Have you been tinkering away on an invention you hope will be the next big thing? Or, perhaps you’ve already built a better mousetrap but don’t know how to get it to market. Well, if you are connected with UW-Madison, you might want to talk with John Biondi.
Category: Research
Student earns national attention for research on racism in language
In classrooms across the country, students might be scolded for using “ain’t” instead of “isn’t.” But a UW-Madison student is working to erase the stigma against Ebonics, also known as African-American Vernacular English.
Republicans ask UW to research more uses for milk
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A group of Assembly Republicans are asking University of Wisconsin System officials to start researching more uses for milk.
The images coming from NOAA’s new weather satellite are stunning
You can access real-time images from GOES-16 and other satellites using the RealEarth tool maintained by UW-Madison’s SSEC. If that’s not enough, NOAA Satellites maintains a blog and a Twitter page where they post regular eye-candy from the newly-christened satellite.
Andrew Merluzzi: Trump to cut research on diseases he calls ‘horrible’
Column by Andrew Merluzzi, a Ph.D./MPA candidate in neuroscience and public policy at UW-Madison.
10 Universities Spending Billions on R&D
The University of Wisconsin-Madison spent nearly $1.1 billion on R&D in 2015.
Monkey population devastated by yellow fever
A 10km² area of forest, known as RPPN Feliciano Miguel Abdala, surrounded by agricultural land is now silent after losing the majority of its brown howler monkeys in an unprecedented epidemic. Karen Strier from the University of Winconsin-Madison visited the forest in January 2017 and has been studying primates there for decades.
UW earns no. 2 ranking for unique special education program
With hundreds of special education degree programs around the country, University of Wisconsin has had to remain unique in their approach to special education to earn College Choice’s No. 2 ranking in the nation.
Proposed legislation would ban UW employees from training at abortion facilities
Bill’s opponents believe it would hamper UW’s credibility.
Former UW animal researcher appeals firing
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A former University of Wisconsin-Madison animal researcher fired for taking two federal officials into a closed room during a tour and not relaying what he told them is appealing his termination.
HHS secretary proposes cutting reimbursements that fund university-based research
When President Trump proposed a cut of nearly 20 percent in support for the National Institutes of Health, many wondered how the administration would even attempt to find such reductions. The answer emerged in the congressional testimony last week of Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price, who argued the government could save billions without hurting research by cutting back on the overhead reimbursements to colleges and universities.
Let Us Now Praise the Invention of the Microscope
Noted: “It was huge,” says Kevin Eliceiri, a microscopist at the University of Wisconsin Madison, of the initial discovery of bacteria. “There was a lot of confusion about what made you sick. The idea that there are bacteria and things in the water was one of the greatest discoveries ever.”
Meditation’s Calming Effects Pinpointed in Brain
Evidence from human research also suggests meditation and respiration are closely connected. In a recent study, for example, Antoine Lutz, a scientist who studies the neurobiology of meditation at the French National Institute of Health and Medical Research, and his colleagues at the University of Wisconsin–Madison discovered long-term meditators develop slower breathing patterns than those who did not practice on a regular basis. The slower breathing in long-term practitioners may “activate this ascending pathway less,” says Lutz, who was not involved in the current study. “Maybe it’s a signature of a different level of stress.”
Navigating The World Of Autism Can Leave Its Mark On Parent Couples
Parents who raise children on the autism spectrum face unique challenges — not only as parents, but as partners. Research shows they’re at a higher risk of divorce and report lower satisfaction with their marriages than other parent couples.New research from the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Waisman Center may help explain why: the challenges these families face can change the parents’ relationship — but not in the ways we might think.
Scientists search 3 million publications to unlock sea change secret
The researchers built two systems to collect and parse through the colossal range of data. First was GeoDeepDive, a digital library that could rapidly read millions of papers and pluck out particular nuggets. The massive computing it requires is generated by UW-Madison’s Center for High Throughput Computing and HTCondor systems. The second, Macrostat, is a database that tracks the geological properties of North America’s upper crust at different depths and across time.
Trump Proposal to Cut Indirect Research Payments Would Hit State Universities Hardest
The Trump administration’s plan to cut billions of dollars in research spending by eliminating indirect cost reimbursements would devastate university science, especially at public institutions, experts warned.
