For cottontop tamarin monkeys, the golden rule rules.
Though the tiny creatures look more like gremlins than humans, they do seem to share one trait with us: altruism. Tamarins give their partners a tasty treat even when it doesn?t benefit them, and even when their mate had been stingy with them in the past, according to a study published online July 14 in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B.
The state Supreme Court on Tuesday struck down lawmakers? 2007 raid of a medical malpractice fund, delivering a victory to Wisconsin physicians, a defeat to Gov. Jim Doyle and the Legislature, and a bruising blow of more than $200 million to the state budget.
The ruling left open the crucial question of when lawmakers and Doyle will have to patch together a repayment plan out of the state?s already shaky finances – opening the door to new possible spending cuts, tax increases or borrowing. A top aide to Doyle and the head of the state Senate said a special session for lawmakers ahead of November?s elections is unlikely.
For cottontop tamarin monkeys, the golden rule rules.Though the tiny creatures look more like gremlins than humans, they do seem to share one trait with us: altruism. Tamarins give their partners a tasty treat even when it doesn?t benefit them, and even when their mate had been stingy with them in the past, according to a study published online July 14 in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B.
The findings show that altruism blossoms in cultures that divvy up child-care duties, and hint that the human instinct to help others stems from our communal child-care system, said primatologist Charles Snowdon of University of Wisconsin-Madison, co-author of the study.
Thirty square miles surrounded by reality.
Since the phrase was first muttered 30-plus years ago by one-term Republican Gov. Lee Dreyfus, the geographic footprint of the capital city has more than doubled. As Madison?s borders expanded, so did its population and that of Dane County.
In politics, population leads to regional power. The more people there are living in an area, the more representatives those residents are entitled to in the Legislature, which is why news that Dane County?s population has increased by 50,000, enough to warrant greater representation in the Capitol, may be a hard pill to swallow for some lawmakers.
Quoted: UW-Madison political science professor Ken Mayer
Dear Editor: Those who support animal rights should not automatically be labeled troublemakers or malcontents, a point made by Amy Kerwin in her letter to the editor. They may, in fact, be correct.
Using animals in medical research, for example, deserves a great deal more consideration than it is apparently receiving at facilities such as the UW-Madison primate lab, where thousands of monkeys are kept in barren solitary confinement for their entire lifetimes. Their reactions to medicines or procedures, we?re told, eventually help save human lives.
With a combination of older rental homes, a 1970s cement block apartment building and several redevelopment projects, the 400 block of West Dayton Street offers a curious mix of real estate.
Now one of the street?s most active landlords — Dan Bohl — is pursuing a four-story, four-flat “walk up” student apartment at 431 W. Dayton. The brick building would have a total of 23 bedrooms, making it one of the city?s most dense developments by that measure.
This week, 12 Wisconsin middle school students and 12 students from the Ron Clark Academy in Atlanta participated in Generation Acceleration, a camp in which the students got their (latex-gloved) hands wet working on a variety of stem cell activities in the lab.
“We want to educate and train the next generation of scientists,” said Rupa Shevde, the director of outreach for the Morgridge Institute for Research, the nonprofit biomedical research institute affiliated with the University of Wisconsin-Madison that ran the camp. “Studies have shown when you engage students with science at a younger age, they are more likely to explore a variety of careers later.”
A longtime professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Franco Cerrina used his expertise to create better ways for researchers to decode the human genome.
More than 30 ecologists from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Marquette University, University of Wisconsin-Madison, the Milwaukee Public Museum, the DNR and the Urban Ecology Center plan to attend.
The road that brought Joe Faust to University of Wisconsin men?s hockey team is paved with some pronounced bumps that came without warning. He was recruited by UW out of Bloomington Jefferson (Minn.) High School and offered a scholarship last fall, but the 18-year-old defenseman and honor student decided he was better off taking his NHL-caliber skills and strong academic record to Princeton.
