University of Wisconsin-Madison professor John Hawks is part of a team that made one of the greatest fossil discoveries of the past half century.
UW anthropologist helps to unlock mystery of Homo naledi
WISC-TV 3
Category: Research
Teachers, UW-Madison game designers collaborate on video games
Daily Cardinal
Noted: Field Day Lab is continuing to develop some of the ideas that were born in the workshop into free, open-sourced video games. The game designers said they aim to further engage students with an interactive learning environment.
“By engaging science teachers right from the start, we want to build games that will actually be used in classrooms,” said David Gagnon, the director of Field Day Lab, in the release. “Too many games languish because they do not fit what teachers want. With the teachers’ help, we want to build them right—right out of the gate.”
Want to end prejudice? Watch a sitcom
CNN
Quoted: “We thought the effect might be dampened with the groups actual media exposure prior to watching the program. Typically Muslims and Arabs are shown on television as more violent and aggressive and are shown in more stereotypical ways like as terrorists,” said Sohad Murrar, the study author. Murrar is a graduate student studying social and personality psychology in at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “It was particularly exciting to see this positive shift it was quite a robust effect, and we think if people’s prejudice was dampened in this case, this could be applied to other target groups.”
UPDATE: Students Compete to Change the Future of Transportation
NBC15
Students who are part of the University of Wisconsin’s BadgerLoop team took third in the world for their Hyperloop design in Texas yesterday.
Science-Diversity Efforts Connect Grad Students With Mentors
Chronicle of Higher Education
Angela Byars-Winston, a counseling psychologist at the U. of Wisconsin at Madison, is involved in an ambitious training program in “culturally responsive mentoring,” funded by the NIH.
MIT wins Hyperloop pod design competition (Wired UK)
Wired
A team of students from MIT have won a competition to design pods for the still-unbuilt Hyperloop transportation system. More than 100 university teams presented design concepts to a panel of SpaceX judges, with MIT beating out teams from Delft University of Technology, The University of Wisconsin, Virginia Tech and the University of California, Irvine to win first place.
Greenland
60 Minutes
One of the most significant efforts to study changes in the climate has been taking place near the top of the world. It’s a place called Petermann Glacier in Greenland, one of the largest glaciers in the Arctic Circle and a glacier that has experienced dramatic melting. It is a harsh and dangerous environment, and it has drawn some of the world’s leading climate scientists who are only able to work there a little over a month a year.
UW evolutionary biologist Sean Carroll named winner of prestigious Lewis Thomas Prize
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
This year’s winner of the Lewis Thomas Prize for Writing about Science is Sean B. Carroll, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and author of several books including, “Remarkable Creatures: Epic Adventures in the Search for the Origins of Species,” which was a finalist for the National Book Award in 2009.
Study: Wisconsin’s Rural School Districts Face Declining Enrollment, Less Funding
Wisconsin Public Radio
Wisconsin’s rural school districts are facing a “perfect storm” of declining enrollment and uncertain funding that pose tough questions about their future, according to a new report. A University of Wisconsin-Madison researcher said that the information she compiled in her report are the kind of problems that won’t go away any time soon.
WIAA board takes action on fall sports recommendations/realignment
NBC15
Noted: The Board voted to approve a proposed University of Wisconsin study entitled “Academic Effects of Concussion in High School Student Athletes,” reflecting the membership’s constant commitment to the safety and well-being of Wisconsin high school athletes. The Board’s support of the research study does not obligate a member school to participate in the study.
Bacteria talk to each other, and we’re listening
Wisconsin State Journal
Column by chemistry professor Helen Blackwell on her research at UW–Madison.
Scientists from UW-Madison lead way in stopping Zika virus
WISC-TV
Live at Four talks to UW-Madison’s Kristen Bernard and Matthew Aliota, both experts on Zika virus. Aliota is part of team that confirmed the Zika virus in Columbia and is working to find a way to stop it.
Researchers from UW help to confirm the presence of the Zika virus in Colombia
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
A new paper says that the first tests confirming transmission of the Zika virus in Colombia were carried out by researchers from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Colombia’s Universidad de Sucre.
Decades later, benchmark study yields data on human condition
Wisconsin State Journal
Report on the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study from Pamela Herd, a professor of public affairs and sociology, a faculty affiliate with the Institute for Research on Poverty and principal investigator of the study.
Pills, Patches Work the Same to Help Smokers Quit
Smoking cessation pills aren’t any better than nicotine patches or lozenges at helping people successfully quit, a U.S. study suggests.
Wisconsin Planned Parenthood clinic provided fetal tissue to UW-Madison
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
A Wisconsin Planned Parenthood clinic in 2010 provided heart and brain tissues from aborted fetuses to University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers for studies aimed at understanding the growth of babies with and without birth defects.
