Latest University of Wisconsin Stories

Burning the candle at both ends for a week may take an even bigger toll than you thought.Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have found that five nights of restricted sleep--four hours a night--affect the brain in a way similar to that seen after acute total sleep deprivation.The new study in rats, appearing in the current online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, adds to the growing evidence scientists are accumulating about the negative effects of...

It comes as no surprise that many children suffer when a parent is behind bars. But as rates of incarceration grew over the past 30 years, researchers were slow to focus on the collateral damage to children.The best estimate says that at any one time, 1.7 million (about 2.3 percent) of all American children have a parent in prison, says Julie Poehlmann, a professor in the School of Human Ecology and investigator at the Waisman Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison."By age 14,...

Though still under construction, the IceCube Neutrino Observatory  at the South Pole is already delivering scientific results "” including an early finding about a phenomenon the telescope was not even designed to study.IceCube captures signals of notoriously elusive but scientifically fascinating subatomic particles called neutrinos. The telescope focuses on high-energy neutrinos that travel through the Earth, providing information about faraway cosmic events such as supernovas and...

With more than 100 billion neurons and billions of other specialized cells, the human brain is a marvel of nature. It is the organ that makes people unique.Now, writing in the journal Cell Stem Cell (July 1, 2010), a team of scientists from the University of Wisconsin-Madison has identified a single gene that seems to be a master regulator of human brain development, guiding undifferentiated stem cells down tightly defined pathways to becoming all of the many types of cells that make up the...

What determines plant diversity in a forest? It's a question even Charles Darwin wanted to unravel. But most research into forest diversity demonstrates only patterns of species survival and abundance rather than the reason for them "“ until now.A team of researchers led by biologists at the University of Wisconsin"“Milwaukee (UWM) has shown that soil-borne pathogens are one important mechanism that can maintain species diversity and explain patterns of tree abundance in a forest.The...

CHICAGO and MADISON, Wis., June 22 /PRNewswire/ -- INK-O-DEM, the worldwide leader in integrated inkjet cartridge refilling and testing technology for retail and university environments, today announced it has installed its Cartridge Refilling System at the University of Wisconsin-Madison to meet an evolving demand for cost-effective, green, integrated printer cartridge refilling services. INK-O-DEM's Cartridge Refilling System is designed to provide students, alumni, faculty and campus...

Workshop to be Held at University of Wisconsin - Madison WASHINGTON, June 21 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Department of Justice and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced today the agenda and panelists for the June 25 workshop examining competition in the dairy industry. The joint public workshop will build on the knowledge and experience of industry stakeholders, including farmers, processors, cooperative leaders and academics. This is the third in a series of five...

Establishing a firm link between environmental change and human disease has always been an iffy proposition.Now, however, a team of scientists from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, writing in the current (June 16, 2010) online issue of the CDC journal Emerging Infectious Diseases, presents the most enumerated case to date linking increased incidence of malaria to land-use practices in the Amazon.The report, which combines detailed information on the incidence of malaria in 54 Brazilian...

Genetic abnormalities are most often discussed in terms of differences so miniscule they are actually called "snips" "” changes in a single unit along the 3 billion that make up the entire string of human DNA."There's a whole world beyond SNPs "” single nucleotide polymorphisms "” and we've stepped into that world," says Brian Teague, a doctoral student in genetics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. "There are much bigger changes in there."Variation on...

NSF-supported researchers investigate a connection between the disappearance of certain plant communities and the late-Pleistocene extinction of large mammal species in North AmericaJack Williams is a plant ecologist at heart. He likes to figure out how--and why--plant communities change over time."For my entire career, I've been keenly interested in the problem of 'no-analogue' plant communities, which are communities that existed in the past but are no longer found today," said...