I&D

  • Potatos Improving environmental health, one potato field at a time Sept. 23, 2009
  • Satellite images Capturing tomorrow's satellite data with today's instruments Sept. 17, 2009 A satellite that won't be launched into orbit until 2015 is already paying dividends for an advanced weather research project.
  • Smaller isn't always better: Catalyst simulations could lower fuel cell cost Sept. 17, 2009 Imagine a car that runs on hydrogen from solar power and produces water instead of carbon emissions. While vehicles like this won't be on the market anytime soon, University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers are making incremental but important strides in the fuel cell technology that could make clean cars a reality.
  • Student on Limnos doing field research UW-Madison undergraduates make unwelcome discovery in Lake Mendota Sept. 16, 2009 On Sept. 11, a standard cruise on Lake Mendota's University Bay began for students in University of Wisconsin-Madison's Zoology 315, a course that introduces them to the study of lakes. With the sampling craft Limnos anchored about one-quarter mile offshore on a clear sunny day, four students pulled up a small net and began poking through its contents.
  • Climae model map Study reveals dynamic Wisconsin climate, past and future Sept. 14, 2009 If the future scenarios being churned out by the world's most sophisticated computer climate models are on the mark, big changes are in store for Wisconsin's weather during the next century.
  • Research aims to cool runoff to protect coldwater streams Sept. 10, 2009 The ocean of stormwater that flows off of the sun-baked urban landscape is packing heat, and trout are starting to feel it.
  • Potatos Potato blight reveals some secrets as genome is decoded Sept. 9, 2009 Late blight caused the 19th century famine that sparked a wave of emigration from Ireland to the United States, but the disease has also infected tomatoes and potatoes this year. Potatoes, the world's fourth-largest food crop, were raised on 65,500 acres in Wisconsin in 2007. If a potato field is not treated with pesticide, late blight can destroy the crop in a few days.
  • Cottontop tamarind Monkeys get a groove on, but only to monkey music Sept. 1, 2009 Music is one of the surest ways to influence human emotions; most people unconsciously recognize and respond to music that is happy, sad, fearful or mellow. But psychologists who have tried to trace the evolutionary roots of these responses usually hit a dead end. Nonhuman primates scarcely respond to human music, and instead prefer silence.
  • Claret jug Chazen features mezzotints, silver pieces in exhibits Aug. 31, 2009 Don’t let the big dig on University Avenue where the Peterson Building used to be keep you from visiting the Chazen Museum of Art. The museum is open for visitors, and two current exhibits there are worth a look: “Mezzotints, Prints of Darkness” and “Delight in Design: Indian Silver for the Raj.”
  • Steven Carpenter Limnologist casts the human factor into lake study Aug. 26, 2009 For well more than 100 years, a succession of eminent biologists and ecologists have used Wisconsin lakes as their laboratory, dissecting their physical attributes as well as the complex interplay of the plants and animals that live in them. A lake, after all, is a busy place, filled with aquatic vegetation, mollusks, microbial communities of all kinds and, of course, fish and the stuff they eat.
  • Venus flytraps Snaring bigger bugs gave flytraps evolutionary edge Aug. 25, 2009 Carnivorous plants defy our expectations of how plants should behave, with Venus flytraps employing nerve-like reflexes and powerful digestive enzymes to capture and consume fresh meat. The evolutionary history of these botanical oddities is now a bit clearer, thanks to new work.
  • Retinal cells Wisconsin team grows retina cells from skin-derived stem cells Aug. 24, 2009 A team of scientists from the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Medicine and Public Health has successfully grown multiple types of retina cells from two types of stem cells - suggesting a future in which damaged retinas could be repaired by cells grown from the patient's own skin.
  • A new 'bent' on fusion Aug. 20, 2009 Success in cellular fusion - as occurs at the moment of conception and when nerve cells exchange neurotransmitters - requires that a membrane be bent before the merging process can begin, University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers have shown.
  • New approach to wound healing may be easy on skin, but hard on bacteria Aug. 19, 2009 In a presentation today (Aug. 19) to the American Chemical Society meeting, Ankit Agarwal, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, described an experimental approach to wound healing that could take advantage of silver's anti-bacterial properties, while sidestepping the damage silver can cause to cells needed for healing.
  • Man watching TV Research shows advertisers new ways to hunt for TV bargains Aug. 18, 2009 The scene is played out in living rooms across America daily: A favorite television show builds to its riveting conclusion, and a commercial for fast food, automobiles or laundry detergent fills the screen.
  • Foldamers Engineered protein-like molecule protects cells against HIV infection Aug. 17, 2009 With the help of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and molecular engineering, researchers have designed synthetic protein-like mimics convincing enough to interrupt unwanted biological conversations between cells.
  • Jack Nitschke Future angst? Brain scans show uncertainty fuels anxiety Aug. 17, 2009 Anyone who has spent a sleepless night anguishing over a possible job loss has experienced the central finding of a new brain scan study: Uncertainty makes a bad event feel even worse.
  • White blood cells Scientists make multiple types of white blood cells directly from embryonic and adult stem cells Aug. 11, 2009 In an advance that could help transform embryonic stem cells into a multipurpose medical tool, scientists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have transformed these versatile cells into progenitors of white blood cells and into six types of mature white blood and immune cells.
  • Switchgrass GLBRC receives $8 million in Recovery Act funding Aug. 6, 2009 The Department of Energy (DOE) Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center (GLBRC) has received $8.099 million in new funding from the U.S. Department of Energy through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to provide crucial support for plant cell wall imaging and sustainability research.
  • Woman in wheel chair Early Alzheimer's screenings could cut health care costs Aug. 4, 2009 As the nation debates how to control costs as part of health care reform, an Alzheimer's disease researcher says early diagnosis and treatment of the disease could save the nation billions of dollars in costs down the road.