Category: Research

Many studies have linked high quality after school and summer programs to positive student outcomes in academics, school attendance and behavior. A longitudinal study conducted by researchers at the University of California, Irvine; the University of Wisconsin, Madison and Policy Studies Associates, Inc. finds that regular participation in high quality after school programs is linked to significant gains in standardized test scores and work habits as well as reductions in behavior problems among disadvantaged students.

Kelton Halbert was chasing after supercell storms near Kansas City when he was rewarded with the view of a tornado twisting down to a farm field.

You would think it would be enough for yogurt to be delicious; to be an integral part of Mediterranean cuisine, to be the base for a sweet frozen treat. You’d think it would be enough for the fermented dairy product to be chockablock with probiotics, which help keep the human gut healthy and humming along.

“I wanted to look at the mechanism more closely and look specifically at yogurt,” said Brad Bolling, an assistant professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the US

There’s a stigma linking violent crime with illegal immigrants and part of that has to do with the spotlight on MS-13 gang arrests across the country and specifically in Lake Worth. But, a state-by-state study says an increase in undocumented immigration actually makes communities safer. The study was conducted by sociologists Michael Light of the University of Wisconsin at Madison and Ty Miller of Purdue University.

“None of the plants were ever actually attacked,” says University of Wisconsin-Madison ecologist John Orrock. “We just gave them cues that suggested an attack was coming, and that was enough to trigger big changes in their chemistry…”

Two UW-Madison biomedical researchers have been awarded the prestigious Hartwell Foundation Award to help in their research advancing children’s health.

Quoted: “We are excited to infuse the initiative with a new class of inspiring and novel projects that continue to showcase UW-Madison’s highly competitive and forward thinking world-class faculty and staff researchers,” said Norman Drinkwater, interim vice chancellor for research and graduate education.

A University of Wisconsin-Madison study has found that a transmission “hot spot” for chronic wasting disease in deer may be at salt or mineral licks.

A University of Wisconsin-Madison study has found that a transmission “hot spot” for chronic wasting disease in deer may be at salt or mineral licks.

UW senior Brandon Nwadinobi helped his mentor look into inconsistencies in grant peer review.

Scientists detected the prion that causes chronic wasting disease in soil and water at mineral lick sites in south-central Wisconsin, according to work published Wednesday  by University of Wisconsin researchers.

Noted: “We have seen an increase in the types of tick-borne pathogens. So this is very real,” cautioned Lyric Bartholomay, associate professor in School of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She also co-directs the Upper Midwestern Regional Center of Excellence for Vector-Borne Disease.

Noted: Indeed, the few antibias trainings that have been proven to change people’s behavior make this case. One training, developed by Patricia Devine and colleagues at the Prejudice and Intergroup Relations Lab at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, looks at bias as a habit that can be broken. Their approach—which I’ve written about before—consists of a couple of hours of modules based on what the researchers see as three essential elements of an antibias intervention: awareness of the problem, motivation to do something about it, and strategies for what to do. The strategies include observing stereotypes arise and mentally replacing them, actively looking for situational explanations for a person’s behavior, and trying to imagine what the world would look and feel like from another person’s point of view.

MADISON – Jeans are thirsty. The fibers making up their denim come from water-guzzling cotton plants, and plant scientists are on the hunt for ways to make this vital fiber more sustainable.

While winter may seem like it lasts forever, Wisconsinites have months and months for beloved pastimes like gardening, grilling out and, of course swatting at mosquitoes around the campfire. When it comes to these blood-sucking pests and other creepy-crawlies, each year can be a different experience, with weather patterns and other factors playing important roles in the behaviors of insects and other arthropods like spiders and millipedes, as well as other invertebrates.

I am not an athlete by any stretch of the imagination. But as someone who struggles with chronic back pain, I understand the perils of pushing an injured body too hard.So does a team of University of Wisconsin-Madison engineers, which developed technology that could one day recognize when your tendons are revived and ready for action.

Undocumented immigrants in the U.S. does not contribute to an increasing crime rate, according to a new study conducted by a UW-Madison professor. This is despite the fact that immigrants are struggling with many socioeconomic factors shared by people who are more likely to commit crimes.

A driverless shuttle made its way around the campus of the University of Wisconsin-Madison on Tuesday.

Bee populations face stressors in urban areas including loss of habitat, food resources, nesting locations.

Students from colleges and universities across the U.S. came together in Madison this weekend to discuss issues of public policy and their research surrounding these topics.

Fox and coyote are friends. It’s not a plot for a new Wes Anderson film. It’s happening here, in the UW Arboretum.

Madison metal artist and sculptor Michael Burns, originally from the Kettle Moraine area, has at times drawn inspiration from the “intimate little hills” of that area. But for his work at the UW Arboretum — the large metal archways to Longenecker Gardens and the steel memorial benches — he looked to one of his predecessors for direction. No one, it appears, was more instrumental in setting the visual tone of the Arboretum than Albert F. Gallistel.

Katie Laushman remembers her first encounter with Amynthas agrestis. It was 2014, and the UW-Madison graduate student was working on an oak savanna habitat restoration in the UW Arboretum when a work crew member asked if she’d heard about the gardens’ newest inhabitant. He took Laushman over to a mulch pile and brushed away the top layer to reveal a bunch of writhing, wriggling earthworms.

Looking out over Curtis Prairie today, watching the tallgrass sway in the breeze, it’s hard to imagine it used to be farmland tilled with mules.

When Laurie Elwell was doing naturalist training at the UW Arboretum a few years ago, her class spent a day near a pond near the perimeter of the property.