Q. Why do cats walk in a circle before they lie down?
– Submitted by Larry Haynes, grade 6, Whitehorse Middle School
A. Circling behavior seems to be more ingrained in dogs than cats. Cats tend to knead with their claws when they are happy and settling down on a favorite person’s lap or to nap.
“MATC has been strong in the area of training lab animal technicians,” said Joseph Kemnitz, director of the Wisconsin National Primate Research Center at the UW-Madison. “This is a career pathway that can lead to other opportunities working in research and animal care. It is a steppingstone to veterinary technician program or laboratory technician program opportunities.”
It ‘s not every class at UW-Madison that inspires students to hold a formal ceremony after they complete it.
But students who study anatomy by dissecting human cadavers are so grateful for the experience that they organize a memorial service each year to thank families for body donations.
After 90 years, Madison’s afternoon newspaper will stop daily printing and shift its focus to its Web site and a more widely distributed free weekly print edition, its top executives said Thursday.
The House approved legislation Thursday aimed at curtailing rising college costs and limiting student debt.
The bill, which passed 354-58, calls on the Education Department to create a website that students and their families can use to compare the cost of attending different schools. Colleges are to be grouped according to how expensive they are and how quickly their costs have been going up.
A new director is about to start work at Carolinas Medical Center’s ALS center, even as longtime patients continue to complain about the abrupt firing of the center’s founding director.
Dr. Jeffrey Rosenfeld, fired last May, remains in Charlotte, searching for a job. Six months ago, he took the unusual step of suing his former employer, claiming breach of contract and defamation of character. Carolinas Medical Center has denied the allegations.
Dr. Benjamin Brooks, a renowned ALS researcher from the University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics, will begin work later this month.
MADISON â?? A select group of college students bound for Madison may opt for a two-year detour via Green Bay through a program designed to keep academic scholars enrolled in Wisconsin colleges.
University of Wisconsin System President Kevin Reilly announced Thursday that the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay has become the first four-year campus to join the UW-Madison Connections Program.
The program, which began in 2001, guarantees enrollment at UW-Madison for accepted students in their junior and senior years if they maintain certain academic requirements at participating two-year campuses and technical colleges in the state.
An alumni group at the University of Wisconsin-Madison has sued Intel (NSDQ: INTC), accusing the chipmaker of infringing on a university patented invention that significantly improves the speed and efficiency of computer processing.
The Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF), a private, nonprofit corporation that is a supporting organization to the university, filed the suit Tuesday in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin. WARF said it filed the suit to protect the interests of the university and its inventors and to receive compensation for Intel’s allegedly unlicensed use.
Quoted: Commissioner Pamela Oliver, a University of Wisconsin-Madison sociologist.
MADISON, Wis. â?? Madisonâ??s afternoon newspaper, The Capital Times, will move to an all-Internet edition in a transition that could be the first of its kind in the struggling industry.
The 17,000-circulation newspaper announced the changes, which include publishing twice-weekly free print editions, to staff and with a story on its Web site Thursday. There will be job cuts and a buy-out program, but details and how many staff will be affected were not immediately released.
Quoted: James Baughman, director of the journalism program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said given the paperâ??s distinctive voice it should have success attracting readers on the Internet.
Quoted: Charles Franklin, a political science professor at University of Wisconsin-Madison. Franklin, co-founder of Pollster.com, spent “Super Tuesday” in New York calling races for ABC News.
MADISON, Wis. — The Capital Times, Madison’s 90-year-old newspaper announced Thursday it will stop printing a daily newspaper, reduce staff and focus on Internet operations.
Editors at the paper announced Thursday that the paper will end its six-day a week publication and instead offer readers a tabloid-style insert in the Wisconsin State Journal twice weekly.
Quoted: James Baughman, director of the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Journalism.
Women represent a significant share of the senior campus administrators whose jobs are most likely to lead to a college presidency, according to a new survey by a leading higher-education group. But when it comes to members of racial minority groups, the supply of such potential leaders is much smaller.
A report released this week on a study by the American Council on Education revealed that womenâ??most of them whiteâ??made up fully 45 percent of senior administrators. Only 16 percent of senior leaders surveyed were members of minority groups. (Detailed statistics from the report, on senior college administrators by type of institution and by type of position, are available here.)
UW-Madison Provost Patrick Farrell has just announced the cancellation of all afternoon and evening classes, effective at 3:30 p.m. Other campus operations — including recreational, sports, libraries and the student unions — may continue or remain open, but anyone “planning to attend evening events on campus is encouraged to call ahead to ensure programs are continuing,” according to the UW-Madison press release issued Wednesday afternoon.
