Category: Research

Q: Is global warming evident in the temperature records of Wisconsin for the past 30 or 40 years? Winters seem to be getting a whole lot warmer.

A: Indeed, and winter is actually warming faster than summer in Wisconsin, says Ankur Desai, an assistant professor of atmospheric and oceanic sciences at UW-Madison.

A University of Wisconsin-Madison project designed to unearth better ways of bringing fresh, local produce and other healthy foods to inner-city communities has earned a $4.9 million grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The five-year project initially will focus on Chicago, Detroit and Milwaukee, cities in which large portions of the population don?t have easy access to affordable and nutritious foods.

While members of the national government revisit safety standards for nuclear power plants on American soil following the crisis in Japan, one University of Wisconsin professor lent his expertise during a federal subcommittee?s hearing Wednesday.

He was found sick, and thrown out like a piece of trash, now he?s fighting for his life. “Braveheart” came to the UW Veterinary Clinic a week ago and everyday has been a struggle.

In January, President Barack Obama selected Jo Handelsman, a molecular biologist and professor at Yale University, as one of 11 people to receive the Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics and Engineering Mentoring.

On June 2, 2010, Dane County Judge Amy Smith agreed with the national animal rights group PETA and local Alliance for Animals that UW-Madison researchers may merit civil and even criminal penalties for conducting sometimes fatal decompression experiments on sheep. She tapped Madison attorney David Geier to see what charges were warranted.

Agriculture is still an economic giant in Wisconsin, generating almost $60 billion a year. A report from UW-Madison and the UW-Cooperative Extension found some of the industry?s economic strength is coming from unexpected areas.

Ask a roomful of Wisconsinites if they think the climate has changed during their lifetimes and the response is often a unanimous yes, says the Unversity of Wisconsin – Extension.

A UW-Madison researcher is using $1.5 million dollars to learn what makes for a successful minority or tribal college.

Nerve cell tendrils readily thread their way through tiny semiconductor tubes, researchers find, forming a crisscrossed network like vines twining towards the sun. The discovery that offshoots from nascent mouse nerve cells explore the specially designed tubes could lead to tricks for studying nervous system diseases or testing the effects of potential drugs. Such a system may even bring researchers closer to brain-computer interfaces that seamlessly integrate artificial limbs or other prosthetic devices.

t could be a breakthrough that allows those with spinal injuries or certain diseases to walk again.Scientists at the University of Wisconsin have successfully shown that they can force nerve cells to grow through

Graduate students at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, report that they?ve successfully managed to get nerve cell tendrils to grow through tiny tubes made of semiconductor materials.

A scientist from the University of Wisconsin-Madison has been awarded the 2011 Stockholm Water Prize — the top award for scientists studying water-related activities.

American environmental scientist Stephen Carpenter has been named this year?s winner of the Stockholm Water Prize for his research on lake ecosystems and how humans and surrounding landscapes affect them. Carpenter is a professor in Zoology and Limnology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the United States.

To lay the groundwork for a nerve-electronic hybrid, graduate student Minrui Yu of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and his colleagues created tubes of layered silicon and germanium, materials that could insulate electric signals sent by a nerve cell. The tubes were various sizes and shapes and big enough for a nerve cell?s extensions to crawl through but too small for the cell?s main body to get inside.

Molly Jahn, a University of Wisconsin-Madison professor and administrator, has been named to a newly created Commission on  Sustainable Agriculture and Climate Change, a group of international  experts on agriculture, climate, food, economics and natural resources.

American environmental scientist Stephen Carpenter has been named this year?s winner of the Stockholm Water Prize for his research on lake ecosystems and how humans and surrounding landscapes affect them.

“The spike in asthma attacks in the fall, which is associated with colds and other viral airway infections, disappeared in the kids in the omalizumab (Xolair) group,” said study author William Busse, a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Three pioneering stem-cell scientists were recognized today with the 2011 Albany Medical Center Prize in Medicine and Biomedical Research, a $500,000 award, the New York institution announced. The winners were Elaine Fuchs, a professor at Rockefeller University; James A. Thomson, a professor at the University of Wisconsin at Madison and at the University of California at Santa Barbara; and Shinya Yamanaka, a professor at Kyoto University, in Japan.

Three scientists who work in isolating human stem cells won the 11th annual Albany Medical Center Prize in Medicine and Biomedical Research, officials say.

Elaine Fuchs, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator at The Rockefeller University in New York City; James A. Thomson of the Morgridge Institute for Research in Madison, Wis. and the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Medicine and Public Health; and Dr. Shinya Yamanaka of Kyoto University in Japan and the Gladstone Institute of Cardiovascular Disease in San Francisco are co-recipients of the $500,000 prize.

The researchers plan to conduct a study next year that will specifically examine whether omalizumab, given one month before school starts and for four months during the fall, can decrease asthma exacerbations, said study researcher Dr. William Busse, an allergy and immunology researcher at University of Wisconsin-Madison.