University of Wisconsin professor named in Forbes ’30 under 30′
Badger Herald
Many would describe using science to defy the laws of physics as a rare feat. But for University of Wisconsin assistant professor Mikhail Kats, it’s just another day in the lab.
February Temperatures Expected To Be Above Normal, Experts Say
Wisconsin Public Radio
Looking ahead to February, temperatures are expected to be above normal in Wisconsin, according to a University of Wisconsin-Madison meteorologist.
UW Included In Cybersecurity Grant To Protect Scientific Data
Wisconsin Public Radio
Computer scientists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison are tasked with protecting data from some of the nation’s most prolific science research programs, and they’ve just gotten a financial boost to bolster their efforts.
First-of-its-kind study finds parental debt affects children’s socioemotional well-being
Medical Xpress
Certain types of debt that parents take on may have adverse effects on children’s socioemotional well-being according to a new study by researchers at the University of Wisconsin at Madison and Dartmouth published by the journal Pediatrics. The study sheds new light on the link between debt and family well-being, as previous research on debt has typically focused on how debt affects the mental health and well-being of adults and has yet to explore how parents’ debt may impact a child’s well-being.
Parental debt can affect children’s sense of well-being, according to study led by profs at UW and Dartmouth
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
While past studies have examined the ways in which debts affect the mental health and well-being of adults, new research led by professors at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and Dartmouth College examines the problem from the child’s point of view.
Bipartisan Assembly group seeks about $2 million for Alzheimer’s, dementia care
Wisconsin State Journal
The other bills include $500,000 to fund four dementia care specialists in counties with fewer than 150,000 people and a statewide specialist responsible for educating employers about dementia; $250,000 to train mobile crisis teams in how to care for those suffering from dementia; and $50,000 to fund research by UW-Madison’s Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center.
Scientists at UW partner with the state on plan to help declining honey bees
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Scientists at the University of Wisconsin have worked with colleagues at the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection on a plan to help the state’s honey bees.
Working With Cancer
Wisconsin Public Radio
According to a new study, about 44 percent of working people diagnosed with metastatic cancer continue to work after their diagnoses. Interviewed:Amye Tevaarwerk, the UW-Madison oncologist who worked on the study about which factors are associated with employment changes among patients with metastatic cancer.
UW researchers find possible treatment for Alzheimer’s
Channel3000.com
University of Wisconsin researchers say they’ve found a treatment to clean up the plaques that form in the brain of mice with Alzheimer’s disease.
The research published in the journal Brain shows that compounds that inhibit two cellular proteins can help clean up the plaques found in the brain of mice with Alzheimer’s disease. The proteins work inside the cell to remove toxic material.
Quoted: Luigi Puglielli, of the Wisconsin Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center.
Major study of contaminated water shows progress, challenges ahead
Wisconsin State Journal
Dick Lathrop, a UW-Madison expert on fresh water systems who served as one of the study’s principal investigators, comments.
State dairy exporters looking for a new whey to raise sagging prices
Wisconsin State Journal
New whey formulas are being worked on all the time at the UW-Madison’s Center for Dairy Research. Noted: Mark Stephenson, UW-Madison Center for Dairy Profitability director, comments on the state of the dairy market.
Baldwin Pushes For New Standards In Regenerative Medicine Industry
Wisconsin Public Radio
U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin has introduced new legislation to create industry standards for regenerative medicine.The bill would create a public-private board to set guidelines for regenerative medical products, including those developed from stem cells. Dr. Bill Murphy, co-director of University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine Center, said the standards used currently aren’t specific to the cells and tissues used in the therapies.
Olver looks to ‘foster interaction’ at a more urban URP
WisBusiness.com
Aaron Olver wants University Research Park to look more like a city. That, says URP’s managing director, includes bringing in restaurants, coffee shop and fitness centers, as well as adding more picnic tables and social events and expanding URP’s food carts program. It’s all part of an effort to attract more companies to URP and bring in talent that increasingly seeks urban spaces and collaboration.
Studies Show Promising Mercury Pollution Results
Wisconsin Public Radio
Separate studies have been released that look at mercury contamination in the environment.
One shows scientists can track the type of mercury pollution that gets into the Great Lakes. The other shows global mercury pollution is declining.
Budget cuts force UW dairy sheep program to close
Agri-View
The University of Wisconsin-Madison is terminating its dairy sheep research and outreach program. Based at UW’s Spooner Agricultural Research Station, the program will end later this year, the result of state budget cuts.
