“It’s very challenging and very expensive to bring these technologies to market,” said George Huber, whose biofuels research at the University of Wisconsin at Madison was funded by Exxon for years. “It’s not gonna happen overnight. It’s great they make these commitments, but you know they need to start putting more capital into these projects.”
Category: Research
Study shows Black patients suffer worse cardiovascular outcomes from lupus
Social determinants of health affect Black lupus patients more heavily than white patients, UW study finds.
Scientists unlock new information about Wisconsin’s climate in Cave of the Mounds. Here’s what they found.
A new study, published in Nature Geoscience, found there were abrupt changes in Wisconsin’s climate that have a “credible link” to a major warming episode in Greenland between 48,000 and 68,000 years ago.
As the climate is projected to get warmer, scientists can look back at these major warming events for clues about what to expect in the future, said Cameron Batchelor, lead author on the study and now a post-doctoral researcher at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The study was a part of her doctoral research at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Students find research can be Capitol project
“It is the very essence of the Wisconsin Idea, which holds that the university — and its people — are committed to helping the state find solutions to its most pressing challenges, whether they’re big or small,” said UW System President Jay Rothman in remarks at Research in the Rotunda.
People who live here in Georgia live the longest, according to data
Using 2022 County Health Rankings & Roadmaps from the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute, Stacker identified counties with the longest life expectancy in Georgia.
Stalagmite from Cave of the Mounds shows evidence of sudden warming during last ice age
Researchers with the University of Wisconsin-Madison say a stalagmite from Cave of the Mounds in southern Wisconsin holds clues about the impact of abrupt, global climate changes during the last ice age. A team of UW-Madison scientists led by Cameron Batchelor removed a stalagmite about the length of a pinky finger and used chemical and physical analysis to detect telltale signs of sudden warming in the atmosphere. A paper on their research was published this month in the journal Nature Geoscience.
“This work really puts Wisconsin on the map in terms of showing that this region of the world is not immune to these abrupt climate change events,” Batchelor told Wisconsin Public Radio.
Can new, sweeter beets defeat stigmas? Wisconsin breeders hope so
“It’s no longer your grandmother’s pickled beets,” said Adam D’Angelo, a UW-Madison graduate student and plant biologist. “You go to the grocery store, and you find beet juice, beet chips, beet this and beet that.” D’Angelo and UW-Madison horticulture professor Irwin Goldman recently appeared on Wisconsin Public Radio’s “The Larry Meiller Show” to discuss their work redesigning beets for modern tastes. Goldman said people often complain “about the fact that they taste like dirt.”
“You look at it, and you think of the huddled masses of our ancestors and their old-style foods,” Goldman said. “But there’s something about its earthiness, about its color and its beauty that I find has grown on me over the years I’ve worked on it.”
Survey shows UW graduates have high rates of job placements
Results show 71% of recent graduates received job offer at time of graduation.
It’s been more than a decade since Wisconsin cracked down on phosphorus. Has it helped protect our lakes and rivers?
Noted: Phosphorus runoff also increases after extreme precipitation events, which are projected to be more frequent as the climate changes. A 2017 study from the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Center for Limnology found that phosphorus “pulses” into waterways after extreme rainfall, building on previous research that showed waterways receive most of their phosphorus in just a dozen or two events per year. The bigger the rainstorm, the more phosphorus was flushed downstream, the UW study found.
Gain-Of-Function Research And Covid-19: Could Too Much Oversight Slow Progress?
The broader debate over gain-of-function experiments certainly did not begin with Covid-19. The current discourse largely can be traced back to 2011. In that year, virologists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Erasmus Medical Center independently reported that they had genetically modified the avian influenza virus A/H5N1 to make it transmissible among ferrets. Why is this noteworthy? The A/H5N1 virus has a high mortality rate in humans. However, human-to-human transmission is limited.
Cat Mesmerized by Owner Performing Hilarious One-Woman Dance Show
Researchers from the University of Wisconsin concluded that in order for cats to appreciate music, it needed to fit into the way they communicate with each other, i.e. through meows.
A simple way to mitigate doctor burnout
A controlled (but not randomized) study performed at the University of Wisconsin Health evaluated the impact of scribes on physicians involved in primary patient care. In the study, which included 37 scribe users and 68 controls, scribes were physically off-site and joined patient visits via an audio-only cellphone connection to hear and document visits in real time.
When biologists need help analyzing data, UW bioinformatics experts step up
Experts say biologists generate data faster than they can analyze it, bioinformatics provides solutions.
A prolific fundraiser, Rebecca Blank reshaped UW-Madison research, finances
Rebecca Blank’s influence can be seen in some unexpected places.
