Author: jplucas

Sundayâ??s visit by the Dalai Lama will be his eighth to Madison, yet organizers promise something very different this time.In the past, the Tibetan political and spiritual leader has given public talks before huge crowds â?? more than 5,000 people at the Dane County Coliseum in 2008, 12,000 people at the Kohl Center in 2007. Sundayâ??s appearance at the much-smaller Capitol Theater is billed as a dialogue, not a public talk. The Dalai Lama is scheduled to discuss the intersection of science, meditation and health with UW-Madison neuroscientist Richard Davidson, founder of the Center for Investigating Healthy Minds.

The Dalai Lama brought his message of compassion, empathy and oneness to Madison on Sunday afternoon, mixing it with levity and tales of sibling rivalry with his brother, all while sitting crosslegged in his chair and wearing a red Wisconsin baseball cap. Nobel Peace Prize winner Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet, was in town to participate in an hourlong â??dialogueâ? with UW-Madison neuroscientist Richard Davidson, founder of the Center for Investigating Healthy Minds, which is set to open in the fall in the Waisman Center on campus.

After hearing about his cutting-edge research on the brain and emotions through mutual friends, the Dalai Lama invited Richard Davidson to his home in India in 1992 to pose a question. Scientists often study depression, anxiety and fear, but why not devote your work to the causes of positive human qualities like happiness and compassion? the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader asked.”I couldnâ??t give him a good answer,” recalled Davidson, a University of Wisconsin-Madison neuroscientist. Since then, Davidson has become a partner in the Dalai Lamaâ??s attempts to build a connection between Buddhism and western science. This weekend, the Dalai Lama will mark the opening of the Center for Investigating Healthy Minds at the universityâ??s Waisman Center, where more than a dozen researchers will study the science behind positive qualities of mind.

The Dalai Lama said Sunday heâ??s hopeful that science can make the world more peaceful by encouraging positive mental qualities like empathy and compassion. The Tibetan spiritual leader said that unlike religion in which differing beliefs have caused sharp divisions across the globe, “science is universal” and can be used to bring people together. The Dalai Lamaâ??s appearance Sunday afternoon at the Overture Center in Madison helped mark the opening of the Center for Investigating Healthy Minds at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, which will be dedicated to researching healthy qualities of mind like kindness and compassion.

Madison will launch a test project next month to see whether boom-like structures can cut down on the sometimes toxic algae that covers parts of lakes Monona and Mendota during the summer, causing beach closures and endangering swimmers. BB Clarke beach on the Near East Side and Bernies beach on the south shore of Monona Bay will have geotextile fabric barriers placed near or around their swimming areas in an attempt to keep algae out.The two beaches were closed for a combined 63 days from 2005 to 2009 due to growth of blue-green algae, according to Public Health Madison and Dane County. The project, in conjunction with the Parks Division and the UW-Madison Center for Limnology, also includes placing a similar barrier about 100 feet into Lake Mendota near the Center for Limnology in attempt to catch algae before it travels down system and into Lake Monona.

Once a thunderstorm begins to form, rivers and lakes do not influence the direction the storm moves, say Steven A. Ackerman and Jonathan Martin, professors in the UW-Madison department of atmospheric and oceanic sciences.