UW researchers study implications of record temperatures in Antarctica
UW leads half of the 60 weather stations studying Antartica’s extreme temperatures.
New color glasses created at UW-Madison allow us to see more of world
Looking at the same color side by side, it’s typically hard to see any difference. This is because humans are trichromatic, meaning they can only process three color channels, consisting of red, blue and green wavelengths. Mikhail Kats, an assistant professor of Engineering and Computer Sciences at UW-Madison, asked the questions, “Why?” and, “How can we see more?”.
Human Heart Cells Grown on Spinach Leaves
Spinach is known as a super food for its nutritional value, but a new experiment reveals another power of the green leaf.
These Worcester researchers are using spinach to grow human heart tissue
Spinach is giving a whole new meaning to the term “super food.” A team of researchers from Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI), University of Wisconsin-Madison, and Arkansas State University-Jonesboro published a paper on Wednesday that outlines how they used spinach to grow human heart tissue.
UW-Madison researcher creates tornado computer simulation
As clouds billowed like smoke rising from a forest fire, a twirling white funnel suddenly snaked downward.
At Moment of Danger, NIH’s Director Is Seen as Its Chief Protector
Appearing before Congress at the start of the budget season, the director of the National Institutes of Health made clear he did not agree with his own president on how much money the NIH needs.
Scientists change spinach leaves from heart-healthy to actual human heart tissue
Someone tell Popeye: Spinach isn’t just good for your muscles. It can actually become muscles.
Another yellow fever case noted in Rio de Janeiro state
Most of the monkeys that have perished from yellow fever are brown howlers. This creates an interesting opportunity for the critically endangered muriqui monkeys, according to a UW-Madison news release. Muriquis are less susceptible to yellow fever. Researchers are studying if their population will thrive in the absence of howlers.”No one really knows the consequences for the other primates or the forest when nearly the entire population of an abundant species dies from disease in just a few months,” says Karen Strier, PhD, professor of anthropology.
Carpenter: How to Protect our Disappearing Bumble Bees
On March 21, the rusty-patched bumble bee, Bombus affinis, officially became the first bumble bee listed for protection under the Endangered Species Act. This designation recognizes this important pollinator’s precarious position in the face of multiple threats to its survival. It also provides some of the tools necessary to begin to reverse its decline.
Scientists have grown heart tissue on a spinach leaf
What have you accomplished this week? Did you have a productive work meeting? Make a healthy dinner? Match your socks? If you’re one of the researchers at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, University of Wisconsin-Madison, or Arkansas State University-Jonesboro, you used a leaf to grow some heart tissue.
Endangered Bumble Bee Gets Help From Citizen Scientists
Noted: Some volunteers photograph the bees on their own, while others join local groups that conduct coordinated monitoring efforts. In Wisconsin, the University of Wisconsin-Madison Arboretum trains and coordinates bumble bee monitoring throughout the southern part of the state. The Arboretum and other locations in Wisconsin are home to some of the last known populations of the rusty patched bumble bee, making a concerted effort to monitor them with citizen science even more important.
Sesame Street introduces character with autism
A researcher from the University of Wisconsin said Julia is a welcomed addition to Sesame Street’s cast. Sigan Hartley led a study about the day-to-day lives of parents raising children with autism. She said Julia helps destigmatize negative images of children with autism and shows differences are not a bad thing.
Research is an afterthought in first Trump budget
The 2018 budget proposal that President Donald Trump unveiled last week confirms two things that U.S. scientists have long suspected: The new president is no fan of research, and his administration has no overarching strategy for funding science.
Special glasses give people superhuman colour vision
It’s sometimes practically impossible to tell similar colours apart. Even side by side, they look the same. A special pair of spectacles gives us new power to see more distinct colours, and could one day help to spot counterfeit banknotes or counteract camouflage.The glasses, devised by a team at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, basically enhance the user’s colour vision, allowing them to see metamers – colours that look the same but give off different wavelengths of light – as recognisably distinct hues.