It’s embedded in a nationwide breast cancer database that examined how long patients could delay surgical treatments at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. It’s noticeable in research endeavors she helped make possible. It’s found, subtly, in portraits hanging at the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art.
USF researcher living 30 feet underwater in Key Largo
He’s advancing conclusions from a University of Wisconsin study, where cells exposed to increased pressure doubled within five days — suggesting increased pressure has the potential to allow humans to live longer and prevent diseases associated with aging.
A bipartisan consensus could be growing on how to teach reading statewide
In 2021, the DPI and the Wisconsin Center of Education Research at UW-Madison surveyed school districts statewide about the curriculums they use for teaching reading. Participation was voluntary; more than 80% of districts responded. Of those, 79% were using curriculums that were not listed by a national nonprofit organization called EdReports as meeting quality expectations. DPI recommends that districts use programs recommended by the organization.
States With the Most Cancer Cases Linked to Alcohol
Excessive drinking rates are from the 2022 County Health Rankings & Roadmaps program, produced by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute. Population data came from the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2022 American Community Survey.
Hitting the Books: Why America once leaded its gasoline
In early 1921 Kettering learned about Victor Lehner’s synthesis of selenium oxychloride at the University of Wisconsin. Tests showed it to be a highly effective but, as expected, also a highly corrosive anti-knocking compound, but they led directly to considering compounds of other elements in group 16 of the periodic table: both diethyl selenide and diethyl telluride showed even better anti-knocking properties, but the latter compound was poisonous when inhaled or absorbed through skin and had a powerful garlicky smell.
Camel antibodies could help pioneer future medicine
Every four months, pathologist Aaron LeBeau scoops into a net one of the five nurse sharks he keeps in his University of Wisconsin lab. Then he carefully administers a shot to the animal, much like a pediatrician giving a kid a vaccine. The shot will immunize the shark against a human cancer, perhaps, or an infectious disease, such as Covid-19. A couple of weeks later, after the animal’s immune system has had time to react, LeBeau collects a small vial of shark blood.
UW-Madison launches center in India to develop vaccines, study disease
The University of Wisconsin-Madison will soon have a health center in Bangalore, India, to research and develop new vaccines for the country.
How Tiny Earth pushes boundaries of antibiotic research
Started just 11 years ago by Director of the Wisconsin Institute for Discovery Jo Handelsman, Tiny Earth has since expanded worldwide to over 700 participating instructors teaching the course and over 14,000 students enrolled each year.
At halfway point, how is Madison’s guaranteed income program doing?
UW-Madison’s Institute for Research on Poverty is partnering with the Center for Guaranteed Income Research at the University of Pennsylvania to gather survey data throughout the program.
Like her mom, UW professor battled breast cancer. Now she’s the first to complete vaccine trial.
Dr. Eva Vivian was a teenager when her mother, not yet 40, learned she had a breast tumor.Vivian’s memories aren’t pleasant.
“The only option was a mastectomy. They were mean to women back then. It was a male-dominated profession,” said Vivian, a professor in the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s School of Pharmacy. “There wasn’t a lot of empathy toward women who developed breast cancer.”
Ex-‘Shark Tank’ guest star Matt Higgins: Ditch backup plans to succeed
In a 2016 Wharton and University of Wisconsin-Madison study, two groups of research participants were given the same assignment and the same plan for completing it. One group had a backup plan. That group performed worse, and lost motivation to see their initial goal through.
People respond positively to humanlike robots, UW researcher finds
Alumni, students and staff gathered in the Discovery Building Tuesday evening to learn about robot-human interactions. Computer Sciences Professor Bilge Mutlu gave a talk titled “What Can Robots Tell Us About Our Humanity,” which explored research on human fascination with robotic technology.
Kids who play hours of video games each day test the same as non-players
JadAllah joined researchers at the University of Houston and the University of Wisconsin-Madison on this project, which examined 10- and 11-year-old children.
You Can Change Your Attachment Style
In a series of experiments, Harlow, a University of Wisconsin psychologist, separated baby rhesus monkeys from their mothers and placed them in cages. In one study, each monkey was alone with two “surrogate mothers”: one made of wire, which dispensed milk, and the other made of terry cloth, which did not.
In dire need of more space, UW-Madison Engineering gets System’s top priority
UW-Madison will aggressively seek a new College of Engineering building as its top priority in the upcoming state budget cycle as growth stagnates and faculty compete with one another for coveted and increasingly limited lab space.
Are coffee pods really eco-friendly? The truth behind the surprising findings
But the results are hardly new: an engineering professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison conducted a similar analysis in 2017, and a team of Swiss researchers published similar results in 2007.
