Put a human and a chimpanzee side by side, and it seems obvious which lineage has changed the most since the two diverged from a common ancestor millions of years ago. But new U-M research challenges that human-centered view. "We often think that we're unique and superior to other species," says U-M's Jianzhi (George) Zhang. "However, we found that more genes have undergone positive selection in chimpanzee evolution than in human evolution."

At the U-M Medical Center and other hospitals around the country, a new type of doctor is creating a revolution in medicine. The "hospitalist" is a generalist physician who spends all day in the wards of a hospital, rather than shuttling back and forth from an outside clinic. Always available to patients and staff, hospitalists offer better results and less expensive care.

Forced-ranking systems that require managers to evaluate the performance of an employee against other employees can hurt productivity, says U-M's Stephen Garcia. Though the system is or has been used by such companies as GE, Hewlett-Packard, Microsoft, Pepsi, Goodyear, Ford Motor and Capital One, research indicates that employees subject to such rankings work less hard at projects that benefit the whole company, putting their energy into boosting their own standing.

Podcast: Ranking, competition and success (mp3 )

At U-M's Law School, students can practice their trade and serve the community at the same time. Through the Law Clinic, students represent poor clients in actual court cases, offering free legal services to those who can't afford to pay. The Clinic benefits students with real-world experience, but more important, it provides real help to those in need.

Last month, we reported that high-testosterone people may get a kick out of making other people angry. In this podcast, we talk to researcher Oliver Schultheiss about testosterone and its links to behavior, emotion, and leadership, and we find that, for good or ill, this is one mighty hormone.

Tung-Hui Hu's poems are deceptively short and compact. Though they seem simple at first glance, they are packed with information, allusions, emotion, and even humor. Hu writes elegantly about personal memories and great political themes and always displays an astounding ear for beautiful language.

An international team of 18 mathematicians and computer scientists including U-M math professor John Stembridge has successfully mapped one of the largest and most complicated structures in mathematics. The calculation is so large it would cover Manhattan if it were written out on paper, and until now most experts assumed the structure could never be understood.

At U-M's Clements Library, more than 125 items illustrating America's regional and ethnic culinary traditions are on display. There are cookbooks and other foodie delights, including the first cookbook known to be authored by an African American woman.

Photos: Antique cookbooks and cooking ephemera at the Clements Library's Longone Culinary Archive

U-M researchers will interview randomly selected samples of 1,200 U.S. Army women and men stationed in Iraq and other sites around the world. The study's goal is to assess how deployment is affecting the mental, emotional and physical health of male and female soldiers, and will provide the most comprehensive look to date at stress among Army soldiers.