Life on Earth is, at the very least, about 3.5 billion years old. That’s what researchers at UCLA and the University of Wisconsin–Madison have determined through analysis of microscopic fossils found in a rock in Western Australia.
University of Wisconsin-Madison scientists have helped confirm that tiny fossils detected in an Australian rock are the oldest fossils ever found.
Life on Earth is, at the very least, about 3.5 billion years old. That’s what researchers at UCLA and the University of Wisconsin–Madison have determined through analysis of microscopic fossils found in a rock in Western Australia.
“People are really interested in when life on Earth first emerged,” John W. Valley, a professor of geoscience at University of Wisconsin-Madison and author on the study told said in a statement. “This study was 10 times more time-consuming and more difficult than I first imagined, but it came to fruition because of many dedicated people who have been excited about this since day one … I think a lot more microfossil analyses will be made on samples of Earth and possibly from other planetary bodies.”
Take that survey on voter suppression in Wisconsin. Kenneth Mayer, professor of political science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, was the lead researcher on a project that sent surveys to 2,400 people in two counties who hadn’t voted in the 2016 election, then published the results as a press release. Twelve percent of people replied to the survey, and by extrapolating those 288 responses to all people in those counties who were registered to vote but did not, Mayer’s team estimated that between 11,000 and 23,000 Wisconsinites could have been deterred from voting because of the state’s ID law.
To the PI, failure is the albatross that hangs around one’s professional neck. The PI in this case is Francis Halzen, of the University of Wisconsin, an “oracular” presence, Mr. Bowen tells us, whose formidable intellect gushes forth in scientific forums: “Ideas splashed across his mind so fast that his mouth couldn’t keep up.”
Also recently published, by American Behavioral Scientist, is a new paper on state-based performance funding by Nick Hillman, an associate professor of education at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, who has published several papers on the issue.Hillman’s new study found equity problems with performance funding.
The result has made been made possible after nearly two decades of research by a group led by Dr. Aseem Ansari, a scientist based at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, U.S. Scientists from the Delhi-based CSIR-Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology (IGIB) contributed to the research by testing the efficacy of the molecule in blood cells drawn from a dozen FA patients at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Delhi.
“This was an explosive outbreak of severe coughing and sneezing,” says Tony Goldberg, a professor in the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s School of Veterinary Medicine who studied the outbreak.
University of Wisconsin-Madison political science professor Ken Mayer released results of a study this fall that found changes to the state’s voter ID law led to enormous confusion and deterred thousands from voting.
Studies of DNA from living Africans, and from the 2,000-year-old African boy, so far indicate that at least several branches of Homo— some not yet identified by fossils — existed in Africa roughly 300,000 years ago, says paleoanthropologist John Hawks of the University of Wisconsin–Madison.
One morning seven years ago, Tony Goldberg was working in the tropical forests of Uganda’s Kibale National Park, when a colleague arrived at his research station with two students in tow. They were searching for bats. Goldberg, a University of Wisconsin-Madison professor of epidemiology, had been visiting the station for several years, long enough to have noticed the jet-black figures that fluttered away from the kitchen building whenever he disturbed their daytime sleep.
In partnership with the Waisman Center at UW-Madison, he’s showcasing his line of greeting and holiday cards, and they are on sale this holiday season.
UW–Madison pathobiological science professor Tony Goldberg a team of scientists working with chimps in Kibale National Park in Uganda have found that they can catch the common cold from humans — and don’t have any immunity. Many of the chimps developed respiratory problems, and some died.
Researchers from Iowa State University, the University of Iowa and the University of Wisconsin-Madison—who are all affiliated with Iowa State’s Nanovaccine Institute—have collaborated on a research project to develop and test whether a new nanovaccine could be a better way to fight the flu virus.
A new study out of the Center for Tobacco Research and Intervention at the University of Wisconsin shows even small, monetary incentives can help some quit smoking.
University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers are challenging the long-thought idea that only a woman’s ovaries produce estrogen, making doctors rethink how ovulation works.