Dear Editor: Thank you for your coverage of the Dane County Board meetings on forming an advisory panel to examine the ethics and efficacy of primate research. I thought it was unfair of some University of Wisconsin speakers to label everyone supporting the advisory panel as ?animal rights? people simply because one has valid concerns about primate research such as stress-inducing handling procedures and abnormal behavior.
When I worked as a primate researcher at the Harlow Lab in 1999-2004, I was well-liked and a very hard worker. I was taught that ?animal rights? people were ignorant and violent. I was instructed to ignore them.
Federal investigators once again found violations at UW-Madison?s animal research facilities during another unannounced inspection earlier this week.
The inspectors from the United States Department of Agriculture, however, didn?t find as many problems as they did during a surprise visit to campus in December.
Eric Sandgren, who is charged with overseeing animal research at UW-Madison as director of the Research Animal Resources Center, said nothing “major” was found. But, he added, “at the same time I?m sick and tired of all these nickel and dime things. There is no excuse for these violations to continue.”
Stephen “Steve” P. Harman, age 48, passed away on Thursday, July 15, 2010, surrounded by his loving family following a brief battle with pancreatic cancer. For many years, Steve worked as a civil engineer for the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He truly enjoyed his job and was widely respected by his co-workers.
GREEN BAY, Wis. (AP) — The Green Bay Packers are interested in hosting a potential Big Ten conference championship game at Lambeau Field. A team spokesman said the Packers have made preliminary contact with Big Ten officials to request information on hosting a new conference championship game, which will become possible after Nebraska leaves the Big 12 for the Big Ten.
A traffic stop for speeding turned out to be more than that in McFarland on Wednesday night, with the driver taken to jail on drug charges after a large amount of marijuana allegedly was found in the car.
University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics is ranked among the nation?s best hospitals in seven different specialities, according to the 2010 “America?s Best Hospitals” report from U.S. News and World Report.The report released on Thursday ranked U.S. hospitals in 16 specialties.UW Hospital has been ranked every year since 1993.
MILWAUKEE — A new poll on Wisconsin?s U.S. Senate race shows that few registered voters have been paying attention. But those who have prefer Democratic Sen. Russ Feingold over leading Republican challenger Ron Johnson, 27 percent to 21 percent.
The results of the University of Wisconsin Badger Poll results were released Thursday. The poll has a margin of error of plus-or-minus 4.5 percent.
Richard Nelson Bertrang Sr. passed away Tuesday, July 13, 2010, at the age of 74. Richard retired from the University of Wisconsin Physical Plant in 1996 after 20-plus years.
University of Wisconsin quarterback Scott Tolzien has been named to a number of preseason watch lists for college football awards.
The American Empire is alive and well — and as expansive as ever. We have established more than 700 military bases across the world, largely encircling the peripheries of Russia and China, which are now central to the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts. The Cold War in the aftermath of World War II drove the expansion as we searched for security — and markets, to be sure. Perhaps we now are the largest imperial power the world ever has known.
(Stanley Kutler, a UW-Madison professor emeritus, is the author of ?Judicial Power and Reconstruction Politics? and other writings. This column first appeared on truthdig.com.)
Mentions that a group led by the University of Wisconsin-Madison?s Institute for Clinical and Translational Research in 2007 received a $41 million grant in the NIH?s second CTSA funding round.
Mentions the University of Wisconsin-Madison?s hybrid vehicle team.
A study of more than 700 people, many with a family history of Alzheimer?s disease, has identified a genetic factor that could help determine if people in their 50s will develop the disease later in life.
The study, by researchers at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, was presented Wednesday at the annual Alzheimer?s Association?s International Conference on Alzheimer?s Disease in Honolulu.
Some doctors at the University of Wisconsin-Madison threatened to quit or take legal action when the foundation they worked for drafted rules to restrict their financial relationships with drug companies, according to records obtained by the Journal Sentinel. It was apparent from the e-mails that the conflict of interest policy divided doctors at the university. While many were staunchly opposed, others supported strengthening the policy – and some said it did not go far enough.
Quoted: Nutritional physiologist Dale Schoeller of the University of Wisconsin-Madison who was not involved with the study.
