Focus: Hidden - Wisconsin

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What if there were a way to take the mind-boggling amount of existing computer code, organize it, and learn from it in a way that makes writing new code more error-free and secure? That scenario is headed toward reality thanks to a project called Pliny, which takes its name from the Roman naturalist and philosopher who authored the first encyclopedia. Pliny is being funded by a four-year, $11 million grant recently announced by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), part of the U.S. Department of Defense.

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An international team of researchers says climate change, the loss of biosphere integrity, land-system change, and altered biogeochemical cycles like phosphorus and nitrogen runoff have all passed beyond levels that put humanity in a “safe operating space.” Civilization has crossed four of nine so-called planetary boundaries as the result of human activity, according to a report published today in Science by the 18-member research team.

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Xiaojun Tan, a graduate student in Richard A. Anderson's lab at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, made an unexpected observation while studying the locations inside cells where EGFR (epidermal growth factor receptor) can be found. His subsequent investigation revealed how some cancers evade clinical drugs: by sneaking through the cellular back door. Tan found that cancer cells are able to use the inactive EGFR form to thrive.

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University of Wisconsin-Madison materials engineers have made a significant leap toward creating higher-performance electronics with improved battery life — and the ability to flex and stretch. Led by materials science Associate Professor Michael Arnold and Professor Padma Gopalan, the team has reported the highest-performing carbon nanotube transistors ever demonstrated. In addition to paving the way for improved consumer electronics, this technology could also have specific uses in industrial and military applications.

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A group of University of Wisconsin–Madison researchers has provided new insights on hydrophobic interactions within complex systems. In a study published today in the journal Nature, the researchers show how the nearby presence of polar (water-attracted, or hydrophilic) substances can change the way the nonpolar hydrophobic groups want to stick to each other.

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In 1961, with memories of Holocaust atrocities and the prosecution of Nazi officials at Nuremburg still fresh, psychologist Stanley Milgram undertook a series of now infamous experiments on obedience and reprehensible behavior. But Milgram divided his subjects into just two categories: obedient or disobedient. After examining the experiences of more than 100 of Milgram’s participants, Matthew Hollander, a graduate student in sociology at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, sees a great deal more nuance in their performances.

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A new study finds that the period of frozen ground has declined by an average of two or three weeks since 1948. During that time, wood harvests have shifted in years with more variability in freezing and thawing to red pine and jack pine — species that grow in sandy, well-drained soil that can support trucks and heavy equipment when not frozen.

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Emeritus Professor Neal First, a pioneer in cattle reproduction and cloning who studied animal physiology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison for 45 years, died Nov. 20 from complications of cancer. His work in the 1980s on how sperm and eggs are prepared, or matured, for fertilization set the stage for in vitro fertilization of cattle.

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Known as the “inside-out” theory of eukaryotic cell evolution, an alternative view of how complex life came to be was published recently in the open access journal BMC Biology.

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Dave Pagliarini, a UW-Madison assistant professor of biochemistry, recently published two studies shedding more light on coenzyme Q and how it’s made, one in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science (PNAS) in October and another today in Molecular Cell.

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Using a Free Electron Laser (XFEL), a team of physicists has proven a method that makes it possible to find the atomic structure of proteins in action by producing “snapshots” of them with unprecedented spatial and temporal resolution. The experiment, done by researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, has opened the door to discovering nearly all protein structures – information vital to fields like, health, food, drug discovery and energy.

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Society will focus on educating the public about this precious natural resource

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For seven years, an area larger than the city of Madison has been rising by 10 inches per year. That rapid rise provides a major scientific opportunity: to explore a mega-volcano before it erupts. That effort, and the hazard posed by the restless magma reservoir beneath Laguna del Maule, are described in a major research article in the December issue of GSA Today.

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This year, a computer system developed at the University of Wisconsin-Madison equaled or bested scientists at the complex task of extracting data from scientific publications and placing it in a database that catalogs the results of tens of thousands of individual studies.

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El Nino is not a contemporary phenomenon; it’s long been the Earth’s dominant source of year-to-year climate fluctuation. But as the climate warms and the feedbacks that drive the cycle change, researchers want to know how El Nino will respond. A team of researchers led by the University of Wisconsin’s Zhengyu Liu published the latest findings in this quest Nov. 27, 2014 in Nature.

