Nancy Hall, environmental microbiology manager with the State Hygienic Laboratory at the University of Iowa, says sunlight is nature's way of cleansing water in an article on the significant health risks posed by Hurricane Sandy.

Excerpts from Kurt Vonnegut: Letters provide a glimpse into his relationship with his first wife and childhood sweetheart, Jane Marie Cox. Huffington Post prints part of one letter written in 1966 that was sent just before he began teaching at the Iowa Writers' Workshop.

UI educational psychologist David Lohman suggests one way to boost the number of minority students identified as gifted is to use local norms on ability and achievement tests to boost the number of academically talented minority students served by school-based talent development programs.

A recent study by University of Iowa scientists published in Developmental Psychology shows certain kinds of variation in words may help early readers learn better.

Edward Bell, M.D., a professor of pediatrics with University of Iowa's Children's Hospital and an expert in the care of extremely premature infants, comments on the importance of standardization of care for very premature babies.

A University of Iowa Hawkeye Poll released Wednesday indicates a much tighter race in Iowa, with President Barack Obama having a slight edge, with 42.7 percent of all respondents indicating they would vote for him and 41 percent indicating they would vote for Gov. Mitt Romney.

Two recent fatalities in Iowa have prompted a University of Iowa College of Public Health program to issue a hazard alert warning farmers and tractor operators about the risk of being run over when starting tractors from a standing position on the ground.

Oncologists may be failing to communicate to advanced lung cancer patients and their families about the limits of measures aimed at making them more comfortable, according to a new study with authors from the University of Iowa, among other institutions.

Mark Dyken, the director of the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics Sleep Disorders Clinic, says that power naps allow people to encode data better. At the UI, researchers such as Professor Karla McGregor are looking at the power of naps and memory formation.

George Horace Gallup came up with the idea of doing a more sophisticated poll while lecturing in journalism at the University of Iowa and studying for his Ph.D. The genesis of Gallup was noted in a story on the organization announcing it will refine its methodology, emphasizing the preference of voters most likely to vote.