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UW-Madison to aid NASA’s push to measure Arctic’s radiant energy
Questions abound about conditions in the Arctic and its role in regulating Earth’s climate. Now, a UW–Madison-led research program aims to answer some of them.
Freely shared satellite data improves weather forecasting
UW–Madison scientists specialize in receiving and processing data from satellites for use by everyone from other researchers and meteorologists to the general public.
Colorado potato beetle genome gives insight into major agricultural pest
The new information sheds light on how this insect jumps to new plant hosts and handles toxins, and it will help researchers explore more ways to control the beetle.
Bio-renewable process could help ‘green’ plastic
Plastics are often derived from petroleum, but Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center scientists at UW–Madison are developing new and renewable ways of creating them from biomass.
UW–Madison professor led fight to ban pesticide DDT 45 years ago
Joseph Hickey took a brave stance — given Wisconsin’s deep roots in agriculture — by showing a connection between pesticides and declining bird populations.
UW search team recovers remains of airman missing since WWII
It has been more than 70 years since 1st Lt. Frank Fazekas’ P-47 Thunderbolt crashed in northern France, just over a week before the D-Day invasion in 1944.
New hope for stopping an understudied heart disease in its tracks
Thanks, in part, to pigs at the Arlington Agricultural Research Station, scientists now are catching up on understanding the roots of calcific aortic valve disease.
Oldest fossils ever found show life on Earth began before 3.5 billion years ago
Critics argued they were just odd minerals that only looked like biological specimens. However, geoscientist John Valley says the new findings put these doubts to rest. “I think it’s settled,” he says.
Chimpanzee deaths in Uganda pinned on human cold virus
Scientists investigating an outbreak of respiratory disease in a community of wild chimpanzees in Uganda were surprised and dismayed to discover that rhinovirus C was killing healthy chimps.
Estrogen discovery could shed new light on fertility problems
Researchers have upended the traditional understanding of the hormonal cascade that leads to release of an egg from the ovaries.
Decades-past logging still threatens spotted owls in national forests
Researchers say despite protections put in place in the 1990s, owls may still be paying an “extinction debt” that was created by historical logging of large trees.
Waisman Center director search advances as interim leadership is named
The center has been dedicated for 45 years to the advancement of knowledge about human development, developmental disabilities and neurodegenerative diseases.
Gambling against the odds on life’s risks more common after childhood stress
Trouble reading the signs that a loss or punishment is looming can lead to situations that risk avoidable problems.
Increased vegetation boosts rainfall in the Sahel, researchers find
The large semiarid region of Africa just south of the Sahara routinely experiences pronounced droughts that can last decades, threatening food security in the area.
UW–Madison retains 6th place in national research ranking
The university’s research enterprise is a powerful economic engine as well as a creator of knowledge and innovation. The benefits are felt throughout the state and beyond.
‘Magnetoelectric’ material shows promise as memory for electronics
Devices tend to store that information in two ways: through electric fields or magnetic fields. In the future, electronics could benefit from the best of each.
Optoelectronics origami: An easy-to-make, double-duty curved image sensor
The advance by a UW–Madison engineering team could lead to cameras with features such as infinite depth of field, wider view angle, low aberrations, and vastly increased pixel density.
All-in-one repair kit makes CRISPR gene editing more precise
Error rates as high as 50 percent are a problem when the goal is to correct typos in the DNA that cause genetic disease. Now, a team of researchers has made the fix less mistake-prone.
Icebound detector reveals how ghostly neutrinos are stopped cold
An international team of researchers at the IceCube Neutrino Observatory has made a critical measurement that may one day help predict new physics beyond the Standard Model, which seeks to explain the fundamental forces of the universe.
Images of strange solar system visitor peel away some of the mystery
A strange visitor, either asteroid or comet, zipping through our solar system at a high rate of speed is giving astronomers a once-in-a-generation opportunity to examine up close an object from somewhere else in our galaxy.