Latest News from: University of Wisconsin–Madison

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Released: 9-Nov-2017 11:05 AM EST
Breeding Highly Productive Corn Has Reduced Its Ability to Adapt
University of Wisconsin–Madison

Researchers at the University of Wisconsin–Madison wanted to know whether the last 100 years of selecting for corn that is acclimated to particular locations has changed its ability to adapt to new or stressful environments. By measuring populations of corn plants planted across North America, they could test how the corn genomes responded to different growing conditions.

Released: 8-Nov-2017 2:00 PM EST
UW Scientists Create a Recipe to Make Human Blood-Brain-Barrier
University of Wisconsin–Madison

In a report published this week (Nov. 8, 2017) in Science Advances, researchers from the University of Wisconsin-Madison detail a defined, step-by-step process to make a more exact mimic of the human blood-brain-barrier in the laboratory dish. The new model will permit more robust exploration of the cells, their properties and how scientists might circumvent the barrier for therapeutic purposes.

Released: 7-Nov-2017 1:05 PM EST
New Model Reveals Possibility of Pumping Antibiotics Into Bacteria
University of Wisconsin–Madison

Researchers in the University of Wisconsin–Madison Department of Biochemistry have discovered that a cellular pump known to move drugs like antibiotics out of E. coli bacteria has the potential to bring them in as well, opening new lines of research into combating the bacteria.

2-Nov-2017 11:05 AM EDT
Cool Idea: Magma Held in ‘Cold Storage’ Before Giant Volcano Eruption
University of Wisconsin–Madison

Long Valley, California, has long defined the “super-eruption.” About 765,000 years ago, a pool of molten rock exploded into the sky. Within one nightmarish week, 760 cubic kilometers of lava and ash spewed out in the kind of volcanic cataclysm we hope never to witness. A new study shows that the giant body of magma — molten rock — at Long Valley was much cooler before the eruption than previously thought.

Released: 23-Oct-2017 4:30 PM EDT
A Little Myelin Goes a Long Way to Restore Nervous System Function
University of Wisconsin–Madison

A team of researchers from the University of Wisconsin-Madison reports that in long-lived animals, renewed but thin myelin sheaths are enough to restore the impaired nervous system and can do so for years after the onset of disease.

Released: 23-Oct-2017 1:05 PM EDT
New Study Shows How Cells Can Be Led Down Non-Cancer Path
University of Wisconsin–Madison

As cells with a propensity for cancer break down food for energy, they reach a fork in the road: They can either continue energy production as healthy cells, or shift to the energy production profile of cancer cells. In a new study, University of Wisconsin–Madison researchers map out the molecular events that direct cells’ energy metabolism down the cancerous path. Their findings could lead to ways to interrupt the process.

13-Oct-2017 4:05 PM EDT
H7N9 Influenza Is Both Lethal and Transmissible in Animal Model for Flu
University of Wisconsin–Madison

In 2013, an influenza virus began circulating among poultry in China. It caused several waves of human infection and as of late July 2017, nearly 1,600 people had tested positive for avian H7N9. Nearly 40 percent of those infected had died. In 2017, Yoshihiro Kawaoka of the University of Wisconsin-Madison received a sample of H7N9 virus isolated from a patient in China who had died of the flu. He and his research team subsequently began work to characterize and understand it.

Released: 11-Oct-2017 4:05 PM EDT
Autism Prevalence and Socioeconomic Status: What’s the Connection?
University of Wisconsin–Madison

Children living in neighborhoods where incomes are low and fewer adults have bachelor’s degrees are less likely to be diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder compared to kids from more affluent neighborhoods.

Released: 9-Oct-2017 2:05 PM EDT
UW Researchers Discover an Evolutionary Stepping Stone to Beet-Red Beets
University of Wisconsin–Madison

Writing this week (Oct. 9, 2017) in the journal New Phytologist, University of Wisconsin–Madison Professor of Botany Hiroshi Maeda and his colleagues describe an ancient loosening up of a key biochemical pathway that set the stage for the ancestors of beets to develop their characteristic red pigment.

