Category: Research

Snow cover in the Northern Hemisphere – and especially along the edge of the Snow Belt, as in Wisconsin – has been shrinking.

  U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced a grant for researching agriculture and the climate, during a visit to Wisconsin today.

The University of Wisconsin-Madison will lead new research on reducing greenhouse gases emitted from dairy farms.

The University of Wisconsin-Madison will lead new research on reducing greenhouse gases emitted from dairy farms.

FRISCO ? Beneath winter?s deep snows there is a secret world of frozen insects and amphibians in quasi-hibernation, where small mammals scoot about eating bugs and fungi. It?s an ecoogical world that?s mostly invisible but functions as a critical part of larger ecosystems. The subnivium, as scientists have dubbed it, is now at risk from global warming.

U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack announced May 7 at the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus, that the USDA has awarded $19.5 million to support research, education and Extension activities associated with climate change and its impact on dairy and beef.

Researchers from UW-Madison will lead a study funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture aimed at making the dairy industry greener by finding climate solutions such as the reduction of greenhouse gases.

Dear Editor: After seeing PETA?s photos of cats being experimented on at UW-Madison, with steel coils in their heads and other extreme cruelty, I organized a petition to have these experiments stopped. So far it has been signed by people from all over the USA and the world, from Brazil and Australia to Greece and France. I hope others will support this petition and end this totally unacceptable torture of cats. Universities should be places of advancement and non-animal research.

At the forefront has been Dr. Richard Davidson, founder of the Center for Investigating the Healthy Mind at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, whose pioneering research opened up an entire field of study called “contemplative neuroscience.” Dr. Davidson is featured in the upcoming documentary Free Your Mind, which highlights programs working with traumatized military veterans — and also preschool-age children.

Studying sea squirts has revealed the crystal structure of the mineral vaterite — a mystery which had spanned almost a century.

When US scientists introduced stem cells to the damaged brains of live mice, they were surprised by the results: the treated mice scored significantly better on learning and memory tests than their untreated peers.

A pair of neutrinos detected in Antarctica may be the first of these ghostly particles seen coming from outside the solar system since 1987. If the finding is confirmed, it could lead to a new way of looking at the universe that may solve a number of cosmic puzzles.

Mayor Paul Soglin announced Thursday that Madison will join nine other U.S. cities in a campaign to encourage divestment of city funds from the fossil fuel industry.

In 2014, Wisconsin and the rest of the nation will observe a sad anniversary ? the 100th year of a world without passenger pigeons.

Our series to accompany the 2013 Wellcome Trust Science Writing Prize asks top science writers about their craft. Today we talk to author, blogger and professor of journalism Deborah Blum

Terrifying, televised news images of fear and suffering scare children, and in the wake of 9/11 led to hundreds of cases of kids who developed post-traumatic stress disorder from seeing too many disturbing scenes on TV news broadcasts. That PTSD epidemic created a conundrum for Joanne Cantor, who studies how media consumption affects human brains.

WASHINGTON: Scientists have for the first time transformed human embryonic stem cells into nerve cells to help mice regain the ability to learn and remember. The study by the University of Wisconsin-Madison in US is the first to show that human stem cells can successfully implant themselves in the brain and then heal neurological deficits.

Scientists have successfully transplanted human stem cells into brain-damaged mice and helped them recover their memory and learning skills.

Smithsonian Magazine blogger Megan Gambino explores the often imperceptible boundary between art and science with photos from the 2013 UW-Madison Cool Science Image contest and thoughts from judges, faculty members Steve Ackerman and Anna Skop and staff member Terry Devitt.

“Communicating the science of climate change provides one example where the scientific community must do more,” write UW-Madison chemistry colleagues Bassam Shakhashiri and Jerry Bell in an editorial published in the April 5 issue of the journal “Science.” “Climate change affects everyone, so everyone should understand why the climate is changing and what it means for them, their children, and generations to follow.”

Scientists have implanted human embryonic stem cells into mouse brains and restored both memory and learning function.

The well-respected Dictionary of American Regional English is facing funding problems ? just as it is about to go digital.

