Category Science & Technology
Curiosities: What’s the difference between dishwasher detergent, laundry detergent and dish soap? Why aren’t they interchangeable?
All detergents — whether intended for hands, hair, clothes or dishes — work on the same principles: Break up oils and dirt and wash them…
Curiosities: Why do people sometimes develop late in life an allergy that never bothered them before?
Most allergies — especially to airborne allergens associated with runny noses and itchy eyes — come on in the teenage years or early twenties, according…
Global grassroots lake science network has roots in Wisconsin
Inspired and led by freshwater scientists at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, researchers eager to understand global ecosystems from end to end are now monitoring a series of buoys in lakes on every continent except Africa. Each buoy carries instruments to measure fundamental data on the weather above the water and the temperature and chemistry below it.
‘Condor’ brings genome assembly down to Earth
Borrowing computing power from idle sources will help geneticists sidestep the multimillion-dollar cost of reconstituting the flood of data produced by next-generation genome-sequencing machines.
Gene regulating human brain development identified
With more than 100 billion neurons and billions of other specialized cells, the human brain is a marvel of nature. It is the organ that makes people unique.
Confronting toxic blue-green algae in Madison lakes
Harmful algal blooms, once considered mainly a problem in salt water, have been appearing with increasing severity in the Madison lakes, and a team of University of Wisconsin–Madison researchers has geared up to understand the when, where and why of these dangerous "blooms."
Stirring the ocean: Calculating the role of the oceans’ swimmers
The world's oceans, we know, are constantly shaken and stirred by the winds and the tides and other physical forces of nature.
TIP/High school students get hands-on with CSI science
Students from five Madison high schools are getting a first-hand view of cutting-edge forensic science and its high-tech tools this week on the campus of…
Incidence of malaria jumps when Amazon forests are cut
Establishing a firm link between environmental change and human disease has always been an iffy proposition. Now, however, a team of scientists from UW–Madison, writing in the online issue of the CDC journal Emerging Infectious Diseases, presents the most enumerated case to date linking increased incidence of malaria to land-use practices in the Amazon.