Released: 2-Oct-2017 10:05 AM EDT
Navy awards UW-Madison $6.1 million for computer security research
University of Wisconsin–Madison

The University of Wisconsin-Madison has been awarded a $6.1 million grant from the Office of Naval Research, a division of the United States Department of the Navy. The project is related to software security, manageability and performance. The new research project involves what are known as containers. While not a household word for average computer users, containers are increasingly popular in the tech world.

Released: 28-Sep-2017 2:05 PM EDT
A Flexible New Platform for High-Performance Electronics
University of Wisconsin–Madison

A team of University of Wisconsin–Madison engineers has created the most functional flexible transistor in the world — and with it, a fast, simple and inexpensive fabrication process that’s easily scalable to the commercial level.

Released: 25-Sep-2017 2:05 PM EDT
IceCube Helps Demystify Strange Radio Bursts From Deep Space
University of Wisconsin–Madison

A University of Wisconsin–Madison physicist and his colleagues are turning IceCube, the world’s most sensitive neutrino telescope, to the task of helping demystify powerful pulses of radio energy generated up to billions of light-years from Earth.

Released: 1-Sep-2017 11:05 AM EDT
University of Wisconsin-Madison Museums Recreate ‘Cabinet of Natural History’ Digitally
University of Wisconsin–Madison

In 1849, the Board of Regents of the new University of Wisconsin directed the curation of the state’s plants, animals and minerals in a “cabinet of natural history.” Now, that founding piece of scientific inquiry is re-forming — digitally. A new initiative will centralize the databases of the university’s five natural history museums, which have separated over the decades to specialize and accommodate growing collections.

Released: 30-Aug-2017 2:05 PM EDT
Magnetic Fields in Distant Galaxy Are New Piece of Cosmic Puzzle
University of Wisconsin–Madison

Astronomers have measured magnetic fields in a galaxy 4.6 billion light-years away — a big clue to understanding how magnetic fields formed and evolved over cosmic time.

25-Aug-2017 1:50 PM EDT
Coral Skeletons May Resist the Effects of Acidifying Oceans
University of Wisconsin–Madison

Coral skeletons are the building blocks of diverse coral reef ecosystems, which has led to increasing concern over how these key species will cope with warming and acidifying oceans that threaten their stability. New research provides evidence that at least one species of coral build their hard, calcium carbonate skeletons faster, and in bigger pieces, than previously thought.

Released: 25-Aug-2017 3:45 PM EDT
Microbes Compete for Nutrients, Affect Metabolism, Development in Mice
University of Wisconsin–Madison

If our microbiome overindulges, we might not have access to the nutrients we need. That’s the suggestion from new research conducted by University of Wisconsin-Madison Professor Federico Rey’s group that shows mice that harbor high levels of microbes that eat choline are deprived of this essential nutrient.

   
Released: 23-Aug-2017 3:05 PM EDT
Amid Environmental Change, Lakes Surprisingly Static
University of Wisconsin–Madison

In recent decades, change has defined our environment in the United States. But, says a new University of Wisconsin-Madison study, while those changes usually result in poor water quality, lakes have surprisingly stayed the same.

Released: 23-Aug-2017 2:05 PM EDT
Charles Bentley, Pioneering UW-Madison Glaciologist Who Measured West Antarctic Ice Sheet, Dies
University of Wisconsin–Madison

Charles R. Bentley, an intrepid University of Wisconsin-Madison glaciologist and geophysicist who was among the first scientists to measure the West Antarctic Ice Sheet in the late 1950s, died Aug. 19 in Oakland, California. He was 87.

Released: 11-Aug-2017 11:05 AM EDT
Canary in a Coal Mine: Survey Captures Global Picture of Air Pollution’s Effects on Birds
University of Wisconsin–Madison

Writing Aug. 11 in the journal Environmental Research Letters, University of Wisconsin-Madison Professor Tracey Holloway, an expert on air quality, and her former graduate student Olivia Sanderfoot, sort through nearly 70 years of the scientific literature to assess the state of knowledge of how air pollution directly affects the health, well-being, reproductive success and diversity of birds.

