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Thanks to 20 years of homegrown galactic data, astronomers at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, UW–Whitewater and Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University have finally figured out just how much energy permeates the center of the Milky Way. The researchers say it could one day help astronomers track down where all that energy comes from. Understanding the source of the radiation could help explain not only the nature of the Milky Way, but the countless others that resemble it.

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University of Wisconsin–Madison researchers have developed a safer and more efficient way to deliver a promising new method for treating cancer and liver disorders and for vaccination — including a COVID-19 vaccine from Moderna Therapeutics that has advanced to clinical trials with humans.

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University of Wisconsin–Madison engineers have made it possible to remotely determine the temperature beneath the surface of certain materials using a new technique they call depth thermography. The method may be useful in applications where traditional temperature probes won’t work, like monitoring semiconductor performance or next-generation nuclear reactors.

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Showing people how their peers feel about diversity in their community can make their actions more inclusive, make members of marginalized groups feel more like they belong, and even help close racial achievement gaps in education, according to a new study. Drawing on strategies that have worked in anti-smoking, safe-sex and energy-saving campaigns, University of Wisconsin–Madison researchers decided to try to change behavior by showing people that positive feelings about diversity are the norm.

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— In an animal model for COVID-19 that shares important features of human disease, scientists at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, the University of Tokyo and the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai show that prior infection with the SARS-CoV-2 virus provides protection against reinfection, and treatment with convalescent serum limits virus replication in their lungs.

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Freshwater lakes have often been invaded by species from salty environments. New research shows that fluctuating conditions in the home ranges gave these species the genetic flexibility they needed to evolve and adapt to their new homes.

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Using the Wisconsin H-Alpha Mapper telescope, astronomers have for the first time measured the Fermi Bubbles in the visible light spectrum. The Fermi Bubbles are two enormous outflows of high-energy gas that emanate from the Milky Way and the finding refines our understanding of the properties of these mysterious blobs.

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New research shows that in the important ceramic material silicon carbide, carbon atoms collect at those grain boundaries when the material is exposed to radiation. The finding could help engineers better understand the properties of ceramics and could aid in fine-tuning a new generation of ceramic materials.

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In almost every region of the world where hurricanes form, their maximum sustained winds are getting stronger. That is according to a new study by scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration National Center for Environmental Information and University of WisconsinMadison Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies, who analyzed nearly 40 years of hurricane satellite imagery.

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In a study published today (May 13, 2020) in the New England Journal of Medicine, scientists in the U.S. and Japan report that in the laboratory, cats can readily become infected with SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, and may be able to pass the virus to other cats.

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By combining the fine-grained detail available from animal studies with the statistical power of genetic studies involving hundreds of thousands of human genomes, researchers have discovered a new gene involved in regulating the body’s cholesterol.

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When the sun expels plasma, the solar wind cools as it expands through space — but not as much as the laws of physics would predict. UW–Madison physicists now know the reason.

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An international collaboration of virologists at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and the vaccine companies FluGen and Bharat Biotech has begun the development and testing of a unique vaccine against COVID-19 called CoroFlu.

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Removing a gene from the cells that produce insulin prevents mice from developing Type 1 diabetes by sparing the cells an attack from their own immune system, a new UW–Madison study shows.

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University of Wisconsin–Madison researchers have identified a new way that common Aspergillus molds can induce asthma, by first attacking the protective tissue barrier deep in the lungs.

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Soon, University of Wisconsin–Madison ecologist Ben Zuckerberg thinks we’ll be able to pull off the same forecasting feat for bird migrations and wildlife populations as for climate forecasts. That’s because just as those recurring changes in climate have predictable consequences for humans, they also have predictable effects on plants and animals.

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New research by University of Wisconsin–Madison scientists reveals how a cellular filament helps neural stem cells clear damaged and clumped proteins, an important step in eventually producing new neurons.

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Parkinson’s disease researchers have used gene-editing tools to introduce the disorder’s most common genetic mutation into marmoset monkey stem cells and to successfully tamp down cellular chemistry that often goes awry in Parkinson’s patients.

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New research on sand dunes in China describes how even neighboring dunes can long remain in different and seemingly conflicting states — confounding the assessment of stabilization efforts and masking the effects of climate change.

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A small amount of electricity delivered at a specific frequency to a particular point in the brain will snap a monkey out of even deep anesthesia, pointing to a circuit of brain activity key to consciousness and suggesting potential treatments for debilitating brain disorders.

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Stacking ultrathin complex oxide single-crystal layers allows researchers to create new structures with hybrid properties and multiple functions. Now, using a new platform developed by engineers at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, researchers will be able to make these stacked-crystal materials in virtually unlimited combinations.

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University of Wisconsin–Madison researchers have developed nanoparticles that, in the lab, can activate immune responses to cancer cells. If they are shown to work as well in the body as they do in the lab, the nanoparticles might provide an effective and more affordable way to fight cancer.

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Drawing inspiration from nature, University of Wisconsin–Madison chemists have discovered an efficient way to wrangle long, snaking molecules to form large rings — rings that form the backbone of many pharmaceuticals but are difficult to produce in the lab.

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Research published this week by University of Wisconsin–Madison scientists shows how bacteria can degrade solid bedrock, jump-starting a long process of alteration that creates the mineral portion of soil.

