Noted: University of Wisconsin paleontologist Ewan Wolff, lead author of the report, the holes in Sueâ??s jawbone are not shaped like teeth. “They are perfectly round. What theyâ??re not, is teeth-shaped,” he said. They also occur in exactly the same place as in modern birds with trichomonosis, Wolff said.
Quoted: “The immune system is made up of scouts — or white blood cells — that look for invaders or anyone who might harm the host,” said family physician David Rakel, director of integrative medicine at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. “If the scouts find something, they blow the whistle and recruit a number of other cells … to immobilize and destroy the invading organism.”
SysLogic Inc., the BloodCenter of Wisconsin and University of Wisconsin-Madison have received a federal grant of $1.4 million to advance a patient safety project using radio-frequency identification to manage collection, production and transfusion of blood products.
Think you’ve got the stomach for competitive eating? Here’s your chance to find out.
The Association of Independent Competitive Eaters comes to Madison next year to crown someone king or queen of the mall food court.
Freakfest, the annual Halloween-themed bash on State Street, lands on October 31st this year.
“What we have in front of us now is a fun, safe, community-based event that we can all be proud of,” said Joel Plant, assistant to Madison Mayor Dave Cieslewicz.
Congress has not given final approval to legislation ending federal subsidies for private student loans for college. But Secretary of Education Arne Duncan sent a letter Monday to thousands of colleges and universities urging them to get ready to use the governmentâ??s Direct Loan Program in the 2010-11 school year.
George Lof, a pioneer in solar research, died Oct. 12 at the solar-powered southeast Denver home he had built in 1956. He was 95. In addition to CSU and DU, he taught at the University of Wisconsin.
Frederick C. Winding, Jr., age 80, passed away on Wednesday, Oct. 22, 2009. Frederick spent thirty-six years working for the University of Wisconsin Foundation, in what he described as a labor of love, serving the interests of the university.
Marjorie D. Wiggen, age 88, of St. Louis, Mo., formerly of Madison, passed away on Friday, October 23, 2009. She retired from the University of Wisconsin in 1984, where she worked in food service.
Kathleen “Casey” Jordan, died peacefully at HospiceCare on Monday, Oct. 19, 2009. Casey worked for more than 30 years at the University of Wisconsin, beginning in the Circulation Department at the Memorial Library. She retired from UW in 2001, where she was working as the Ph.D. coordinator of the School of Business.
Craig Thomas Houston, 20, of Neenah, died Saturday night after the motorcycle he was driving apparently was struck by a car on U.S. 41. Houstion was a UW-Madison student.
The Obama administration is calling for an overhaul of college programs that prepare teachers, saying they are cash cows that do a mediocre job of preparing teachers for the classroom.
The Wisconsin School of Business (Wisconsin Full-Time MBA Profile), a second-tier MBA program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, takes a nontraditional approach to teaching management. Students sign up to study career tracks rather than majors or concentrations. Brand management, applied securities, marketing research, and entrepreneurship are among the most popular specializations, says Erin L. C. Nickelsburg (ELCNickelsburg), director of admissions and recruitment for Wisconsinâ??s full-time MBA program. Entrepreneurship recently got a boost because more students become interested in the area during an economic downturn, she adds.
For early naturalists such as Charles Darwin, cataloging new species wasn’t just extraordinary because of its effects on science, but also because of the amazing stories of danger and discovery their travels produced.
Many of those accounts have been overshadowed by the impressive science that lives on. Darwin’s theory of evolution that he famously laid out in his 1859 Origin of Species still is a source of controversy.
But how these groundbreaking naturalists gathered their research is as historic as their contributions to modern biology, said Sean B. Carroll, professor of molecular biology and genetics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Noted: Straight butternut is working for anyone who consumes it, too: The deep orange flesh is packed with beta carotene, vitamin C, potassium, magnesium, manganese, calcium and fiber. Dr. Molly Jahn, the dean of the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and the founder of the plant breeding department at Cornell University, helped to develop a better butternut that is resistant to pesky powdery mildew; the plant holds its foliage longer and generates sugar right up to the first killing frost. â??Most of us like our squash sweet, and disease resistance allows it to really sweeten up,â? said Dr. Jahn, who has taste-tested more than her share of squash. â??We also selected for maximum color intensity, for the genetic potential to produce more beta carotene.â? Which means the more orange, the better.
Q. Every time there’s an Olympics or big global sports competition, world records fall. Is there a limit to how fast humans can be?
A. “In my opinion there are no limits,” says Tim Gattenby, a faculty associate in kinesiology at UW-Madison. “People said that no one could break the four-minute mile, and then someone did. People said no one could get more gold medals than Mark Spitz (who won seven in the 1972 Olympics), but records are a carrot that stimulates people to go out and break them.”