Released: 10-Aug-2017 4:05 PM EDT
Attitudes on Human Genome Editing Vary, but All Agree Conversation Is Necessary
University of Wisconsin–Madison

In a study published Aug. 11 in the journal Science, researchers from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Temple University assessed what people in the United States think about the uses of human genome editing and how their attitudes may drive public discussion. They found a public divided on its uses but united in the importance of moving conversations forward.

Released: 10-Aug-2017 2:05 PM EDT
New Measure of Insulin-Making Cells Could Gauge Diabetes Progression, Treatment
University of Wisconsin–Madison

Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have developed a new measurement for the volume and activity of beta cells, the source of the sugar-regulating hormone insulin.

28-Jul-2017 2:05 PM EDT
Pregnancy Loss and the Evolution of Sex Are Linked by Cellular Line Dance
University of Wisconsin–Madison

In new research published this week (Aug. 1, 2017) in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B, Levitis and his collaborators report that meiosis takes a heavy toll on the viability of offspring. And not just for humans. Creatures from geckos to garlic and cactuses to cockroaches pay a price to undergo sexual reproduction.

31-Jul-2017 2:05 PM EDT
Zika Infections Unlikely to Be Passed by Kissing, Casual Contact
University of Wisconsin–Madison

According to researchers at the University of Wisconsin–Madison who conducted studies with monkeys, casual contact like kissing or sharing a fork or spoon is not enough for the virus to move between hosts. Their findings were published today (Aug. 1, 2017) in the journal Nature Communications.

Released: 31-Jul-2017 4:05 PM EDT
Undocumented Immigration Doesn’t Worsen Drug, Alcohol Problems in U.S., Study Indicates
University of Wisconsin–Madison

Despite being saddled with many factors associated with drug and alcohol problems, undocumented immigrants are not increasing the prevalence of drug and alcohol crimes and deaths in the United States, according to a new University of Wisconsin-Madison study published in the American Journal of Public Health.

Released: 28-Jul-2017 10:05 AM EDT
To Pick a Great Gift, It’s Better to Give and Receive
University of Wisconsin–Madison

If it’s the thought that makes a gift count, here’s a thought that can make your gift count extra: Get a little something for yourself. Research published this month in the journal Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin by Evan Polman, marketing professor at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, and Sam Maglio, marketing professor at the University of Toronto Scarborough, shows that gift recipients are happier with a present when the giver got themselves the same present.

Released: 27-Jul-2017 2:05 PM EDT
Researchers Crack the Smile, Describing 3 Types by Muscle Movement
University of Wisconsin–Madison

The smile may be the most common and flexible expression, used to reveal some emotions, cover others and manage social interactions that have kept communities secure and organized for millennia. But how do we tell one kind of smile from another?

Released: 24-Jul-2017 11:05 AM EDT
Taking the Genomic Revolution to Corn Fields to Improve Crops
University of Wisconsin–Madison

By bringing the genomic revolution into corn fields, Genomes2Fields aims to improve the nation’s corn crop by uncovering how genomes — the blueprints for plants — are turned into yield, stress resistance, and all manner of different traits.

Released: 19-Jul-2017 4:05 PM EDT
UW-Led Center Plays Key Role in Finding Zika-Transmitting Mosquito in State
University of Wisconsin–Madison

The new Upper Midwestern Center of Excellence in Vector Borne Diseases, led by the University of Wisconsin–Madison, this week identified the Asian tiger mosquito, which can spread the Zika virus, for the first time in Wisconsin.

Released: 19-Jul-2017 4:05 PM EDT
In Words and Glass, Collaboration Unlocks Birth of Modern Chemistry
University of Wisconsin–Madison

In an interdisciplinary collaboration, University of Wisconsin-Madison historian of science Catherine Jackson and scientific glassblower Tracy Drier are delving into the foundations of modern chemistry and its reliance on specialized glassware.

Released: 14-Jul-2017 2:05 PM EDT
Advance Furthers Stem Cells for Use in Drug Discovery, Cell Therapy
University of Wisconsin–Madison

UW-Madison researchers have invented an all-chemical replacement for the confusing, even dangerous materials, now used to grow stem cells.

