 4 article on Campus Housing and Campus Recreation at Nebraska working together to create fitness rooms in two residence halls. Amy Lanham, senior associate director of Campus Recreation, was interviewed for the story.

Forrest Kievit, biological systems engineering, was interviewed for a Feb. 4 ScienceNews article on a new study showing that injecting nanoparticles in the blood curbed brain swelling in mice. He said the treatment is atypical in that the nanoparticles are bare, rather than carrying drugs or other cargo. That simplicity might make the manufacturing of these particles more straightforward. However, Kievit cautioned that there are many differences between mice and human brains.

Katie Edwards, educational psychology, was quoted in a Feb. 7 New York Times article on the Harvey Weinstein sexual assault trial. The two women at the center of the case had friendly communications with the Hollywood producer and also had sex with him after their alleged assaults, putting the case in largely uncharted legal territory. “It’s not uncommon to see sexual assault happen in the context of ongoing relationships, whether it’s colleagues, dating or friends,” Edwards said.

Chigozie Obioma, English, an internationally recognized author, discussed his work and his home country of Nigeria in a Feb. 7 Noted article.

Obioma’s second novel, “An Orchestra of Minorities,” was featured in a Feb. 11 Literary Hub column on books with a mystical dimension.

Obioma was also featured in articles in the Santa Fe New Mexican and Taos (New Mexico) News. He read from his work at Taos’ Harwood Museum of Art on Feb. 14 and led a writing workshop Feb. 15.

Matt Waite, journalism, was interviewed for a Feb. 11 Marshall Project article on newsrooms rethinking running booking photos. He likened the photos to “a digital scarlet letter.” While a reporter at the Tampa Bay Times, he helped create software to scrape booking information and images from local government websites and display them in a web gallery. The paper built the site to eliminate the photos after 60 days and blocked Google from indexing the page so it wouldn’t be the first thing to pop up in search results.

Robert Zink, biological sciences and natural resources, wrote a Feb. 13 guest column for the Minneapolis Star Tribune on what might happen if every deer has chronic wasting disease. He wrote that with shortened life spans and breeding shifting earlier in life, few trophy-class animals will exist. He also wrote that while there is currently no evidence of CWD passing from deer to humans, if nearly all deer become CWD-positive, more research will be directed at risks to humans.

The U.S. Drought Monitor — produced jointly by the university’s National Drought Mitigation Center, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the U.S. Department of Agriculture — was cited in a Feb. 13 Bay Area News Group article on drought conditions returning to California. The monitor classified 46% of the state as “abnormally dry,” up from just 3% a month prior. The story was picked up by more than a dozen media outlets.

Aaron Berger, a Nebraska Extension beef educator, wrote a recent UNL BeefWatch article on the differences between high-, medium- and low-profit cow-calf producers. The article was featured in a Feb. 13 Beef magazine blog entry.

Berger and Brian Vander Ley, an assistant professor at the Great Plains Veterinary Educational Center, discussed the systems thinking approach to problem solving in a recent BeefWatch podcast. The podcast was highlighted in a Feb. 25 Beef magazine blog entry.

Researchers at the University of Nebraska’s Center for Great Plains Studies discussed new research on black homesteaders in the Great Plains during the Paul A. Olson Great Plains Lecture on Feb. 19. USA Today highlighted the event in its 50-states feature Feb. 17.

The Steel and Foam Energy Reduction (SAFER) barrier system, developed by the Midwest Roadside Safety Facility at Nebraska, was highlighted in a Feb. 18 CNN Wire article on NASCAR driver Ryan Newman’s serious crash in the final lap of the Daytona 500. The barriers, which cover the walls at each NASCAR track, help absorb energy upon impact. The story was picked up by several media outlets.

New research from Philip Schwadel, sociology, finds the religiously unaffiliated are much more varied in their political beliefs than previously believed. As this group grows, repercussions could be felt by political parties. Stories on the research appeared on Phys.org, Science Codex and Study Finds.

Shaye Koester, a sophomore animal science major at Nebraska, was featured in a Feb. 19 Beef magazine column on the Cattle Industry Convention and NCBA Trade Show, held Feb. 5-7 in San Antonio. Koester is a member of the Junior Red Angus board of directors and host of the Casual Cattle Conversations podcast, which focuses on ranch life.

Brad Lubben, agricultural economics, attended the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Ag Outlook Forum Feb. 20 and 21 in Arlington, Virginia. He was interviewed for a Feb. 19 Brownfield Ag News story on the forum. He said he looked forward to hearing more about the issues facing ag producers in 2020.

Xin Qiao, water and irrigation management specialist at the Panhandle Research and Extension Center in Scottsbluff, has developed a new monitoring and data presentation concept he hopes will give ag producers vital information on field conditions on their smart devices. The Torrington (Wyoming) Telegram published a Feb. 19 article on the internet-of-things project.

OmniSOC — a centralized hub of cybersecurity collaboration involving Indiana, Nebraska, Northwestern, Purdue and Rutgers — was highlighted in a Feb. 24 EdTech article on more universities implementing security operations centers. Rick Haugerud, assistant vice president and chief information security officer for the University of Nebraska, was interviewed for the story.

Dirac Twidwell, agronomy and horticulture, discussed the university’s efforts to prevent the spread of eastern red cedar in the Great Plains during a Feb. 25 segment on RFD-TV.

Wheeler Winston Dixon, film studies, was interviewed for a Feb. 27 Africans Live article on the new remake of “The Invisible Man” and Universal’s failed Dark Universe franchise. “There will be films about Dracula, Frankenstein, the Wolf Man, the Mummy long after we’re gone,” he said. “… But the ones that will be effective will be made by people who are sincerely invested in the material and treat these creatures with deadly seriousness.”

Faculty, administration, student and staff appearances in the national media are logged at http://newsroom.unl.edu/inthenews. If you have additions to this list, contact Sean Hagewood at shagewood2@unl.edu or 402-472-8514. If you have suggestions for national news stories, contact Leslie Reed at lreed5@unl.edu or 402-472-2059.