A group of University of Wisconsin-Madison students were awarded this month for their efforts to perfect the system by which patients take medication—a prototype for a product called Medcuff.
Dear Ms. Scientist,
Stem cells were first discovered at the University of Toronto in the 1960s and have since become one of the most promising fields in biological research. Stem cells are undifferentiated cells that have the ability to differentiate into a variety of specialized cells under the right conditions.
Asthma affects one in every 12 people in the United States and this trend is increasing every year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Conventionally, patients are diagnosed through indirect measures such as lung functionality. Direct methods have traditionally required a venipuncture blood draw and thus have been impractical because they can’t be used with everyone. However, with the kit-on-a-lid-assay (KOALA) microfluidic technology developed by a team of the University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers, only one drop of blood is required to detect asthma.
What are hops and how are they used in beer production?
Modern advancements in medicine have allowed the human population to live longer than ever before. There are currently more elderly citizens on our planet than there have ever been. By definition, a person is referred to as elderly or older if they are at least 65 years old. In 2009, the elderly population in the U.S. consisted of 39.6 million people, or about 13 percent of our nation’s population. This number is expected to almost double by 2030 due to a larger younger population that is expected to live longer.
Imagine, if you will, a slick black surface extending as far as the eye can see, where once-clear water now laps sluggishly and dead fish float. This is the reality imposed upon our environment by oil spills, the disastrous result of many oil-tanker or oil-rig accidents. When a large amount of oil is leaked out into the ocean, it can form a coat on top of the water's surface that poisons and smothers sea creatures—especially those that live on the surface of the water.
Maintaining what nature has to offer us and harmonizing the relationship between nature and humans is the goal of sustainability.
The word “organic” is a buzzword in the whole foods/go natural movement. Prior to my interview with Erin Silva, associate director for the Center for Integrated Agricultural Systems, I had a narrow definition of what “organic” meant. I thought it was just food grown without pesticides typically found at places like Trader Joe’s, Whole Foods and the farmer’s market.
Dear Ms. Scientist,
A team of researchers led by Ian Duncan, professor of neuroscience at the University of Wisconsin School of Veterinary Medicine, reported last November in the journal glia that they have found the genetic basis for canine tremor disorder. Their findings hold implications for dog owners, dog breeders, and families of individuals with certain disorders.
Xudong Wang, an assistant professor of material science and engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison is a researcher in the field of nanogenerators, a technology that harvests mechanical or thermal energy into electricity. Wang was one of the early pioneers in the use of nanomaterials to harvest mechanical energy. While research on mechanical energy harvesting already existed, Wang helped advance nanomaterials for this application. While doing his post-doctorate at Georgia Institute of Technology, he developed the first nanogenerator.
Dear Ms. Scientist,
“It started over beer in a meeting in China in 1998,” said professor John Valley. In Beijing that year, Valley met with Simon Wilde, who was able to provide him and a graduate student with what they needed: “the oldest oxygen on earth [that they] could find.”
A prevalent health problem in the developing countries of the tropics and subtropics is helminth or parasitic worm transmission. Among the most common parasites is a hookworm or a nematode roundworm with hooked mouthparts known to cause tissue obstruction, anemia and infestation in the stomach.
Participating in any archeological expedition requires a lot of skill and expertise in order for it to be successful. However, a dig that recently took place in northeastern South Africa had an especially unique qualification for any potential archeologists or excavators—the ability to squeeze through a tiny space called the International Postbox and repel down into a cavern named The Cradle of Humankind for its remarkable contents approximately 30 meters below.
Dear Ms. Scientist,
Poverty can cause a lot of challenges for a child. Parents in poverty tend to be out working most of the time, and they’re stressed by inconsistent income when they aren’t working. The social support network of parents tends to be smaller. Stress accumulates and indirectly passes down to the children. Children of poorly educated parents hear fewer words and tend to receive commands rather than questions. There are fewer books in poor households. Nutrition, hygeine and sleep can also be negatively affected by poverty.
Buried deep within one and a half miles of dark, clear Antarctic ice lies IceCube. After seven years of construction, the IceCube detector was completed in 2010: one cubic-kilometer of ice instrumented with over 5,000 optical sensors.
Dear Ms. Scientist,
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