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Measuring changes in the speed of electrical signals along nerves connecting the eyes to the brain may accurately reflect recovery from myelin loss in multiple sclerosis (MS), according to researchers at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, and could be used to evaluate new treatments for the disease.

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University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers examined the effects of baloxavir treatment on influenza virus samples collected from patients before and after treatment.

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New research shows that when stocks of fish get so low that it becomes a greater challenge to catch them, many anglers step up to the challenge and continue catching fish. This poses a threat to the long-term health of sportfish populations in Wisconsin and in inland recreational fisheries around the world.

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A new report analyzing decades of public opinion surveys reveals that the public’s trust in scientists has remained stable and high over decades.

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University of Wisconsin–Madison researchers have cultivated lifelike chemical reactions while pioneering a new strategy for studying the origin of life.

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According to a new study published today [Nov. 4, 2019] in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 40 years of reduced mercury use, emissions, and loading in the Great Lakes region have largely not produced equivalent declines in the amount of mercury accumulating in large game fish.

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A new study of 3,000 people in Wisconsin aged 21 and older with Down syndrome, published today [Monday, Oct. 28, 2019] in JAMA Neurology by researchers at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, shows that by age 55, three in five will be diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease or a similar neurodegenerative condition. Meanwhile, people without Down syndrome are rarely diagnosed with dementia before age 65.

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A research team reports that PBO interferes with the critical signaling pathway dubbed by scientists as sonic hedgehog, resulting in stunted forebrain development and signature facial abnormalities.

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In the deepest look yet at the diversity of these yeasts, scientists from the University of Wisconsin–Madison reveal the dizzying complexity found in bottles of beer, wine and cider. By sequencing the genomes of more than 100 hybrid yeasts, the researchers discovered seven distinct combinations of yeast species, many of them tied to unique fermented beverages.

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Researchers have discovered a previously unknown virus infecting nearly a third of America’s bald eagle population. Scientists at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, USGS and the Wisconsin DNR found the virus while searching for the cause of Wisconsin River Eagle Syndrome, an enigmatic disease endemic to bald eagles near the Lower Wisconsin River. The newly identified bald eagle hepacivirus, or BeHV, may contribute to the fatal disease, which causes eagles to stumble and have seizures.

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Millions of people with severe burns or diabetic skin ulcers could benefit from an experimental enhancement to a next-generation covering that is already healing difficult wounds.

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By connecting small, restored patches of savanna to one another via habitat corridors at an experimental landscape within the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, a nearly 20-year-long study has shown an annual increase in the number of plant species within fragments over time, and a drop in the number of species disappearing from them entirely.

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Reversing baldness could someday be as easy as wearing a hat, thanks to a noninvasive, low-cost hair-growth-stimulating technology developed by engineers at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

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Researchers at the University of Wisconsin–Madison have packed a gene-editing payload into a tiny customizable, synthetic nanocapsule. They described the delivery system and its cargo today (Sept. 9, 2019) in the journal Nature Nanotechnology.

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Researchers from the University of Wisconsin–Madison and Marshfield Clinic have found that there may be a much broader health risk to carriers of the FMR1 premutation, with potentially dozens of clinical conditions that can be ascribed directly to carrying it. The researchers employed machine learning to mine decades of electronic health records of nearly 20,000 individuals.

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Edwin Chapman of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and the University of Wisconsin–Madison reports that halting production of synaptotagmin 17 (syt-17) blocks growth of axons. Equally significant, when cells made more syt-17, axon growth accelerated. A wide range of neurological conditions could benefit from the growth of axons, including spinal cord injuries and some neurodegenerative diseases.

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For nearly 100 years, scientists thought they understood everything there was to know about how metals bend. They were wrong. Researchers at the University of Wisconsin–Madison have demonstrated that the rules of metal-bending aren’t so hard and fast after all. Their surprising discovery not only upends previous notions about how metals deform, but could help guide the creation of stronger, more durable materials.

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Every several hundred thousand years or so, Earth's magnetic field dramatically shifts and reverses its polarity. New work from University of Wisconsin–Madison geologist Brad Singer and his colleagues finds that the most recent field reversal took several times longer than previously thought, and the results further call into question controversial findings that some reversals could occur within a human lifetime.

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Scientists from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the Universidad de Zaragoza in Spain, drawing on the lessons of classical optics, have shown that it is possible to image complex hidden scenes using a projected “virtual camera” to see around barriers.

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A new study by University of Wisconsin–Madison physicists mimicked solar winds in the lab, confirming how they develop and providing an Earth-bound model for the future study of solar physics.

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IceCube, the Antarctic neutrino detector that in July of 2018 helped unravel one of the oldest riddles in physics and astronomy — the origin of high-energy neutrinos and cosmic rays — is getting an upgrade. This month, the National Science Foundation (NSF) approved $23 million in funding to expand the detector and its scientific capabilities. Seven new strings of optical modules will be added to the 86 existing strings already embedded in the ice beneath the geographic South Pole.

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A new study led by University of Wisconsin–Madison researchers Caitlin Pepperell and Bruce Klein has identified a specific genetic vulnerability among Hmong people that renders them more susceptible to the disease-causing fungus.