The announcement also notes the early cessation of Madison Metro bus service, with the last buses scheduled to depart transfer points at about 7 p.m. Metro passengers are advised to expect delays of 15-20 minutes or more, due to hazardous weather and road conditions.
Madison, Wis. – The licensing arm of the University of Wisconsin-Madison has filed a patent infringement suit against Intel Corp., one of the world’s largest semiconductor companies, claiming that Intel’s widely used Core 2 Duo processor includes patented technology invented by UW-Madison researchers.
The Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, which noted the technology significantly improves the efficiency and speed of computer processing, filed the suit in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin.
Whenever you talk to University of Wisconsin athletic director Barry Alvarez about the Big Ten Network these days, he cops a certain attitude.
His body language begins to speak fluent dismissive.
His answers become more clipped than usual.
His tone revs between annoyance and frustration.
MADISON, Wis. â?? The University of Wisconsin-Madison wants to build a 10,000-square-foot vivarium to possibly hold more than 33,000 mice and rats.
â??Researchers in almost every case like having their laboratory and their animal research as close together as possible,â? said Alan Fish, UW-Madison associate vice chancellor for facility planning and management. â??This is pretty standard operating procedure for any biomedical facility that includes animals in its plan. â??
University of Wisconsin-Green Bay Chancellor Bruce Shepard has embraced the issue of mental health on campus.
He has encouraged students to seek counseling if they are depressed or are having difficulty coping. Last year, he addressed the stigma associated with depression with an open letter to the campus community that talked about his son’s suicide.
The University of Wisconsin systemâ??s Board of Regents is considering a proposal this week that would raise the pay ranges of its university leaders and system executives to bring their salaries more in line with those of their peers, according to an article by the Associated Pres
Quoted: Awais Khaleel, a 23-year-old University of Wisconsin-Madison student and an undecided super-delegate, said he’s also talked with Bill and Chelsea Clinton.
MADISON, Wis. â?? University of Wisconsin System graduates might soon have two transcripts to show potential employers.
The traditional one would still list classes taken and grades earned. But a second would describe the studentâ??s personal development during college, such as whether they interned for a company, directed a play, or edited the student newspaper.
MADISON, Wis. — While authorities warned everyone to stay home and off the streets Wednesday, thousands of students and teachers struggled to make their way to the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus.
Despite Wednesday’s snowstorm, classes there were not called off until the middle of the afternoon. Due to “deteriorating conditions,” UW-Madison made the decision Wednesday afternoon to cancel all classes for the rest of the day starting at 3:30 p.m.
But some said the announcement was too little, too late. Many of those who braved the blizzard-like conditions Wednesday morning to attend and teach classes said they weren’t happy about it.
Researchers at the future Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery would have easy access to thousands of lab rats and mice under a proposal to build a 10,000-square-foot vivarium at the Institutes ‘ West Side site, UW Madison officials said Tuesday.
This was supposed to be the year fans finally were going to be able judge the impact University of Wisconsin football coach Bret Bielema has had on recruiting
The University of Wisconsin is suing Division 2 Washburn University for its use of the Badgers trademarked Motion “W”. Wisconsin’s suit seeks an injunction barring Washburn from using the mark.
The head of the state Assembly Colleges Committee is lashing out at a new proposal to raise the salary ranges for University of Wisconsin chancellors.
Rep. Steve Nass, R-Whitewater, says itâ??s irresponsible to consider raising the Madison chancellorâ??s salary by 66 percent.
With a new budget deficit looming, he says other state employees might be lucky to get 2 percent raises.
The UW is looking for new chancellors at Madison, Parkside and Nassâ??s hometown of Whitewater.
Even if you donâ??t like winter, doctors say youâ??re better off getting outside during the day.
What many of us call cabin fever can produce some real health problems in what experts call seasonal affective disorder.
Nancy Barklage, University of Wisconsin psychiatrist of Madison says you can throw your life into turmoil if the only contact you have with winter is shoveling snow, and adjusting to changes in your kidsâ?? school schedules.
Quoted: Barry Burden, a professor of political science at the University of Wisconsin.
NAMUR, Wis. â?? A University of Wisconsin-Green Bay professor died following a four-vehicle crash in southern Door County in which four others were injured.
Anne Kok, 60, of the town of Nasewaupee, was an associate professor and chair of the universityâ??s undergraduate program in social work. The universityâ??s online newsletter described her as an award-winning scholar who joined the faculty in 1988.
The Roman Catholic Foundation, a religious student organization at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, is suing the school for refusing to fund evangelical training camps, religious retreats and Lenten booklets.