Noted: Before they built the sculpture, the students learned about blindness, what it means to help the global community and the efforts of the Combat Blindness Foundation from the founder, Dr. Suresh Chandra, professor of ophthalmology at the UW-Madison School of Medicine and Public Health, and his daughter, Reena Chandra Rajpal, development director for the foundation.
An event at the University of Wisconsinâ??s Memorial Union on Sunday introduced people to the cultural tradition know as Capoeira.
Freakfest, Madison’s annual Halloween party on State Street, lands on the holiday this year.
The event draws thousands of people to the capital city — mostly college students. In 2005, rioting ensued, pushing police and safety costs to more than $750,000 in subsequent years.
The staff of two student newspapers at UW-Madison are calling for a boycott of one of the most popular bars for students downtown.
When state Department of Natural Resources Secretary Scott Hassett resigned suddenly in the summer of 2007, Gov. Jim Doyleâ??s office announced Hassett was leaving to “write, travel and consult on environmental and regulatory issues.”
An environmental studies institute at the University of Wisconsin is putting on a free environmental film festival.
Nearly 50 films will be shown during the three-day festival, called “Tales from Planet Earth.” It starts Nov. 6 and takes place in Madison.
Quoted: “It was a form of puffery and everyone knows it,” Barry Orton, a UW-Madison telecommunications professor who formerly did consulting work for cities opposed to the law, said of the predictions of lower prices. “And those rates prove it.”
Moliere named his last comedy “The Imaginary Invalid,” referring to Argan, an elderly hypochondriac. But on stage in the University of Wisconsin-Madisonâ??s Mitchell Theatre, “Invalid” is Toinetteâ??s show.
If a dream is worth pursuing, it almost always comes with a bar code, letting you know thereâ??s a cost. Mark Johnson is in mid-transaction, his payment plan all about installments.
For those unfamiliar with capoeira, the tradition – rich in Afro-Brazilian roots – spans five centuries and is known for its ritualistic movements, combining the two contrasting worlds of dance and martial arts.
Jarrett Adams tries not to think about the seven and a half years he spent in prison for a rape he didnâ??t commit. Convicted in Jefferson County along with two others for an alleged 1998 sexual assault, Adams spent most of his 20s behind bars.
Some of Karen Wellsâ?? most cherished keepsakes are in her favorite room in the house Wendell Bryant bought for her in Florissant, Mo. When sheâ??s feeling lonely because her son is 1,600 miles away in Arizona, she can look at the awards, posters and framed photos from his outstanding career with the University of Wisconsin football program and feel instant comfort.
Very few students are taking advantage of a new law that allows illegal immigrants to pay in-state tuition at University of Wisconsin System schools, according to university data.
The last of five town hall meetings for the proposed restructuring of the graduate school brought hundreds of faculty and community members to the Humanities building Friday.
Also present for the first time were Chancellor Biddy Martin and Dean of the Graduate school Martin Cadwallader.
The Madison Initiative for Undergraduates took a meaningful step forward Friday when the Madison Initiative Student Board and Madison Initiative Oversight Committee presented their reviews and ratings for the first 27 accepted proposals to the chancellor and provost.
UW-Madison faculty, staff and students continued to scrutinize Provost Paul DeLucaâ??s graduate school restructuring proposal at his fifth and final town hall meeting Friday, while Chancellor Biddy Martin offered several reassurances.
The proposal would decouple the schoolâ??s current structureâ??where Martin Cadwallader acts as both dean of the graduate school and vice chancellor of research. According to supporters, it would increase UWâ??s influence within federal grant agencies and address increasingly complex financial and safety regulations required for federal grants management.
The rush of landing a lead role in an opera is often quickly replaced by another cocktail of emotions, with elation giving way to nervousness and fatigue.
University Opera reduces the stress and doubles the opportunities for the young singers at UW-Madison by double-casting its starring roles. And “Thaïs,” an opera by Jules Massenet, has a peach of a lead: a charismatic, priest-seducing courtesan with a heart of gold.
Those with asthma are four-times more likely than those without the respiratory disease to end up hospitalized if they contract H1N1, and Dr. William Busse of the UW School of Medicine says thatâ??s raising concerns about the effectiveness of the vaccine among that population.
UW Madison is one of seven sites around the country where researchers will try to determine the right dose of H1N1 vaccine to protect asthma sufferers.
The University of Wisconsinâ??s fight song turns 100 this fall. Terry Bell talks with David Null about its history, legends, and the place it has taken in Wisconsin as our state song. (10th item.)
The University of Michigan has received 13 federal stimulus grants worth $6.8 million for stem cell research — a sign of the stateâ??s growing clout since voters last year eased restrictions in the emerging field that seeks treatments and cures for numerous diseases.
Quoted: David S. Schwartz, who teaches evidence at the University of Wisconsin Law School, said the amendment would make the rule more fair.