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By comparing grasshoppers found at woodland sites once used for agriculture to similar sites never disturbed by farming, UW-Madison Philip Hahn and John Orrock show that despite decades of recovery, the numbers and types of species found in each differ, as do the understory plants and other ecological variables, like soil properties.

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On August 14, 1864, in a Union Army camp in Georgia, a captain from Wisconsin plucked a plant, pressed it onto a sheet of paper, wrote a letter describing the plant as "certainly the most interesting specimen I ever saw," and sent it with the plant to a scientist he called "Friend" in Wisconsin.

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In a comprehensive new study published today in the journal Cell Host and Microbe, the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Yoshihiro Kawaoka and a team of researchers have revealed methods for thwarting influenza viruses by shutting down the cellular machinery they need, like cutting the fuel line on a bank robber’s getaway car.

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As real as that daydream may seem, its path through your brain runs opposite reality. Aiming to discern discrete neural circuits, researchers at the University of Wisconsin–Madison have tracked electrical activity in the brains of people who alternately imagined scenes or watched videos.

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In a study published Wednesday, Nov. 19, in Nature, scientists at Boston University, the University of New Hampshire, the University of Michigan, the University of Minnesota, the University of Wisconsin-Madison and McGill University show that a steep rise in the productivity of crops grown for food accounts for as much as 25 percent of the increase in this carbon dioxide (CO2) seasonality.

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As the installation of photovoltaic solar cells continues to accelerate, scientists are looking for inexpensive materials beyond the traditional silicon that can efficiently convert sunlight into electricity. Theoretically, iron pyrite could do the job, but when it works at all, the conversion efficiency remains frustratingly low. Now, a University of Wisconsin-Madison research team explains why that is, in a discovery that suggests how improvements in this promising material could lead to inexpensive yet efficient solar cells.

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Asthma that requires daily medication is associated with a significantly higher risk of heart attack or stroke, according to a new study from the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health (SMPH).

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University of Wisconsin-Madison computer science researchers have developed a method for using social media posts to estimate air pollution levels with significant accuracy.

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A team from the Morgridge Institute for Research regenerative biology group, led by University of Wisconsin-Madison professor and stem cell pioneer James Thomson, discovered a way to impose an immortal-like state on mouse progenitor cells responsible for producing blood and vascular tissue. By regulating a small number of genes, the cells became “trapped” in a self-renewing state and capable of producing functional endothelial, blood and smooth muscle cells.

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Researchers are now trying to identify upstream factors that could explain the increase

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University of Wisconsin-Madison computer science and medical researchers have teamed up to create a sophisticated new simulator to help surgical students practice detailed procedures before operating on live patients.

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The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health, has awarded the UW School of Medicine and Public Health (SMPH) a seven-year, $70 million grant for its continuing work on the Inner-City Asthma Consortium (ICAC). The goal of the work is to reduce the severity of asthma in inner-city children.

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A new professional master’s program will launch at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in fall 2015 and become the first in the world specifically designed to train analytically minded students to evaluate energy efficiency and other resource-conservation initiatives.

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A conversation with a University of Wisconsin-Madison neurosurgeon prompted two engineering researchers to challenge a commonly held idea about tumor ablation, and as a result, they’re now working to commercialize a new technology that could yield less invasive radiation therapies for cancer patients.

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L’Oreal USA and the American Association for the Advancement of Science selected Katie Brenner, a University of Wisconsin-Madison postdoctoral researcher, as one of five female scientists in the U.S. to receive the For Women in Science Fellowship this year. Brenner is developing technology to help in the early diagnosis of illness in premature infants

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Researchers at Simon Gilroy's lab in the Department of Botany at the University of Wisconsin-Madison this afternoon greeted a truck carrying small containers holding more than 1,000 frozen plants that germinated and grew aboard the International Space Station.

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In September, a group of UW-Madison professors and their colleagues published a study in the journal Journalism & Mass Communications Quarterly showing a connection between “h-index” — a measure of the quality of a researcher’s work and influence — and whether the scientists interact with reporters and get mentioned on Twitter.

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Scientists today disclosed a new method to convert lignin, a biomass waste product, into simple chemicals. The innovation is an important step toward replacing petroleum-based fuels and chemicals with biorenewable materials, says Shannon Stahl, an expert in “green chemistry” at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

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Applying a similar approach to the 3-D printer, a group of University of Wisconsin-Madison students are commercializing a device that adds color to a printer that now dominates the market. Their business idea was one of two student projects to receive an Igniter grant from the university’s Discovery to Product (D2P) office.