Category: Research

A new UW-Madison campus building opened Thursday housing twin research institutes with both public and private sector involvement.

Nearly three dozen protesters decried the absence of union jobs for food service workers in a new UW-Madison building,  interrupting the speeches of Governor Doyle and Chancellor Biddy Martin.

Gov. Jim Doyle, along with university leaders and supporters, celebrated on Thursday the grand opening of the Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

The grand opening of the Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery Thursday afternoon was a little more raucous than some had hoped.

Twelve teams of researchers tackling some of today?s most complex health challenges will work in the new 300,000 square-foot Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery building, 330 N. Orchard St., where a series of grand opening events will be Thursday through Saturday, Dec. 11.

A Madison company?s stem-cell derived heart cells have been named by The Scientist magazine as one of the top 10 life sciences innovations of 2010.Calling them a symbol of just how fast a basic-science breakthrough can lead to new products, the magazine ranked Cellular Dynamics International?s heart cells fifth on its list.

Cells distributed by the company, known as CDI, are likely the first of many commercially available cell lines from differentiated human stem cells. CDI was founded in 2004 by University of Wisconsin – Madison stem cell pioneer James Thomson and others.

Developers of the $205 million Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery expect as many as 2,000 people at two receptions Thursday to celebrate the opening of the public/private research center in the heart of the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus.

Excitement is high on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus as a new building is set to open its doors Thursday, and those involved said it wouldn?t have happened if not for the inspiration of two UW alumni.

You eat right and exercise for the health benefits today and hopefully tomorrow.

Gov. Jim Doyle broke ground last week on the Wisconsin Energy Institute, which will help the University of Wisconsin-Madison develop new technologies to meet the need of creating renewable energy in the state.

After seven years, a team led by UW-Madison is expected to complete work on the IceCube Neutrino Observatory in Antarctica next month – the largest such detector in the world. But the frigid, remote work won?t stop then.

Governor Jim Doyle today broke ground on the Wisconsin Energy Institute, which will foster collaboration between the University of Wisconsin?s leading energy researchers and lead the development of clean energy that will grow Wisconsin?s future economy.

Gov. Jim Doyle and University of Wisconsin-Madison officials were on hand on Wednesday as workers broke ground on what they hope will be a groundbreaking research facility pursuing clean energy technology.

Ground has been broken on an energy research facility on the UW Madison campus. Governor Jim Doyle, who provided $50 million in state funding for the new Wisconsin Energy Institute in his 2009-2011 budget, said the work to be done there can decrease dependence on fuel sources from out of state.

The IceCube Neutrino Observatory, which lies buried in the Antarctic ice sheet, records the collision of elusive sub-atomic particles called neutrinos.

The National Science Foundation has signed a five-year, $34.5 million agreement with the University of Wisconsin-Madison to run the observatory located beneath the ice at the U.S. Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station. Although managed by UW, the observatory?s construction included contributions from Germany, Belgium and Sweden.

From its orbit in an asteroid belt millions of miles in space to its dramatic fall to Earth last spring and now to a shelf in the UW-Madison Geology Museum, the trajectory of the Mifflin Meteorite has landed it smack in the middle of Wisconsin?s imagination. Eight pieces of the meteorite, named for the southwest Wisconsin town where it fell on April 14, are now star attractions at the museum, said Brooke Norsted, assistant director.

The National Science Foundation has signed a five-year, $34.5-million agreement with the University of Wisconsin-Madison to operate a unique telescope–a cubic kilometer in volume–buried in the Antarctic ice sheet between 1,400 meters and 2,400 meters deep.

The meteorite that lit up the skies over southwest Wisconsin last spring has been officially dubbed the “Mifflin Meteorite” because it landed near Mifflin Township, and several of its pieces are now part of the permanent collection of the University of Wisconsin-Madison Geology Museum.

Our brains pay less attention to aspects of the world that appear to remain the same. We need this mental relief to experience life without being overwhelmed, but it can keep us from noticing when patterns change.

Quoted: Heidi-Lynn Ploeg, an amateur bike racer and associate professor of mechanical engineering at UW-Madison.

In a remarkable demonstration of the ability of calorie restriction to blunt the effects of aging, scientists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have succeeded in delaying age-related hearing loss in mice. Reporting Thursday in the journal Cell, the researchers described experiments with mice showing that a 25% reduction in calories activated a single enzyme, Sirt3, that helped preserve hearing.

UW-Madison scientists have advanced anti-aging research. They?ve demonstrated how calorie restriction delays one of the most common signs of getting old: losing one?s hearing.

Months of volcanic restlessness preceded the eruptions this spring of Icelandic volcano Eyjafjallajökull, providing insight into what roused it from centuries of slumber.

Scientists are a step closer to creating an anti-ageing drug, after they discovered a key anti-ageing enzyme that stops our cells from decaying.It has long been known that reducing calorie intake can dramatically slow the process of ageing and improve health in later life. Now researchers from the University of Wisconsin-Madison have identified a key enzyme called Sirt3, which causes this dramatic effect in cell molecules.

Scientists may have discovered a way to slow the ageing process and extend life span. The US research is the first to conclusively show how a process inside cells has a direct role in how fast we age. Scientists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the University of Tokyo have discovered a biochemical substance in cells known as Sirt3.

In those volcanoes that kids (or their parents) build for elementary school science fairs, the style is generally simple: There?s one chamber in which the baking soda rests, ready to meet the vinegar and erupt.

American scientists have discovered the key to how eating less can lead to a longer, healthier life — an enzyme that curbs cell damage. The discovery, by scientists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, could lead to new drugs designed to slow aging and to enhance health in the golden years.

The University of Wisconsin has teamed up with a major bike company, to create a new line of gloves designed to help prevent aches in cyclist?s hands. UW-Madison engineers — and Trek Bicycles of Waterloo — say the gloves will alleviate what?s called ?cyclist?s palsy?. The condition is caused by high pressure on the hand?s ulnar nerve during long rides, resulting in lingering numbness in the fingers.

Scientists from Iceland, Sweden and the Netherlands have spent months pouring over older records and also data from 2009 and 2010 prior to the eruption. They believe they can now tell the full story of how Eyjafjallajökull woke from centuries of slumber to cause the biggest disruption to European air transport since the second World War.

?If you watch a volcano for decades you can tell when it is getting restless,? stated co-author Dr Kurt Feigl of the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Parts of the dormant volcano began to swell, a sure sign that liquid rock or magma was percolating into chambers under the mountain.

Geological events leading up to the eruption have been documented, and they show that the volcano had been rumbling for many months before it blew its top. Kurt Feigl, a professor of geosciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a co-author of the study, said the volcano had been showing signs of restlessness.

A group of researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison studied the claims. The result? David Noyce from the School of Engineering said the whistles failed miserably.

A non-profit group has raised concern over the proposed location for building a new foreign animal disease research center on the Kansas State University campus because of the area?s high number of tornadoes and its proximity to large numbers of cattle.

Smokers who kick the habit may improve their levels of “good” HDL cholesterol within one year, a study of nearly 1,000 people suggests. HDL levels shot up despite the weight gain commonly associated with smoking cessation, says Adam D. Gepner, MD, of the University of Wisconsin in Madison.