Hug-Loving ‘Hippie’ Monkeys Left Alone in Forest as Epidemic Kills Other Primates
The northern muriqui monkeys of Brazil — popularly known as “hippie” primates — are vegetarians, begin their day with a group hug, and are one of the planet’s most peaceful and egalitarian animals. They normally share their forest habitat with noisy howler monkeys that eat their food and appear to get on their nerves, but the hippies are now in flux. A yellow fever epidemic just wiped out thousands of howlers, leaving the hippies as the only thriving primates in the forest.Karen Strier, a University of Wisconsin-Madison anthropologist, just visited the forest, which lies within the federally protected RPPN Feliciano Miguel Abdala reserve near the Brazilian city of Caratinga.
La Crosse considers banning ‘all you can drink’ specials at bars
Noted: According to the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Population Health Institute, 26% of La Crosse County adults report excess drinking. That’s one of the highest percentages in Wisconsin.
Medical College CEO: Trump’s research cuts would cost Wisconsin nearly 2,000 jobs
Column by John Raymond, Sr., president and CEO of the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee. (The leaders of UW-Madison, Marquette, UW-Milwaukee and Versiti/BloodCenter of Wisconsin signed on in support of Raymond’s column.)
Borrowing from nature: UW-Madison scientists use plants to grow stem cells
To grow clusters of human stem cells that mimic organs in the lab and might be used someday in tissue implants, Bill Murphy, a UW-Madison professor of biomedical engineering, creates tiny scaffolds made of plastic or rubber.
Donald Trump’s budget would threaten research, financial aid at UW-Madison, officials warn
Deep spending cuts in President Donald Trump’s budget proposal could threaten the federal funding UW-Madison researchers rely on to investigate Alzheimer’s disease, asthma and other ailments, and slash support for programs that help low-income students afford college, according to scientists and campus officials.
Wisconsin researchers study the world underneath the snow
Weather conditions are changing rapidly in the Great Lakes region, especially in winter. Climate change has led to warmer temperatures and less precipitation, a life-altering issue for many organisms that live in the region.
Science advocates dismayed by size of cuts proposed for NIH and other agencies
The White House budget proposal released last week would have devastating effects on science and technology in the United States as well as the education of the next generation of researchers, say organizations representing scientists and research institutions.
Spring’s false start
On a recent Saturday morning walk through the UW-Madison Arboretum, Christy Lowney stops to examine the newly formed buds on a stately magnolia tree. They’re lovely to see and touch — fuzzy little proto-blossoms bursting forth from dormant wintry branches. But they’ve arrived several weeks early. “Our curator is kind of in a panic,” says Lowney, an Arboretum ranger. “This normally happens much later.”
Come watch a supercomputer simulation of a devastating tornado
When Leigh Orf, an atmospheric scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, strives to unravel the mysteries of tornado formation, he needs something way bigger than a laptop. Phenomena like the huge, supercell thunderstorms he studies involve such vast amounts of data, only a supercomputer will do.
Check Out the Most Detailed Tornado Simulation So Far
In the climax of the classic 1996 disaster movie Twister, scientists are able to map a tornado by deploying a bunch of sensors into a storm, but not before nearly being sucked up by an F5 tornado. Now, researchers have created a similar simulation of the internal workings of tornado, without Hollywood magic or at risk of life and limb. According to a press release, researchers using a supercomputer have created the most detailed simulations of the inner workings of tornados so far.
Come watch a supercomputer simulation of a devastating tornado
When Leigh Orf, an atmospheric scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, strives to unravel the mysteries of tornado formation, he needs something way bigger than a laptop. Phenomena like the huge, supercell thunderstorms he studies involve such vast amounts of data, only a supercomputer will do.
Trump’s budget calls for seismic disruption in medical and science research
President Trump’s budget calls for a seismic disruption in government-funded medical and scientific research. The cuts are deep and broad.
Gaydar ISN’T real and can be harmful, experts warn
Kids are often told that you can’t judge a book by its cover. Even so, people often believe they can rely on their gut to intuit things about other people.
Wisconsin Study Looks At Ways To Reduce ‘Legacy’ Phosphorus
A long history of heavy fertilization by growers has created an overabundance of phosphorus in Wisconsin soil, according to a new University of Wisconsin-Madison study, and farmers cutting back on manure and fertilizer application would help improve water quality.
Peer Into The Guts Of A Monster Tornado With This Incredible Simulation
Using a powerful supercomputer, meteorologists have simulated the “El Reno” tornado — a category 5 storm that swept through Oklahoma on 24 May 2011.
