University of Wisconsin, Madison
On the ice: Trio of complex Antarctic science efforts reach milestones
December 21, 2012 1:06 pm | News | Comments
In the past week, researchers with the West Antarctic Ice Sheet Divide (WAIS) project, the Whillans Ice Stream Subglacial Access Research Drilling (WISSARD) project and the Pine Island Glacier (PIG) project each announced they had achieved these various milestones. In each case, the successes were based on innovative drilling technologies and promise to open new scientific vistas for Antarctic research.
Stem cell transplant restores memory, learning in mice
April 22, 2013 10:04 am | by David Tenenbaum, University of Wisconsin-Madison | News | Comments
For the first time, human embryonic stem cells have been transformed into nerve cells...
Man-made material pushes the bounds of superconductivity
March 4, 2013 8:39 am | by Renee Meiller, University of Wisconsin-Madison | News | Comments
A multi-university team of researchers has artificially engineered a unique multilayer material...
On the ice: Trio of complex Antarctic science efforts reach milestones
December 21, 2012 1:06 pm | News | Comments
In the past week, researchers with the West Antarctic Ice Sheet Divide (WAIS) project, the...
Green method to help upgrade biomass waste into valuable chemicals
April 25, 2013 10:43 am | News | CommentsUniversity of Wisconsin-Madison chemists have identified an approach to use oxygen gas to convert lignin, a byproduct of biofuel production, into a form that could allow it to replace fossil fuels as a source of chemical feedstocks. Lignin is a complex organic material found in trees and other plants and is associated with cellulose, the valuable plant matter used to make paper or biofuels.
Material screening method allows more precise control over stem cells
April 11, 2013 5:43 pm | News | CommentsWhen it comes to delivering genes to living human tissue, the odds of success come down the molecule. The entire therapy— including the tools used to bring new genetic material into a cell—must have predictable effects. Now, a new screening process will simplify non-viral transfection, providing a method researchers and clinicians use to find an optimal set of biomaterials to deliver genes to cells.
Puzzle of how spiral galaxies get their arms comes into focus
April 3, 2013 7:59 am | News | CommentsAs the shapes of galaxies go, the spiral disk—with its characteristic pinwheel profile—is by far the most pedestrian. But despite their common morphology, how galaxies like ours get and maintain their characteristic arms has proved to be an enduring puzzle in astrophysics. How do the arms of spiral galaxies arise? Do they change or come and go over time? The answers to these and other questions are now coming into focus as researchers capitalize on powerful new computer simulations to follow the motions of as many as 100 million “stellar particles” as gravity and other astrophysical forces sculpt them into familiar galactic shapes.
Analytical trick may accelerate cancer diagnosis
February 25, 2013 7:59 am | News | CommentsResearchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have found a new way to accelerate a workhorse instrument that identifies proteins. The high-speed technique could help diagnose cancer sooner and point to new drugs for treating a wide range of conditions.
Production process doubles speed, efficiency of flexible electronics
February 19, 2013 10:44 am | News | CommentsStretched-out clothing might not be a great practice for laundry day, but in the case of microprocessor manufacture, stretching out the atomic structure of the silicon in the critical components of a device can be a good way to increase a processor's performance.
Wisconsin scientists help search for alien life
February 13, 2013 3:36 am | by CARRIE ANTLFINGER - Associated Press - Associated Press | News | CommentsScientists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison are helping search for evidence of alien life not by looking into outer space, but by studying some rocks right here on Earth. Some of the rocks are up to 3.5 billion years old. The scientists are looking for crucial information to understand how life might have arisen elsewhere in the universe and guide the search for life on Mars one day.
Study reveals extraordinary glass properties
January 7, 2013 7:41 am | News | CommentsArmed with a better understanding of how glasses age and evolve, researchers at the University of Chicago and the University of Wisconsin-Madison raise the possibility of designing a new class of materials at the molecular level via a vapor-deposition process.
Military projects push boundaries of flexible electronics in imaging technologies
January 2, 2013 9:59 am | News | CommentsAiming to address the strategic military need for accurate, high-resolution imaging, a University of Wisconsin-Madison electrical and computer engineer working with the U.S. Air Force Office of Scientific Research and the U.S. Department of Defense has a simple goal: to make night vision more accurate and easier for soldiers and pilots to use.
Scientists help explain scarcity of antimatter
December 28, 2012 8:00 am | News | CommentsA collaboration has made a precise measurement of elusive, nearly massless particles, and obtained a crucial hint as to why the universe is dominated by matter, not by its close relative, antimatter. The particles, called antineutrinos, were detected at the underground Daya Bay experiment, located near a nuclear reactor in China, 55 km north of Hong Kong.
Bug repellent for supercomputers proves effective
November 14, 2012 9:07 am | News | CommentsLawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) researchers have used the Stack Trace Analysis Tool (STAT), a highly scalable, lightweight tool to debug a program running more than one million MPI processes on the IBM Blue Gene/Q-based Sequoia supercomputer. The debugging tool is a significant milestone in LLNL's multi-year collaboration with the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the University of New Mexico to ensure supercomputers run more efficiently.
