Sleep: Spring Cleaning for the Brain?
University of Wisconsin–MadisonIf you've ever been sleep-deprived, you know the feeling that your brain is full of wool.
If you've ever been sleep-deprived, you know the feeling that your brain is full of wool.
Vestas, the world's leading producer of wind power technology, has entered into a long-term partnership with the University of Wisconsin-Madison College of Engineering that promises to propel wind-energy research, provide student learning opportunities and give the company a long-term presence in Madison.
Scientists studying a mysterious neurological affliction in cats have discovered a surprising ability of the central nervous system to repair itself and restore function.
For people with the genetic condition known as phenylketonuria (PKU), diet is a constant struggle. They can eat virtually no protein, and instead get their daily dose of this key macronutrient by drinking a bitter-tasting formula of amino acids. Yet drink it they must; deviating from this strict dietary regimen puts them at risk of developing permanent neurological damage.
A team of University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers reports that it has created induced human pluripotent stem (iPS) cells completely free of viral vectors and exotic genes.
The recent warming trend in the Atlantic Ocean is largely due to reductions in airborne dust and volcanic emissions during the past 30 years, according to a new study.
The adage that dead men tell no tales has long been disproved by archaeology.
Runners, listen up: If your body is telling you that your pace feels a little too fast or a little too slow, it may be right.
Although ecologists expect many species will be harmed by climate change, some species could be buffered by their potential to evolve or by changes in their surrounding ecosystems.
University of Wisconsin-Madison sociologist Pamela Herd has been a scholar of Social Security for more than a decade, but her most poignant lesson may have come from her own mother's experience last fall.
Friction is a force that affects any application where moving parts come into contact; the more surface contact there is, the stronger the force. At the nanoscale "” mere billionths of a meter "” friction can wreak havoc on tiny devices made from only a small number of atoms or molecules. With their high surface-to-volume ratio, nanomaterials are especially susceptible to the forces of friction.
Exquisitely detailed and beautifully symmetrical, the snowflakes that David Griffeath makes are icy jewels of art.
Warfarin, one of the world's most widely used drugs, is also one of the trickiest to prescribe. Half of those who take it are at risk of serious problems when given the standard starting dose.
A new multidisciplinary course at the University of Wisconsin-Madison is preparing entrepreneurial graduate students to bring biomedical innovations to the patients who need them.
A little more than a year after University of Wisconsin-Madison scientists showed they could turn skin cells back into stem cells, they have pulsating proof that these "induced" stem cells can indeed form the specialized cells that make up heart muscle.
In an effort to confront our most familiar malady, scientists have deciphered the instruction manual for the common cold.
The ability to empathize with others is partially determined by genes, according to new research on mice from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU).
Taking a chemical approach, researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have developed a two-step method to convert the cellulose in raw biomass into a promising biofuel. The process, which is described in the Wednesday, Feb. 11 issue of the Journal of the American Chemical Society, is unprecedented in its use of untreated, inedible biomass as the starting material.
Molecular and cellular biologists have made tremendous scientific advances by dissecting apart the functions of individual genes, proteins, and pathways. Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison College of Engineering are looking to expand that understanding by putting the pieces back together, mathematically.
This is going to be a big year for evolutionary biologist Charles Darwin: 2009 marks the 150th anniversary of the publication of his book "On the Origin of Species," and Feb. 12 would be his 200th birthday. Throughout the year, Darwin Day events are planned around the world to celebrate the man and his work, and to explore Darwin's legacy of science and reason.
By shifting a normal protective mechanism into overdrive, a University of Wisconsin-Madison scientist has completely shielded mice from a toxic chemical that would otherwise cause Parkinson's disease.
All life "” plants, animals, people "” depends on peaceful coexistence with a swarm of microbial life that performs vital services from helping to convert food to energy to protection from disease.
With Charles Darwin's 200th birthday coming up in February, several University of Wisconsin-Madison experts are available to talk about the evolutionary biologist and related research.
Professional development experts at the University of Wisconsin-Madison are available to discuss the impact of American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA 2009) on the nation's infrastructure.
Times are tough for wildlife living at the frontier between Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Armies are reportedly encamped in a national park and wildlife preserve on the Congolese side, while displaced herders and their cattle have settled in an adjoining Ugandan park.
As global warming raises concerns about potential spread of infectious diseases, a team of researchers has demonstrated a way to predict the expanding range of human disease vectors in a changing world.
Stressful experiences in early childhood can have long-lasting impacts on kids' health that persist well beyond the resolution of the situation.
