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Photo taken at Monterey Bay Aquarium, Monterey, California
Every woman over the age of 40 receives the same initial screening for breast cancer: a mammogram. Yet no two women are identical and neither are their breast cancer risks, so a team of University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers is developing a system better tailored to women with a particularly high risk factor.
In 2000, a National Academy of Engineering publication identified breast cancer detection as a healthcare problem in need of an engineering solution. In the subsequent decade, Professor Susan Hagness has emerged as a leader in the search for that solution. The system will offer three-dimensional capabilities similar to a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) system along with the affordability and accessibility of traditional mammography.
U.S. naval ships usually conjure images of aircraft carriers or other large vessels far out to sea. The USS Freedom (LCS 1), however, is able to enter water as shallow as 14 feet, giving sailors an unprecedented level of access to regions where the U.S. military is present, such as the Persian Gulf.
In addition to its extreme shallow-water abilities, the Freedom, which was built by the Wisconsin shipyard Marinette Marine, is unique in another way: It’s the first naval vessel to substantially include friction stir-welded components. The components, which directly contribute to the Freedom’s stealth and speed capabilities, came from Brookfield, Wisconsin-based Friction Stir Link Inc. (FSL), which has close ties to the University of Wisconsin-Madison College of Engineering.
It has taken more than a decade for Regina Murphy and her colleagues to determine that sometimes it’s actually better to rush things. At least that’s the case when those things are protein processes in the brain that can lead to devastating neurological diseases like Alzheimer’s and Huntington’s.
Murphy, the Smith-Bascom Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering, is studying the kinetics of proteins and peptides that aggregate in the brain. Her work has helped to dramatically change the research paradigms that guide neurological drug development, creating new possibilities for therapies that could treat not only the symptoms of these diseases, but perhaps the actual causes.
“We’ve never collided particles at such a high level of energy,” said Sau Lan Wu, a University of Wisconsin-Madison physics professor working on a major experiment at the Large Hardron Collider. “We don’t know what to expect; we’re at the energy frontier.”
In expecting the unexpected, scientists may discover new particles that could help answer some big questions about the universe, space, time and the natural world. Click the link for a photo essay about LHC research, published by Discovery.com.
In a snug two-bedroom apartment on Madison’s south side, University of Wisconsin-Madison industrial and systems engineering and education graduate student Silas Bernardoni plugs in green and white laptops, charging them for class.
The calm breaks when the doorbell rings and six children ranging from 6 to 10 years old tumble into the apartment, which has been converted into the Southdale Kids Club Day Camp. The students are here for a weekly session of the pilot program designed by UW-Madison volunteers to introduce underrepresented minority children to the world of computers.
