Category Science & Technology
Fast molecular rearrangements hold key to plastic’s toughness
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. Read More
UW tackles neglected realm of training for science professors in training
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. That's now beginning to change, thanks to work at UW–Madison. Read More
Curiosities: What food was served at the original Thanksgiving celebration?
Plucked from his own time in the autumn of 1621 and deposited at a “traditional” Thanksgiving dinner today, a Plymouth, Mass. Pilgrim would have gawked… Read More
Kramer honored for research in end-of-life care
Research done by University of Wisconsin–Madison social work professor Betty Kramer on end-of-life care has won her the Distinguished Researcher Award from the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization. Read More
Curiosities: How do birds migrate?
The essential skills of bird migration are orientation — knowing north from south, and east from west — and navigation, having some sort of “map”… Read More
Survey will help officials understand, control Lyme disease
This Saturday, as hunters seek white-tailed deer in Wisconsin's forested areas, a research team led by University of Wisconsin–Madison entomologist Susan Paskewitz will be conducting a hunt of its own. Read More
Wiscontrepreneur scholarship winner profiles
Brian Benford is a social work major with a strong commitment to social entrepreneurship. Originally from Milwaukee, Brian has served as Program Director at the… Read More
Students rewarded for entrepreneurial instincts
What do a youth sport officiating agency, a club dedicated to microfinance, a student-run bus company, a Chinese economic forum, and a Silver eBay PowerSeller business have to do with entrepreneurship at the University of Wisconsin–Madison? Read More
Physical Sciences Lab is a one-stop shop
As full-time caretaker for Wisc-SIMS, one of the geology department’s most intricate scientific instruments, Jim Kern is no stranger to trouble-shooting problems and making repairs. Still, when the machine, called an ion microprobe, sprang a leak in its detector this summer, the technician soon realized he’d need help from the instrument’s French manufacturer to fix it. Read More
PET scans may help in leukemia care
Is the chemotherapy working? Is the radiation therapy shrinking the tumor? The sooner doctors know the answers to those questions, the better they can tailor cancer treatment. Now a UW–Madison research team is finding that non-invasive PET scans may provide the answers early during treatment — in contrast to the current long wait needed to determine clinical outcome. Read More
‘Once Upon a Christmas Cheery’ to be broadcast in December
All tickets for the 39th annual “Once Upon a Christmas Cheery in the Lab of Shakhashiri” have been distributed, but the program will be broadcast on Wisconsin Public Television. Read More
Climate solutions worth $50,000 in prizes for students
Organizers of a new Climate Leadership Challenge at UW–Madison are seeking the best and brightest ideas from the student body to promote an environmentally sustainable future. They hope the contest will unleash a burst of youthful brainstorming and entrepreneurship across campus. Read More
UW-Madison students bring geography awareness to local schools
In celebration of Geography Awareness Week (through Nov. 22), geography and education students at the University of Wisconsin–Madison have teamed up to teach geography lessons to K-5 classes in the Madison area. Read More
Certificate program to enhance engineers’ liberal arts education
Next fall, a few UW–Madison professors hope to show engineering students that they have a bigger place in the non-engineering parts of campus. Read More
Stealth drug idea snags Gates Foundation support
A proposal to create a stealth drug, one that remains cloaked inside a cell until activated by a pathogen, has snared a high-profile $100,000 award from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Read More
A decade celebrating stem cells: Changing the face of medicine
The Wisconsin Academy, along with the University of Wisconsin–Madison and the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF), will host a free, two-day event on Nov. 18-19 to highlight the accomplishments of stem cell research in the state and to examine future stem cell issues. Read More
Ancient mounds make UW–Madison a unique landscape
The UW–Madison campus includes 38 effigy and burial mounds in six groupings. Read More
Curiosities: How do public health officials determine which strain of influenza to create vaccines for each year?
This year’s influenza vaccine in the United States contains three strains of the influenza virus. Last March, experts at the U.S. Centers for Disease… Read More
Research on human embryonic stem cells marks 10-year milestone
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. Read More