In Kumar Sridharan's laboratory on the University of Wisconsin-Madison engineering campus, just one ill-timed sneeze might have catapulted his next three years' worth of nuclear reactor materials research into oblivion.
Global yields of most biofuels crops, including corn, rapeseed and wheat, have been overestimated by 100 to 150 percent or more, suggesting many countries need to reset their expectations of agricultural biofuels to a more realistic level.
Distorted cell-phone photos and big, clunky telephoto lenses could be things of the past. University of Wisconsin-Madison Electrical and Computer Engineering Associate Professor Zhenqiang (Jack) Ma and colleagues have developed a flexible light-sensitive material that could revolutionize photography and other imaging technologies.
University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers have solved the mystery surrounding a "rogue protein" that plays a role in the release of neurotransmitters and hormones in the brain.
Economists use leading indicators "” the drivers of economic performance "“ to take the temperature of the economy and predict the future. Now, in a new study, scientists take a page from the social science handbook and use leading indicators of the environment to presage the potential collapse of ecosystems.
A network of emotion-regulating brain regions implicated in the pathological worry that can grip patients with anxiety disorders may also be useful for predicting the benefits of treatment.
By mixing and matching a contemporary flu virus with the "Spanish flu" "” a virus that killed between 20 and 50 million people 90 years ago in history's most devastating outbreak of infectious disease "” researchers have identified a set of three genes that helped underpin the extraordinary virulence of the 1918 virus.
When neurons started dying in Clive Svendsen's lab dishes, he couldn't have been more pleased.
James Thomson, director of regenerative biology at the Morgridge Institute for Research and John D. MacArthur Professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Medicine and Public Health, has received the prestigious Massry Prize for 2008. The award recognizes Thomson for his groundbreaking discovery made a decade ago of human embryonic stem (ES) cells and his subsequent work in developing induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells.
VistaGen Therapeutics and the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF) have signed a license for human embryonic stem cell patents for the development and commercialization of stem cell-based research tools.
The common wisdom is that the invention of the steam engine and the advent of the coal-fueled industrial age marked the beginning of human influence on global climate.
A heart damaged by heart attack is usually broken, at least partially, for good. The injury causes excessive scar tissue to form, and this plays a role in permanently keeping heart muscle from working at full capacity.
There are many ways to die, but amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig's disease must be one of the worst. By the time a patient notices muscle weakness, the neurons that control the muscles have already begun dying, in an untreatable process that brings death within two to five years.
When it comes to the world of the very, very small "” nanotechnology "” Americans have a big problem: Nano and its capacity to alter the fundamentals of nature, it seems, are failing the moral litmus test of religion.
The decline of the Roman and Byzantine Empires in the Eastern Mediterranean more than 1,400 years ago may have been driven by unfavorable climate changes.
Looking at the site today, it's easy to forget that a dam and pond stood for 43 years on the University of Wisconsin-Madison's Franbrook Farm Research Station in southwestern Wisconsin. All traces of the structure are gone, and acres of plants, both native and weedy, now carpet the floor of the former basin.
A handful of sand contains countless grains, which interact with each other via friction and impact forces as they slip through your fingers. When a handful becomes a load in an excavator bucket, those interactions multiply exponentially.
Plastics are everywhere in our modern world, largely due to properties that render the materials tough and durable, but lightweight and easily workable. One of their most useful qualities, however - the ability to bend rather than break when put under stress - is also one of the most puzzling.
U.S. science and engineering students emerge from graduate school exquisitely trained to carry out research. Yet when it comes to the other major activity they'll engage in as professors "“ teaching "“ they're usually left to their own devices.
David Riley's work has reached thousands of children and parents across Wisconsin and the country, but for him, a chance conversation at a pizza parlor was a powerful reminder of what his efforts really mean.
Ten years ago today (Nov. 6, 1998), the publication in the journal Science of a short paper entitled "Embryonic Stem Cell Lines Derived from Human Blastocysts" rocked biology "“ and the world "“ as the all-purpose stem cell and its possibilities were ushered into the limelight.
In February of last year, University of Wisconsin- Madison senior Ted Durkee teamed up with University of Wisconsin-Madison alumnus Brandon Gador, who graduated last spring, to found Powered Green, a startup company promoting the use of renewable energy. They officially launched the company at the end of September.
The Center for Health Enhancement Systems Studies (CHESS) has been awarded a second grant from the National Cancer Institute, (NCI) a division of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), to continue its role as a leader in cancer communication research.