In the world of Web apps, simple, intuitive and visual are the operative words. And an emerging app from the Wisconsin Institute for Discovery’s Field Day Lab called Siftr seems to be hitting all the right notes. “The vision is to create a clearinghouse for the creation of citizen science projects,” explains David Gagnon, who serves as the program director for the Field Day Lab
A University of Wisconsin-Madison spinoff is screening blood samples in an effort to develop a biologically based method to diagnose autism. The company, Stemina Biomarker Discovery, specializes in detecting the byproducts of cellular activity and then applying high-powered statistics to detect patterns among thousands of metabolites.
SHINE Medical Technologies has received approval from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to begin constructing a plant in Janesville to make a medical isotope needed in about 20 million procedures annually in the United States. The University of Wisconsin-Madison spinoff's Janesville plant is slated to employ around 150 people when it opens in about three years.
The relationship between our future carbon dioxide emissions and future climate change depends strongly on the capacity of the ocean-carbon sink. That is a question climate scientists have so far been unable to answer. In a new paper, a research team headed by Galen McKinley, professor in the University of Wisconsin-Madison Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, describes the best modeling approach to date for arriving at an answer to this and other crucial climate questions
Between 1947 and 1956, John Curtis and his colleagues and students conducted their prairie relic study, surveying more than 200 undisturbed prairie remnants in Wisconsin. Today [Feb. 19, 2016] UW-Madison graduate student Amy Alstad and a team of researchers have published a third survey based on Curtis’ legacy work. They found that human influence has accelerated the rate of species change in these prairies.
An assistant research specialist at the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center (GLBRC) has designed a new strain of yeast that could improve the efficiency of making fuel from cellulosic biomass such as switchgrass. Both the yeast strain and the method of its design could help overcome a significant bottleneck in the biofuels pipeline — namely, that the powerful solvents so good at breaking down biomass also sometimes hinder the next critical step of the process, fermentation.
At least 25 specimens of fungi that infect plants, collected by George Washington Carver more than a century ago, were discovered Feb. 8 in the Wisconsin State Herbarium at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Texting can make the heart grow fonder. That is just one of the findings of the latest research from Catalina Toma, assistant professor in the Department of Communication Arts at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Results show that even couples who live close to one another rely heavily on mobile media to manage their dating relationships. And that can be a good thing, Toma says.
By genetically reprogramming the most common type of cell in mammalian connective tissue, researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have generated master heart cells — primitive progenitors that form the developing heart. If replicated in human cells, the feat could one day fuel drug discovery, powerful new models for heart disease and the raw material for treating diseased hearts.
When you’re on the go and your smartphone battery is low, in the not-so-distant future you could charge it simply by plugging it into your shoe. An innovative energy harvesting and storage technology developed by University of Wisconsin–Madison mechanical engineers could reduce our reliance on the batteries in our mobile devices, ensuring we have power for our devices no matter where we are.
Some of the first experiments studying Zika virus in monkeys will be conducted by a broad UW–Madison team that includes the Wisconsin National Primate Research Center and experts in infectious disease, pregnancy and neurology.
Climate change projections that look ahead one or two centuries show a rapid rise in temperature and sea level, but say little about the longer picture. Today (Feb. 8, 2016), a study published in Nature Climate Change looks at the next 10,000 years, and finds that the catastrophic impact of another three centuries of carbon pollution will persist millennia after the carbon dioxide releases cease.
In a study published this week in the journal eNeuro, researchers at the Waisman Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, led by Pelin Cengiz, associate professor in the Department of Pediatrics, show that a particular protein found in the brains of both male and female mice is present at higher levels in females, which offers them stronger protection against one type of brain injury.
The material at the heart of the lithium ion batteries that power electric vehicles, laptop computers and smartphones has been shown to impair a key soil bacterium. A study by researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the University of Minnesota is an early signal that the growing use of the new nanoscale materials used in the rechargeable batteries that power portable electronics and electric and hybrid vehicles may have untold environmental consequences.
After six years of painstaking effort, a group of University of Wisconsin-Madison materials scientists believe the tiny sheets of the semiconductor zinc oxide they’re growing could have huge implications for the future of a host of electronic and biomedical devices.
As radiation sources used to map disease and attack cancer grow in number and complexity, a University of Wisconsin-Madison center continues to offer the last word on accurate radiation doses. The University of Wisconsin Radiation Calibration Laboratory fine-tunes instruments used by clinics to measure radiation doses from X-ray machines, CAT scanners and medical linear accelerators used to treat cancer.
