Kelly April Tyrrell






Ice crystals form on the orb of a soapy bubble that froze during subzero weather atop Bascom Hill at the University of Wisconsin-Madison on Jan. 8, 2014. 3
The post office suspended mail delivery. Schools and campuses across the Midwest closed down. Temperatures in Chicago, Madison and other Great Lakes cities dipped lower than those in Antarctica. We’re ok. There’s nothing to see here. How’s everyone doing? pic.twitter.com/g0VuDIiU6q — UW–Madison Science (@UWMadScience) January 30, 2019  Surely that means […]

The polar vortex should kill bugs, right? Not so much.


Legos - building blocks
A study published today (Jan. 8) in eLife, led by University of Wisconsin–Madison Professor of Biochemistry and Bacteriology Robert Landick and his research team, reveals for the first time the elemental mechanism behind transcriptional pausing, which underlies the control of gene expression in all living organisms. It also provides new understanding […]

New insight into gene expression in all living things




NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) observed sand dunes in the north polar regions of Mars.
By Jim Lattis, Director of UW Space Place at the University of Wisconsin–Madison You may have heard that Mars reached opposition on 27 July 2018. But what does that mean? It means that Mars is bright and easy to find in the night sky. It’s called opposition because that’s when Mars is […]

Mars is at opposition, so what does that mean?


Today is Mandela Day. It is a worldwide event to celebrate the life of Nelson Mandela, a once-political prisoner in South Africa who went on to become the president of that nation and help it cast aside its system of racial oppression called apartheid. Mandela passed away in 2013 but […]

In Madison, honoring Nelson Mandela


A vacuum tube holds a blood-fed strain of Aedes aegypti mosquito in place under a microscope.
Between 2004 and 2016, the number of people who acquired diseases from mosquitoes, ticks and flea bites tripled in the United States. These include Lyme disease, West Nile and dengue fever. Nine new diseases spread by mosquitoes and ticks, including Zika virus, were discovered or appeared here during that time. These statistics were […]

Combating ticks and mosquitoes in the Midwest