If you’re reading this story on a cell phone, tablet or laptop, the technology in your hand is thanks to the University of Wisconsin alum’s startling invention 70 years ago Saturday.
Kathy Cramer, the University of Wisconsin-Madison political science professor best known for “The Politics of Resentment,” her 2016 book exploring discontent among rural voters, is headed back to research after a stint leading the Morgridge Center for Public Service.
Studies of DNA from living Africans, and from the 2,000-year-old African boy, so far indicate that at least several branches of Homo — some not yet identified by fossils — existed in Africa roughly 300,000 years ago, says paleoanthropologist John Hawks of the University of Wisconsin–Madison, a member of the H. naledi team who refrains from classifying Jebel Irhoud individuals as H. sapiens.
Understanding how corals use this amorphous phase to construct their skeletons presents a challenge: scientists only have a short window to observe what’s happening at the cellular level before the coral skeleton crystalizes and assumes its final, solid form.This is why Mass teamed up with physicist Pupa Gilbert, a physicist at the University of Wisconsin, to look at fresh samples of hood coral polyps, Stylophora pistillata, using powerful X-ray imaging from the Advanced Light Source at Berkley. Their findings were published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Science in August.
A Republican member of the Wisconsin Elections Commission wants to see all the data that went into a University of Wisconsin professor’s survey that found nearly 17,000 people didn’t cast a ballot because of the state’s voter identification law.
When Charles Konsitzke and Dhanu Shanmuganayagam first met, they were both just trying to get some peace and quiet. It was early 2014, and they were representing the University of Wisconsin-Madison at a fancy event to promote the university’s research to local politicians. After hours of talking to senators, Shanmuganayagam was fried, and went for a walk to clear his head. That’s when he bumped into Konsitzke, an administrator at the University of Wisconsin’s Biotechnology Center. They introduced themselves, and discussed their work. Shanmuganayagam said that he ran a facility that rears miniature pigs, which are genetically engineered to carry mutations found in human genetic disorders. Scientists can study the mini-pigs to better understand those diseases.
At the University of Wisconsin alone, 38 researchers are working on AI-related projects.
For those who are not poor, remember that poverty and homelessness are not issues afflicting faceless people in some far-away place, but friends and classmates who we see every day. As a study from the Wisconsin HOPE Lab at the University of Wisconsin-Madison remarks, “Contrary to popular expectations, there appears to be very little geographic variation in hunger and homelessness among community college students. Basic needs insecurity does not seem to be restricted to community colleges in urban areas or to those with high proportions of Pell Grant recipients, and is prevalent in all regions of the country.”Homelessness is everywhere, and we as a community need better recognize the extent to which it affects students.
Temperatures are rising in the Himalayan yak range, with a projected mean annual temperature increase of between 2.2 and 3.3 degrees C by 2050. A University of Wisconsin-Madison study in 2014 found that in the eastern Tibetan Plateau, daily low temperatures have increased in the past 24 years, and daily high temperatures have increased at a rate of 5 degrees C over a period of 100 years.
Allison Stegner, a researcher at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, studies packrat middens in the Bear’s Ears national monument. That might sound cute, but the research involves anything but fuzzy rodent gloves. These small mammals collect carnivore bones, coyote poop, and the regurgitations of raptors and owls. “It’s really charming,” says Stegner.
Stegner says that oil and gas mining pose a threat to the rare fossil beds in Bear’s Ears, which shed light on how different species once interacted. “I have no problem with multi-use land in any way, but I do have a problem with giving over this incredible place, that is so important culturally and scientifically, to [serve] the interests of a few people,” she says.
Quoted: “My impression is that Foxconn’s interests are definitely larger than just setting up a plant,” said Peter Rafferty, a researcher in the Traffic Operations and Safety Laboratory at UW’s College of Engineering.
Eating yogurt on a regular basis may help reduce measures of chronic inflammation in women and support a healthy digestive system, researchers from University of Wisconsin-Madison College of Agricultural and Life Sciences (UW-Madison) report in the British Journal of Nutrition.A new clinical study conducted independently by UW-Madison and funded by National Dairy Council (NDC) showed that eating 12 ounces of low-fat yogurt a day reduced several biomarkers of inflammation in both normal-weight and obese premenopausal women.
