Koko the gorilla is already famous for her ability communicate with her keepers using sign language, but now she is showing signs that she may be able to learn to talk.
An ape, directly socialized with humans, has learned the vocal and breathing control found in human speech, according to new research.
Helmet technology is similar among all brands, and a helmet’s brand, age and reconditioned status has no impact on how many concussions a football player sustains, say UW-Madison researchers who have studied Wisconsin high school football players.
In the last week, a state legislator in Wisconsin suggested that professors defending the use of fetal tissue in research should think about the work of the notorious Nazi doctor Josef Mengele. Also in the last week, Ben Carson, formerly a professor at Johns Hopkins University known for his path-breaking research and now an anti-abortion candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, found himself questioned on his use of fetal tissue for research in 1992.
Alicia Beltran is famous for her recent Kafka-esque pregnancy experience. She had stopped using painkillers and weaned herself off the antiaddiction medication. She provided full information to her health care provider. But instead of receiving prenatal care, she was ordered by the state to resume using antiaddiction medication. When she declined, she was arrested and, although she screened negative for all evidence of drug dependence or abuse, was committed to a facility for months before finally being released after a federal complaint was filed on her behalf.
Quoted: Working with colleagues at the University of Wisconsin School of Veterinary Medicine, Dougherty began by wondering whether the flashes are communications between clams. But even though the clams have 40 eyes, their eyesight is surprisingly poor.
Noted: Attempting to counteract that last, problematic development has been a longtime goal of the creators of educational television series. Sadly, however, a research team led by Marie-Louise Mares of the University of Wisconsin–Madison reports the impact of such shows appears to be extremely limited.
Coming off the release of her ambitious $350 billion plan to make college affordable, Hillary Clinton took aim at Republican candidate Gov. Scott Walker, accusing him of gutting funding for Wisconsin’s colleges.
Noted: For example, at a legislative hearing on banning the practice in Wisconsin, Dr. Robert Golden, dean of the University of Wisconsin–Madison School of Medicine and Public Health and the university’s vice chancellor of medical affairs, explained that “There is incredibly important, potentially lifesaving research that goes on in Wisconsin that relies on fetal material received from federally regulated tissue banks.” Banning use of it, he added, “would have a substantial negative impact on our capacity to do the lifesaving research we are doing.”
Quoted: “We’re not sure that the roads have become safer,” says Jason Vargo, assistant scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Global Health Institute and the lead author of the report. “We may be just putting people out on the same roads that are as dangerous as they were before.”
Noted: The traditional way of making transistors using photolithography doesn’t work because it leaves the nanoribbons with rough, disordered edges, which compromises performance and is not ideal for digital applications, says Michael Arnold, a professor of materials science and engineering at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.
For years, scientists have believed that apes do not have the capacity for speech – but one gorilla might be changing that. Koko – known for her abilities in sign language – has learnt simple sounds, as well as signs, from imitating humans.
Campuses across the University of Wisconsin system are grappling with budget shortfalls after the state’s legislature approved $125 million in cuts to system’s budget earlier this year.
Quoted: The blast, which was caught on camera at numerous angles, was so powerful that it knocked down anyone in its path, and the heat it generated could be detected from space, according to Russell Dengel, a science and engineering researcher at the University of Wisconsin.
Quoted: “Harley is often held up as an American success story,” says Barry Burden, a political science professor at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. “There are people who buy those bikes over other brands because they’re American-made. There were unions involved and there was government assistance at various times. It hasn’t just been market forces that have made that happen.”
Governor Scott Walker is not offering much support for a bill that would restrict research in the state that uses tissue from aborted fetuses.
This week, beekeepers, farmers, pesticide operators and state agriculture officials met at the Agricultural Research Station in Arlington. It’s the first of several meetings to come up with a plan protecting bees and other pollinators.
Interviewed: Richard Davidson, one of the world’s leading neuroscientists for a look at how the practice of mindfulness affects the brain.
Quoted: The state legislators who introduced and whipped votes to pass VIVA refused to testify in the trial, but they deny both discriminatory intentions and the charge that the law will yield discriminatory results. University of Wisconsin-Madison political science professor Barry Burden, an expert witness for the civil rights team, had a different testimony:
Noted: “We too often in higher education embrace the one size fits all view,” says Conrad, the Vilas Distinguished Achievement Professor of Higher Education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “The challenges that many students at Minority Serving Institutions face are very diverse. It isn’t just about money or being non-native speakers. But it’s some of the more invisible challenges and the intersection of these challenges that are not often discussed.”
