University of Wisconsin–Madison

Category: Employee News

Computer equal to or better than humans at cataloging science

In 1997, IBM’s Deep Blue computer beat chess wizard Garry Kasparov. This year, a computer system developed at the University of Wisconsin-Madison equaled or bested scientists at the complex task of extracting data from scientific publications and placing it in a database that catalogs the results of tens of thousands of individual studies.

UW team explores large, restless volcanic field in Chile

If Brad Singer knew for sure what was happening three miles under an odd-shaped lake in the Andes, he might be less eager to spend a good part of his career investigating a volcanic field that has erupted 36 times during the last 25,000 years. As he leads a large scientific team exploring a region in the Andes called Laguna del Maule, Singer hopes the area remains quiet.

Study models the past to understand the future of strengthening El Niño

El Niño is not a contemporary phenomenon; it’s long been the Earth’s dominant source of year-to-year climate fluctuation. But as the climate warms and the feedbacks that drive the cycle change, researchers want to know how El Niño will respond. A team of researchers led by the University of Wisconsin’s Zhengyu Liu will publish the latest findings in this quest Nov. 27 in Nature.

Telescopes hint at neutrino beacon at the heart of the Milky Way

Thanks to a confluence of data from a suite of vastly different telescopes, there are tantalizing clues that the massive black hole at the core of the Milky Way may be a cosmic accelerator. In a recent paper published in the journal Physical Review D, a team led by University of Wisconsin-Madison physicist Yang Bai reports a correlation of IceCube data with a recorded burst of X-rays from Sagittarius A, an object at the center of our galaxy that is believed to be a supermassive black hole.

Save power, make power: UW chemist confronts ambitious agenda with a brash laugh

Trisha Andrew, a UW assistant professor of chemistry, holds a solar cell that her research group printed on paper last year. She’s currently working to invent ways to convert light into electricity, using dyes rather than silicon devices. Photo: Matt Wisniewski/Wisconsin Energy Institute Trisha Andrew wants to save billions of watt hours by revolutionizing, well, …

Berquam, Sims: UW offers Ferguson resources

We recognize that today’s grand jury decision about Officer Darren Wilson and the death of Michael Brown will spark a wide range of opinions and emotions in the UW-Madison community. Regardless of your view of the case, we know that it has been a traumatic few months in Ferguson, Missouri, and for many in our own Madison community. We offer our support to all UW students, faculty and staff, as well as those from Missouri.

Grasshoppers signal slow recovery of post-agricultural woodlands, study finds

New research by Philip Hahn and John Orrock at the University of Wisconsin-Madison on the recovery of South Carolina longleaf pine woodlands once used for cropland shows just how long lasting the legacy of agriculture can be in the recovery of natural places. By comparing grasshoppers found at woodland sites once used for agriculture to similar sites never disturbed by farming, Hahn and Orrock show that despite decades of recovery, the numbers and types of species found in each differ.

‘Active learning’ takes center stage at School of Nursing

The classroom is changing. Massive lecture halls used to mean you could sit quietly in the back, with rows of fellow students perched above a lecturing professor. But you won’t find any lecture halls in the School of Nursing’s Signe Skott Cooper Hall. For students at the new Active Learning Classroom (ALC), the learning is — well, active.