University of Wisconsin System leaders might tweak board policy to require the system president to consult with board members when making high-level interim hires, UW System President Kevin Reilly said Monday.
Former Janesville Parker standout Catie O?Leary has transferred to Bradley University after one season with the University of Wisconsin women?s basketball program.
A 23-year-old woman scared off an attacker downtown early Saturday by screaming and kicking after being grabbed from behind, Madison police reported. The woman told police the mugging happened at about 3:15 a.m. Saturday when she was walking near Langdon and Henry streets and a man came up and grabbed her cell phone.
Monkeys in enduring relationships show a surprising correspondence in their levels of oxytocin, a key behavioral hormone, according to research published online June 28 in the journal Hormones and Behavior.
While measuring oxytocin in the urine of 14 pairs of cotton-top tamarins, Charles Snowdon, a University of Wisconsin-Madison professor of psychology, observed a wide range of hormone levels. But he also saw a striking correspondence among the couples: When one mate had a high level of oxytocin, so did the other, and vice versa.
Before coming to Madison, Suzy Favor Hamilton had already created a name for herself thanks to a dynamic career at Stevens Point Area High School.
On Saturday, her legacy at SPASH ? and as the greatest female athlete in state history ? was cemented when she was inducted into the National Federation of High Schools Hall of Fame during a ceremony in San Diego, Calif.
….The affordable high-quality education offered by UW System schools has been a cornerstone of Wisconsin’s prosperity for decades. Here’s a question Wisconsinites should ask themselves: Might there be a relationship between Wisconsin’s sluggish economy and its recent slide in commitment to its public university system?
And here’s a question we might want to ask legislative and gubernatorial candidates: Are you planning to continue to chip away at our commitment to public higher education to balance the state budget?
Sometimes medical research is a slog toward predictable or inconsequential results. Other times it?s an adventure that leads to unexpected breakthroughs.
Gordon Mitchell, a professor of neuroscience at the University of Wisconsin School of Veterinary Medicine, thinks he and a team of fellow scientists may have made a discovery that falls into the breakthrough category, one that offers new hope for people paralyzed by spinal cord injuries.
Dear Editor: In a recent Wisconsin State Journal guest column, UW-Madison Chancellor Biddy Martin listed several examples in which the use of animals has helped solve medicine?s most vexing problems.
What she failed to mention, however, is the abuse suffered by some of the animals.
Despite an increase in reported bicycle thefts in major cities across the nation, the city of Madison has seen a drop off over the past few years. The number of reported bike thefts citywide fell from 492 in 2007 to 426 in 2008, and then down to 346 in 2009, according to Madison Police Information Systems Coordinator Thomas Dull. Through the end of April, there were 48 bikes reported stolen this year.
“It seems a little odd from what I see,” Dull said of the decrease, adding the police aren’t exactly sure why there have been fewer reported bike thefts in Madison in recent years.
However, Dull said the decrease might stem from the Downtown Safety Initiative, which increased the police presence on the Isthmus, where most bicyclists live and ride, in 2007, and also from the UW-Madison Police Department’s use of a “bait bike” program.
Here?s how five citizens answered this week?s question posed by Capital Times freelancer Kevin Murphy. What do you think? Please join the discussion.
The state?s yawning budget hole has swelled to $2.5 billion, underscoring the massive challenge that awaits the next governor and Legislature, a new report released Friday shows. The projections by the Legislature?s nonpartisan budget office show the expected shortfall for the 2011-?13 budget has grown by $462 million from the just over $2 billion that was expected a year ago.
The Wisconsin Technology Council will publish a new set of white papers this month including bold ideas to stimulate venture capital investment in the state.
Inevitably, some may question Wisconsin?s ability to afford these proposed programs.
But the better question is whether we can afford not to pursue new ideas as we try to transform the economy. We have no shortage of innovations. We have one of the world?s greatest research universities, one that became increasingly entrepreneurial in the 1990s. The Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation began accepting equity in lieu of upfront fees for University of Wisconsin-Madison spinoffs at that time and began investing directly near the end of the decade. Initiatives such as the Burrill Business Plan Competition helped to create a more entrepreneurial culture.
