Ideas and discoveries

• Like humans, ants use bacteria to make their gardens grow Nov. 19, 2009 Leaf-cutter ants, which cultivate fungus for food, have many remarkable qualities.
• Sweet corn story begins in UW-Madison lab Nov. 19, 2009 This week, scientists are revealing the genetic instructions inside corn, one of the big three cereal crops. Corn, or maize, has one of the most complex sequences of DNA ever analyzed, says University of Wisconsin-Madison genomicist David Schwartz, who was one of more than 100 authors in the article in the journal Science.
• After mastodons and mammoths, a transformed landscape Nov. 19, 2009 Roughly 15,000 years ago, at the end of the last ice age, North America's vast assemblage of large animals - including such iconic creatures as mammoths, mastodons, camels, horses, ground sloths and giant beavers - began their precipitous slide to extinction.
• Early voting option can decrease turnout, research shows Nov. 17, 2009 Although states are moving quickly to put in place election procedures that allow for early voting, allowing people to cast ballots ahead of Election Day often results in lower turnout, according to research from a team of University of Wisconsin-Madison political scientists.
• Warmer means windier on world's biggest lake Nov. 16, 2009 Rising water temperatures are kicking up more powerful winds on Lake Superior, with consequences for currents, biological cycles, pollution and more on the world's largest lake and its smaller brethren.
• Study: Can meditation sharpen our attention? Nov. 13, 2009 A new study at the University of Wisconsin-Madison suggests that people can train their minds to stay focused.
• FDA-approved drugs eliminate, prevent cervical cancer in mice Nov. 9, 2009 Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Medicine and Public Health have eliminated cervical cancer in mice with two FDA-approved drugs currently used to treat breast cancer and osteoporosis.
• Now hear this: Mouse study sheds light on hearing loss in older adults Nov. 9, 2009 Becoming "hard of hearing" is a standard but unfortunate part of aging: A syndrome called age-related hearing loss affects about 40 percent of people over 65 in the United States, and will afflict an estimated 28 million Americans by 2030.
• Fifty years of expanding girls’ horizons in science, math Nov. 3, 2009 The Expanding Your Horizons program, a daylong conference designed to expose young women to careers in science, technology, engineering and math, has touched thousands of Wisconsin women during its 50-year history at UW-Madison.
• Street markets are this professor’s laboratory Oct. 28, 2009 Alfonso Morales didn’t sit in a library to do research for his graduate degrees. Instead, he worked as a vendor in Chicago’s famed Maxwell Street Market, where he saw firsthand that public markets serve as fertile ground for entrepreneurs and new businesses, gathering places for communities and an entry point into the economy and society for new arrivals to the United States.
• Middle East air-quality study bridges borders Oct. 27, 2009 An unprecedented effort to collect air pollution data in the Middle East has united researchers in a region mired in conflict.
• Muscle mass maintenance under scrutiny Oct. 27, 2009 When muscles are not pressed into service, they begin to lose mass.
• Collaboration to enhance patient safety during blood collection, transfusion Oct. 26, 2009 The National Institute of Health (NIH), Health and Human Services has awarded a $1.4 million Small Business Technology Transfer grant to SysLogic Inc., the UW RFID Laboratory and the BloodCenter of Wisconsin.
• UW fields and gardens help feed people in need Oct. 26, 2009 Food bank workers have been lining up for tons of potatoes produced at the University of Wisconsin-Madison's agricultural research stations at Rhinelander and Hancock this fall.
• New material could efficiently power tiny generators Oct. 22, 2009 To power a very small device like a pacemaker or a transistor, you need an even smaller generator. The components that operate the generator are smaller yet, and the efficiency of those foundational components is critical to the performance of the overall device.
• Festival leverages power of film for community action Oct. 21, 2009 The Tales from Planet Earth film festival takes center stage in Madison Friday-Sunday, Nov. 6-8, with something new: a built-in call to action.
• War of the viruses: Could ancient virus genes help fight modern AIDS? Oct. 20, 2009 Almost 30 years into the AIDS epidemic, scientists have yet to find an effective vaccine against HIV, the virus that destroys the immune system and causes AIDS. HIV is perhaps the most adaptive virus ever seen, not only evading the immune system, but also antiviral medicines.
• Carbon nanotubes may cheaply harvest sunlight Oct. 19, 2009 A new alternative energy technology relies on the element most associated with climate change: carbon.
• Digital reading technology makes its way into UW-Madison classrooms Oct. 13, 2009 Alongside music, television and the news media, books are surging into the new technology era with digital reading devices.
• Satellite anniversary marks 50 years of studying climate from space Oct. 13, 2009 On Oct. 13, 1959, University of Wisconsin-Madison professors Verner Suomi and Robert Parent crouched in a bunker at Cape Canaveral, sweating through the countdown for the Juno II rocket perched on its launching pad 150 yards away.