Thanks to satellite data, scientists have finally figured out why Greenland’s ice sheet is melting
Yahoo News
Greenland’s vast ice sheet continues to melt, and thanks to two recently-launched satellites we’re beginning to understand why it’s happening so quickly. Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison believe increased cloud cover over the ice sheet itself may be to blame for up to a third of the ice melt that is occurring, a new study indicates.
What’s melting Greenland’s ice sheet? Night clouds, say scientists.
Christian Science Monitor
Clouds play an important role in melting Greenland’s ice sheet, say scientists.
Raised voices
Isthmus
Dr. Seth Dailey knows it’s hard to underestimate the power of voice. “Think about the number of people you make judgments about based on their voice,” says Dailey, a UW-Madison surgeon who specializes in vocal disorders. “We do it all the time. It’s part of the perceptual package. It affects how people can do their jobs with altered voice production. Vocal issues are more important than ever before in human history.”
Robin Vos: Discussion on fetal tissue bill ‘ongoing’
Capital Times
Pro-life organizations and the legislators behind (the fetal tissue ban) bill and two other bills held a Rally for Life on the Capitol steps, urging lawmakers to pass all three. The groups are particularly focused on encouraging Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, to schedule a vote, because they believe the Assembly has the votes to pass the legislation. But Vos said Tuesday Republican lawmakers are still working to reach a compromise on the proposal, which is an updated version of a 2013 bill that would ban the “sale, transfer or experimentation” of fetal body parts.
Wisconsin researchers land $5 million grant for study of state epilepsy patients
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Researchers at the Medical College of Wisconsin and University of Wisconsin-Madison have won a four-year, $5 million federal grant to study the brain networks of epilepsy patients. Their study, called the Epilepsy Connectome Project, will involve state-of-the-art brain imaging of about 200 adult temporal lobe epilepsy patients from across the state.
Future of fetal tissue bill uncertain in Wisconsin Senate
Capital Times
As anti-abortion advocates put pressure on Wisconsin lawmakers to pass a bill banning research on aborted fetal tissue, a top Senate Republican says it’s uncertain whether it will be brought to the Senate floor by the end of the legislative session.
The Trials of Alice Goffman
New York Times
Her first book, ‘On the Run’ — about thelives of young black men in WestPhiladelphia — has fueled a fight withinsociology over who gets to speak for whom.
Biosecurity board grapples with how to rein in risky flu studies
Science/AAAS
BETHESDA, MARYLAND—Fuzzy definitions, deep disagreement about risks and benefits, and an unfortunate acronym: All bedeviled an expert panel as it met here last week to examine whether the United States should fund certain risky pathogen experiments. Researchers largely praised a massive, recently released risk assessment of so-called gain-of-function (GOF) research, and a draft plan for reviewing the riskiest studies. Many had concerns about the details, however, and the meeting provided little clarity on one key issue: if and when the U.S. government will decide whether to lift a now 15-month-old moratorium on a handful of U.S.-funded virology experiments.
Blue Sky Science: Can stem cells be used to repair brain damage…
Q – Can stem cells be used to repair brain damage or help someone with Alzheimer’s, dementia or Parkinson’s?— Kate Krueger, 47, Madison
A – The simple answer to the question is yes. It is possible to regenerate parts of the brain with stem cells, just like we can in other organs.
Start-up companies are fueling new jobs in Wisconsin, according to new study
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Companies less than a year old accounted for all of Wisconsin’s net new job creation in 2012, according to a new study conducted by two University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers.
UW-Madison To End Its Sheep Research Program
Wisconsin Public Radio
In response to departmental budget cuts, the University of Wisconsin-Madison plans to end its research on dairy sheep — a program it says is unique to Wisconsin, but is no longer affordable.
UW-Madison to end dairy sheep research program, disperse herd of ewes
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
The University of Wisconsin-Madison will close its dairy sheep research program and disperse the flock of about 300 ewes in the fall, as the university rethinks how it serves the state’s broad agricultural sectors in light of state budget cuts.
Untapping the potential of yeast
Isthmus
“Interspecies yeast hybrid” sounds like either a black metal band or a horror movie, but the truth is stranger yet: Yeast hybridization is procreation between very different kinds of Beer goes back at least to the Egyptians, but it was only 500 years ago that what is conservatively estimated as a one-in-a-billion chance cross between yeast species allowed for the production of the first lager. It was Saccharomyces cerevisiae, which makes bread, wine and ale possible, and its distant cousin Saccharomyces eubayanus that accidently married to give us the basis for making lagers. Lagers are characterized by cold maturation with bottom-fermenting yeast and a quaffable taste profile.
