This region is experiencing air quality impacts due to wildfire smoke migrating from Canada. The following resources can help monitor conditions and make informed decisions for yourself and your area.

• Real-time air quality from AirNow
• Monroe County Department of Public Health air quality guidance

For health-related questions or guidance specific to your situation, please consult your healthcare provider. If you work outdoors, please discuss any health or safety concerns directly with your supervisor.

University flags on the Eastman Quadrangle and near the entrance of Strong Memorial Hospital’s Emergency Department, and the flags atop the Eastman Theatre at the corner of Gibbs and Main Streets, will be lowered on Tuesday, July 28, for Richard Farmer, a professor emeritus of medicine, who died on November 24, 2025. Farmer joined the University in 2003.

A new study led by John Lueck, an associate professor of pharmacology and physiology and of neurology, suggests that one hallmark symptom of myotonic dystrophy type 1—muscle stiffness, known as myotonia—may play a much larger role in driving muscle damage than previously recognized.

University faculty and staff have access to discounts from local and national retailers. Employee discounts are available through YOUR Benefits Extras and LifeMart by Care.com, and feature favorites such as Six Flags Parks and Rochester Red Wings tickets, along with additional savings on travel, entertainment, gifts, and more.

Menopause can affect both your physical and emotional well-being. Through Well-U’s peri- and menopausal coaching program, you will receive personalized guidance and recommendations to help restore balance. Schedule your first coaching session today and earn a $150 incentive when you complete the program.

The next session of the Department of Psychiatry’s 2026 Summer Brown Bag Series is on Wednesday, July 22, at noon and features a discussion on including family members as true partners in patient treatment plans. Register to attend virtually or in person in the School of Nursing Auditorium (1W-304).

The David T. Kearns Center for Leadership and Student Success is hosting the 34th annual Kearns Summer Research Symposium on Wednesday, July 29, and Thursday, July 30. The event celebrates the achievements of hundreds of research scholars who spend the summer engaged in groundbreaking research at URochester. Learn more and RSVP here.

What roles do prebiotics and probiotics have in our digestive system? Elizabeth Eisnor, a registered dietitian at the Center for Community Health & Prevention, weighs in.

NPR, July 9

An idea dubbed “Death by Organ Donation” would enable euthanasia patients to donate organs for transplantation in a way that would make their organs more likely to be usable. It would also kill them.

Some bioethicists are horrified by the mere notion. “This is asking surgeons to take a living person into the operating room and to come out with a dead person, which I think is murder,” says Lainie Friedman Ross, the Mark and Lois Taubman Distinguished Professor of Health Humanities and Bioethics and the director of the Paul M. Schyve, MD Center for Bioethics. “There are limits to consent. And one of the things we’re not allowed to do is consent to saying that somebody else can just murder you.”