Author: jplucas

After just three months of operation, the Daya Bay Reactor Neutrino Experiment has far surpassed expectations, recording tens of thousands of particle interactions and paving the way to a better understanding of neutrinos and why the universe is built of matter rather than antimatter.

Two controversial studies on bird flu will once again be reviewed by an expert committee that advises the government on what to do with biological research that could pose potential dangers.

“Dictionary of American Regional English” highlights local ways of speaking.

Our experiences in life dont just affect how we learn and behave, they can also mark our genes and influence our children, a growing body of research suggests. “We want to know how experiences really influence the brain,” says Marilyn Essex, a professor of psychiatry at the University of Wisconsin’s school of medicine and public health in Madison. “What are some of the underlying biological mechanisms that can help us understand how we get from the early stress to the later health outcomes?”

Its accents and vocabulary are as different as its vast and varied landscapes.And the diversity of dialects in the U.S. are showcased in all their glory in the Dictionary of American Regional English (Dare).

If you?ve never put your lips to a bubbler, you?re probably not from Wisconsin. Ask for a pickle in Nebraska and you might get a lottery ticket. And what you call a carbonated soft drink, whether soda, pop or coke, provides a clue about where you grew up.

At the end of his second year of Harvard graduate school, neuroscientist and bestselling author Richard Davidson did something his colleagues suspected would mark the end of his academic career: He skipped town and went to India and Sri Lanka for three months to ?study meditation.?

Joan Houston Hall, chief editor of the Dictionary of American Regional English, still remembers the day back in the late 1990s when she typed ?scrid? into Google.

Last year, researchers examined Facebook profiles of 200 students at the University of Washington and the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Some 30 percent posted updates that met the American Psychiatric Association?s criteria for a symptom of depression, reporting feelings of worthlessness or hopelessness, insomnia or sleeping too much, and difficulty concentrating.

That we can identify these words today is largely a testament to the vision of one man: Frederic Cassidy, a professor of English at the University of Wisconsin in Madison who conceived the Dictionary of American Regional English known as DARE in a 1962 speech to the American Dialect Society.

Battles continue over whether or not to publish research in which H5N1 bird flu transmitted readily among mammals.

Legislation outlining a proposed state wolf hunt is likely to hurt wolf populations while failing to resolve existing conflicts with humans, says a University of Wisconsin-Madison wolf expert.

After weeks of debate, two controversial papers describing forms of the H5N1 avian influenza virus capable of transmitting between mammals should be published in full. That was the unexpected outcome of a meeting convened last week in Geneva, Switzerland, by the World Health Organization (WHO), which also promised to create a more rigorous oversight system for such research.