Wisconsin's Magazine for the Life Sciences
This “supergrain” is not a grain. Quinoa (KEEN-wah) is not even in the grass family, unlike such grains as wheat, rye, oat and corn. As a member of the family Chenopodiaceae, the Andean plant’s closest relatives include beets and spinach. When prepared for eating, however, its seeds pass as a grain substitute to such an [...]
BS’06 Horticulture
Learn how you can do egg dying with natural rather than synthetic dyes.
Jed Colquhoun found eager partners when figuring out how to get food waste from farms to people in need. Now they’ve created a system that serves as a national model.
BS Horticulture, Soil Science
The quest to improve potato growth in the arid, salty Middle East led to cost-saving innovations and some extraordinary travel experiences
A CALS plant geneticist has found a way to reduce a possible carcinogen in our favorite snack foods--but his solution is on hold for now
Percy Mather BS’68 Biochemistry “When I retire, I shall plant fruit trees.” That’s not exactly how Percy Mather, a longtime civil and environmental engineer with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, had planned things. But then she became involved with Madison Fruits and Nuts, a volunteer group that plants fruit-bearing trees, shrubs and canes—so far, [...]
Acai Berries 1. They cannot leap tall buildings in a single bound. Nor will they flatten your tummy, cleanse your colon, boost your immune system or increase your virility. Society seems to like superstars, and acai (ah-sigh-EE), along with the pomegranate, is one of our reigning fruit superstars. The exotic Brazilian berry’s meteoric rise to [...]
BS’87 Horticulture
Alexandra Huerta comes from a family of agricultural workers, but she is taking her career in a very different direction.
Jiming Jiang is unlocking the secrets of the centromere, an overlooked region of DNA that holds the key to chromosome engineering—and a new, possibly safer approach to gene therapy