12-Jul-2017 2:05 PM EDT
Study Reveals Interplay of an African Bat, a Parasite and a Virus
University of Wisconsin–Madison

A lack of evidence that bats are key reservoirs of human disease has not prevented their vilification or efforts to exterminate bat colonies where threats are presumed to lurk. “The fact is that they provide important ecosystem services ... and we want them around,” says Tony Goldberg, a University of Wisconsin-Madison epidemiologist and virus hunter. “But bats are also increasingly acknowledged as hosts of medically significant viruses. I have mixed feelings about that.”

6-Jul-2017 11:05 AM EDT
Plants Under Attack Can Turn Hungry Caterpillars Into Cannibals
University of Wisconsin–Madison

When does a (typically) vegetarian caterpillar become a cannibalistic caterpillar, even when there is still plenty of plant left to eat? When the tomato plant it’s feeding on makes cannibalism the best option. “It often starts with one caterpillar biting another one in the rear, which then oozes. And it goes downhill from there,” says University of Wisconsin–Madison integrated biology Professor John Orrock.

5-Jul-2017 10:05 AM EDT
Powerful New Photodetector Can Enable Optoelectronics Advances
University of Wisconsin–Madison

In a nanoscale photodetector that combines a unique fabrication method and light-trapping structures, a team of engineers from the University of Wisconsin–Madison and the University at Buffalo has overcome obstacles to increasing performance for optoelectronic devices — like camera sensors or solar cells — without adding bulk.

Released: 3-Jul-2017 12:05 PM EDT
UW-Madison Researchers Tackle Bias in Algorithms
University of Wisconsin–Madison

If you’ve ever applied for a loan or checked your credit score, algorithms have played a role in your life. You might assume that computers remove human bias from decision-making, but research has shown that is not true. UW-Madison researchers have created a tool to combat the problem.

Released: 27-Jun-2017 2:05 PM EDT
Plant Derivative Could Help Patients Reliant on Tube Feeding
University of Wisconsin–Madison

Synesis, a University of Wisconsin-Madison spinoff developing a patented formula for liquid nutrition, is advancing a plant-based additive designed to reduce or eliminate severe side effects of tube feeding.

Released: 27-Jun-2017 10:05 AM EDT
UW-Madison Scientists Illuminate Structures Vital to Virus Replication
University of Wisconsin–Madison

Scientists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Morgridge Institute for Research have, for the first time, imaged molecular structures vital to how a major class of viruses replicates within infected cells.

   
22-Jun-2017 11:00 AM EDT
Peanut Family Secret for Making Chemical Building Blocks Revealed
University of Wisconsin–Madison

The peanut and its kin have not one, but two ways to make the amino acid tyrosine, one of the 20 required to make all of its proteins, and an essential human nutrient. That might seem small, but why this plant family has a unique way to make such an important chemical building block is a mystery that has captured the attention of Hiroshi Maeda, a professor of botany at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

Released: 23-Jun-2017 1:05 PM EDT
By Far, Men Garner Most Coveted Speaking Slots at Virology Meetings
University of Wisconsin–Madison

In their recent study, published in the Journal of Virology, the University of Wisconsin–Madison researchers examined 35 years worth of invited speaker rosters from four prominent virology meetings, including the American Society for Virology, which is hosting its annual meeting in Madison, Wisconsin starting June 24, 2017. They found that men were overwhelmingly represented.

5-Jun-2017 3:05 PM EDT
Celestial Boondocks: Study Supports the Idea We Live in a Void
University of Wisconsin–Madison

A new study by a UW-Madison undergraduate not only firms up the idea that we exist in one of the holes of the Swiss cheese structure of the cosmos, but helps ease the apparent disagreement between different measurements of the Hubble Constant, the unit cosmologists use to describe the rate at which the universe is expanding today.

2-Jun-2017 4:05 PM EDT
Newly Identified Gene Helps Time Spring Flowering in Vital Grass Crops
University of Wisconsin–Madison

Researchers at the University of Wisconsin–Madison have identified a gene that keeps grasses from entering their flowering cycle until the season is right, a discovery that may help plant breeders and engineers get more from food and energy crops.

