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Category Science & Technology

Highlights start early in four-day Wisconsin Science Festival

October 14, 2014

You name it, and the fourth annual Wisconsin Science Festival has it all — dance, star-gazing, fossils, art, museum and stage shows — spread over four days and venues in 25 Wisconsin cities. While the curious of all ages are immersed in hands-on exploration, and visitors marvel at the research underway and specimens on display around campus and the state, several of the festival’s marquee events may be of interest to faculty and staff on campus. The festival runs from Thursday through Sunday, Oct. 16-19. Read More

Balancing birds and biofuels: Grasslands support more species than cornfields

October 9, 2014

In Wisconsin, bioenergy is for the birds. Really. In a study published today in the journal PLOS ONE, University of Wisconsin–Madison and Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) scientists examined whether corn and perennial grassland fields in southern Wisconsin could provide both biomass for bioenergy production and bountiful bird habitat. The research team found that where there are grasslands, there are birds. Grass-and-wildflower-dominated fields supported more than three times as many bird species as cornfields, including 10 imperiled species found only in the grasslands. Read More

Company developing radio frequency technology to localize breast tumors

October 9, 2014

Breast cancer may inspire more public discussion, advocacy and charitable giving than almost any other disease besides HIV and AIDS. But people rarely talk about the specific experiences to which cancer patients are subjected. Read More

New nonprofit supports women in science

October 8, 2014

Tracey Holloway was a postdoctoral researcher at Columbia University in 2002, Ph.D. from Princeton University freshly in hand, when she and five colleagues teamed up to create an informal support network for other women in their field. Read More

Influenza researcher Yoshihiro Kawaoka wins Breakthrough Award

October 7, 2014

The University of Wisconsin–Madison's Yoshihiro Kawaoka has been recognized as a 2014 Popular Mechanics Breakthrough Award recipient for his efforts to understand and prevent pandemic influenza. Read More

Two UW student teams named finalists in national inventors competition

October 3, 2014

Two University of Wisconsin–Madison undergraduate teams are among only seven finalists for the 2014 National Collegiate Inventors Competition, which honors the latest in student creativity and innovation. Read More

Sigma-Aldrich employees partner with SCIENCountErs program

October 2, 2014

To provide more opportunities for young people to engage in science, the University of Wisconsin–Madison’s Nanoscale Science and Engineering Center (NSEC) and Institute for Chemical Education (ICE) have partnered on a wide range of science outreach programs. The effort was recently bolstered by a new three-year partnership with Sigma-Aldrich, a global life sciences and technology company based out of St. Louis, Missouri, with facilities in Madison and Milwaukee. Read More

Physicist turns smartphones into pocket cosmic ray detectors

October 1, 2014

Soon, the growing capability of your smart phone could be harnessed to detect cosmic rays in much the same way as high-end, multimillion-dollar observatories. With a simple app addition, Android phones, and likely other smartphone brands in the not-too-distant future, can be turned into detectors to capture the light particles created when cosmic rays crash into Earth’s atmosphere. Read More

Phi Beta Kappa Society recognizes Wisconsin Science Festival

September 30, 2014

The Phi Beta Kappa Society’s National Arts & Sciences Initiative will recognize the Wisconsin Science Festival with a Key of Excellence Award at a… Read More

Mountain pine beetles get a bad rap for wildfires, study says

September 29, 2014

Mountain pine beetles get a bad rap, and understandably so. The grain-of-rice-sized insects are responsible for killing pine trees over tens of millions of acres in the Western U.S. and Canada over the last decade. But contrary to popular belief, these pests may not be to blame for more severe wildfires like those that have recently swept through the region. Instead, according to a new study by UW–Madison zoology professor Monica Turner, weather and topography play a greater role in the ecological severity of fires than these bark-boring beetles. Read More

In memoriam: Ray D. Owen discovered immune tolerance, paved the way for organ transplantation

September 26, 2014

Ray D. Owen, who died on Sept. 21 in Pasadena, California, at the age of 98, discovered the phenomenon of immune tolerance, fueling a revolution in immunology and laying the foundation for the successful transplantation of human organs. Owen left Madison in 1947 to join the faculty at Caltech, where he remained for the rest of his long, distinguished career. His later work included studies on human antibodies, blood-group antigens, and the evolution of immune systems. Read More

UW-Madison team developing ‘tissue chip’ to screen neurological toxins

September 23, 2014

A multidisciplinary team at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and the Morgridge Institute for Research is creating a faster, more affordable way to screen for neural toxins, helping flag chemicals that may harm human development. Read More

Actions on climate change bring better health, study says

September 22, 2014

The number of extremely hot days in Eastern and Midwestern U.S. cities is projected to triple by mid-century, according to a new study led by University of Wisconsin–Madison researchers and published today in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Read More

Ultrasound enhancement provides clarity to damaged tendons, ligaments

September 19, 2014

Ultrasound is a safe, affordable and noninvasive way to see internal structures, including the developing fetus. Ultrasound can also “see” other soft tissue — including tendons, which attach muscles to bone, and ligaments, which attach bone to bone. Ray Vanderby, a professor of biomedical engineering and orthopedics and rehabilitation at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, is commercializing an ultrasound method to analyze the condition of soft tissue. Read More

Badger duo experiences an amazing summer on ‘The Amazing Race’

September 19, 2014

Amy DeJong and Maya Warren had a truly epic summer, but they can't tell you about it. Read More

Dwindling wind may tip predator-prey balance

September 19, 2014

Bent and tossed by the wind, a field of soybean plants presents a challenge for an Asian lady beetle on the hunt for aphids. But what if the air - and the soybeans - were still? Read More

Researchers study vital ‘on/off switches’ that control when bacteria turn deadly

September 18, 2014

No matter how many times it’s demonstrated, it’s still hard to envision bacteria as social, communicating creatures. But by using a signaling system called “quorum sensing,” these single-celled organisms radically alter their behavior to suit their population. Helen Blackwell, a professor of chemistry at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, has been making artificial compounds that mimic the natural quorum-sensing signals, including some that block a natural signal from binding to its protein target. Read More