A judge in a U.S. District Court issued a preliminary ruling Jan. 17 in favor of the Foundation’s claim that refusing to fund these activities violated the group’s First Amendment right to free speech.
A plan for big pay raises for chancellors in the UW System isn’t playing well at the Capitol.
State Representative Steve Nass (R-Whitewater), who chairs the Assembly Committee on Colleges and Universities, says increasing the pay range for the UW-Madison chancellor to nearly $450,000 is irresponsible. Nass says it’s not something the state can afford at this time, when it’s facing a possible $600 million budget shortfall.
The UW Board of Regents wants to pay top University leaders more, in order to attract higher quality candidates for open positions. But a state lawmaker says thatâ??s irresponsible given the shaky economic situation in Wisconsin. Brian Bull reports. (Audio.)
Eastside alder Brenda Konkel applauds those changes, but also wants more. “I think the thing we really haven’t gotten any progress on is better help from the city on notification(of snow emergencies),” said Konkel on Monday.
This winter has been one winter storm, after another. With those early dumpings in December came complaints, and promises from even Madison Mayor Dave Cieslewicz that plowing operations would improve.
Jonathan Overpeck, a leading University of Arizona climate scientist and co-author of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize-winning U.N. climate-change report, is a finalist for a position at the University of Wisconsin.
Overpeck, one of the lead authors on the April 2007 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s report linking atmospheric greenhouse gas increases to human activity, is director of the UA’s Institute for Study of Planet Earth.
He is one of two finalists for the position of director of the larger Gaylord Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies at the university in Madison.
Recently, scientists at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine used transcranial magnetic stimulation on sleeping patients so that they produced slow waves.
This plays a role in strengthening memories during sleep, although how it works is still debated. Slow waves also indicate deep sleep. “This could be a way of helping people recover from insomnia,” says one of the scientists, Marcello Massimini.
Quoted: Kenneth Cameron, director of the Wisconsin State Herbarium at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. â??There are a lot of politics and personalities involved.â?
Joshua Lederberg, one of the 20th centuryâ??s leading scientists, whose work in bacterial genetics had vast medical implications and led to his receiving a Nobel Prize in 1958, died on Saturday. He was 82 and lived on the Upper East Side of Manhattan.
He was also a dedicated educator, working in administrative posts at the University of Wisconsin, as well as at Stanford and Rockefeller and taking an interest in helping and developing young scientists.
Joshua Lederberg, Nobel Prize-winning molecular biologist who shaped the field of bacterial genetics, and served as chair of The Scientist’s advisory board since 1986, died on Saturday (February 2). He was 82.
In 1957, Lederberg founded the department of medical genetics at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and moved two years later to Stanford University where he founded the school of medicine.
MADISON, Wis. â?? University of Wisconsin-Madisonâ??s next leader could earn $42,500 to $125,000 more than Chancellor John Wiley under a plan meant to attract more candidates for the position.
The UW System Board of Regents will consider increasing the salary ranges of university chancellors and system executives during its meeting on Thursday and Friday.
Board President Mark Bradley said Monday the higher ranges are needed to attract top candidates as regents recruit new chancellors at the Madison, Parkside and Whitewater campuses
The UW System Board of Regents is being asked to increase salaries for top university officials.
UW System spokesman David Giroux says the Board of Regents is expected to vote on a proposal this week that would raise salary ranges for chancellors and system executives. Giroux says the measure would help to bring salaries for top UW officials into the lower end of what similar campuses are paying their top officials.
A startup founded by researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison next month will begin beta-testing an appliance based on its patent-pending technology aimed at stopping attackers and bot-herders before they hit client machines.
A startup with U.S. military backing will begin beta-testing a security appliance this month, which it argues could change the face of network security by automating and refining the generation of malware signatures.
The startup, Nemean Networks, was co-founded by Paul Barford, a computer scientist at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and is named after the first of Hercules’ 12 tasks – to kill the Nemean lion, a beast with an impenetrable coat.
Botnets are a huge problem for the Internet as a whole. With millions of infected machines prepared to attack sites at any given moment, it is both difficult to find and bring down the leaders of these botnets. Perhaps one of the most challenging problems in doing so is that most of the computers infected have owners who are blissfully unaware their machines are being used in such a manner.
A new startup called Nemean Networks wants to attack the problem head on with a device that aims to help curb the botnet problem by preventing machines from getting infected in the first place.
When University of Wisconsin football coach Bret Bielema unveils his 2008 recruiting class on Wednesday, no mention will likely be made of Sharon Betlach.
