Category: Research

Almost every winter, after Lake Suwa in the Japanese Alps freezes, the male Shinto god Takeminakata crosses the ice to visit the female god Yasakatome at her shrine, causing a ridge known as the omiwatari to form. At least, that’s what the priests living on the shores of the lake believed. When the water froze, they would conduct a purification ritual and celebration in honor of the ridge, using its direction and starting location to forecast the harvest and rainfall for the coming year.

?University of Wisconsin engineers have done it, devising a new and better way for military vehicles to communicate.?

One of the biggest mysteries: H. naledi’s age. Efforts are under way to date the fossils and sediment from which they were excavated with a variety of techniques, said paleoanthropologist John Hawks of the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

According to new research by the University of Michigan, the Kellogg School of Management, and the University of Wisconsin-Madison, you may be a riskier investor if you’ve got fewer “romantic prospects” in your area.

Tiny particles that struck Antarctica years ago came from outside our galaxy, puzzling scientists hoping to unlock clues about the universe. Now, scientists think the source might be the center of a bright, violent galaxy some 9 billion light years away.

At the South Pole, a giant, underground block of crystal clear ice, picks up signals from the cosmos – signals that could ultimately help scientists better understand the universe.

The cause of autism remains largely unclear, but some scientists hypothesize the condition could be caused by the irregular production of neurons.

Habitat loss as humans reshape landscapes has loomed for decades as the main conservation problem for a lot of wildlife. It’s still important, says climate change ecologist Benjamin Zuckerberg of the University of Wisconsin?Madison. But along the southern boundary of the snowshoe hares’ range, climate change bringing skimpy snow covers has surpassed direct habitat loss as a threat, Zuckerberg and his colleagues say March 30 in Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

University of Wisconsin-Madison scientists monitoring a neutrino telescope at the South Pole are celebrating a $35 million commitment from the National Science Foundation to keep the project going for five more years.

Even as mosquitoes carrying the Zika virus advance northward, lawmakers in 18 states are trying to block the fetal tissue research that might reveal the keys to unlocking the disease and preventing the massive birth defects associated with it.

Wisconsin deer hunters will be fashion trailblazers this fall: The state recently became the first to legalize blaze pink hunting gear. Most states require that all hunters wear blaze orange, also known as hunter orange, during deer hunting season to maximize their visibility to fellow hunters wielding firearms. Lawmakers say that approving blaze pink is an effort to provide hunters with another safe color option—and to recruit more women into hunting.

Two UW-Madison professors are helping analyze data on American science and health literacy with the National Academy of Sciences panel for a report to be released in 2017.

Dominique Brossard, a life sciences communication professor, and Noah Feinstein, a School of Education professor, serve as two of 12 members on the committee. The group observes what the average individual knows and does not know about science, given that members of the general scientific community have expressed concern over Americans’ knowledge of science compared to those in other countries.

A new study by the University of Wisconsin-Madison highlights the hefty cost of controlling aquatic invasive species in the state’s lakes.

The study found that the estimated cost of controlling a single invasive species, the spiny waterflea, in just one lake could range from $86.5 million to $163 million over 20 years. Researchers say the study’s results show that a broader measure of the costs of controlling aquatic invasive species should be taken into account.

Erik Iverson, who will become managing director of the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation this summer, helped get (the Gates Foundation) fund off the ground during his seven-year stint at the foundation. Launched with about $400 million, the fund is now in the billion-dollar stratosphere and reaping returns on its early investments.

Noted: Engineering professor Hongrui Jiang has spent about three years trying to figure out how to make eyes more sensitive to light. He found his answer in the Elephantnose fish of Africa. He replicated the fish’s eye, because it can see well in the dark.

A tiny flea with a massive appetite is causing big trouble in the Great Lakes. Researchers from the University of Wisconsin-Madison Center for Limnology say that the invasive spiny water flea could leave lakes choked with algae and cost billions of dollars in cleanup efforts.

A special House committee empaneled to investigate fetal tissue research is preparing to issue 17 subpoenas to medical supply companies and laboratories, seeking the names of researchers, graduate students, laboratory technicians and administrative personnel.

Worsening droughts in the United States create a double threat for forest fires, according to climate researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the Washington State Department of Natural Resources.

A Q&A with Jeremy Hemberger, an entomology graduate student at the University of Wisconsin at Madison who is trying to figure out where the pollinators in the area go, using tiny radio-frequency enabled tracking devices glued to bees’ backs.

A Wisconsin study has found that dealing with invasive species in the Great Lakes region might be more expensive than previously thought.