MADISON — Republican lawmakers sponsoring a bill to ban research on aborted fetal tissue in Wisconsin — a proposal medical groups oppose — said Tuesday they were working on changes to protect work at the University of Wisconsin that uses existing cell lines.
Scientists use DNA to figure out a lot of useful stuff: whether a drug will work to fight a certain form of cancer, who committed a crime, the ancient history of a fragment of fossilized bone. Now a team led by biologists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison are putting genetic analysis to work to get to the bottom of a different sort of compelling question: the evolution of lager beer.
Wisconsin doesn’t have a single, unified community college system — and many of the educators at the state’s two-year institutions say that’s a good thing. But as a legislative committee considers possibly merging the state’s two separate two-year systems, some politicians are questioning whether a more traditional community college model would work better for the state.
Quoted: “These things are almost never a good deal from a macroeconomic standpoint,” said Kenneth Mayer, a political science professor at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. “How does he explain it to undecided or Republican primary voters?” Mayer said.
Republicans in the state legislature want to ban research in Wisconsin, using tissue from aborted fetuses, legislation which opponents fear could damage the biomedical industry in the state.
Milk prices have been falling lately, creating problems for farmers throughout Wisconsin. A dairy anaylst looks at the reasons for the falling prices, and when things might turn around.
Abortion opponents and medical researchers packed a public hearing Tuesday to testify on a bill banning the sale and use of aborted fetal tissue.
Most people can’t imagine what it would be like to live in Africa, let alone interact with exotic animals every day. UW Madison student and zoology major Austin Ronan did just that during his semester abroad in Cape Town, South Africa. The culture shock, he said, was enormous.
Quoted: “Right now, our patients are getting mixed messages from ‘don’t bother taking D at all’ to ‘take 2,000 too 4,000 units a day,’ so what are we to do?” said the lead author, Dr. Karen E. Hansen, an associate professor of medicine at the University of Wisconsin. “This study supports a middle-of-the-road approach. If your D level is 20 or higher, that’s enough, and if you’re low, you can achieve that with 600 to 800 units a day.”
In a paper presented at Robotics Science and Systems in Rome in July, scientists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison describe how they taught a Kinova Mico robot arm to help people do the dishes. The key, apparently, is slowing down and letting human team members take charge. “We want robots to follow our lead, or at least plan their actions with an awareness of ours,” says Bilge Mutlu, associate professor of computer science, psychology, and industrial engineering and an author of the paper.
Noted: The call for more teachers of color has grown more urgent in recent years because of America’s changing demographics. In an increasingly multiracial, multicultural society, some education experts question the impact on white students’ world views when the face of teaching almost always mirrors their own. Gloria Ladson-Billings, an African American professor of urban education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, broached this subject in a recent essay for Education Week responding to the apparent decline in nonwhite teachers—what some observers have described as a “disappearance crisis.” “I want to suggest that there is something that may be even more important than black students having black teachers and that is white students having black teachers! It is important for white students to encounter black people who are knowledgeable,” she wrote. “What opportunities do white students have to see and experience black competence?”
Noted: “It was made by a neutrino that came through the Earth somewhere below our detector,” said IceCube’s principal investigator Francis Halzen, of the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
With Americans shouldering $1.2 trillion in student loan debt, and about eight million of them in default, Hillary Rodham Clinton on Monday will propose major new spending by the federal government that would help undergraduates pay tuition at public colleges without needing loans.
Hillary Clinton will today unveil a massive plan to make higher education more affordable, student loan debt less burdensome and states accountable for supporting their public colleges. The plan — which would cost $350 billion over 10 years — is one that campaign officials say will be central to her candidacy for the presidency.
Rebecca Blank: When Gov. Scott Walker proposed $300 million in cuts to the University of Wisconsin System, his most outspoken critic was UW-Madison Chancellor Rebecca Blank. It’s not just that she was outspoken, it was the impact of her advocacy — particularly the competitive disadvantages created by associated faculty changes — that helped turn public opinion against the governor’s plan.
Even though harvest is months away, agriculture experts say most of Wisconsin’s corn and soybean crop is exceeding expectations. It’s been a good year for Wisconsin farmers, according to University of Wisconsin-Madison corn agronomist Joe Lauer. He said there’s been a good balance of rain and warm, sunny days.
Quoted: Overwhelmingly, bioethicists agree with Pinker that the red tape surrounding scientific research is awful, and there’s way too much of it. Norman Fost, a professor emeritus of pediatrics and bioethics at the University of Wisconsin, mentioned a slew of cases in which scientists who conducted solid, ethical work were threatened with sanctions because the consent form was slightly unclear, or the IRB minutes didn’t note if a quorum was present.
