As the global nanotechnology industry continues to produce cutting-edge consumer products, the scientific community is leaving a key part of the U.S. public behind when sharing knowledge of this new field of science, according to a new study by the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Arizona State University.

Nanotechnology involves controlling matter of an atomic and molecular size to develop devices of an incredibly small scale, usually 100 nanometers or smaller — tiny enough to fit through a surgical mask. The technology has expanded to offer more than a thousand consumer products from more than 24 countries, including the U.S., China, Canada and Germany. Nanoscale materials now are in common electronics such as iPods, as well as cosmetics, automotive and medical products.  [MORE]

A paper entitled "Tracking online behavior after exposure to news of a local nanotechnology risk: A Risk Information Seeking and Processing (RISP) model approach" and co-authored by Societal Implications faculty members Dominique Brossard and Dietram Scheufele been awarded the Emerging Nanoscale Materials Specialty Group Student Merit Award at the Society for Risk Analysis 2009 Convention in Baltimore, Maryland.  [MORE]

Bacteriology professor Katrina Forest once considered studying architecture � and in a way she does, albeit on a very small scale. As a protein crystallographer, she studies the three-dimensional structures of bacterial proteins on an atomic level to understand how the proteins function.

Most of her research focuses on the tiny surface protrusions called pili that bacteria use to move across surfaces and interact with other cells � including both beneficial and harmful interactions � and the molecular motor proteins that drive their movements.  [MORE]

Although almost two-thirds of Wisconsinites support the use and production of biofuels, less than half think the government should subsidize their development, according to a new study by University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers.

The researchers also found that while about 60 percent of respondents believe the free market should provide the incentive to invest in technology to make fuels from plants or other organic materials, almost as many doubt the oil industry will go that route unless the government requires it, according to researchers Dietram Scheufele and Bret Shaw, both professors of life sciences communication at UW-Madison.  [MORE]

Using computer simulations, a team of University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers has identified some of the pathways through which single complementary strands of DNA interact and combine to form the double helix.

Present in the cells of all living organisms, DNA is composed of two intertwined strands and contains the genetic "blueprint" through which all living organisms develop and function. Individual strands consist of nucleotides, which include a base, a sugar and a phosphate moiety.

Understanding hybridization, the process through which single DNA strands combine to form a double helix is fundamental to biology and central to technologies such as DNA microchips or DNA-based nanoscale assembly. The research by the Wisconsin group begins to unravel how DNA strands come together and bind to each other, says Juan J. de Pablo, UW-Madison Howard Curler Distinguished Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering.  [MORE]

The prevailing wisdom among many scientists and scientific organizations is that, as a rule, scientists are press shy, and those who aren't are mavericks.

However, a new study by University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers, published in the current issue (summer 2009) of Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, suggests otherwise. The study, conducted by journalism professor Sharon Dunwoody, life sciences communication professor Dominique Brossard and graduate student Anthony Dudo, provides evidence that many mainstream scientists occasionally work with journalists and some do so routinely. And the interplay between scientists and journalists, say Brossard and Dunwoody, has been remarkably stable since the 1980s.  [MORE]

In a presentation today (Aug. 19) to the American Chemical Society meeting, Ankit Agarwal, a postdoctoral researcher working with Professor Nicholas Abbott at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, described an experimental approach to wound healing that could take advantage of silver's antibacterial properties, while sidestepping the damage silver can cause to cells needed for healing.

"Silver is widely used to prevent bacterial contamination in wound dressings," says Agarwal, "but these dressings deliver a very large load of silver, and that can kill a lot of cells in the wound."

Wound healing is a particular problem in diabetes, where poor blood supply that inhibits healing can require amputations, and also in burn wards. Agarwal says some burn surgeons avoid silver dressings despite their constant concern with infection.

Using a new approach, Agarwal has crafted an ultra-thin material carrying a precise dose of silver. One square inch contains just 0.4 percent of the silver that is found in the silver-treated antibacterial bandages now used in medicine.  [MORE]

With the help of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and molecular engineering, researchers have designed synthetic protein-like mimics convincing enough to interrupt unwanted biological conversations between cells.

Interactions between proteins are fundamental to many biological processes, including some less-than-desirable ones like infections and tumor growth. For example, HIV and several other human viruses including influenza, Ebola and the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) virus � rely on interactions both among their own proteins and with host cell proteins to infect the cells.

"There's a lot of information transfer that occurs when proteins come together, and one would often like to block that information flow," says Samuel Gellman, a chemistry professor at UW-Madison.
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