Kathleen Stilling, a graduate of UW-Madison and the UW Law School, was appointed a Waukesha County circuit judge on Friday by Gov. Jim Doyle. [Fourth item]
The next time the Brewers go on a road-trip skid, it might not be their fault.The “winner effect,” in which animals that win a competition win subsequent ones, occurs because of changes in their brain?s circuitry. Those changes are even stronger if the animal had a home-field advantage, according to a study by University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers.
The decision to give Gov. Jim Doyle?s former top aide a choice job in the University of Wisconsin System likely violated university hiring rules, state Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen said Wednesday.
Christopher John Williams Funk, age 36, passed away on Friday, July 2nd, 2010 at the HospiceCare Center in Fitchburg after 8 1/2 years of living positively and gracefully with brain cancer. In 2004, Chris and his wife Brandi founded HEADRUSH, an outdoor celebration/fundraising event and brain tumor awareness/research nonprofit organization. In May 2008, HEADRUSH endowed Wisconsin’s first-ever brain tumor research professorship award at the UW Carbone Cancer Center.
Dr. Richard Bristol, age 85, went to be with the Lord on Tuesday, July 6, 2010, at the HospiceCare Center in Fitchburg. He joined the School of Veterinary Medicine in 1981 as a professor and in 1982 was appointed associate dean-clinical affairs. He was also the past president of the Wisconsin Veterinary Medical Association in 1977 and served as an instructor for the short course at the UW-Madison.
The late-night phone call Tuesday from the West Coast brought good news for followers of the UW men?s hockey team. Defenseman Jake Gardiner said he will return for his junior season and not become the fifth underclassman to leave the Badgers for the NHL since April.
“I?m coming back to Wisconsin,?? he said.
Dear Editor: UW students will thank Sen. Herb Kohl on Thursday, July 8, for supporting Wall Street reform and will encourage him to vote with Main Street, not Wall Street, on the final vote on the Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act later in July. They?ll meet at 11:30 a.m. outside Kohl?s Madison office at 14 W. Mifflin St., Suite 207. If it?s raining, meet in the hallway outside Kohl?s office.
The hiring of one of Gov. Jim Doyle?s top administrators by the University of Wisconsin System “may have violated Board of Regents? policy,” wrote Wisconsin Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen in letter today.
Van Hollen wrote that he does not have statutory authority to investigate, but referred the matter of Michael Morgan?s hiring to the UW Board of Regents. Morgan is the secretary of the Department of Administration.
When Danny Lanphear was inducted into the Madison Sports Hall of Fame, he was overshadowed by the three other members of the 1989 induction class.
….Lanphear has been remembered again ? this time with his inclusion in the UW Athletic Hall of Fame. It?s likely, too, that Lanphear will once again be cast in the shadows of some others in the 2010 class.
Rare were the times in recent weeks when University of Wisconsin men?s hockey coach Mike Eaves saw Ryan McDonagh at ease. If McDonagh wasn?t straining through an off-season conditioning session with his UW teammates at the Kohl Center, the captain-elect and standout defenseman was usually deep in thought about his future.
Arthur Lloyd Pope, 89, died peacefully at his home and in the presence of his family on Monday, July 5, 2010. Art spent his career as a faculty member of the Department of Meat and Animal Science at the UW-Madison where he taught and conducted research in animal science and small ruminant nutrition for 43 years.
Sassy Cow Creamery just celebrated its second anniversary. Last year, looking to get its name out there, the dairy landed a contract to supply milk to a high-profile Madison event. All went smoothly and the dairy was looking forward to a repeat performance this year. But this spring the family-owned, Sun Prairie-based dairy was outbid by Dean Foods, a $12 billion company that now controls 57 percent of Wisconsin?s milk market.
This David-versus-Goliath struggle for market visibility is indicative of what is occurring across the state.