In a twist of virtual fate, people with the best 3-D vision are also the people most likely to suffer from motion sickness while using virtual reality displays. Researchers demonstrated this irony by playing motion-heavy videos for study participants through the Oculus Rift. Nearly two-thirds of the study subjects quit watching the videos early, overcome by nausea.
In October 2015, a team of researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Universidad de Sucre in Colombia ran the first tests confirming the presence of Zika virus transmission in the South American country. In a study published today, the team documents a disease trajectory that started with nine positive patients and has now spread to more than 13,000 infected individuals in that country.
Xavier has big brown eyes and freckles to match. He is a take-charge kid with sandy blonde hair and boundless energy. Xavier is also on the autism spectrum, diagnosed when he was 3½. Today, Xavier is visiting UW-Madison, where Brittany Travers is studying kids with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) to learn more about how helping kids improve their motor skills may have a positive impact on their symptoms.
Drosophila erecta is an African fruit fly with a big problem: The male sexual organ is so rough that sex acts, almost literally, as a two-edged sword — necessary for reproduction, but physically injurious. Because evolution places reproduction as first among equals, females have developed overlapping solutions to their dilemma.
An uncommon and little-studied type of cell in the lungs has been found to act like a sensor, linking the pulmonary and central nervous systems to regulate immune response in reaction to environmental cues. The cells, known as pulmonary neuroendocrine cells or PNECs, are implicated in a wide range of human lung diseases, including asthma, pulmonary hypertension, cystic fibrosis and sudden infant death syndrome, among others.
The Greenland Ice Sheet is the second largest ice sheet in the world and it’s melting rapidly, likely driving almost a third of global sea level rise. A new study shows clouds are playing a larger role in that process than scientists previously believed.
The moment of truth for Will Caldwell came when a car suddenly emerged from a parking lot. He was riding his bike and didn’t see it. But the lasers in the prototype “Safe Cycle” warning system did, and the handlebars vibrated in warning.
Since 2014, the Urban Canid Project has heavily emphasized outreach and public engagement in the study of Madison’s foxes and coyotes. Its goal is to understand more about these city-dwelling relatives of dogs and help us all peacefully coexist. So far, its efforts have met success.
Ongoing studies of a massive volcanic field in the Andes mountains show that the rapid uplift which has raised the surface more than six feet in eight years has occurred many times during the past 10,000 years.
A new set of studies suggests that compassion — and intentionally cultivating it through training — may lead us to do more to help the wronged than to punish the wrongdoer.
A study published today finds a surprising and very recent shift away from the steady relationship among species that prevailed for more than 300 million years. The study, published in the journal Nature, offers the first long-term view of how species associated with each other for half of the existence of multicellular life on Earth.
A study of rats released today shows that blocking a type of RNA produced by what used to be called "junk DNA" can prevent a significant portion of the neural destruction that follows a stroke.
Su-Chun Zhang, a pioneer in developing neurons from stem cells at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, has created a specialized nerve cell that makes serotonin, a signaling chemical with a broad role in the brain.
According to a new analysis in the journal Ecological Monographs, by researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and colleagues, the world’s rivers and streams pump about 10 times more methane into our atmosphere than scientists estimated in previous studies.
As the drug touted as “the female Viagra” comes to market, researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison are learning more about how the drug, called flibanserin, affects the brain.
Half of all stars are in binaries — pairs of stars that orbit each other. Half of binary stars orbit so close that gravitational interaction significantly affects their evolution and demise. Today, scientists led by Robert Mathieu, a professor of astronomy at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and his former student Natalie Gosnell confirmed one of the possible explanations for a common group of exceptions: the blue stragglers.
Thanks to a new method for making interspecies yeast hybrids in the lab, the makers of beer, wine, biofuels and other products that depend on yeasts may soon have many more strains of the microorganism to work with.
Not every virus wants to go viral — at least, not immediately. Some want to slip in quietly. Hide. Wait for the perfect opportunity to attack. In order to do so, the virus has to find a way to enter the cells of the human body without tripping the alarm, and stay there without notice. It’s how HIV works, and also how viruses in the herpesvirus family, like human cytomegalovirus (HCMV), do their business.
