Category Science & Technology
Can love change your mind? New project explores neuroscience of ‘positive qualities’
What is happening in the minds of people who have developed a greater capacity for forgiveness and compassion? Can a quality like love — whether it’s shown toward a family member or a friend — be neurologically measured in the brain? A new research project at UW–Madison offers the opportunity to apply hard science to these seemingly ethereal questions.
New projects take aim at Arboretum stormwater problems
Even after the most violent rains, stormwater usually recedes from city streets within hours. But in the downstream places where this water collects, the impact can be lasting, and nowhere is this more apparent than in the University of Wisconsin–Madison Arboretum.
Baby’s smell tamps down dad’s testosterone levels
Does eau de infant make dad a better parent? It does, it seems, if you are a common marmoset, a New World monkey known for its collaborative approach to rearing offspring.
Ice Age lesson predicts a faster rise in sea level
If the lessons being learned by scientists about the demise of the last great North American ice sheet are correct, estimates of global sea level rise from a melting Greenland ice sheet may be seriously underestimated.
Science News writer will be in residence in September
Nathan Seppa, Science News biomedical writer, will be the biomedical and public health writer in residence on campus from Monday–Friday, Sept. 8–12, will give a public talk, “Evolutionary Medicine: What Happens When We Are Hard-Wired for the Stone Age but Live in the Modern World,” at 4 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 11, at Memorial Union (check Today in the Union for room).
Patterns in changing ecological landscapes inspire professor
Thirty years after visiting Yellowstone National Park for the first time, Monica Turner has established herself as a leader in the field of ecology and made Yellowstone one of the most well-studied ecological landscapes in the country.
Professor tracks mosquitoes for the sake of public health
Under a cloud of mosquitoes on a muggy June morning, Susan Paskewitz sits down in the grass, rolls up her pant leg and extends her calf as bait.
WiCell Research Institute launches new stem cell bank
The WiCell Research Institute, a private, not-for-profit supporting organization to the University of Wisconsin–Madison, is launching its own stem cell bank to distribute cell lines beyond the 21 lines eligible for federal funding and distribution through the National Stem Cell Bank (NSCB).
Manes, trains and antlers explained
A team of Wisconsin scientists has worked out the molecular details of how a simple genetic switch controls decorative traits in male fruit flies and how that switch evolved.
Curiosities: What’s behind the claims that the new particle accelerator in Europe may create black holes that could destroy the Earth? Should we be worried?
When the Large Hadron Collider starts running this summer near Geneva, Switzerland, some physicists have predicted that some of its high-energy proton collisions could…
SEMATECH donates cutting-edge lab equipment to UW–Madison
Students in Mechanical Engineering Professor Roxann Engelstad's lab, sought after in industry for their problem-solving experience, now can graduate even more well-versed in cutting-edge technology.
The biology of obesity: Do these genes make me look fat?
Scientists are probing the complex relationship between our DNA and our diets to unravel the root causes of obesity. But for those seeking a simple solution to the worldwide fat epidemic, their answers may be hard to swallow.
Self-assembling polymer arrays improve data storage potential
A new manufacturing approach holds the potential to overcome the technological limitations currently facing the microelectronics and data-storage industries, paving the way to smaller electronic devices and higher-capacity hard drives.
Fighting ash borer: To spray or not to spray?
Perhaps the only good news in the Aug. 4 announcement that emerald ash borers have been found in southeastern Wisconsin is that the invasive pest took its time getting here.