news

What do songbirds and humans have in common? We crave social interaction, and the chemical rewards that flood our brain when we get it. In a study recently published in Scientific Reports, University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers led by Lauren Riters, professor of integrative biology, found that when songbirds sing during non-mating seasons, it's because singing releases an opioid naturally produced in their brain -that's right, a compound with the same biological makeup of the highly addictive painkillers.

Using advanced computer simulations, astrophysicists are learning how galaxies evolve their characteristic structure - super-bright centers fading away to dark edges. Researchers from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Iowa State University and IBM Research have discovered that massive clumps of gas within galaxies scatter some stars from their orbits, eventually creating a smooth, exponential fade in the brightness of many galaxy disks.

The mature brain is infamously bad at repairing itself following damage like that caused by trauma or strokes, or from degenerative diseases like Parkinson's. Stem cells, which are endlessly adaptable, have offered the promise of better neural repair. But the brain's precisely tuned complexity has stymied the development of clinical treatments.

As Americans begin pulling up their sleeves for an annual flu vaccine, researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have provided new insights into an alternative vaccine approach that provides broader protection against seasonal influenza. In a study published in Cell Reports Medicine today (Sept.

Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy is the most common inherited heart disease, marked by an abnormally thickened heart muscle that can obstruct blood flow and lead to sudden death in young adults. A dizzying array of over 1,400 genetic mutations can lead to the disease, puzzling doctors on how to treat so many unique varieties.

A view of the gas in the Magellanic System as it would appear in the night sky. The Magellanic Corona covers the entire sky while the Magellanic Stream is seen as gas flowing away from the two dwarf galaxies, the Large and the Small Magellanic Clouds. This image, taken directly from the numerical simulations, has been modified slightly for aesthetics.

When it comes to climate change, University of Wisconsin­-Madison forest and wildlife ecology Professor Ben Zuckerberg says birds are the proverbial canary in the coal mine. They are both responsive and sensitive to changes in the environment, including the extreme weather events associated with a warming planet.

A group of universities, including the University of Wisconsin-Madison, has been named the newest Physics Frontier Center, the National Science Foundation announced Aug. The center expands the reach and depth of existing capabilities in modeling some of the most violent events known in the universe: the mergers of neutron stars and their explosive aftermath.

University of Wisconsin-Madison scientists have discovered that a majority of people they tested who were taking opioid painkillers for chronic back pain produced antibodies against the drugs that may contribute to some of the negative side effects of long-term opioid use. The findings add to a growing understanding of how the immune system can recognize drugs and influence their effects in the body, which may ultimately support the production and delivery of a vaccine that reduces the harm of opioid abuse.

It's not uncommon these days to have some time alone with your thoughts. But what does that sound like, if it sounds like anything at all? Many people feel their thoughts take the form of an inner voice, a sort of conversation with themselves in their mind, according to a new questionnaire on inner voices developed by University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers.

Associate research specialist Miranda Stauss and senior scientist Roger Wiseman process small vials of spit collected from volunteers. At far right, Tom Friedrich, professor in the UW School of Veterinary Medicine, explains a consent form as his colleague Matt Reynolds, center, assistant professor in the UW School of Veterinary Medicine, hands a volunteer small vial for collecting spit as part of a trial of a new COVID-19 saliva test.

Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have developed a method combining sticky nanoparticles with high-precision protein measurement to capture and analyze a common marker of heart disease to reveal details that were previously inaccessible. The new method, a system known as nanoproteomics, effectively captures and measures various forms of the protein cardiac troponin I, or cTnI, a biomarker of heart damage currently used to help diagnose heart attacks and other heart diseases.

Scientists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have published a proof-of-concept method to correct an inherited form of macular degeneration that causes blindness, and that is currently untreatable. Best vitelliform macular degeneration, or Best disease, is an inherited eye condition that typically leads to blindness over the course of a few decades.

When surgeons replace part of a blood vessel - something they do in 450,000 patients per year in the United States to treat blood clots, coronary disease, stroke damage and more - the grafted vessel is monitored by CT scans, ultrasounds and other expensive imaging techniques. Despite all that effort, between 40% and 50% of those grafts fail.

The coronavirus that causes COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2, is known as a positive-strand RNA virus because of the way it stores and makes copies of its genetic material. Many other important pathogens such as the Zika, dengue and chikungunya viruses are also part of this same group - the largest of six genetic classes of viruses.

Fatty acids, the compounds that give a diet rich in leafy greens and fish its antioxidant and anti-inflammatory benefits, are now also heralded for their versatility as raw materials in bioenergy production. Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center scientists are enamored with one particular kind of long chain fatty acid, called furan fatty acid, because it could substitute for petroleum-based products including fuel, engine lubricant, medicines and food additives.

Parasitic filarial nematodes infect hundreds of millions of people, causing diseases such as river blindness and lymphatic filariasis, which can lead to elephantiasis, a severe swelling of the limbs. Mosquitoes spread the parasitic worms, which engage in sophisticated migrations within their insect and mammal hosts.

Thanks to 20 years of homegrown galactic data, astronomers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, UW-Whitewater and Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University have finally figured out just how much energy permeates the center of the Milky Way. The researchers say it could one day help astronomers track down where all that energy comes from.

University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers have developed a safer and more efficient way to deliver a promising new method for treating cancer and liver disorders and for vaccination - including a COVID-19 vaccine from Moderna Therapeutics that has advanced to clinical trials with humans. The technology relies on inserting into cells pieces of carefully designed messenger RNA (mRNA), a strip of genetic material that human cells typically transcribe from a person's DNA in order to make useful proteins and go about their business.

A new image analysis technique designed by UW-Madison engineers can quantify the organization and alignment of heart muscle cells (like these cell groups, in which individual cells are marked by fine white outlines) and help them grow more useful muscle tissue from stem cells. Image courtesy of Brett N. Napiwocki Heart muscle cells made from stem cells could be used to screen drugs or develop cell-based therapies for heart disease.