Biofuel conversion process cuts costly separating step
November 12, 2012 12:30 pm | News | CommentsUsing a biomass-derived solvent, University of Wisconsin-Madison chemical and biological engineers have streamlined the process for converting lignocellulosic biomass into high-demand chemicals or energy-dense liquid transportation fuel. Their new method eliminates the need for costly pretreatment steps that separate hemicellulose and cellulose, two main components of plant biomass that react at different rates.
New biorenewables technology moves closer to marketplace
October 24, 2012 8:42 am | News | CommentsA licensing agreement for a novel renewable chemical and biofuel production method between Hyrax Energy and the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation promises to accelerate commercial development of the technology and lead to high-quality U.S. jobs. The technology provides a new way to transform cellulosic biomass into renewable fuels and high-value chemicals.
Researchers develop process for making renewable liquid fuels
October 4, 2012 4:51 am | News | CommentsUsing simple technology developed primarily for producing electricity from hydrogen, a team of researchers has developed what could be a commercially viable, continuous process for converting biomass and electricity into renewable liquid transportation fuels.
Ames Laboratory finds ordered atoms in metallic glasses
October 3, 2012 4:50 am | News | CommentsGlass materials may have a far less randomly arranged structure than formerly thought. Over the years, the ideas of how metallic glasses form have been evolving, from just a random packing, to very small ordered clusters, to realizing that longer range chemical and topological order exists. A team of scientists at the Ames Laboratory has been able to show for the first time there is some organization to these structures.
Hydrogen beam injector guides plasma physics research
September 27, 2012 6:39 am | News | CommentsThe Madison Symmetric Torus, a leading piece of equipment in plasma physics research for more than 20 years, recently gained a new capability with the installation of a neutral beam injector. The addition allows University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers to delve further into the basic properties of plasmas, which are important in astrophysics research as well as numerous other applications.
Sunflowers inspire more efficient solar power system
August 16, 2012 4:38 am | News | CommentsA field of young sunflowers will slowly rotate from east to west during the course of a sunny day, each leaf seeking out as much sunlight as possible as the sun moves across the sky through an adaptation called heliotropism. It's a clever bit of natural engineering that inspired imitation from a University of Wisconsin-Madison electrical and computer engineer, who has found a way to mimic the passive heliotropism seen in sunflowers for use in the next crop of solar power systems.
Laser system reconstructs objects hidden from sight
August 6, 2012 8:20 am | News | CommentsInspired by the erratic behavior of photons zooming around and bouncing off objects and walls inside a room, a team of researchers from several universities has combined these bouncing photons with advanced optics to enable them to “see” what’s hidden around the corner. This technique may one day prove invaluable in disaster recovery situations, as well as in noninvasive biomedical imaging applications.
Printed photonic crystal mirrors shrink on-chip lasers down to size
July 23, 2012 4:14 am | News | CommentsElectrical engineers at The University of Texas at Arlington and at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have devised a new laser for on-chip optical connections that could give computers a huge boost in speed and energy efficiency.
Modeling biofuel fitness for the sea
June 21, 2012 6:03 am | News | CommentsWith the help of a $2 million grant from the U.S. Office of Naval Research, mechanical engineers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison will develop a tool to characterize the performance of a new class of alternative fuels that could be used in maritime vehicles such as submarines and aircraft carriers.
In chemical reactions, water adds speed without heat
May 18, 2012 5:12 am | by Renee Meiller | News | CommentsAn international team of researchers has discovered how adding trace amounts of water can tremendously speed up chemical reactions—such as hydrogenation and hydrogenolysis—in which hydrogen is one of the reactants, or starting materials. Previous research had indicated this phenomenon, but until now the true importance of water to its effect has eluded chemists.
In metallic glasses, researchers find a few new atomic structures
May 11, 2012 9:32 am | by Renee Meiller | News | CommentsDrawing on computational tools and scanning transmission electron microscopy, a team of University of Wisconsin-Madison and Iowa State University materials experts has examined metallic glasses at the difficult-to-reach scale of just a few nanometers length. They have discovered a new nanometer-scale atomic structure that could help developers fine-tune structures.
At smallest scale, liquid crystal behavior portends new materials
May 2, 2012 10:18 am | News | CommentsAn international team of researchers reports the results of a computational study that shows liquid crystals, manipulated at the smallest scale, can unexpectedly induce the molecules they interact with to self-organize in ways that could lead to entirely new classes of materials with new properties.
Stem cells hint at potential treatment for Huntington's disease
March 15, 2012 10:11 am | News | CommentsHuntington's disease, the debilitating congenital neurological disorder that progressively robs patients of muscle coordination and cognitive ability, is a condition without effective treatment, a slow death sentence. But if researchers can build on new research, a special type of brain cell forged from stem cells could help restore the muscle coordination deficits that cause the uncontrollable spasms characteristic of the disease.
Scientists produce eye structures from human blood-derived stem cells
March 14, 2012 10:17 am | News | CommentsFor the first time, scientists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have made early retina structures containing proliferating neuroretinal progenitor cells using induced pluripotent stem cells derived from human blood. The retina structures showed the capacity to form layers of cells which possess the machinery that could allow them to communicate information.
Daya Bay antineutrino detectors exceed performance goals
March 1, 2012 5:57 am | News | CommentsAfter just three months of operation, the Daya Bay Reactor Neutrino Experiment has far surpassed expectations, recording tens of thousands of particle interactions and paving the way to a better understanding of neutrinos and why the universe is built of matter rather than antimatter.