World’s Deadliest Mushroom Changed How It Reproduces as It Spreads Across The US
As it turns out, death caps don’t need a mating partner to reproduce. A study led by researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison on A. phalloides in the US has found the mushroom can produce spores using the chromosomes of a single individual.
UW Carbone Cancer Center conducting breast cancer vaccine clinical trial
The center is one of three institutions in the nation participating in the trial, which is testing a vaccine designed to prevent the recurrence of triple-negative breast cancer.
UW Carbone Cancer Center hosts breakthrough breast cancer vaccine trial
The trial is testing a vaccine that is designed to prevent the recurrence of triple negative breast cancer. This type of breast cancer has fewer treatment options and accounts for the 10% of breast cancers common in minorities and women under 40.
The Lab Report: How past life could predict otherworldly life
Kaçar is an assistant professor of bacteriology at the University of Wisconsin and the director of NASA’s Interdisciplinary Consortium for Astrobiology Research program. Through her work, Kaçar ties together the cosmos and biology to address several questions regarding past life on earth and possible otherworldly life — where did life evolve from? Are humans alone? Are there other forms of life to exist?
PETA takes credit for ending sheep experiments, but UW-Madison cites funding lapse
Earlier this week, animal activist group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) put out a statement saying its protests had pushed the Navy to nix the partnership with UW-Madison. But it was lack of funding that prompted the university and the Navy to jointly agree to end the experiments, Michelle Ciucci, UW-Madison Animal Program faculty director said.
UW study focuses on recruiting Black participants to make Alzheimer’s research more inclusive
“African Americans lead in Alzheimer’s disease. And yet, in terms of being participants in the research, our numbers are very small,” said study recruiter Dr. Fabu Carter. According to the Alzheimer’s Association, Black Americans are twice as likely as white Americans to develop Alzheimer’s. However, they are often severely underrepresented in research.
Madison company’s plant-based biofuel powers engine of Boeing 777 jet
Virent, founded in 2002 and located on Madison’s North Side, uses what’s known as a “BioForming” process to turn agricultural waste products, like corn cobs and stalks, into a compound called synthesized aromatic kerosene that has the same chemical composition as gasoline and jet fuel. That process has roots in UW-Madison research.
PETA claims victory for Navy ending ‘gruesome’ testing on sheep
More than $389,000 in taxpayer money was awarded to the University of Wisconsin-Madison for the “gruesome decompression experiments,” People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) said in a press release.
Size, Sex and Breed May Predict Dogs’ Cancer Diagnosis
To determine what factors were associated with age of cancer diagnosis, Flory and her team at PetDx evaluated previously collected data from 3,452 dogs in three separate groups. Two of those groups of samples came from academic sites within the U.S.: one from the University of California, Davis, and another from a consortium that included Colorado State University, the Ohio State University, the University of Wisconsin–Madison and others.
Study: The pandemic took a toll on school staff’s mental health
Noted: A new study led by Matt Hirshberg, a scientist at the Center for Healthy Minds at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, dove into the toll it took on their mental health.
Could fuel from plants replace petroleum? Wisconsin researchers think so
Quoted: Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center are creating carbon-neutral fuels they hope to power the transportation sector through deconstructed, nonfood plant materials.
“We are producing the basic science knowledge on campus to generate the fuels and chemicals that will allow us to have a decarbonized economy and create environmental and economic benefits for the people of Wisconsin and around the United States,” said Tim Donohue, principal investigator and director of the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center.
UW community says goodbye to ant colony exhibit at Microbial Sciences
Thirteen-year-old “Ants and Agriculture” exhibit closes, new exhibit to come.
30 Plants You Can Grow In An Indoor Hydroponic Garden
Arugula (Eruca sativa) isn’t only delicious on sandwiches, bagels, and salads, but it’s also super simple to grow in a hydroponic garden, as told by Eden Green. Like other leafy greens, this plant is packed with good things such as vitamin K and iron. When growing arugula in a traditional garden, it is known to become weedy, as per the University of Wisconsin-Madison, so planting it indoors this way offers multiple benefits.
Volcano Watch: Big Island volcano Kīlauea gets weighed using gravity measurements
Over the month of January, a three-person team comprised of HVO geophysicist Ashton Flinders, University of Wisconsin at Madison PhD candidate Claire Ruggles, and University of Wisconsin student Sophia Thompson will measure gravity at more than 400 locations around Kīlauea’s summit.
How AI can detect heart attack risk and outsmart No. 1 killer in US
Cleerly has established a number of partnerships, including American College of Cardiology, Canon Medical, Heartbeat Health and several others. Cleerly works with a number of universities for its studies and clinical trials, including Mass General Brigham, University of Virginia, University of Wisconsin, Oregon Health Sciences University, George Washington University, Houston Methodist Hospital, UCLA and Scripps Clinic.
