A smart look at politics
The Smart Politics blog is a destination for both political junkies and casual observers looking for a more fulsome take on the latest trends and stories.

Researchers create a new heart in the lab
University researcher Doris Taylor and her colleagues have found a way to create beating hearts in the laboratory by first stripping away the cells, leaving only the matrix, then repopulating with new cells.

Water works
The U's student chapter of Engineers Without Borders brings hope to small villages around the world.

New research takes aim at oral cancer
An interdisciplinary research team at the University of Minnesota is working to change oral cancer statistics by studying the proteins found in saliva.

Thalidomide shows potential in fight against ovarian cancer
The drug thalidomide, notorious for causing birth defects in the late 1950s and early 1960s, has shown promise in treating multiple myeloma, a cancer of the bone marrow. A new study led by University researcher Levi Downs adds ovarian cancer to the list of maladies that may respond to treatments containing the drug.

Tilting toward turbines
The University's Morris campus has received bonding authority to add new wind and steam turbines. The campus is on track to energy self-sufficiency by 2010.

A feline lifeline?
Sure, cats rip furniture to shreds and treat people as inferior beings. But a University study shows they may do our hearts good, in more ways than one.

Not all who wander
Clyde Reedy is getting very accustomed to telling his story. What makes his story even richer is his experience with the University of Minnesota, both in the early 1940s as a student and in recent decades as a benefactor.

Rebel with a cause
UMD alum Jim Swenson became a success with his company, Details, Inc. Today he focuses his entrepreneurial energy on enriching his alma mater with scholarships, and most recently, a new civil engineering building.

Book reviews spring 2008
Gayla Marty reviews The Florist's Daughter, The Truth About Garden Remedies, and Earthworms of the Great Lakes in this Spring 2008 edition of Book Reviews.

Traits for greatness
Using data gathered from presidential biographers and historians, University psychologist Deniz Ones and her colleagues studied which personality traits have historically been associated with superior presidential performance.

Whole foods beat single nutrients
It's easy to study the effects of single-nutrient dietary supplements because the composition of pills and the like is known exactly. But an epidemiology professor urges that the focus of health and diet research switch to whole foods.

Connecting alumni, spring 2008
The spring 2008 Connecting Alumni section features blurbs about telling your U story, the power of alumni, the upcoming UMAA annual celebration, and more.

Westward expansion
The School of Dentistry's outreach program will stretch to west central Minnesota in response to the challenges rural communities face when recruiting health care professionals. The program hopes to bring long-term dental care to underserved regions.

A natural among museums
A recent $3 million commitment to the U's Bell Museum of Natural history is for a new museum facility to open in 2010. The remarkable gift comes from the James Ford Bell Foundation, which affirms the importance of the Bell Museum as the state's natural history museum.

Giving hope
Sponsored by the American Cancer Society, the newly opened Hope Lodge is a free living space open to any adult receiving cancer care in the Twin Cities.