Category: Research

For years, John Powless tried cutting and watering grass in his Middleton backyard to simulate playing on Centre Court at Wimbledon.

Madison ? Look at a leaf-cutter ant colony, and it?s a bustle of activity, with ants bringing pieces of leaves in, spreading them around on a honeycomb-like bed of fungus, and weeding the garden to remove waste and pests.

A blood test for the molecule CA-125 isn?t precise enough to screen for ovarian cancer, but research at UW-Madison on a related protein could yield a better test and a better way of treating the disease.

With some strains of tuberculosis resistant to many antibiotics and the only vaccine not very effective in adults, scientists around the world are trying to develop better drugs and immunizations for the disease.

 It?s thought that traumatic brain injury may play a role in whether someone develops Alzheimer?s. Scientific advances are allowing researchers to test this idea with willing Vietnam veterans. Sterling Johnson is a neuropsychologist at the UW School of Medicine and Public Health who is collaborating on the national study.

A blood test for the molecule CA-125 isn?t precise enough to screen for ovarian cancer, but research at UW-Madison on a related protein could yield a better test and a better way of treating the disease.

The University of Wisconsin-Madison says you may see a few new faces next time you visit the ag research stations at Hancock, Marshfield, West Madison and Lancaster. In the past six months the university has hired or promoted five individuals to leadership roles at those facilities to fill vacancies created by retirements and transfers.

University of Wisconsin researchers have undertaken a genomic study involving patients with cystic fibrosis, aiming to uncover data that explain variation in symptoms among those afflicted with the genetic lung disease. And researchers believe that bioinformatics and other new resources give them an “edge” in the fight to improve treatments, according to the university?s release.

Quoted: ?There are years when we get so much rain that we literally flush them out of their typical breeding sites,? University of Wisconsin-Madison entomologist Phil Pellitteri told the newspaper. ?You need 10 to 12 days of standing water to push mosquitoes in the summer. If you get excess amount of rain, you flush them out and they never get going.?

Aztalan State Park is deceptively bucolic. On a sunny day, it?s a field of green grass on sculpted mounds of earth. The sweltering silence carries whispers of wind and the nearby Crawfish River. Occasionally, a cry of a peacock from a nearby farm pierces the air.

For a few hundred years beginning more than 1,000 years ago, Aztalan was a community of about 500 people of mainly the Mississippian culture.

New research co-authored by a University of Wisconsin-Madison professor suggests that students admitted to elite universities or colleges under affirmative action policies are not necessarily harmed by the fact they may lack the same academic preparation as their peers, as critics contend.

To an outsider, Wisconsin might seem a state divided by differences. We have a proud agricultural heritage, yet manufacturing provides our financial base. Our diverse and varied landscape includes urban architecture, old growth forests, prairies and dairy farms, all serving vital and important roles. We have intense political ideologies, with passionate points of view on both the left and right. Even our climate reflects a state filled with contradictions ? as it has not been changing in a uniform fashion.

A new study concludes that students who benefit from affirmative action programs do just as well as other students, at least at the University of California?s most competitive schools.

Are poor people actually biologically dumber than the rich? Do MRI scans of brains suggest that poor children (many of them minorities) lack the gray matter for long-term memory, complex learning, and the moderation of emotional behavior?

Children are often the collateral damage of the U.S. incarceration system. Approximately one in 28 have a mom or dad who?s behind bars, a rate that?s up from just a couple years ago. But thanks to research at UW-Madison and programs in Dane County, kids are getting more help.

Enjoy a nice crisp apple recently? Chances are you can thank a honeybee for that. Like to snack on almonds or perhaps sip a glass of orange juice in the morning? Those foods were also made possible by bees.

Researchers at the University of Wisconsin, Madison are studying enzymes found in leaf-cutter ant colonies that may be used in biofuel production.

MADISON, Wis. (AP) ? Wisconsin?s potato growers have helped create a new professorship at the University of Wisconsin-Madison which is expected to lead to promising advances in potato breeding. DNA sequencing and other biotechnology have helped speed plant breeding in many food crops. But the potato is a different story.

“Sesame Street” has created its first Muppet whose parent is in jail. And some people aren?t happy.

In his lab at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Hongrui Jiang has designed a new kind of solar panel that incorporates energy storage right in the panel.

Video games have had their fair share of controversies over the past few decades. Games like Manhunt, Grand Theft Auto and Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 have all caused some measure of public outrage for their depictions of violence. However all three games had two things in common ? they do not suggest they are anything but pure fiction, and the violence means the games have a mature rating, suitable only to those 17 or more years old,

A research team at the University of Wisconsin in Madison has demonstrated the viability of a design for solar panels that can simultaneously generate and store electrons harvested from sunlight in a single device.

It?s brought to you by the letter P ? for prison. PBS?s ?Sesame Street? is moving from ABCs and counting numbers to offering its young viewers a bigger lesson in life: how to cope when Mommy or Daddy lands behind bars.

A snowy winter and a rainy spring have helped breed more mosquitoes in Wisconsin.University of Wisconsin-Madison entomologist Phil Pelliterri said standing water in flooded ditches and other spots is just what mosquitoes like. Green Bay has seen more than three-quarters of an inch of rain in June after having about three-quarters of an inch above normal rainfall in May and April.

Mosquitos are expected to thrive in Wisconsin this summer in a return to a normal season. ?If they haven?t received their first mosquito bite, it?s coming,? says University of Wisconsin-Madison entomologist Phil Pellitteri of fellow Wisconsinites.

What has more consciousness: a puppy or a baby? An iPhone 5 or an octopus? For a long time, the question seemed impossible to address. But recently, Giulio Tononi, a neuroscientist at the University of Wisconsin, argued that consciousness can be measured?captured in a single value that he calls ?, the Greek letter phi.

Spending just a few minutes looking through your own Facebook page can lead to a boost in self-esteem, but it can also cause users to become unmotivated.

Cellular Dynamics International, created by UW-Madison stem cell pioneer James Thomson in 2004, plans to sell its stock on the public market, the first Madison company to go public in si

Cellular Dynamics International, created by UW-Madison stem cell pioneer James Thomson in 2004, plans to sell its stock on the public market, the first Madison company to go public in six years.

A new study from the UW-Madison?s Wisconsin Energy Institute calls for the state to take a new approach to energy policy as costs continue to climb and alternatives aren?t being pursued fast enough to replace the state?s dependence on coal.

Even if you?re not living your best life you can make it look like you are on Facebook, and just glimpsing this idealized version of yourself can provide a rush of self-esteem, a new study shows.

When you think of things to do to improve your self-esteem or self-image, you probably don?t think about heading to Facebook. It might actually be the last place you think of, given that a percentage of people leave Facebook because of the negativity on the social network.

Forget a cup of coffee or power nap – the fastest way to boost your mood is to look at Facebook.