Category Science & Technology

For Midwesterners, more boxcars mean cleaner air

December 8, 2011

Shifting a fraction of truck-borne freight onto trains would have an outsized impact on air quality in the Midwest, according to researchers at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

100 years of discovery: Celebrating South Pole research

December 8, 2011

To mark the centennial of Roald Amundsen’s expedition to the South Pole, the IceCube Research Center invites you to join them for an evening of exploration and learning on Tuesday, December 13 from 6:30–8:30 at the Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery.

Annual Christmas lab show canceled

December 7, 2011

The 2011 “Once Upon a Christmas Cheery, In the Lab of Shakhashiri” shows, scheduled for Saturday and Sunday, Dec. 10 and 11, have been canceled.

Snow in the Rockies, dry summers in the Southwest?

December 6, 2011

New simulations of summer rains in the arid American Southwest show that they are influenced by the previous winter's snowpack in the Rocky Mountains.

Pioneering molecular biologist, formerly at UW–Madison, passes away

December 5, 2011

Masayasu Nomura, a molecular biologist who studied the structure that forms proteins inside cells at University of Wisconsin–Madison between 1963 and 1984, passed away on Nov. 19 at age 84 in California.

Global winds could explain record rains, tornadoes

December 5, 2011

Two talks at a scientific conference this week will propose a common root for an enormous deluge in western Tennessee in May 2010, and a historic outbreak of tornadoes centered on Alabama in April 2011.

David Krakauer nurtures scientific collaboration

December 1, 2011

Education and research are splintering into new specialties at an unsustainable rate, according to David Krakauer.

Discovery building marks first anniversary with Gold LEED

November 30, 2011

When the Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery celebrates its first birthday this Friday, Dec. 2 at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, visitors can learn a new "first" about the building while taking a behind-the-scenes "green" tour or sharing locally sourced cake with Bucky.

Ancient environment found to drive marine biodiversity

November 25, 2011

Much of our knowledge about past life has come from the fossil record — but how accurately does that reflect the true history and drivers of biodiversity on Earth?

Psychopaths’ brains show difference in structure, function

November 22, 2011

Images of prisoners' brains show important differences between those who are diagnosed as psychopaths and those who aren't, according to a new study led by University of Wisconsin–Madison researchers.

New evidence links virus to brain cancer

November 22, 2011

Tilting the scales in an ongoing debate, University of Wisconsin–Madison researchers have found new evidence that human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) is associated with glioblastoma multiforme (GBM), the brain cancer that killed Sen. Edward Kennedy.

Hydrogen peroxide provides clues to immunity, wound healing, tumor biology

November 22, 2011

Hydrogen peroxide isn't just that bottled colorless liquid in the back of the medicine cabinet that's used occasionally for cleaning scraped knees and cut fingers. It's also a natural chemical in the body that rallies at wound sites, jump-starting immune cells into a series of events.

Implanted neurons, grown in the lab, take charge of brain circuitry

November 21, 2011

Among the many hurdles to be cleared before human embryonic stem cells can achieve their therapeutic potential is determining whether or not transplanted cells can functionally integrate into target organs or tissues.

Microfabrication breakthrough could set piezoelectric material applications in motion

November 17, 2011

Integrating a complex, single-crystal material with "giant" piezoelectric properties onto silicon, University of Wisconsin–Madison engineers and physicists can fabricate low-voltage, near-nanoscale electromechanical devices that could lead to improvements in high-resolution 3-D imaging, signal processing, communications, energy harvesting, sensing, and actuators for nanopositioning devices, among others.

Christmas Lecture, a Madison holiday tradition, returns

November 17, 2011

Chemistry Professor Bassam Z. Shakhashiri will celebrate a 42-year tradition with his holiday demonstration, “Once Upon a Christmas Cheery in the Lab of Shakhashiri.”

Biochemist Har Gobind Khorana, whose UW work earned the Nobel Prize, dies

November 11, 2011

Biochemist Har Gobind Khorana, who received the Nobel Prize for research he conducted while at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, died Wednesday, Nov. 9 in Concord, Mass. at age 89.

Satellite technology enables rapid, accurate mapping of forest harvest in upper Midwest

November 9, 2011

Using satellite images, Mutlu Ozdogan, an assistant professor of forest and wildlife ecology at the University of Wisconsin–Madison is automatically generating maps showing where trees have been harvested in the form of clear-cut areas over five-year intervals.

Forum focuses on storing spent nuclear fuel

November 9, 2011

Not all of the fallout from last March's disaster at Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant was radioactive. There was also considerable policy fallout, as the crisis caused many to rethink the safety of nuclear power.

UW professors honored by American Chemical Society

November 8, 2011

Four University of Wisconsin–Madison professors have won awards from the American Chemical Society (ACS) in recognition of research excellence. They will be honored at a ceremony next March at the society’s 243rd national meeting in San Diego.

UW study will explore anemia

November 7, 2011

To say a pregnant woman is eating for two leaves out a few guests at the table - trillions of them, according to Christopher Coe, a University of Wisconsin–Madison psychology professor who will soon begin studying anemia with funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.