Noted: IceCube is now getting so much data that the team has given up naming individual detections, says detector lead Francis Halzen of the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Noted: In her conference keynote address, Marsha Mailick, director of the Waisman Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, shared data gleaned from 10 years of following the lives of more than 400 people with autism, starting in 1998. This study was prescient; adults are vastly underrepresented in autism research, and longitudinal studies into old age are badly needed.
There is no subway system where these kids are going. And it’ll be white: Snowstorm white. Dairy farm white. White white. But Kenneth Jackson, a new high school graduate from the Washington area, isn’t too worried about trading in his urban life for a dorm at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in a few short weeks. He knows he can handle it. After all, his posse is coming along.
Quoted: Bruce Jones, a University of Wisconsin-Madison agricultural and applied economics professor, said that’s because farm incomes have been on the rise, especially for dairy producers.
Quoted: Marcus Perlman from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and his colleagues wanted to test this. They challenged nine pairs of students to express certain words, such as big, slow or attractive, using only simple vocalisations.
GRAND CHUTE – Five local high schools worked with University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers recently to study the impact of advanced courses on graduates’ success after high school.
Quoted: “They have been in place for a very long time under both Republican and Democratic administrations,” said Alta Charo, a bioethicist and law professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Quoted: University of Wisconsin-Madison political scientist Ken Mayer has similar expectations for Walker, along with much of the other candidates in the debate. However, he notes the one “wild card” is Donald Trump. The current leader in the polls has been making headlines with controversial statements on the campaign trail. Mayer says it’s unlikely Trump will keep a low profile on stage, and could try to “stir things up” on stage by interrupting or making other statements.
On July 1, Elizabeth Garrett assumed the presidency of Cornell University.With this, half of the eight-member Ivy League schools now have female presidents. Garrett joins an illustrious group: Christina Paxson (Brown University), Drew Faust (Harvard University) and Amy Gutmann (University of Pennsylvania).
The Confederate flag. The Supreme Court ruling on gay marriage. Policing minority communities. Nuclear weapons and Iran. Summer often brings a lull in the news, but not this year. And, come September, many students are going to want to talk about many of these headlines.
I’m not a University of Wisconsin alum, but I love to linger at Memorial Union Terrace on a sunny day or evening, facing pretty Lake Mendota. The Terrace is one of the most-loved outdoor destinations in Madison, but on Sept. 1 most of the area closes until next summer.
Political analysts describe Wisconsin as purple – neither liberalism’s traditional blue, nor conservatism’s typical red. The state’s deep political divides are well-documented, but often in terms of political parties.
The latest research on preventing the spread of White Nose Syndrome among Wisconsin’s bat populations will be presented this weekend. You can also find out how you can help preserve the populations.
Dennis Lloyd could be forgiven if he felt nervous about his new job. After almost 10 years at the University Press of Florida, Mr. Lloyd has just taken over as director of the University of Wisconsin Press. Running a nonprofit scholarly publishing operation, especially one in a state-university system handed major budget cuts, isn’t a walk in the park these days.
Quoted: “For a child to die from whooping cough in this day and age is criminal,” said Dr. Thomas N. Saari, a professor of pediatrics at the University of Wisconsin Medical School in Madison.
Some Wisconsin colleges and universities have made it easier for students to transfer between schools.
Two University of Wisconsin-Madison faculty members — one a textile artist and the other a chemist — have teamed to create fabric solar panels.
Quoted: Jack Kloppenburg, a sociologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, thinks the GMO generics mean farm-state universities are playing Monsanto’s game, instead of coming up with new ideas. But he says generic versions could at least get farmers out from under what he calls the “monopolistic practices” of big seed firms.
American college campuses are increasingly patrolled by armed police officers — and it’s a trend that burst into public view Wednesday, when a University of Cincinnati officer was charged with murder in the shooting death of a black motorist during a traffic stop. But this arming of college cops is causing some worries.
CHICAGO — Wisconsin athletics director Barry Alvarez says that regardless of where Paul Bunyan’s Axe is after the Badgers’ football game with Minnesota, the loser should get out of the way.
How do young children learn to swear – and why do they seem to do it at the most inappropriate moments?
Speaking at a Wisconsin Innovation Network luncheon, UW-Madison CIO Bruce Maas and the state’s Department of Administration CIO David Cagigal said the need for increased connectivity will only skyrocket in coming years due to pressure from the “Internet of Things.”
The reorganization of the 13 UW Colleges into four regional groups should be viewed as a first step toward a regional reorganization of the whole University of Wisconsin System.