Now, a study at UW Health and the Madison’s Veterans Hospital is seeing if veterans with a parental history of Alzheimer’s might be helped by a high-dose, prescription variety of a common supplement: fish oil.
Around 15 years ago, University of Wisconsin-Madison psychologist Seth Pollak recruited a couple hundred children to study the relationship between childhood stress and certain immune system markers. “We had a whole range [of participants], from kids with really boring, stable, average lives all the way up to kids with severe child abuse, and neglect, and poverty, and really extreme childhood stressors,” Pollak says. He published his research in the esteemed journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).
In a commentary in Nature, based on the study, Ive Hermans, chemistry professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, noted that the research “links homogeneous organometallic chemistry … with solid-phase (heterogeneous) catalysis, and illustrates the importance of understanding catalysts at the atomic scale.”In the study, the research team suggested that further research and testing will illuminate the mechanism and reaction pathways that will guide new methane conversion catalyst design.
WARF Accelerator Program acts as “catalyst” for research entrepreneurs to develop products.
A new large-scale international study expands the number of genetic markers now known to be associated with exceptional longevity. Researchers at the University of Connecticut, University of Exeter, University of Wisconsin and University of Iowa undertook a genome-wide search for variants influencing how long participants’ parents lived. Their findings indicated genes that could one day be targeted to help prolong human life.
A recent study led by the University of Wisconsin-Madison found that youngsters with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) experienced improved balance after playing a specially designed video game.
Some of the state’s top researchers say climate change isn’t just a possibility for Wisconsin. It’s a reality that’s already happening, in the form of higher temperatures and more rain.”Since 1939 for Madison we’ve been collecting weather observations,” said Michael Notaro. “If you look at the top 20 rainfall events, half of them have occurred since the turn of the (21st) century alone, so, in recent years we’ve had more frequent (precipitation) events of over 3 inches over the last decade than we had in the last six decades combined.”
With Prof. Albee Messing retiring as director of the Waisman Center at UW-Madison in January, the university has named an interim director and four finalists to replace Messing.
Adults who experienced high-stress childhoods are less likely to notice when a potential loss or disaster is right around the corner, often getting themselves into health, legal or financial trouble that could have been avoided, according to a new study at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
The brains of young adults who had stressful childhoods from abuse, neglect or poverty respond poorly to signs of potential risks or rewards, according to a UW-Madison study that could provide a biological clue to harmful behavior.
University of Wisconsin-Madison psychology professor Seth Pollak worked with over 50 people around the age of 20, and found that those who had experienced extreme stress as kids were hampered in their ability to make good decisions as adults.
The brains of young adults who had stressful childhoods from abuse, neglect or poverty respond poorly to signs of potential risks or rewards, according to a UW-Madison study that could provide a biological clue to harmful behavior.
Psychologist and author Daniel Goleman—well-known for his 1995 book “Emotional Intelligence”—spent almost two years combing through more than 6,000 academic studies on meditation with a team of researchers to sort through the hype and discover the real benefits. He wrote about his findings in a new book, “Altered Traits: Science Reveals How Meditation Changes Your Mind, Brain and Body,” which he co-authored with Richard J. Davidson, a neuroscientist who directs a brain lab at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Animal lovers should be among the biggest supporters of animal medical research. For example, researchers at the University of Wisconsin have identified a protein that’s present in greater-than-normal quantities in dogs with osteosarcoma, a type of bone cancer that afflicts more than 10,000 dogs a year. Eight in ten of these dogs don’t live more than a year after their diagnosis. Future research could determine whether the protein actually causes tumor production – and which genes are responsible for ordering higher concentrations of the protein.
“With the opioid epidemic, everybody has started looking more for alternatives,” said Dr. Alaa Abd-Elsayed, medical director of UW Health’s Pain Clinic.
