Tag Research
UW-Madison instilling science literacy in South Africa
In 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.
Promising graduate students to visit campus
Meet at least ten new people. That's the charge awaiting nearly 650 undergraduate students attending the 2005 Summer Research Opportunity (SROP) Conference, presented by the Committee on Institutional Cooperation (CIC) and hosted this year by the Graduate School.
Engineer creates tool for keeping computers cool
Anyone 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.
Scientists probe CWD’s spread through soils
Scientists 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.
Global mercury pollution experts to meet here July 14-18
More than three dozen experts from 11 nations will be meeting at the UW–Madison Fluno Center for Executive Education this week to discuss the status of mercury as a global pollutant. Seven experts have agreed to be available for media interviews from noon to 1 p.m. Thursday, July 14, in Room 203 of the Fluno Center, 601 University Ave. Their areas of expertise are detailed later in this release.
Huntington’s cure in flies lays groundwork for new treatment approaches
Boosting levels of two critical proteins that normally shut down during Huntington's disease, researchers at UW–Madison and the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory have cured fruit flies of the genetic, neurodegenerative condition.
TIP: UW–Madison scientists advance homeland security efforts
With the London terror attacks triggering renewed discussion about homeland security, reporters may be interested in a year-old federal project at the University of Wisconsin–Madison that is helping the United States prioritize possible terror targets and develop effective risk-reduction and resource-allocation strategies.
Forestry project will map likely habitat of endangered butterfly
A grant from the University of Wisconsin–Madison Graduate School's Technology Transfer Program will fund a project that uses computer mapping and statistical modeling to identify likely habitat of the endangered Karner blue butterfly. The project could help Wisconsin land managers save thousands of dollars on field surveys required to protect the rare insect.
TIP: Perspectives on terror attacks
Reporters seeking local perspectives on today's series of terror attacks in London may consider the following experts at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Faculty on this list can offer insight on terrorism and on the political, economic and diplomatic implications of the attacks occurring during the start of the G8 Summit.
UW-Madison scientists receive $20 million award for protein study
Researchers at the Center for Eukaryotic Structural Genomics, based at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, have received a $20 million award to fund Phase II of the Protein Structure Initiative over the next five years.
Embattled Curtis Prairie a test bed for new restoration techniques
To the ordinary eye, the world's oldest restored tall-grass prairie is an idyllic postcard picture. Long, slender grasses sway in the breeze, and playful blackbirds swoop everywhere.
New vet school oncologist offers cancer treatment options
Ruthanne Chun, a clinical veterinary oncologist who joined the staff this month of the School of Veterinary Medicine, is dedicated to finding new and better ways to treat animals with cancer.
Study shows eutrophic lakes may not recover for a millennium
Although it has taken just 60 years for humans to put many freshwater lakes on the eutrophication fast track, a new study shows their recovery may take a thousand years under the best of circumstances.
Scientists streamline method for making key virus
By devising a novel way to package the genome of a common human tumor virus - the virus that causes common warts, genital warts and that is implicated in prevalent cancers - scientists have paved the way for making the pathogen far more accessible to biomedical science.
Technique provides path to manufacturing complex nano-electronic devices
In the time it takes to read this sentence, your fingernail will have grown one nanometer. That's one-billionth of a meter and it represents the scale at which electronics must be built if the march toward miniaturization is to continue. Reporting in the June 3 issue of the journal Science, an international team of researchers shows how control over materials on this tiny scale can be extended to create complex patterns important in the production of nano-electronics.
Making a better cheddar
Whether it's a stretchy mozzarella or an easy-to-slice Swiss, cheesemakers aim to provide consumers with high quality, consistent products. To this end, they often try to improve texture and flavor by controlling for factors like acidity and the breakdown of milk proteins by enzymes. However, the key to better Cheddar may lie in undissolved calcium salts, according to a report by UW–Madison cheese scientists published recently in the International Dairy Journal.
Farmers’ insurance choices range from too costly to too little to none at all
Health care is something that most people working in Wisconsin's offices, factories, stores and other places of employment don't have to worry about. For Wisconsin farm operators, the story is different.
Wildlife scientists work in the eye of a biological and political firestorm
Wildlife managers stunned Wisconsin's conservation community in 2002 when they announced that three whitetail deer shot near Mt. Horeb had tested positive for Chronic Wasting Disease. This was the first time CWD had been found in the wild east of the Mississippi River . Unchecked, the incurable brain-wasting disease could seriously disrupt Wisconsin 's much-loved (and hunted) deer herd.
Scientists build consensus on building buffers between field and stream
Maximizing crop yields is fairly simple -- good soil, cooperative weather, a productive hybrid with plenty of fertilizer. But we're no longer living in a simple world. Fifty years ago, most farmers -- and many university researchers — worked to maximize yields. Today, the big challenge is to minimize environmental impacts while maintaining farm profits.
Enterprising scientists turn discoveries into useful technologies
Patents and business plans were far from Jiwan Palta's mind when he joined the faculty of the College of Agricultural and Life Science's horticulture department in 1982. Twenty-three years later, he's well acquainted with both.