That’s the way she prefers it.
The 65-year-old Betlach works as the recruiting secretary for the football program and will be in the office before 7 a.m. that day, which is the time signed letters of intent from recruits can begin arriving over the fax machine.
The ’60s generation is bowing to its elders, at least when it comes to buildings on the UW-Madison campus.
While three 1960s-era buildings on campus have come down or will in the near future, five other structures dating back nearly 100 years will get major renovations and live on, according to Alan Fish, UW-Madison ‘s vice chancellor in charge of facilities planning and management.
Tech-savvy university students have also developed their own unique social networks around shared use of technology. Brian Hagen, a former UW-Madison student, was a coordinator at Madison ‘s Geek.Kon convention last fall and ran the Geek.Kon programs for the video games Guitar Hero and Dance Dance Revolution. Hagen said that while the networking aspect of the convention was less structured than that at other conventions, “more than one friendship was helped along by the social atmosphere of the game. “
Aldo Leopold, Wisconsin ‘s most famed conservationist, urged his students to simply “pay attention. ‘ ‘
He was talking, of course, about more than just the wandering attention spans of students in the classroom. He was explaining an approach to understanding how the natural world works. It was this approach that motivated Leopold to rise before dawn, take his cup of coffee and a notebook to the stoop of his old shack near the Wisconsin River, and wait to hear the morning ‘s first bird songs.
For UW-Madison botanist Don Waller, Leopold ‘s instruction to be attentive to the changes on the landscape around us has been a driving force behind his teaching and his research.
Quoted: Kristi Shook Slack, an associate professor of social work at UW-Madison.
Quoted: Hannah Carey, a professor of veterinary medicine at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. Carey specializes in the study of hibernating animals.
Remember the old story about modern science: knowing more and more about less and less? It’s not true any more. We are living in the age of the great biological synthesis. Both Neil Shubin and Sean B Carroll thrillingly show us how, in the last 10 years, work on fossils, on DNA sequencing and on embryological development have combined to piece together the story of how we got here.
Some of you might cringe now, but 10 years ago there was optimistic talk inside the University of Wisconsin Athletic Department that its women’s basketball program was on its way to solvency.
The highest arc of those discussions had women’s basketball joining football, men’s basketball and men’s hockey as a consistent breadwinner for UW athletics.
In a letter sent to the New Era Cap Company Friday, the University’s Advisory Committee on Labor Standards and Human Rights urged the hat maker to address allegations of racial discrimination against black workers at an Alabama facility or risk endangering its relationship with the University.
Quoted: Ken Goldstein, a political science professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Quoted: Bob Cropp, a dairy economist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Quoted: Ken Goldstein, a political science professor and the director of the Wisconsin Advertising Project at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, which just completed a study of campaign expenditures to date.
Having the contract to make caps for Major League Baseball means being under a spotlight that brings both positive and negative exposure.
The labor talks between Buffalobased New Era Cap Co. and 118 newly organized warehouse workers in Mobile, Ala., have been pushed into the national spotlight, with observers seeing first-hand how standard contract negotiations representing a handful of workers can become national news.
Quoted: The University of Wisconsin-Madison has served beer in its student union building for years, said Susan Crowley, the prevention services director for the UW-Madison PACE project, which educates students about the effects of binge drinking.
Ms. Crowley said the union serves beer and tries to â??model appropriate adult behaviorâ? by frequently checking IDs and promoting moderation. â??Thereâ??s no comparison in health and safety factors,â? she said.
MADISON, Wis. — On Thursday, Madison Mayor Dave Cieslewicz and University of Wisconsin-Madison scientists and business leaders introduced local and national solutions for climate change to students and members of the Madison community at UW-Madison.
Sure, it can be lonely to stand alone. It can also be right.
Wisconsin is the only state that still gives a break to graduates of its accredited law schools. Through a policy known as â??diploma privilegeâ?, those graduating from Marquette or UW-Madison law schools are allowed to become lawyers without taking the state bar exam.
If an ongoing lawsuit succeeds, that perk will end. Christopher Wiessmueller is challenging the practice, saying itâ??s unconstitutional to treat prospective lawyers from out of state differently. Although a lower court judge dismissed it, an appeals court ruling last week kept the suit alive.
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — The University of Wisconsin-Madison paid $19,500 to settle allegations that managers retaliated against an employee who complained about the sexual harassment of a colleague.
The university paid veteran power plant employee William Black $9,000 in damages and $10,500 in attorney’s fees and allowed him to retire in a July settlement released to The Associated Press in an open records request.
