Syndicated to: Wisc.edu
Galactic survey reveals a new look for the Milky Way
August 16, 2005With the help of NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, University of Wisconsin astronomers have conducted the most comprehensive structural analysis of our galaxy and have found tantalizing new evidence that the Milky Way is much different from your ordinary spiral galaxy. Read More
Polymer bandages may give new life to old bridges
August 15, 2005Long polymer "bandages," designed so that troops could quickly repair or reinforce bridges to bear the weight of 113-ton military tank transport vehicles, now could be used to quickly and inexpensively strengthen aging rural bridges and concrete culverts around the country. Read More
New treatment may curb IV-based infections
August 10, 2005Inserted through the skin and into a vein, long-term intravascular devices such as IV catheters deliver to patients a range of life-saving medications, nutrition and fluids, among other uses. But these life-saving devices also can provide a furtive pipeline for germs from the external world to gain access to the bloodstream of patients. A new finding at UW–Madison may help solve this medical conundrum. Read More
$3.4 million directed to key MS study
August 10, 2005In an effort to develop new techniques to repair and protect the nervous system in multiple sclerosis patients, including the use of human stem cells, the National Multiple Sclerosis Society has awarded $3.4 million to a team of UW–Madison scientists. Read More
Study suggests broader damage from fetal alcohol syndrome
August 9, 2005The chemical pathways by which alcohol causes neurological cell death in chick embryos overlap with the pathways that give alcohol its addictive properties, a UW–Madison fetal alcohol researcher announced in a study published this month in the journal Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research. Read More
America’s public forests landlocked by sea of development
August 8, 2005America's national forests are beginning to resemble "islands" of green wilderness, increasingly trapped by an expanding sea of new houses, a UW–Madison forestry researcher reports at the 90th annual Ecological Society of America (ESA) meeting in Montreal, Canada. Read More
Scientists zero in on drugs’ sweet spots
August 8, 2005Employing a simple new technique to manipulate the sugars that power many front-line drugs, a team of Wisconsin scientists has enhanced the anti-cancer properties of a digitalis, a drug commonly used to treat heart disease. Read More
Study may expand applied benefits of super-hard ceramics
August 4, 2005A discovery reported in the August 5 issue of Science could speed the design of materials that approach the hardness of diamond yet remain supple enough to be worked like metal. Read More
Engineers chart semiconductors on the scale of atoms
August 1, 2005Spanning fewer than a thousand atoms, the electronic devices on semiconductor chips have become so miniscule they defy most efforts to characterize them. Now for the first time, engineers have demonstrated a way to image these vanishingly small devices by mapping them atom by atom. Read More
Alvarez to leave coaching after 2005 football season
July 28, 2005University of Wisconsin head football coach and athletic director Barry Alvarez, who transformed the Badgers football program into a national powerhouse, announced Thursday that he will step down from his coaching duties at the end of the 2005 season. Read More
World land use seen as top environmental issue
July 21, 2005The massive conversion of the world's natural landscapes to agriculture and other human uses may soon begin to undermine the capacity of the planet's ecosystems to sustain a burgeoning human population. Read More
Scientists to mimic nature for newest cancer drugs
July 20, 2005The natural world has been medicine's most effective arsenal, providing life-saving antibiotics and our most potent anti-cancer drugs. Now, with help from the National Cancer Institute (NCI), a consortium of UW–Madison scientists will embark on a five-year program of drug discovery by copying and improving nature's designs to develop new medicines to treat colon, breast, cervical and pancreatic cancer. Read More
Students grab top honors in food competition
July 19, 2005It looks like odd years are a lucky charm for the UW–Madison Product Development Team. The group of food science students captured first place this year in a national product development contest sponsored by the Institute of Food Technologists for "Healthy sTarts," a granola cup coated with strawberry-flavored yogurt and topped with strawberries and blueberries. Read More
Statement from Chancellor Wiley on Governor Doyle’s budget vetoes
July 19, 2005I would like to thank Governor Doyle for his efforts today to help the Wisconsin university system through tough budget times. His creativity in helping to find ways to bolster our most critical resources, those of our faculty and our students, has been most welcome. Read More
Elderly mice yield clues to the process of growing old
July 15, 2005Delving deep into the molecular subtleties of a strain of mice engineered to age rapidly, scientists have found that an accumulation of genetic mutations prompts a cascade of programmed cell death that seems to underpin the aging process. Read More
Diamonds are a scientist’s best friend
July 14, 2005Do diamonds really last forever? That's the hope of UW–Madison researchers who are trying to solve the problems associated with building extremely small machines and having them withstand the test of time, wear and tear. Read More
Professor examines processes in Soviet Union’s formation
July 13, 2005Fall 1991 found Francine Hirsch entering the Ph.D. program in history at Princeton, just as unprecedented change was unfolding in the former Soviet Union. It certainly was an exciting time to be a graduate student. Read More
UW-Madison instilling science literacy in South Africa
July 12, 2005In November, representatives from UW–Madison will attend the inauguration of the southern hemisphere's largest telescope, the Southern African Large Telescope (SALT). UW–Madison is one of nearly a dozen international institutions that partnered with the South African government to build SALT, including universities in Russia, Poland, New Zealand, Germany and the United States. Read More
Engineer creates tool for keeping computers cool
July 11, 2005Anyone who has listened to the constant whir of a computer's fan or held a laptop for too long knows how blazing hot computers can get. UW–Madison engineers have created a spray cooling method that early tests show can remove heat at rates up to three times faster than other spray techniques. Read More
Scientists probe CWD’s spread through soils
July 11, 2005Scientists at UW–Madison and around the country will report new findings during the Second International Chronic Wasting Disease Symposium here on July 12-14. The symposium comes at a time when the known range of CWD seems to be swelling from its relatively small, endemic home in parts of Wyoming and Colorado toward the east, where deer populations are denser. Read More