Released: 2-Jun-2017 4:05 PM EDT
D-Day Invasion Was Bolstered by UW–Madison Penicillin Project
University of Wisconsin–Madison

Seventy-three years ago Tuesday, on June 6, 1944, the D-Day invasion of Normandy was bolstered by millions of doses of a precious new substance: penicillin. On the other side of the Atlantic, researchers at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and other institutions had spent the last three years pursuing advances in penicillin production.

   
Released: 31-May-2017 12:05 PM EDT
Bacteria May Supercharge the Future of Wastewater Treatment
University of Wisconsin–Madison

Wastewater treatment plants have a PR problem: People don’t like to think about what happens to the waste they flush down their toilets. But for many engineers and microbiologists, including the University of Wisconsin-Madison's Daniel Noguera and Katherine McMahon, these plants are a hotbed of scientific advances.

26-May-2017 2:00 PM EDT
Stem Cells Yield Nature’s Blueprint for Body’s Vasculature
University of Wisconsin–Madison

A team led by Igor Slukvin, a University of Wisconsin-Madison professor of pathology and laboratory medicine, and cell and regenerative biology, describes the developmental pathway that gives rise to the different types of cells that make up human vasculature.

Released: 25-May-2017 4:35 PM EDT
Government Transparency Limited When It Comes to America’s Conserved Private Lands
University of Wisconsin–Madison

A new study led by researchers at the University of Wisconsin–Madison examined why private-land conservation data is sometimes inaccessible and found that limited capacity within some federal agencies as well as laws prohibiting others from disclosing certain information are to blame.

   
23-May-2017 12:05 PM EDT
Zika Infections Could Be Factor in More Pregnancies
University of Wisconsin–Madison

Zika virus infection passes efficiently from a pregnant monkey to its fetus, spreading inflammatory damage throughout the tissues that support the fetus and the fetus’s developing nervous system, and suggesting a wider threat in human pregnancies than generally appreciated.

Released: 24-May-2017 11:05 AM EDT
Mindfulness-Focused Childbirth Education Leads to Less Depression, Better Birth Experiences
University of Wisconsin–Madison

A study this month from researchers at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) shows mindfulness training that addresses fear and pain during childbirth can improve women’s childbirth experiences and reduce their depression symptoms during pregnancy and the early postpartum period.

Released: 19-May-2017 2:05 PM EDT
Triple Play Boosting Value of Renewable Fuel Could Tip Market in Favor of Biomass
University of Wisconsin–Madison

A new process triples the fraction of biomass converted to high-value products to nearly 80 percent, also tripling the expected rate of return for an investment in the technology from roughly 10 percent (for one end product) to 30 percent.

12-May-2017 1:05 PM EDT
Patient’s cells used to replicate dire developmental condition
University of Wisconsin–Madison

A team of scientists from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Cedars-Sinai in Los Angeles have used the cells of AHDS patients to recreate not only the disease, but a mimic of the patient’s blood-brain barrier in the laboratory dish using induced pluripotent stem cell technology.

4-May-2017 2:25 PM EDT
South African Cave Yields Yet More Fossils of a Newfound Relative
University of Wisconsin–Madison

Probing deeper into the South African cave system known as Rising Star, which last year yielded the largest cache of hominin fossils known to science, an international team of researchers has discovered another chamber with more remains of a newfound human relative, Homo naledi. The discovery of the new fossils representing the remains of at least three juvenile and adult specimens includes a “wonderfully complete skull,” says University of Wisconsin-Madison anthropologist John Hawks.

Released: 3-May-2017 12:05 PM EDT
Study Measures Air Pollution Increase Attributable to Air Conditioning
University of Wisconsin–Madison

A new University of Wisconsin-Madison study shows that the electricity production associated with air conditioning causes emissions of sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides and carbon dioxide to increase by hundreds to thousands of metric tons, or 3 to 4 percent per degree Celsius (or 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit).



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