Category: Research

When bats in northeastern America began dying off in alarming numbers a few years ago, wildlife ecologists were perplexed. They named the disease white-nose syndrome, but until now authorities had no idea what caused the fatal ailment.

Researchers in Wisconsin have discovered the culprit is a fungus that?s common in Europe but wasn?t seen in the United States until five years ago. Now that the cause has been determined, officials can turn their attention to stopping the spread of the disease.

Scientists working in Madison have helped prove that a fungus is causing white-nose syndrome, a disease that is threatening to wipe out the bat population in North America. The first direct evidence that the fungus Geomyces destructans is the source of the highly contagious and lethal disease is included in research published Wednesday in the journal Nature.

Confirming suspicions, federal and academic biologists concluded Wednesday that a deadly white fungus is killing bats across North America.

A new study from researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison shows that public assistance programs were highly effective at keeping poverty in check in Wisconsin during the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression.

For the stem cell at least, researchers at the University of Wisconsin have found a controlled method to signal cell decision-making, or differentiation. Their discovery opens new doorways in tissue engineering, a field that may one day create lab-grown replacements for failing organs and tissue.

The mysterious origins of the stellar version of vampires ? stars that apparently drain life away from other stars to look young ? may just have been solved, scientists revealed.

The mysterious origins of the stellar version of vampires ? stars that apparently drain life away from other stars to look young ? may just have been solved, scientists revealed.

University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers have been selected to lead a national, multi-institution effort to improve the quality and safety of processed potatoes, the U.S. Department of Agriculture?s National Institute of Food and Agriculture announced.

The University of Wisconsin-Madison will lead a national effort to improve the quality and safety of processed potatoes. The National Institute of Food and Agriculture at the U.S. Department of Agriculture says a $3.7 million grant will support efforts to reduce a carcinogen in french fries and potato chips know as acrylamide (ah-KRIL?-ih-MEYED).

Poverty and unemployment is increasing in Wisconsin, while income levels are dropping, according to recently released New American Community Survey data. ?The most recent estimates show a continued increase in poverty in Wisconsin since 2008,? says Katherine Curtis, demographic specialist with the University of Wisconsin-Extension and assistant professor of community and environmental sociology at the UW-Madison. ?Poverty in the state is the second highest since poverty data have been collected.? The highest was 15.7 percent in 1959, and the lowest state poverty rate was 8.7 percent in 1979 and again in 1999.

A major Wisconsin dairy group continues to promote dairy products for weight loss, four years after two national groups, under pressure from the Federal Trade Commission, agreed to stop.

Bucky?s got his ride back. The University of Wisconsin?s classic bright red 1932 American LaFrance fire engine returns to duty at 6 p.m. today during the college?s homecoming parade in Madison.

Just in time for homecoming, a local company is helping keep a University of Wisconsin tradition alive.

Is that the call of a black-capped chickadee, or some kind of a sparrow? The answer may soon be in the palm of your hand. A new smart phone app now in development at the University of Wisconsin-Madison could help the armchair bird watcher identify the calls of many more birds.

In February 1933, Ed Carlson loaded his truck with some hay, a dead cow and a bucket of blood and made the long drive to Madison.

There?s only one thing harder than living in a home with an adolescent ? and that?s being an adolescent. The moodiness, the volatility, the wholesale lack of impulse control, all would be close to clinical conditions if they occurred at another point in life. In adolescence, they?re just part of the behavioral portfolio.It?s no surprise that in a home that includes such a temperamental free radical there are a lot of fights. To hear the adolescents themselves tell it, it?s all their parents? and siblings? fault; they get along just fine with their friends, thank you very much. But a new study by researchers from Seoul National University, UCLA?s Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, and the University of Wisconsin at Madison suggests that?s not so.

Teenagers who stay up late most nights before struggling in to school the next day may have more to worry about than being drowsy during lessons.

The airflow of a typical human breath travels at less than 2 meters per second. Instead of lamenting its weakness, engineers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison decided to try to make a material that could react to this airflow in such a way as to convert it to electrical energy.

Ever wonder where your food came from? No, I mean where it really came from ? as in, where did humans first find the plants that we now depend on for survival, like potatoes or wheat or corn, and what made those plants such generous providers of food, anyway?

Some of the most exciting innovation and research to positively impact the health of our planet is going on in the automobile industry. And much of it is going in two places – Germany, and UW Madison. This week, researchers, business and civic leaders, government officials and economic development experts are gathering to consider the car of the future and how Germany and Wisconsin might partner to create it. The first obvious connection is the technology and science potential of a partnership of UW engineering experts and German automakers. The second is the shared commitment to sustainable supply chains and green energy. And third is the Madison region?s interest in establishing a globally competitive entrepreneurial and employment sector as an economic development engine.

College students who post the details of their drunken nights on Facebook can end up with a few problems on their hands ? embarrassment, regret or explanations to mom and dad. But a new study from researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison suggests those Facebook postings may also signal that a student is at clinical risk of having a drinking problem.

At U-W Milwaukee this morning, a team will announce a renewable energy venture. UWM, along with UW-Madison will test small systems ? called microgrids.

Microgrids will be set up at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in 2012 and at UW-Madison?s new Wisconsin Energy Institute Building, scheduled to open in 2013, according to the initiative by the Center for Renewable Energy Systems. The Center aims to conduct applied research to help Wisconsin companies develop projects for the renewable energy and energy storage markets.

The headline seemed more suited to The Onion than “Scientific American” magazine: “Religious experiences shrink part of the brain.” But the article was real, as was the recent study by researchers at Duke University.

The White House is giving three Wisconsinites the highest honor the government can give to science and engineering professionals in the early stages of their independent research careers.

Two scientists who unlocked some of the mysteries linked to obesity or a professor who figured out how to make stem cells without human embryos could be candidates for the medicine award when the first of the 2011 Nobel Prizes are announced Monday.

The Wisconsin Institute of Discovery appointed David Krakauer as its first permanent director Thursday.

The Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery will be welcoming a new director this November with lofty aims for the institute?s future.

David Krakauer, a professor from the Santé Fe Institute in New Mexico, is slated to be the institute?s director, according to a statement from the University of Wisconsin.

A teaspoon of sugar may help the medicine go down, but if you want kids to eat brussels sprouts, give them a toy. A new study by a researcher at the University of Oregon and a colleague in Wisconsin suggests that kids can be influenced to choose a healthy meal if it comes with a toy. The effect is strongest when the toy is part of a collection and the child doesn?t have it yet.

Wisconsin?s big dairy farms produce cleaner milk than their smaller counterparts, according to a UW-Madison study published in August.

President Obama has named two University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers among 94 chosen to receive presidential early career awards for scientists and engineers, the highest honor the federal government bestows on for young science and engineering professionals.

Two assistant professors at UW-Madison and a Forest Products Lab engineer are among 94 scientists and engineers honored by President Obama as recipients of the Presidential Early Career Award. Michael Arnold, Daniel Fredrickson and Samuel Zelinka were recognized by the U.S. government for their work in the early stages of their independent research careers. Arnold is an assistant professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering in the College of Engineering and Fredrickson is an assistant professor in the Department of Chemistry.