Noted: Other recent genetic research has backed up that notion. One study, published in PNAS in 2007 and led by John Hawks, an anthropologist at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, found that some 1,800 human gene variations had become widespread in recent generations because of their modern-day evolutionary benefits. Among those genetic changes, discovered by examining more than 3 million DNA variants in 269 individuals: mutations that allow people to digest milk or resist malaria and others that govern brain development.
A shortfall in private donations threatens to put a $27 million University of Wisconsin-Madison hockey project on ice.
“We’re not going to move forward on this project until we have a funding source in place,” said Gary Brown, UW-Madison’s director of campus planning and landscape architecture. “We’re committed to the designs we’re working on. ”
Noted: Well, Rep. Nass has been trying to defund the Havens Center on the Madison campus. The what? The Havens Center. It is the Progressive Dane of the already left-wing UW sociology department.
The Havens web site is currently promoting a rigorous intellectual course of study designed to prepare our best and our brightest to confront the real-world challenges of the future. The program is called “Getting Real: The Future of Hip Hop Studies at UW-Madison.”
A UW student was the victim of a strong arm robbery Thursday night around 9:25 near Witte Hall on N. Lake Street.
Authorities say the suspect shook the victim and demanded money. The suspect fled the scene on foot. The victim was not hurt.
A new committee will consider mandating health insurance for all UW students, among other options, when it evaluates the UW Systemâ??s insurance policies next semester, according to UW System Assistant Vice President Larry Rubin.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Medicine and Public Health is one of seven research centers taking part in a clinical trial involving the H1N1 flu.
The November 2009 edition of Popular Science magazine recognized two University of Wisconsin-Madison engineering alumni as two of its â??Brilliant 10,â? the 10 young geniuses shaking up science today.
What an odd contradiction in Tom Oates’ column Wednesday, “Blue’s clue: It’s about buzz.”
Most of the column details the many successes of Bo Ryan’s University of Wisconsin basketball program. Then he concludes we may have “already seen the best years of his tenure.”
Swine flu vaccine clinics scheduled at Dane County schools after Friday are in question as health officials devise a new plan to get scarce vaccine first to high-risk people who need it most.
Pregnant women and people with chronic diseases likely will have priority over healthy children and young adults in a plan to be announced by early next week, said Dr. Thomas Schlenker, director of the Madison-Dane County Health Department.
The Network for Health Equality in Wisconsin is being established at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health to study racial and other disparities in heart and lung disease in the state.
Not long after he died, Mike Websterâ??s brain wound up in a plastic tub that was sitting on a table in the living room of a Pittsburgh man named Bennet Omalu.
UW-Madison leaders say they need to create a new position to handle the universityâ??s vast research enterprise, sparked in part by run-down animal facilities that could have cost the school millions in federal funding.
Quoted: A bullying expert says a study in the Journal of School Health shows the number of kids whoâ??ve been the victim of insults online, mirrors those whoâ??ve dealt with face to face insults, â??Itâ??s the same experience but just in a new venue,â? says Amy Bellmore, Assistant Professor of Educational Psychology at UW-Madison.
Quoted: “Thereâ??s help out there, but there are also some people out there trying to take advantage of the situation and run scams,” UW-Madison real estate expert Stephen Malpezzi said, advising distressed homeowners to consult official sources such as the federal HUD Web site for help.
Quoted: UW-Madison real estate expert Stephen Malpezzi praised the index as a basic informational tool that makes the best of the limited data available, even as he cautioned against reading it as anything much more than a broad measure of market direction.
A UW-Madison doctoral student will hold a first of its kind position in Wisconsin: dairy sheep specialist.
Several UW-Madison buildings were without power for about an hour Wednesday morning when a 15,000 volt fuse disconnect switch failed.
Quoted: As in past years, the seasonal vaccine protects against three flu strains that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization believe will be the most common in the northern hemisphere, according to James Conway, an associate professor of pediatrics who specializes in infectious diseases at the UW-Madison medical school. The swine flu, or H1N1, vaccine will protect against only the swine flu strain.
Madison police are expecting Freakfest, State Street’s annual Halloween bacchanalia, to be tamer this year.
They’re scheduling about 27 percent fewer officers for the Halloween weekend, including a sharp decrease in the number of officers to handle arrests.
Despite membersâ?? near certainty that a proposed new Downtown bar and gaming center would see its share of underage drinkers, Madisonâ??s Alcohol License Review Committee voted unanimously Wednesday in favor of the project, which more than one member singled out as one of the best applications the committee had ever seen.
Keaton Nankivil believes almost everybody weighing in on Vander Blueâ??s decision to play for Marquette is taking a simple situation and making it too complicated.
Costumes for a Molière comedy tend to be froufrou-y. Think big bows, massive hair, yards of tulle.
But for University Theatre’s production of “The Imaginary Invalid,” Molière’s final comedy, costumer Rachel Barnett is taking the tropes and giving them a twist.
