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The world’s top prize in forestry research has been awarded to University of Wisconsin–Madison biochemistry professor John Ralph for work that has led to new uses for one of the world’s most abundant natural resources.

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New research from the University of Wisconsin–Madison decodes the evolutionary pathway of regulatory proteins, the molecules that help control gene expression.The findings from the Raman Lab in the Department of Biochemistry recently published their findings in the journal Cell Systems.

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The blue whale genome was published in the journal Molecular Biology and Evolution, and the Etruscan shrew genome was published in the journal Scientific Data.

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Researchers — including the University of Wisconsin–Madison’s Min Chen and Fa Li — have developed a new model that combines several data sources and uses physics-guided machine learning to more accurately understand methane emissions in the boreal arctic region.

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Patients with some types of lymphoma that become resistant to standard treatments may benefit from a therapy that University of Wisconsin–Madison researchers are evaluating after they discovered a key process that fuels the blood cancers’ resistance to current drugs.

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Walleye are one of the most sought-after species in freshwater sportfishing, a delicacy on Midwestern menus and a critically important part of the culture of many Indigenous communities. They are also struggling to survive in the warming waters of the Midwestern United States and Canada.According to a new study published Feb. 26 in the journal Limnology and Oceanography Letters, part of the problem is that walleye are creatures of habit, and the seasons — especially winter — are changing so fast that this iconic species of freshwater fish can’t keep up.

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A team of University of Wisconsin–Madison scientists has developed the first 3D-printed brain tissue that can grow and function like typical brain tissue.

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People who were more skeptical of human-caused climate change or the Black Lives Matter movement who took part in conversation with a popular AI chatbot were disappointed with the experience but left the conversation more supportive of the scientific consensus on climate change or BLM.

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Cleft lip and palate are the most common craniofacial birth defects in humans, affecting more than 175,000 newborns around the world each year.

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Cleft lip and palate are the most common craniofacial birth defects in humans, affecting more than 175,000 newborns around the world each year.

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Ever wonder what kind of TV shows your dog might choose if they could work the remote control? New research from the University of Wisconsin–Madison’s School of Veterinary Medicine provides some answers, but the study was more interested in solving a longstanding problem in veterinary medicine than turning canine companions into couch potatoes.

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A team of astronomers have discovered a planet closer and younger than any other Earth-sized world yet identified. It’s a remarkably hot world whose proximity to our own planet and to a star like our sun mark it as a unique opportunity to study how planets evolve.The new planet was described in a new study published this week by The Astronomical Journal.

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Like mail carriers who manage to deliver their parcels through snow, rain, heat and gloom, a critical group of mammalian proteins helps cells function properly even under less-than-ideal conditions.Using state-of-the-art cell imaging and genome editing technology, University of Wisconsin–Madison scientists have begun to unravel how this collection of proteins performs its essential service.

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Developed by University of Wisconsin–Madison engineers, the new material — a vertically aligned carbon nanotube foam—can dissipate an enormous amount of rotational kinetic energy from an impact.

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We often look to the smallest lifeforms for help solving the biggest problems: Microbes help make foods and beverages, cure diseases, treat waste and even clean up pollution.

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Technology developed at the University of Wisconsin–Madison to grow “rosettes” of brain and spinal tissue gives scientists new ways to study the growing human brain, including a recent study of how genetic mutations linked to autism affect early stages of human brain development.It’s the latest discovery using RosetteArray technology, a screening tool that uses stem cells to generate embryonic forebrain or spinal cord tissue structures called neural rosettes.

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A protective mineral coating identified by University of Wisconsin–Madison biomedical engineering researchers could allow powerful messenger RNA therapeutics like COVID-19 vaccines to be stored at room temperature, making them more accessible to lower-resourced communities across the world.In a new paper in the journal Acta Biomaterialia, Professor William Murphy and collaborators in his lab detail how using an optimized mineral coating composition can maintain mRNA activity for up to six months at room temperature.

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University of Wisconsin–Madison engineers have used a spray coating technology to produce a new workhorse material that can withstand the harsh conditions inside a fusion reactor.

