Science - The Daily Cardinal

CAMPUS NEWS

Collaborative study aims to decode high STEM dropout rate

By Kristen Andersen | Nov. 6, 2012

A recent report from the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology projects a shortfall of one million college graduates in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) over the next decade. Approximately five to six of every 10 students that begin in a STEM major will switch majors to a non-STEM field before graduation.

SCIENCE

Ask Mr. Scientist: feeling colder after chewing gum

By Micheal Leitch | Nov. 6, 2012

Dear Mr. Scientist,

CAMPUS NEWS

Going for a swim with the paddlefish

By Donnie Radcliffe | Oct. 24, 2012

Freshwater fish migrate, but we do not know where and why.

CAMPUS NEWS

UW-Madison students compete in Facebook-sponsored hackathon

By Leo Rudberg | Oct. 24, 2012

Most students could not imagine working on a school project for more than 10 hours straight. However, approximately 60 University of Wisconsin-Madison students, ranging from freshmen to masters, competed in a Facebook-sponsored hackathon Friday and Saturday of last week.

SCIENCE

Ask Mr. Scientist: scented stickers and hand warmers

By Michael Leitch | Oct. 24, 2012

Dear Mr. Scientist,

CAMPUS NEWS

Nobel Prize winner speaks at UW-Madison

By Jack Casey | Oct. 23, 2012

Nobel Prize-winning scientist and University of Utah professor Mario Capecchi shared stories and advice from his career as a molecular biologist with students and faculty at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Monday.

CAMPUS NEWS

The biomechanics of stronger bones

By Paige Miller and Brian Weidy | Oct. 12, 2012

Among the books and binders in her office in the Mechanical Engineering building, associate professor Heidi-Lynn Ploeg’s shelves are filled with bones. She pulls out a thin cardboard sleeve, and inside are dozens of mouse femurs. Each one of these leg bones is shorter than the length of a fingernail.

CAMPUS NEWS

Discovering the weight of the universe

By Nia Sathiamoorthi | Oct. 9, 2012

I am no stranger to Chamberlain’s white walls or garish fluorescent lighting. But until recently, I never noticed the ‘No Bosons Allowed’ sign above the Physics club lounge on the second floor. Until recently, the word boson meant nothing to me at all. Now it represents the heart of all matter.

CAMPUS NEWS

Loss of arctic ice may change Wisconsin weather patterns

By Kristen Andersen | Oct. 9, 2012

A new study suggests the diminishing ice cover in the arctic might be playing an important role in the weather patterns Wisconsin experiences.

SCIENCE

Reconstructing the sounds of Leopold's world

By Donnie Radcliffe | Oct. 4, 2012

There is a new scientific field in town, known as soundscape ecology. The field works to understand the noise heard in a particular ecosystem, what it says about the ecosystem and how it affects animals.

CAMPUS NEWS

Brief: President appoints Bahr to nuclear waste board

By Matthew Kleist | Sep. 30, 2012

University of Wisconsin-Madison hydrogeologist and professor of geology Jean Bahr was recently appointed to the Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board by President Obama.

CAMPUS NEWS

Brief: UW physics research gets an upgrade

By Matthew Kleist and By Rachel Schulze | Sep. 27, 2012

The University of Wisconsin-Madison physics department recently completed the addition of a neutral beam injector to the Madison Symmetric Torus (MST).

CAMPUS NEWS

Brief: Stem cell research aims to answer how tissue develops

By Matthew Kleist | Sep. 27, 2012

New research done at the Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery is helping to explain how stem cells create the differing tissues which make up the human body.

CAMPUS NEWS

‘Floppiness’ helps explain margination of blood cells

By Jennifer Laaser | Sep. 25, 2012

Red blood cells are much floppier than their white counterparts.

CAMPUS NEWS

Institute on Aging expands MIDUS research to Milwaukee

By Rachel Sherman and Sam Garigliano | Sep. 25, 2012

The University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Institute on Aging is set to broaden its research on Midlife in the United States (MIDUS), a nationwide study that investigates the varying degrees adult health and aging is impacted by societal, cognitive and behavioral factors.

SCIENCE

Mercury: why ‘mad hatters’ were so mad

By Kristen Andersen | Sep. 25, 2012

In a stuffy milliner’s workshop in Danbury, Conn., a hat maker brushed a solution of mercury nitrate over a set of rabbit furs. This was the first step of several that the hatmaker would perform to transform the furs into the stiff felt hats in fashion in the late 18th century. As he worked, the milliner breathed in vapors from the muggy air.

SCIENCE

Ask Mr. Scientist: Atomic clocks

By Michael Leitch | Sep. 25, 2012

Dear Mr. Scientist,

SCIENCE

The dangerous side effect of Adderall use among college students

By Mary Sagstetter and Sam Karp | Sep. 11, 2012

The fall semester is here and students have returned from summer vacations ready to delve their rejuvenated minds into the depths of studies. However, the monolith of exams can be an exigent endeavor and can overwhelm the mind into a stressful conundrum causing students to run towards impetuous temptations, such as Adderall.

SCIENCE

Ask Mr. Scientist: Sneezing at the Sun, foamy water and keeping time by looking at a rock

By Michael Leitch | Sep. 11, 2012

Dear Mr. Scientist,

SCIENCE

Killer heat: beating a summer drought

By Corinne Thornton | Aug. 28, 2012

The forecast for welcome week this year is just about perfect. Highs are in the mid 80s with lots of sun. However, all those who resided in Wisconsin or the Midwest in general this summer can remember when temperatures soared into the mid-100s accompanied by high humidity and drought a month and a half ago. Some conditions were so severe that many Fourth of July firework festivities were canceled. Dane and Columbia counties even saw roads buckle and “pavement blow-ups.”