Microbes are key to turning plants into liquid fuels. Yeasts and bacteria eat plant sugars, such as glucose, and turn them into alcohols, a […]

  Inna Popova is a chemist who came to love soil. During her training in analytical and physical chemistry, she found herself increasingly drawn to […]

  Hector DeLuca left his mark on the UW–Madison campus — literally. The professor emerit and former chair of biochemistry has three buildings that bear […]

  The Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center (GLBRC), which is based at UW–Madison and is a hub for many CALS faculty, is one of four […]

  We’ve all heard the warning: Don’t microwave your food in plastic containers. It’s one recommendation aimed at reducing exposure to bisphenol A, more commonly […]

  Erica L-W Majumder might be an alchemist. Her goal? Turn trash into environmental gold. This assistant professor of bacteriology believes landfills like the one […]

  We often look to the smallest life-forms for help solving the biggest problems: Microbes can make foods and beverages, cure diseases, treat waste, and […]

  It’s easy to ruminate over methane when thinking about dairy and its production challenges. Cattle are essential to Wisconsin’s $45.6 billion dairy community. But […]

  Back in November, at the annual meeting of the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities, I was presented with some alarming statistics about rural […]

  In the quest to combat climate change, the idea of using agricultural landscapes in the Midwest to support renewable energy production has focused primarily […]

  Victor Ujor’s fascination with microorganisms — bacteria, fungi, viruses — began with an issue of Time magazine. What he encountered in the pages of […]

  It may be time for corn to take a back seat. This most widely used and cheapest source of ethanol could lose its top […]