Noted: University of Wisconsin-Madison Chancellor Rebecca Blank said she agrees with the broader effort to reform and simplify the tax code but says the legislation in its current form would increase the cost of attendance for many students. It also could hinder research universities’ ability to train highly-skilled workers and the future leaders of “the ongoing innovation revolution” in science and technology, Blank said.
Is there a robot in your future? That and other questions related to robotics and artificial intelligence are the focus of the next Science On Tap Wednesday in Minocqua. WXPR’s Ken Krall spoke with Dr. Bilge Mutlu, associate professor of computer science at UW-Madison. He leads a research program that builds human-centered methods and principles for designing robotic and other interactive and intelligent technologies…
From April to October of this year, graduate students of the University of Wisconsin-Madison Water Resource Management Project sought to get to the bottom of that algae bloom. Literally.
Noted: Researchers from the Wisconsin School of Business at the University of Wisconsin–Madison recently stated in a paper that although there are plenty of frequently suggested benefits of “e-visits” and of electronic communication between providers and patients, such as enabling providers to give patients a low-cost alternative to visiting the doctor’s office, there could also be unintended consequences involved.
After 42 years of being ranked among the top five research universities in the country, UW-Madison remained at number six after dropping out of the top five last fall.
Research has been a big deal at UW-Madison for decades, and the university continues to rank among the top schools in funding for research and development.
The Great Lakes Evaporation Network project was started in 2008 with funding from the U.S.-Canada International Joint Commission. The project continues to operate through funding from NOAA, the University of Wisconsin, the University of Colorado, and Environment and Climate Change Canada.
The University of Wisconsin’s flagship campus is holding its own in a ranking of research universities across the United States.
Noted: The result wasn’t a total surprise. A 2015 study by University of Wisconsin and US Department of Agriculture researchers found that bumble bee hives exposed to small amounts of chlorothalonil—which is widely used in fruits, vegetables, and orchard crops—”produced fewer workers, lower total bee biomass, and had lighter mother queens than control colonies.”
In June of 2008 the Wisconsin Dells and Baraboo area were hit with storms that destroyed homes, disrupted the area’s tourism industry and caused Lake Delton to empty out into the Wisconsin River.
When UW-Madison psychology researcher Dan Grupe launched a pilot study examining the effects of mindfulness-based training on a small group of Madison police officers, his biggest question wasn’t whether the program would help officers better cope with job stress. It was whether police officers would buy into training that involved yoga, meditation and talking about their feelings.
(Geared toward health professionals) Newly identified biomarkers may be able to distinguish fatal from nonfatal Ebola infections, ultimately enabling clinicians to prioritize scarce treatment resources, researchers suggest. Dr. Yoshihiro Kawaoka of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and colleagues used a technique called multi-platform ’omics (multi-omics) to analyze and compare 29 samples of peripheral blood mononuclear cells taken at initial diagnosis from 11 patients who survived the 2014 Ebola outbreak in Sierra Leone and nine samples from nine patients who died.
Instead of making projections about hypothetical storms, a research group at the University of Wisconsin-Madison thought the solution might be to show people what could happen if a real storm from the recent past happened somewhere else — a storm like the one that drained Lake Delton in 2008.
New research suggests a novel way to help kids on the autism spectrum — and part of it involves ninjas. It’s part of a new video game aimed at improving the balance in young people with autism spectrum disorder.
A University of Wisconsin-Madison study released on Nov. 15 has officials in the ethanol industry frustrated, disputing the methodology of the study saying the claims of the study are not supported by fact.
Noted: In “An Assessment of When, Where and Under What Conditions In-Store Sampling is Most Effective,” the three authors – Sandeep R. Chandakula of Singapore Management University, Jeffrey P. Dotson of Brigham Young University, and Qing Liu of University of Wisconsin-Madison – find that sampling has both an immediate, if short-term, effect and a sustained impact on sales, but that the impact varies according to the size of the store conducting the event. They also found that repeated sampling for a single product produces increased returns and that sampling tends to expand a category rather than purely substitute for another product.
