Category Science & Technology

Engineers chart semiconductors on the scale of atoms

August 1, 2005

Spanning 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.

Scientists to mimic nature for newest cancer drugs

July 20, 2005

The 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.

Scientists probe CWD’s spread through soils

July 11, 2005

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.

Huntington’s cure in flies lays groundwork for new treatment approaches

July 11, 2005

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.

Forestry project will map likely habitat of endangered butterfly

July 7, 2005

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.

UW-Madison scientists receive $20 million award for protein study

July 6, 2005

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.

Study shows eutrophic lakes may not recover for a millennium

June 13, 2005

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

June 13, 2005

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.

Making a better cheddar

June 9, 2005

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.

Green diesel: New process makes fuel from plants

June 2, 2005

College of Engineering researchers have discovered a new way to make a diesel-like liquid fuel from carbohydrates commonly found in plants. "It's a very efficient process," says researcher George Huber. "The fuel produced contains 90 percent of the energy found in the carbohydrate and hydrogen feed. If you look at a carbohydrate source such as corn, our new process has the potential to create twice the energy as is created in using corn to make ethanol."

Shared computing grid cuts data mountains down to size

May 10, 2005

Although University of Wisconsin–Madison professors Wesley Smith and David Schwartz operate in completely different scientific spheres - one seeking to explore the fundamental properties of matter and the other trying to wrest free the secrets of the human genome - both have the same dilemma: They are awash in a sea of data.

Distributing computing resources: The social challenge

May 10, 2005

By bringing together a diverse group of scientific interests to share a large, distributed computing resource, the Grid Laboratory of Wisconsin (GLOW) itself has become an important subject of research.

Can I get a copy of that molecule? Biology goes 3-D with new technology

May 4, 2005

In an era of quantum dots and genome maps, science education faces an interesting challenge: How can students come to grips with the complexity of the infinitesimally small? The answer: Fire up the copy machine.

Researchers devise nano-scale method for investigating living systems

April 28, 2005

By observing how tiny specks of crystal move through the layers of a biological membrane, a team of electrical and computer engineers and biologists has devised a new method for investigating living systems on the molecular level.

Laser scientist illuminates research in living color

April 28, 2005

In art, color is information. Just look at a painting by an artist such as Monet: Each uniquely hued brushstroke brings to life a new blade of grass, a leaf, a flower petal, a slice of sky-each a component of the complete picture.

Wisconsin researchers identify sleep gene

April 27, 2005

Zeroing in on the core cellular mechanisms of sleep, researchers at University of Wisconsin Medical School have identified for the first time a single gene mutation that has a powerful effect on the amount of time fruit flies sleep.

Plant pathway may treat human disease

April 25, 2005

A newly discovered pathway by which cells protect themselves from a toxic byproduct of photosynthesis may hold important implications for bioenergy sources, human and plant disease, and agricultural yields, a team of UW–Madison bacteriologists announced Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Citizen panel to release report April 28 on nanotechnology

April 22, 2005

University of Wisconsin officials will join state legislators in the Assembly Parlor of the State Capitol building on Thursday, April 28, at 11:30 a.m. to accept a report on the promise and perils of nanotechnology produced by a panel of Madison-area citizens.

Bioethicists to ponder biotechnology and the brain

April 12, 2005

Researchers at UW–Madison will be featured among several experts gathering at the Fourth Annual International Bioethics Forum on Thursday and Friday, April 21 and 22, to discuss a range of ethical issues.

Harnessing microbes, one by one, to build a better nanoworld

March 17, 2005

Taking a new approach to the painstaking assembly of nanometer-sized machines, a team of scientists at UW–Madison has successfully used single bacterial cells to make tiny bio-electronic circuits.