I&D

  • Surveying bird biodiversity from space? Dec. 16, 2009 A fundamental rule of wildlife ecology says that diverse habitats foster greater biodiversity: The Amazon has far more species than Greenland. But how do habitat and biodiversity relate in a state like Wisconsin, with its range of farms, forests, wetlands, cities, suburbs and highways?
  • New process leads to smaller estimate for global urban area Dec. 16, 2009 Urbanization is one of the most important trends of the 21st century, yet we don't have a good idea of how much land cities occupy.
  • Pine tree Fighting the Grinch who stole Wisconsin's Christmas trees Dec. 15, 2009 An entomology research team from UW-Madison aims to squash a grub that plagues as many as one-third of Wisconsin’s approximately 1,100 Christmas tree farms.
  • Screen capture from weather animation exercise Interactive animations give science students a boost Dec. 14, 2009 For a generation of students raised and nurtured at the computer keyboard, it seems like a no-brainer that computer-assisted learning would have a prominent role in the college science classroom.
  • New structure could produce efficient semiconductor laser sources Dec. 14, 2009 University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers have achieved a nanoscale laser structure they anticipate will produce semiconductor lasers in the next two years that are more than twice as efficient as current continuous-wave lasers emitting in the mid-infrared.
  • Life/stories session Project helps seniors put lives on paper Dec. 8, 2009 A UW-Madison graduate student leads a workshop that will ultimately help participants at the Madison Senior Center write their own life stories.
  • Aspen trees Greenhouse gas carbon dioxide ramps up aspen growth Dec. 4, 2009 The rising level of atmospheric carbon dioxide may be fueling more than climate change. It could also be making some trees grow like crazy.
  • Sau Wan Lu Giant collider back in gear, sets record for collision intensity Dec. 2, 2009 On Nov. 30, the world's largest scientific instrument, the Large Hadron Collider, set a record when it smashed one stream of protons against another and then accelerated the beams to 1.18 trillion electron volts, exceeding the record held by Fermilab in Illinois since 2001.
  • Students studying Learning community teaches spirit of entrepreneurship Nov. 24, 2009 In high school, computer programmer Tim McGowan enrolled in advanced-placement Latin. When it came time to study for the big exam, he was ready to admit that languages weren't his thing.
  • Europe map Exhibit explores state of science at time of Darwin’s book Nov. 23, 2009 “Science Circa 1859: On the Eve of Darwin’s Origin of Species,” opening Monday, Nov. 23, in the Department of Special Collections at Memorial Library, explores the state of science before Charles Darwin’s groundbreaking book arrived on the scene 150 years ago.
  • Queent ant 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.
  • Corn 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.
  • Mastodon illustration 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.
  • 'Vote here' sign 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.
  • Lake Superior map 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.
  • Researchers Paul Lambert (left) and Sang-Hyuk Chung 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.
  • Photo of mouse listening 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.
  • Expanding Your Horizons historical image 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.
  • Alfonso Morales 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.