Debate Over Bird Flu Research Moratorium Flares Up Again
National Public Radio
Former United Nations bioweapons inspector Rocco Casagrande has a Ph.D. in experimental biology from MIT. He’s got a rational, science-loving mind, so he’s not the kind of guy you’d expect to have a big picture of a tarot card hanging over his office desk.
Closing the achievement gap
Wisconsin Public Radio
The achievement gap has been a persistent problem in Wisconsin’s schools, and now the state and UW-Madison are teaming up to try to find an answer. Our guests from the Department of Public Instruction and UW’s Center for Education Research explain why they’re optimistic about the partnership’s ability to close…
Wisconsin anti-abortion advocates urge action on fetal tissue, Planned Parenthood bills
Capital Times
Two pro-life organizations have launched a television advertising campaign to encourage legislative action on the fetal tissue research ban. However, it was reported Monday that at least two TV stations have refused to air the ads during prime viewing times.
Modeling Effects Of Extreme Rain Over Madison
Wisconsin Public Radio
Despite all the heavy rain in the first half of December, with flood warnings across parts of the state, Wisconsinites should be thankful they didn’t experience a downpour on the order of 5 inches in just 24 hours. Such extreme rainfall can cause damaging flooding, severe soil erosion and crop loss. Wisconsin is experiencing these events more frequently, a trend that is expected to continue as the planet’s climate warms. However, it is important to note that any given weather event can’t be attributed to long-term climate change.
Asian carp would dominate Lake Erie biomass, study finds
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Noted: The latest study included researchers from several government agencies and universities, including the University of Michigan, UW-Madison and the University of Notre Dame.
Anti-Abortion Group Launches Ads Calling For Vote On Fetal Tissue Bill
Wisconsin Public Radio
An anti-abortion group has started airing a television commercial calling on Assembly Speaker Robin Vos to hold a vote on a bill that would prohibit research using tissue taken from aborted fetuses.
Blue Sky Science: Does space go on forever?
Wisconsin State Journal
Noted: Jim Lattis is the director of UW Space Place in the UW-Madison astronomy department.
Astronomer from UW thinks his Star of Bethlehem theory is gold
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
When a dealer at a New York coin show showed astronomer Michael Molnar an ancient Roman coin minted in Syria that featured a picture of Zeus on one side and Aries the ram on the other, he bought it for $50.
Ground-breaking research eliminates antibiotics from animal meat
Channel3000.com
Noted: The research first started in chickens. Animal science professor Mark Cook and associate researchers disabled a gene that helps defeat the immune system in sick hens.
From that discovery came ground-breaking work inside Arlington’s UW Beef Nutrition Farm, where researchers have been feeding those hens’ eggs to cattle in an effort to help prevent disease without the use of antibiotics.
IceCube Research Station
Atlas Obscura
When your grade-school science teacher described the various methods one can use to construct a telescope, drilling countless holes a mile and a half deep into Antarctic ice probably wasn’t one of them. But that’s exactly how the IceCube South Pole Neutrino Observatory works.
$3.5M grant keeps Wisconsin Energy Institute open
AP (Channel3000.com)
A center that focuses on clean energy research will continue operating at the University of Wisconsin-Madison after a $3.5 million grant from the school’s research foundation.
The Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation’s grant to the Wisconsin Energy Institute was announced Tuesday [Dec. 22].
UW Research Finds Upsides To Meditating On Compassion
Wisconsin Public Radio
New research conducted by psychologists at University of Wisconsin-Madison has found that people who learn to meditate on compassion are more likely to help someone who is being treated unfairly.
2015: The Year in Visual Stories and Graphics
New York Times
Top story – Japan’s New Satellite Captures an Image of Earth Every 10 Minutes – features imagery from Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies.
UW involved in large study on the genetics of blindness
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
An international study involving 26 centers around the world has produced a more detailed picture of the genetic factors involved in age-related macular degeneration, the leading cause of blindness in the elderly. The University of Wisconsin-Madison was one of the 26 centers involved in the study which was just published in the journal Nature Genetics.
After state budget cut, energy research hub awarded $3.5 million grant
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
The Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation will provide $3.5 million to fill a budget hole and help a hub for energy research keep operating at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Funding for the Wisconsin Energy Institute had been cut in the state budget lawmakers approved this summer. Gov. Scott Walker removed the funding as part of a proposal to cut back state support for the university system and give it more autonomy.
Energy research institute will stay open another year after receiving $3.5M from UW alums
Wisconsin State Journal
The Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation plans to give $3.5 million to keep the Wisconsin Energy Institute operating for a year. It’s a stopgap move after state lawmakers passed a budget in July that removed $8.1 million in funding over two years for the Wisconsin Bioenergy Initiative.