A software program that allows people with limited medical training to scan Pap smear slides and provide nearly immediate results to patients has won first place in the Qualcomm Wireless Innovation Prize competition at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Children who displayed only seven of 12 recognized autism symptoms were diagnosed more than four years later on average than kids with all 12 symptoms, researchers found.

The University of Wisconsin-Stout will receive more than half a million dollars to study how wetlands in the Chippewa Valley are being affected by development.

While research suggests autism can be reliably diagnosed by age 2, fewer than half of children with autism spectrum disorders nationwide are being identified by age 5, according to new research from the University of Wisconsin-Madison published this week.

A Republican-sponsored bill that would ban the sale or use of aborted fetal tissue for research in Wisconsin is being circulated in the Legislature two years after it failed to pass.

Dear Editor: The letter from Gerard Schultz regarding avian influenza studies at UW-Madison asks important questions. In short, is the work done safely and securely? The answer is yes, of course. Otherwise, we would not be doing it.

A bill to ban the sale or use of aborted fetal tissue for research in Wisconsin would ensure scientific integrity, said a lawmaker who plans to reintroduce the measure after it failed two years ago.But UW-Madison and biotech officials said the bill would hamper important research, including studies on cancer, influenza and diabetes.

UW-Madison scientist Yoshihiro Kawaoka plans to study the new bird flu virus that has caused a human outbreak in China.Kawaoka, who researches many kinds of influenza viruses, plans to study the H7N9 virus that has killed at least seven people in China, UW-Madison spokesman Terry Devitt said Tuesday.

A University of Wisconsin-Madison scientist is awaiting access to an avian influenza virus that has killed at least seven people in central-eastern China over the past week so his research team can unlock the virus? secrets by infecting mice and ferrets with it.

Stem cell researchers will gather in Fitchburg on Wednesday for the eighth annual Wisconsin Stem Cell Symposium, with this year?s meeting centering on cell-based therapy for heart and vascular disease.

Six-year-old Mina Highsmith brought Totoro, a stuffed magical creature from a Japanese animation film, with her on Sunday to the UW School of Veterinary Medicine.

LONDON: Scientists in the Dutch city of Rotterdam know precisely what it takes for a bird flu to mutate into a potential human pandemic strain – because they?ve created just such mutant viruses in the laboratory.

The U.S. Department of Energy has awarded the University of Wisconsin and Michigan State University $125 million to continue their work on advanced biofuels.

The Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center in Madison received a five-year, $125 million federal grant to continue its research.

Michigan State University says the U.S. Department of Energy has awarded $125 million to the East Lansing school and to the University of Wisconsin to continue their work on advanced biofuels.

f a research center could be compared to a baseball player, the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center at UW-Madison is an All-Star.The center, started in 2007, has been given a new five-year contract from the U.S. Department of Energy, paying the center $25 million a year.

Dear Editor: Well, Madison, are your children safe? A research program at the UW-Madison may place them all in danger in the event of a viral release. Professor Yoshihiro Kawaoka has been performing bird flu experiments there, beside the cows and ice cream, that could cause a global pandemic. There would be only a short interval to quarantine an outbreak, and Madison, do you have a plan for that? Has the state inspected this operation for safety? Is there sufficient security to stop a terrorist break-in?

On Thursday, the U.S. Department of Energy announced that it will continue to fund its three bioenergy research centers for another five years. The funding is subject to congressional appropriations. Here are the details.

Three individuals with outstanding lifetime contributions to the meat business are set to be inducted into the Wisconsin Meat Industry Hall of Fame at a May 2 recognition ceremony. They include an immigrant who found the American Dream; an academic who became a captain of the meat processing business; and an entrepreneur who founded a firm that has become the backbone of a community.

Newly published research suggests that Greenland?s ice melted super fast last summer, and the world?s ice could soon melt faster than anybody had anticipated ? all because of pretty white clouds hanging low above frigid seas.

Washington ? The U.S. Energy Department said Thursday it wants to extend funding for three bioenergy research centers for another five years as part of a $125 million proposal.