Testing Driverless Cars
UW Researcher Peter Rafferty from the Wisconsin Traffic Operations and Safety Laboratory (TOPS Lab) in the College of Engineering discusses testing driverless cars.http://www.wsaw.com/search?searchKeywords=UW
UW-Madison scientist creates tornado simulation
According to UW-Madison, the video is a new supercomputer simulation of a supercell storm that left a path of destruction in Oklahoma in May 2011.
Hunting For Dark Matter: Physicist Establish An Underground Facility In An Abandoned Gold Mine
Merely twenty percent of the mass of this universe is made up of material that scientist are able to identify. Remaining eighty percent is still unknown, which is so called the “Dark Particle” or “Dark Matter”. To discover this particle scientist arranged a more improved experiment in abandon gold mine in South Dakota.
Wisconsin Republicans clash on fetal tissue approach
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Republican Wisconsin lawmakers who for years have sought to ban the use of aborted fetal tissue in the state are now bickering among themselves over what to do.
Wisconsin lawmakers want new limits on fetal tissue research
Republican lawmakers are reviving a push to restrict research done in Wisconsin that relies on fetal tissue from abortions.
UW-Madison administrator: Scrapping Sea Grant program would hurt state business
It would be a disaster to shut down the federal Sea Grant program, said University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Steve Ackerman.
Wisconsin Republican lawmakers clash on fetal tissue approach
Republican Wisconsin lawmakers who for years have sought to ban the use of aborted fetal tissue in the state are now bickering among themselves over what to do.
Bill Banning Aborted Fetal Tissue Research Resurfaces At State Capitol
A proposal to ban research using aborted fetal tissue in Wisconsin is being reintroduced at the state Capitol. Under the bill, researchers would be prohibited from using fetal tissue gathered during abortions.
Warm weather spurs early pollen, algae growth
You might be hoping for warmer temperatures, but that mild weather we experienced a few weeks ago could actually mean problems for your health and the quality of area lakes. “We had about 65 days of lake ice on Mendota this year,” Hilary Dugan, a postdoctoral researcher studying limnology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said.
10 UW professors selected for named WARF professorships
Ten professors from a variety of disciplines at UW-Madison have been selected for named professorships from the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation.
Paul Fanlund: Defending science, without picking fights
The city’s University of Wisconsin campus has more than 1,200 faculty in the biological and physical sciences, plus an uncounted number of academic and university staff who are scientists, according to UW spokeswoman Meredith McGlone. And as of last fall, there were more than 19,000 students, including graduate students, in those sciences out of a total of some 43,000. These days, it occurs to me that most of those scientists and science students might be inclined to take to the streets.
Bills backed by anti-abortion groups would ban research using aborted fetal tissue
Research groups — including UW-Madison, UW Health, Medical College of Wisconsin, Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation and BioForward, which represents the state’s biotech industry — said the fetal tissue research ban would prohibit lifesaving research already regulated under federal law.
Matters of Public Record: Rich Resource for Reporters – The New York Times
Dr. Carlo Croce, a prolific cancer researcher at Ohio State University, has repeatedly been accused of scientific misconduct. New York Times reporters went to Ohio State and inquired about scientific practices there and about who was in the best position to police scientific standards, and acquired troves of public records. The university has since taken a fresh look at allegations made against one of its biggest rainmakers, and organized an independent, external review. Rarely do reporters encounter as few obstacles as they did in this case. The story, one of the reporters says, is a reminder of the importance of keeping public information where it belongs, open and accessible to the public.
Physicists Are Building a Dark Matter Experiment in an Abandoned Gold Mine
In an abandoned gold mine one mile beneath the town of Lead, South Dakota, engineers and physicists with the University of Wisconsin—Madison are working to build a chamber that holds 10 tons of liquid xenon. They hope that in the subterranean realms of the mine, where the experiment will be protected from solar particles and cosmic rays, they will be able to detect dark matter for the very first time.
With ice cover gone, you could row a boat across Lake Mendota. But not safely.
Noted: The state climatology office has been maintaining lists of dates when ice covers three Madison lakes — Mendota, Monona and Wingra — since the mid-19th century, based on observations made by various individuals, including at Washburn Observatory on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus.