University of Wisconsin–Madison

Tag: health & medicine

UW-Madison’s ‘good ideas’ get lift from stimulus funds

Posted on

The university has drawn more than $38 million in funding for more than 120 research projects and programs from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The work is spread across the range of academic disciplines, including public health, computer science, psychology, economics and engineering. Funding comes from agencies such as NSF, the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Department of Energy and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Major study links malaria mosquitoes to Amazon deforestation

Posted on

In one of the most field-intensive efforts to explore the connection between malaria and tropical deforestation, a team led by Jonathan Patz, a specialist in the link between environment and health at the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies at UW-Madison, has established a strong correlation between the extent of forest destruction and the incidence of the Amazon’s most dangerous malaria vector, the mosquito Anopheles darlingi.

From the waiting room to the birthing room

Posted on

Years ago, dads-to-be nervously paced the floor of hospital waiting rooms as they waited to hear that their child had been born. But during those countless hours of waiting, many wrote down their feelings in journals known as “father’s books” or “stork room jottings.” Frequently left in waiting rooms in the 1940s and ’50s, the journals provided an outlet for the apprehensive, often exasperated men.

Curiosities: Why do the blue eyes of babies often turn brown?

Posted on

Melanin is the pigment that makes body parts dark, said Burton Kushner, professor of ophthalmology at the School of Medicine and Public Health. “Melanin makes freckles brown, hair brown and pigmented races brown, and it can make the iris brown as well. Melanin is not fully developed in newborn babies, so the iris is relatively …

Early Alzheimer’s diagnosis offers large social, fiscal benefits

Posted on

Early diagnosis and treatment of Alzheimer’s disease could save millions or even billions of dollars while simultaneously improving care, according to new work by University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers.

Researchers explore the broad-reaching effects of a pandemic in Wisconsin

Posted on

If a pandemic hit Madison, canceling a football game at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Camp Randall would protect thousands from exposure to illness. However, the economic cost would be substantial for stadium workers and employees at nearby restaurants and businesses if widespread, prolonged illness forced officials to call off an entire season of Badger football.

As ticks expand, new areas may become prone to Lyme disease

Posted on

Last summer, after returning home from a walk in Madison’s Dudgeon-Monroe neighborhood, Susan Paskewitz was astonished to find a deer tick crawling up her dog’s hind leg. It was the first time Paskewitz, a University of Wisconsin-Madison entomologist, had collected a tick in the city. Within the month, she learned of two other such cases.