A new opportunity for improving the health and supply of lakes, waterways and groundwater has emerged from a recent study in the journal Ecosphere by the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Water Sustainability and Climate Project.
R. Alta Charo, a professor of law and longtime student of the regulation and ethics of biotechnology, was named co-chair of a study committee established Nov. 12 by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine to look into the implications of a faster, easier and more precise method for "editing" genes.
“Blink and you’ll miss it” isn’t only for eyelids. The human brain also blinks, dropping a few frames of visual information here and there. Those lapses of attention come fast — maybe just once every tenth of a second. But some people may be missing more than others, according to psychologists at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.
University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers have created a molecular structure that attaches to a molecule on highly aggressive brain cancer and causes tumors to light up in a scanning machine. In mouse models of human brain cancer, their tag is easily seen in a PET scanner, which is commonly used to detect cancer.
A University of Wisconsin-Madison physician and her research team have shown that a heart medication can prevent ovarian damage and improve survival in adolescent mice after chemotherapy. The treatment also increased the number of their healthy offspring.
The Mississippi River has long had its explorers. From de Soto to Marquette, Lewis and Clark to Clemens, the fourth largest river in the world has for centuries inspired enchantment. Today, Luke Loken, a graduate student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Center for Limnology (CFL), and John Crawford, a CFL graduate, are Mississippi River explorers of a more modern sort. They have embarked on a journey to learn more about the chemistry of its waters, using technology they invented.
Drawing inspiration from an insect's multi-faceted eye, University of Wisconsin-Madison engineers have created miniature lenses with vast range of vision. Their new approach created the first-ever flexible Fresnel zone plate microlenses with a wide field of view — a development that could allow everything from surgical scopes to security cameras to capture a broader perspective at a fraction of the size required by conventional lenses.
Inspired by mammals’ eyes, University of Wisconsin–Madison electrical engineers have created the fastest, most responsive flexible silicon phototransistor ever made.
Couples raising a child with developmental disabilities do not face a higher risk of divorce if they have larger families, according to a new study by researchers from the Waisman Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
“Climate Change Policy and Public Health,” the sixth and final Massive Open Online Course offered by the University of Wisconsin-Madison this year, launches Nov. 9. The course will be taught by Jonathan Patz, a professor in the Department of Population Health Sciences and the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies.
When Wes Schroll moved from a dorm into an apartment and began grocery shopping, he hated it. “Every single one had the same issues,” he says. “I had no idea how much I'd spent until I checked out. Coupons were a pain in the butt, so I never used them. And the checkout was inefficient." Pointing to his smartphone, he adds, "I figured there had to be some way to utilize these pieces of technology that everyone has to streamline the process.”
The mushroom nicknamed "death cap” made headlines this summer when it poisoned Syrian refugees fleeing through Eastern Europe. But it was cooperation, not toxicity, that attracted Anne Pringle to Amanita phalloides.
A new species of giant Galapagos tortoise, revealed this week in a study conducted by scientists at Yale University, also happened to be lurking in the collections of the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Zoological Museum, it turns out.
University of Wisconsin–Madison engineer’s solution for streamlining the construction of skyscrapers is having a skyscraper moment in one of the most seismically active regions of the country. All coupling beams in the 1.5 million-square-foot Lincoln Square Expansion —which includes luxury condos, a hotel, dining, retail and office space in two 450-foot towers in the heart of Seattle suburb Bellevue, Washington — are made of fiber-reinforced concrete using a unique design co-developed by Gustavo Parra-Montesinos.
In May 2007, hundreds of freshwater drum — also known as sheepshead — turned up dead in Lake Winnebago and nearby Little Lake Butte des Morts, both inland lakes near Oshkosh, Wisconsin. The fish were splotched with red and their eyes were swollen and bulging. The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) launched a quick response and, working with the Wisconsin Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory (WVDL), quickly learned that a deadly virus was responsible: viral hemorrhagic septicemia virus, or VHSv.
A global effort to create a new computer ecosystem that is easily accessible to people with disabilities, senior citizens and others with special needs is set to become reality through a $20 million federal grant to the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
RSS
Medicine keyboard_arrow_right
Sciencekeyboard_arrow_right
Life keyboard_arrow_right
Business keyboard_arrow_right
Journal News keyboard_arrow_right
By Location keyboard_arrow_right
Meetings, Grants, and Events keyboard_arrow_right