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An interdisciplinary team led by University of Wisconsin–Madison scientists has developed a new technique that could help farmers extract useful nutrients such as ammonia and potassium from livestock manure to efficiently make fertilizer and other useful chemical products.

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Although widely considered a blunder of public policy, the alcohol prohibition laws of early 20th century America may have led to increased longevity for those born in places where alcohol was banned, according to new research from the University of Wisconsin–Madison.The study — recently published in the journal Economics and Human Biology and co-authored by Jason Fletcher of UW’s La Follette School of Public Affairs — is the first to research the long-term effects of Prohibition Era on longevity, adding to the understanding of the longer-term costs of alcohol exposure during pregnancy.

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COVID-19 caused an alarming surge in premature births, but vaccines were key to returning the early birth rate to pre-pandemic levels, according to a new analysis of California birth records.

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There’s a popular saying in some circles that “a calorie is a calorie,” but science shows that it may not be true. In fact, it may be possible to eat more of some kinds of calories while also improving your health.“We like to say a calorie is not just a calorie,” says Dudley Lamming, a professor and metabolism researcher at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health.

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While earlier studies found a link between threats experienced in early life and epigenetic age acceleration in children, the study led by Schmitz shows that this relationship may not persist into adulthood. On the other hand, the researchers found that experiences of deprivation in childhood may lead to age acceleration later in life.

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Carbon dioxide removal (CDR) technologies that could be critical tools to combat climate change have developed in line with other technologies from the last century. However, according to new studies led by Gregory Nemet, a professor at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, these technologies need to develop faster to meet policy targets aimed at limiting global warming.

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Researchers at the University of Wisconsin–Madison have identified a protein key to the development of a type of brain cell believed to play a role in disorders like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases and used the discovery to grow the neurons from stem cells for the first time.

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Leonardo da Vinci may have been a genius, but he was also a hot mess — at least in terms of organizing his works. When he died in 1519, the Renaissance master left behind 7,000 pages of undated drawings, scientific observations and personal journals, more or less jumbled up in a box. So, when his assistant collected da Vinci’s papers, he did his best to collate them into journals, or codices, mostly based on subject matter.

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Researchers at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and Academia Sinica of Taiwan have harnessed a combination of lab-grown cells to regenerate damaged heart muscle.The study, published in Circulation — which addresses major challenges of using heart muscle cells, called cardiomyocytes, grown from stem cells — takes a crucial step toward future clinical applications.

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A new study from the University of Wisconsin–Madison suggests that chemotherapy may not be reaching its full potential, in part because researchers and doctors have long misunderstood how some of the most common cancer drugs actually ward off tumors.

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Could general well-being practices like meditation encourage eco-friendly behaviors and attitudes? As the climate crisis accelerates ecological disasters around the world, scientists’ investigations into this longstanding question have taken on greater urgency. A new study from the Center for Healthy Minds at the University of Wisconsin–Madison explores the connection between meditation and environmental consciousness and suggests the relationship might not be that simple.

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Publishing an ad for an apartment or rental home in Spanish may seem like it would broaden the pool of potential renters, but new research shows it can harm rental-seekers’ perception of the property and its neighborhood.Finding a new apartment or home to rent can be nerve-wracking and tedious. It is increasingly digital and there are thousands of websites and Facebook groups for prospective renters to peruse.

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Fragile X syndrome, the most common form of inherited intellectual disability, may be unfolding in brain cells even before birth, despite typically going undiagnosed until age 3 or later.

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Once thought to be the trash can of the cell, a little bubble of cellular stuff called the midbody remnant is actually packing working genetic material with the power to change the fate of other cells — including turning them into cancer.

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Life on a faraway planet — if it’s out there — might not look anything like life on Earth. But there are only so many chemical ingredients in the universe’s pantry, and only so many ways to mix them.

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The algorithm found patterns to help identify the citations that were more likely to be important to each piece of published science. Those results revealed NIH-funded basic biological science appearing in the weightier citations at a rate three times the size of its share of all published research.

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The risk of incarceration for Black men in the United States was cut nearly in half between 1999 and 2019, according to a new study that assesses the impact of falling rates of imprisonment in each of the 50 states.

