Category Science & Technology
Study explains unexpected conductivity of nanoscale silicon
When graduate student Pengpeng Zhang successfully imaged a piece of silicon just 10 nanometers-or a millionth of a centimeter-in thickness, she and her UW–Madison co-researchers were puzzled. According to established thinking, the feat should be impossible because her microscopy method required samples that conduct electricity. Read More
Darwin’s Day: Making the case for evolution
Just in time for Charles Darwin's 197th birthday, an eminent group of UW–Madison faculty have joined forces to make the case on Feb. 11 for the iconographic scientist and what they consider to be biology's prevailing central idea: Evolution. Read More
From 2D blueprint, material assembles into novel 3D nanostructures
An international team of scientists affiliated with the UW–Madison Nanoscale Science and Engineering Center has coaxed a self-assembling material into forming never-before-seen, three-dimensional nanoscale structures, with potential applications ranging from catalysis and chemical separation to semiconductor manufacturing. Read More
Canine cancer vaccine shows early promise
It wasn't publicized, other than by word of mouth, and still the UW–Madison School of Veterinary Medicine was overwhelmed with requests. Since 1998, the school's oncology department has been producing an anti-cancer vaccine for dogs diagnosed with melanoma. Read More
UW scientists unravel mystery of how flu viruses replicate
With the help of a long-studied flu virus, an electron microscope and a novel idea of how the virus aligns segments of RNA as it prepares to make virions, the particles a virus creates and sends forth to infect cells, one major puzzle of flu virus replication has been resolved. Read More
Mining for gems in the fungal genome
Ever since penicillin, a byproduct of a fungal mold, was discovered in 1929, scientists have scrutinized fungi for other breakthrough drugs. As reported Jan. 20 in the Journal of Chemistry and Biology, a team led by a UW–Madison researcher has developed a new method that may speed the ongoing quest for medically useful compounds in fungi. Read More
Scientists link a gene to degenerative blindness
A team of researchers at UW–Madison has taken a small but crucial step forward in the ongoing fight against retinal degeneration diseases. Read More
Study reveals classic symbiotic relationship between ants, bacteria
Ants that tend and harvest gardens of fungus have a secret weapon against the parasites that invade their crops: antibiotic-producing bacteria that the insects harbor on their bodies,UW-Madison researchers report in today's issue of Science. Read More
Wisconsin scientists grow two new stem cell lines in animal cell-free culture
Scientists working at the WiCell Research Institute, a private laboratory affiliated with UW–Madison, have developed a precisely defined stem cell culture system free of animal cells and used it to derived two new human embryonic stem cell lines. Read More
Advance points way to noninvasive brain cancer treatment
With an equal rate of incidence and mortality-the number of those who get the disease and those who die from it-Glioblastoma Multiforme (GBM) is a brain cancer death sentence. Scientists at UW–Madison are working on a new radiotherapy technique for fighting GBM with the element gadolinium — an approach that might lead to less invasive treatments that offer greater quality of life for patients. Read More
Illuminating Alzheimer’s: Research sheds light on creatine’s presence in brain
A team of Canadian and American scientists working at the UW–Madison Synchrotron Radiation Center reports the first-ever finding of elevated levels of creatine — the newly discovered agent of Alzheimer's disease - in brain tissue. Read More
Transplanted stem cells show promise for mending broken hearts
Working with heart attack-stricken mice, a team of UW–Madison scientists has shown that embryonic stem cells may one day live up to their clinical promise. Read More
Engineered stem cells show promise for sneaking drugs into the brain
One of the great challenges for treating Parkinson's diseases and other neurodegenerative disorders is getting medicine to the right place in the brain. UW–Madison neuroscientist Clive Svendsen and his colleagues show how engineered human brain cells, transplanted into the brains of rats and monkeys, can integrate into the brain and deliver medicine where it is needed. Read More
New technologies target food-borne illnesses
On its journey to your dinner plate, food is vulnerable to contamination along the way. In 2000, UW–Madison made a commitment to help tackle this complex problem by hiring an interdisciplinary group of researchers with expertise in food safety. Read More
Study suggests treatment for fatal nervous system disorder
Working with mice, University of Wisconsin–Madison researchers have developed the basis for a therapeutic strategy that could provide hope for children afflicted with Krabbe's disease, a fatal nervous system disorder. Read More
Dancing bacteria? Engineers explore microbial choreography
Birds fly together in flocks. Fish swim together in schools. Everyone has seen the beautiful, seemingly choreographed motions these collections of organisms can exhibit. But surely bacteria, which have no eyes or brain, cannot behave in such a coordinated way. In fact, they do, and researchers are beginning to learn how. Read More
UW-Madison course enhances nonprofits
As exam time rolls around, UW–Madison students in the e-Projects in Community Service (ePICS) course won't be studying textbooks or writing take-home finals. They'll be presenting their semester's work to real-world clients, twelve nonprofit organizations for whom students have designed Web sites, built Web-based information systems, created logos, developed marketing materials and produced videos. Read More
Scientists map one of biology’s critical light-sensing structures
For plants, the ability to accurately sense light governs everything from seed germination, photosynthesis and pigmentation to patterns of growth and flowering. Now, for the first time, scientists at UW–Madison have obtained a detailed map of one of biology's most important light detectors, a protein found in many species across life's plant, fungal, and bacterial kingdoms. Read More
Lightfoot receives National Medal of Science
President George W. Bush has named a UW–Madison professor of chemical and biological engineering as one of eight recipients of the 2004 National Medal of Science, the nation's highest honor for science and technology. Read More