Counties with the longest life expectancy in Wisconsin
See the counties with above-average life expectancy in Wisconsin using data from the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute.
Groups seek to bar the use of hounds while hunting in the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest
Noted: Wisconsin’s wolf population fell around 14 percent to 972 wolves after the 2021 wolf hunt, according to the Wisconsin DNR. Even so, state wildlife managers say data indicates the state’s wolf population is stable. However, some researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison say the agency is overestimating the state’s wolf population.
Where’s the beef? UW-Madison scientists develop, research artificial meat
“Particularly, we are interested in the new products and the new technologies,” Masatoshi Suzuki, researcher and professor at UW-Madison, said.
Oregon primate research facility under scrutiny after deaths
The other NIH-funded centers are run by the University of California-Davis, the University of Washington, Tulane University, the Texas Biomedical Research Institute, the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Emory University.
The Ins and Outs of the UW Zoological Museum
In an unassuming building off of West Johnson Street, sits the remains of around 750,000 animal specimens for scientific research in the UW Zoological Museum. One of five museum collections on the UW Madison campus, the collection provides hands-on research material for universities across the country.
Climate change is making conditions harder for Wisconsin trout. But there is hope.
Noted: In a study published in the journal Ecosphere in December, Alex Latzka, a fisheries biologist with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, and Bryan Maitland, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Aquatic Sciences Center, compared annual brook and brown trout population numbers over nearly three decades with climate and weather data from the streams the trout swam in.
Direct Air Capture Could Help Pull Carbon Dioxide From the Sky
“The next decade is crucial because the amount of deployment required in the second half of the century will only be feasible if we see substantial new deployment in the next 10 years,” Gregory Nemet, a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a coauthor of the report, said during a press call.
How to protect your pets during flu season
They’ve spent the last few months working with the University of Wisconsin at Madison’s veterinary medicine school to coordinate a “clean break” among their dogs, housing exposed dogs in a separate area from others.
UW-Madison professor creates beet that actually tastes good
Irwin Goldman has spent much of his career de-beeting the beet. A horticulture professor at UW-Madison, Goldwin is a plant breeder focusing on onions, carrots and beets in his lab. And while carrots and onions are just fine, beets take priority for him, since he’s the only person in the nation who’s working on breeding the plant.
Cancer blood test using DNA fragments brings hope for earlier detection, say researchers
A University of Wisconsin–Madison research team was able to detect cancer in the bloodstream in most of the samples tested, it said. Muhammed Murtaza, professor of surgery at the UW School of Medicine and Public Health based in Madison, Wisconsin, led the study, which was published recently in Science Translational Medicine, a medical journal from the American Association for the Advancement of Science, according to the study’s press release.
A librarian recommends 5 fun fiction books for kids and teens featuring disabled characters
In 2019 the Cooperative Children’s Book Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison – a library that allows teachers, librarians and researchers to view books before deciding which ones to buy – found that only 3.4% of books it received from publishers included a character with a disability.
Global Carbon Removal Efforts Are Off Track for Meeting Climate Goals
“Carbon removal looks a lot like renewables did like 25 years ago,” said Gregory Nemet, an environmental policy expert at the University of Wisconsin and one of the report’s co-authors. “Interesting technology: [It] could be really helpful for climate change, but [it’s] still small and not taken very seriously — in part because there wasn’t a lot of data about how much these technologies cost, how much we would need or how much there even was.”
Get your sleep! The negative effects of lack of sleep on your health
Research done by the University of Wisconsin-Madison shows that sleeping less than five hours a day affects the efficiency of leptin, the hormone that regulates your food intake, increasing your appetite.
Scientists study crowdsourced trail camera photos of Wisconsin wildlife
Snapshot Wisconsin has collected more than 2 million images caught on motion-sensor trail cameras. Researchers have looked at many of the photos and found further evidence of animals changing their behavior due to the presence of humans and loss of habitat.
Interview with associate professor Benjamin Zuckerberg, and Jonathan Pauli, a professor of wildlife ecology, both in the University of Wisconsin-Madison Department of Forest and Wildlife Ecology.
Las Vegas valley flood patterns are changing, new study shows
This change in the urbanization of the valley is the focus of a new study published on Jan. 6 in The Journal of Hydrometeorology, from the Desert Research Institute (DRI), the Clark County Regional Flood Control District, the University of Wisconsin- Madison, and Guangdong University of Technology. The study shows that flood intensity in the valley took an “abrupt shift” in the mid-1990s.
UW-Madison researchers study psilocybin’s effects on opioid, meth users
Through two new clinical trials, researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison hope to better understand how opioid and methamphetamine addictions can be treated using a different drug: psilocybin.