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Successful kidney transplants rely on the biological compatibility of the donor and recipient but still require long-term use of drugs to tamp down the recipient’s immune system and prevent donor organ rejection.

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The world needs greener ways to make chemicals. In a new study, University of Wisconsin–Madison researchers demonstrate one potential path toward this goal by adapting hydrogen fuel cell technologies.

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Researchers are in an arms race with hackers to prevent data theft. Their standard tools include strategies like multi-factor authentication systems, fingerprint technology and retinal scans. One type of security system that is gaining popularity is automatic speaker identification, which uses a person’s voice as a passcode.

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Conventional wisdom among ecologists holds that the more species there are inhabiting an ecosystem, the less vulnerable any one species will be to a threat like a parasite. A new study of tadpoles at the University of Wisconsin–Madison illustrates how overlapping biological and environmental factors can complicate how we value protecting diverse animal communities. The researchers found that environmental pollutants like road salt influence whether increased biodiversity helps or hinders disease outbreaks in wildlife, which can complicate how we value protecting diverse animal communities.

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As the virus that caused the COVID-19 pandemic first began to spread around the planet, it brought along a new vocabulary. Unfamiliar phrases like “flatten the curve,” “COVID pod” and “essential worker” infected regular conversation. But another — “do your own research” —  was already well-known to Sedona Chinn, who studies misinformation and health communications.

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Although many Americans dutifully deposit their plastic trash into the appropriate bins each week, many of those materials, including flexible films, multilayer materials and a lot of colored plastics, are not recyclable using conventional mechanical recycling methods. In the end, only about 9 percent of plastic in the United States is ever reused, often in low-value products.

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Northern muriquis, which live in the Atlantic forest of Brazil, are one of the most endangered species of monkey in the world. Choosing good mates and rearing thriving offspring are key to the species’ long-term survival.To better understand what goes on in the mating lives of muriquis, researchers at the University of Texas at Austin and the University of Wisconsin–Madison turned to the monkeys’ poop to help gain insight into how the primates choose their mates.

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A newly described type of chemistry in fungi is both surprisingly common and likely to involve highly reactive enzymes, two traits that make the genes involved useful signposts pointing to a potential treasure trove of biological compounds with medical and chemical applications.It was also nearly invisible to scientists until now.

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Researchers led by a team at the University of Wisconsin–Madison have created the first tool to map and visualize the areas where human settlements and nature meet on a global scale. The tool, which was part of a study recently published in Nature, could improve responses to environmental conflicts like wildfires, the spread of zoonotic diseases and loss of ecosystem biodiversity.

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Communicating science to a general audience can be challenging. Successfully conveying research on polarizing topics such as climate change can be even more difficult.But a new study from University of Wisconsin–Madison researcher Nan Li shows that intentionally integrating art with data visualizations can help non-expert audiences more meaningfully engage with climate change while also bridging political divides in ways that data alone cannot.

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A new study from researchers at the University of Wisconsin–Madison finds that ticks can harbor transmissible amounts of the protein particle that causes chronic wasting disease (CWD), implicating the parasites as possible agents in the disease’s spread between deer in Wisconsin. The findings were published in the journal Nature.

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In a June 30 article in the journal Science, the IceCube Collaboration — an international group of more than 350 scientists — presents this new evidence of high-energy neutrino emission from the Milky Way. The findings indicate that the Milky Way produces far fewer neutrinos than the average distant galaxies.

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Shear band formation is not typically a good sign in a material — the bands often appear before a material fractures or fails. But materials science and engineering researchers at the University of Wisconsin–Madison have found that shear bands aren’t always a negative; under the right conditions, they can improve the ductility, or the plasticity, of a material.

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Influenza A is one of two influenza viruses that fuel costly annual flu seasons and is a near constant threat to humans and many other animals. It’s also responsible for occasional pandemics that, like the one in 1918, leave millions dead and wreak havoc on health systems and wider society. Influenza A was first identified as a health threat nearly a century ago, but only in the last decade have scientists identified one of the virus’s key proteins for infiltrating host cells and short-circuiting their defenses.