Watch out, infection. University of Iowa researchers have created a probe that can identify staph bacteria before symptoms appear. The probe is noninvasive and is expected to be cheaper and faster than current diagnostic techniques. Results published in the journal Nature Medicine.

Heather A. Slomski and Kathleen Founds received the 2014 Iowa Short Fiction Awards, announced by the University of Iowa Press. Slomski won the 2014 Iowa Short Fiction Award for her collection "The Lovers Set Down Their Spoons." Founds received the 2014 John Simmons Short Fiction Award for "When Mystical Creatures Attack!"

The University of Iowa School of Music will present a free concert by the UI Symphony Band and the Iowa Honor Band, composed of the state's top high school musicians, at 7 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 15, in the Main Lounge of the Iowa Memorial Union.

Poets Richard Kenney and Carol Light will present a free reading at 8 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 13, in the Frank Conroy Reading Room of the Glenn Schaeffer Library, adjacent to the Dey House.

Katrina Korb, who received a doctorate from the UI College of Education, is doing everything from working with student healthcare workers to Muslim youth in a football program through her work at the University of Jos in Nigeria, where she recently stepped into a temporary leadership role.

Sheila Baldwin won’t attend the Big Event as assistant vice president of development for the UI Children’s Hospital; instead she’ll celebrate and congratulate fellow Dance Marathon alumni on a record year of a tradition they started 20 years ago.

The brass area of the University of Iowa School of Music will host a free performance by the Marine Band San Diego Brass Quintet at 7:30 p.m. Monday, Feb. 10, in Riverside Recital Hall on the UI campus.

Former Iowa Writers’ Workshop faculty Margot Livesey will present a free reading at 8 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 12, in the Frank Conroy Reading Room of the Glenn Schaeffer Library, adjacent to the Dey House.

As the number of international students attending the University of Iowa continues to grow, officials are offering a new program to help students integrate to Iowa and the United States comfortably.

Voice votes, common in civic and political decision making at all levels, can be skewed by a single, loud voice, according to a study led by the University of Iowa. The researchers propose locating everyone within equal distance from the vote recorder or controlling for sound on voters’ microphones. Results appear in the Journal of the Acoustical Society of America.

University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop alumna and former visiting faculty member Ayana Mathis will present a free reading at 8 p.m. Monday, Feb. 10, in the Frank Conroy Reading Room of the Glenn Schaeffer Library, adjacent to the Dey House.

Nancy Purington will display her paintings and be on hand to chat with art enthusiasts for the University of Iowa Museum of Art’s First Friday reception at hotelVetro in downtown Iowa City from 5 to 7 p.m. on Feb. 7.