Quoted: Peter Carstensen, UW-Madison law professor, and Robert Cropp, UW-Madison professor emeritus in agricultural and applied economics
….This summer, one of the largest state universities in the country — Ohio State — is launching a new program to encourage every incoming freshman to get a U.S. passport. The program, ?Gateway to the World,? is designed to encourage the roughly 6,600 freshmen — 30 percent of whom are first-generation college students — to get used to the idea that their community is a global one.
….OSU is encouraging, but not requiring, entering students to get the passports. Part of the reason is cost. U.S. passports cost about $100, which does not include the price of required photos. Evanovich said OSU is exploring ways to help those students in need, with passports and studies abroad.
I hope that OSU figures this out sooner rather than later and that other colleges and universities across the country follow suit in starting their own passport programs.
It?s too easy to argue that the University of Wisconsin men?s hockey team is in the midst of the most turbulent offseason in program history. How about UW history? How about college athletic history?
Since advancing to the NCAA championship game April 10, the Badgers have bid adieu to seven seniors ? including their first Hobey Baker Award winner ? lost four underclassmen to NHL contracts and seen two proven assistants accept head coaching jobs elsewhere.
Building on the outstanding rookie season he enjoyed with the University of Wisconsin men?s track and field team this year, freshman Mohammed Ahmed laid claim to his third consecutive Canadian junior national championship in the 5,000 meters Sunday.
Ahmed, who had already claimed the Big Ten title and earned All-America honors in the 10,000 meters for the Badgers this season, solidified his spot on the Canadian national team by winning the 5,000 meters at the 2010 Canadian Junior Championships in 14:15.92.
Dorcas Akinniyi will cap her first outdoor track and field season at the University of Wisconsin by representing the United States in a international competition next week in Florida.
Akinniyi, who claimed the Big Ten Conference heptathlon title and finished fifth at the NCAA championships, will compete in the North American, Central American and Caribbean Under-23 championships.
Quoted: Mason Carpenter, a business professor at University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Mentions a University of Wisconsin-Madison Center for Tobacco Research and Intervention phone survey.
Should the Dane County Board put together a citizens advisory panel to examine whether or not experiments on monkeys at UW-Madison are humane and ethical?
The debate will continue Thursday night, July 8. That topic is on the agenda for a meeting of the Executive Committee, which is slated to get together at 6 p.m. in room 310 of the City County Building.
For many people, plying the Internet can be a pleasant and informative experience. A few keystrokes and a vast trove of information appears on the computer screen. But if that informative website appears with flashing or flickering, it can pose a serious problem for some people with a form of epilepsy.
A team at the University of Wisconsin-Madison?s Trace Center has created a free tool to help Web developers determine whether a site?s content flashes at a rate and intensity that might induce an epileptic seizure.
Peter O. Steiner, University of Michigan Professor Emeritus of Economics, Dean Emeritus of the College Of Literature, Science, and the Arts, and Professor Emeritus of Law, died peacefully at home in Ann Arbor on Saturday, June 26, 2010, in his 88th year.
Steiner began his distinguished academic career as a professor of economics (and his equally distinguished avocation as a denizen of Thursday night poker games) first at the University of California-Berkeley (1949-1957), then at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (1957-1968).
Herbert M. Howe, 98, Professor Emeritus of Classics at UW-Madison, died June 29, 2010, in Fort Atkinson. In 34 years at the UW, from 1948-1982, he taught about 26,000 students, more, he believed, than any other faculty member in the history of UW-Madison.
Dear Editor: The recent Wisconsin State Journal headline ?Madison embarks on quest to receive ?platinum? bike friendliness rating? should have appeared back in October of ?06, when Mayor Bike Shorts and the Bike Reich formed the Platinum Biking City Planning Committee to secure the League of American Bicyclists? coveted platinum rating.
While less than a scouting badge to the known universe, it?s become the city?s white whale and they now believe they?re ready to set the harpoon. Where?s all that time and money gone? Someone must be confusing activity with measurable results.
