Author: jplucas

Researchers at the University of Wisconsin in Madison study meditation classes like those at the Zen Center. And while the complex workings of the brain remain a mystery, technology now allows for brain scans that show surprising differences after just weeks of meditation.

The U.S. House of Representatives reapproved a bill on Thursday to expand federal spending for research on human embryonic stem cells, but not by a large enough margin to overturn an expected veto by President Bush.

The president vetoed an identical measure last year and vowed this week to do so again. But Democratic leaders viewed Thursday’s move as a way to ratchet up pressure on Mr. Bush to reverse himself, or at least compromise, to accelerate a form of research that many Americans and universities support.

As expected, a large majority in the House of Representatives voted Thursday to lift restrictions on federal funding for embryonic stem cell research. But with President Bush promising to veto the measure as he did last year, and with House leaders acknowledging that they lack the votesto override such a veto, the national outlook for the research remains unsettled.

MADISON, Wis. — Local researchers said they were encouraged Thursday by a vote in Congress on a bill that would increase federal funding for stem cell research.

The bill was passed by lawmakers in the House of Representatives, but the vote of 253-174 was not enough to override the president’s promised veto.

The bill was No. 3 on the Democrats’ priority list once they took control of Congress. The vote was closely watched by researchers at University of Wisconsin-Madison, where stem cell research is a crown jewel.

To UW-Madison stem-cell scientist Clive Svendsen, a bill the U.S. House of Representative is set to vote on today would allow him to study more diseases.
To Beth Donley, the bill to lift restrictions on federal funding for embryonic stem-cell research would reduce expenses at her new stem-cell company in Madison.

To James Thomson, the bill would mean the country has gotten over the ethical quandary he ignited when he first isolated the cells here nine years ago.

Congress and the White House begin a political science experiment today as the House prepares to vote on whether to override President Bush’s restrictions on federal funding of stem cell research.

In the House, voting will proceed on the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act of 2007, which is identical to the one that was passed in the House and Senate last year and then vetoed by the president. A Senate version of the bipartisan bill should come up for a vote after committee consideration in coming weeks, says Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, a bill sponsor.

Researchers at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, have made ultrathin silicon transistors that operate more than 50 times faster than previous flexible-silicon devices. The advance could help make possible flexible high-end electronics that would be useful in a variety of applications, from computers to communication.

The Department of Energy’s Office of Science this week awarded 95 million hours of processing time on its top computers to 45 projects.

Of those, 75 million hours will be performed at Oak Ridge’s National Center for Computational Sciences, more than four times as much work as last year thanks to increasing computer capability there.

A University of Wisconsin study will try to plot the impact of greenhouse gases over the past 21,000 years.

University of Wisconsin-Madison Chancellor John Wiley said yesterday that UW-Milwaukee needs to be ââ?¬Å?unshackledââ?¬Â from constraints on the programs it offers if it is to realize its full potential. Speaking at a noon luncheon sponsored by the Wisconsin Innovation Network, Wiley said successive legislatures, boards of regents and generations of assistant administrators have been ââ?¬Å?terrifiedââ?¬Â of someone pointing out possible duplication between the universities, leading to a situation where Milwaukee ââ?¬Å?has been forced to give odd names to some of its programs and blanket names to its PhD programs.ââ?¬Â

Wiley pointed out that even though Milwaukee has a wide array of undergraduate engineering programs, a PhD in any of those areas is simply called ââ?¬Å?engineering,ââ?¬Â while a PhD in philosophy is called ââ?¬Å?urban studies.ââ?¬Â

(MILWAUKEE) The chancellors of the two biggest universities in Wisconsin say their schools practice academic cooperation, not competition, and they say that benefits the whole state.

The 41,000 students at UW-Madison and the 28,000 students at UW-Milwaukee may argue over things like men�s basketball, but at a Milwaukee forum, the press offices of the two universities listed more than a half-dozen programs in which the two schools cooperate. The topics include small engines, nanotechnology and Latin American studies.

Praying in online support groups can help breast cancer patients obtain mental health benefits, according to a study by the Center of Excellence in Cancer Communications Research at UW-Madison.