Category Science & Technology
National roster of science illustrators to meet at UW–Madison
The Guild of Natural Science Illustrators Conference, hosted in 2006 by the University of Wisconsin–Madison, will be held Sunday, July 30-Saturday, Aug. 5.
Soil scientists in the spotlight at World Congress of Soil Science
Soil scientists from the University of Wisconsin–Madison will have international attention this week at the 18th World Congress of Soil Science on July 9-15 in Philadelphia.
Study of urban roadside dirt reveals potentially toxic mix of metals
Scientists at the University of Wisconsin–Madison learned that there's more to that cloud of roadway dirt than meets the eye: What looks like ordinary dirt actually is a potentially toxic mixture of non-tailpipe vehicle emissions, including microscopic metal particles from brake and tire wear.
New process makes diesel fuel, industrial chemicals from simple sugar
A University of Wisconsin–Madison chemical and biological engineering professor reports in the June 30 issue of the journal Science on a better way to make a chemical intermediate called HMF from fructose: fruit sugar. Chemical intermediates are compounds that are the raw material for many modern plastics, drugs and fuels.
Researchers study why waste in bioreactor landfills degrades in haste
Part of Craig Benson's laboratory looks - and smells - like a landfill. It's not that the University of Wisconsin–Madison professor of civil and environmental engineering is excessively messy. Rather, he's studying bioreactor landfills, a relatively recent technology in solid-waste management that may help landfill owners make better use of their land-and of the waste itself.
UW researchers reveal insights on silicon semiconductors
"Smaller. Faster. Wildly complex." This could easily be the motto for semiconductors-the materials that, among lots of other advances in electronics, allow cell phones to continuously shrink in size while increasing the number of their mind-boggling functions.
E. coli work identifies new keys to regulation of bacterial gene expression
The cellular process of transcription, in which the enzyme RNA polymerase constructs chains of RNA from information contained in DNA, depends upon previously underappreciated sections of both the DNA promoter region and RNA polymerase, according to work done with the bacterium E. coli and published today (June 16) in the journal Cell by a team of bacteriologists from the University of Wisconsin–Madison.
Kids explore art and science in summer programs
The Office of Education Outreach in the University of Wisconsin–Madison's School of Education is offering numerous opportunities for local students to learn about art, technology and science this summer.
Hybrid-vehicle team places second nationally
Tired of high gas costs and poor sport utility vehicle (SUV) fuel efficiency? A group of engineering students at the University of Wisconsin–Madison has spent the last three years building one of the cleanest and most fuel-efficient SUVs in North America. The principles behind the vehicle, appropriately named the "Moovada," could one day be incorporated into mass-production hybrid SUVs.
The Why Files celebrates decade of science exploration
The Why Files is celebrating its first decade online.