Two ecologists have scoured through meticulous birdsong notes taken 70 years ago by conservation pioneer Aldo Leopold and transformed them into a soundscape of an ecosystem that no longer exists.
Demonstrators supporting People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals displayed graphic photographs portraying a cat used in experiments to protest the University of Wisconsin?s alleged acts of animal cruelty Tuesday.
Pacifiers may stunt the emotional development of baby boys by robbing them of the opportunity to try on facial expressions during infancy.
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals visited the University of Wisconsin-Madison Tuesday to protest the university?s alleged mistreatment of animals during research. The protest group congregated at Library Mall at noon and grew to approximately 40 people who displayed signs and pictures of the cats involved in the research to alert students of the alleged animal cruelty.
Bring up the subject of pacifiers among new parents, and you?ll probably spark a spirited conversation that will wake up every sleeping baby within a block or so. Now, a UW-Madison study is likely to fuel even more debate about the trusty old nuk. Or nuki. Or binky. Or na-na. Or whatever you have chosen to call the device that serves as a remarkably effective volume control for most babies. Paula Niedenthal, a psychology professor and lead author of the study, found that boys who used pacifiers as babies scored lower on tests that measured their emotional development.
A new study so hot and fresh out of the University of Wisconsin-Madison that Bucky Badger singed his adorable little paws on when he took it out of the lab suggests that pacifiers stunt the emotional development of baby boys by robbing them of the opportunity to mimic adults by refining their Jim Carrey rubber faces.
A dummy may seem like an ideal solution to soothe a crying baby, but a new study suggests this could stunt their emotional development. The team of psychologists from the University of Wisconsin-Madison found that heavy pacifier use was linked to poor results on various measures of emotional maturity.
Parents who don?t want their baby boys to grow up emotionally stunted may want to pocket their pacifiers during the daytime.
A new study from the University of Wisconsin-Madison suggests frequent pacifier use during the day may disrupt the emotional development of baby boys because it limits their opportunity to mimic the facial expressions of others – a tool that may help them better understand emotions and learn empathy.
Researchers at the University of Wisconsin have recently discovered a new way to successfully treat cervical cancer without using radiation or chemotherapy.
The program will pair students at the community centers with UW-Madison and Edgewood College scientists and teachers to do hands-on science during after-school programs in neighborhood community centers around the city. The centers include Bridge Lake Point, East Madison, Goodman, Kennedy Heights, Lussier and Vera Court. Shaheen Sutterwala, with the UW-Madison Institute for Biology Education, said students will focus this semester on the science of water.
She helped discover the “God particle” and she?s going to talk about it this week. UW-Madison physics professor Sau Lan Wu will give a free public lecture Thursday about the two decades she spent searching for the Higgs boson particle, which scientists believe they found in July. It was hailed as one of the most important scientific discoveries in a century and had a team of UW-Madison researchers, led by Wu, playing leading roles figuring out the physics of, and building and operating, the $10 billion machine used to discover the particle.
Less than a week after People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals accused the University of Wisconsin-Madison of harming animals during research, the group plans to visit campus Tuesday to protest the alleged mistreatment.
More than a few people in politics and media have expressed frustration that many reporters instinctively seek out the same ?expert? sources when writing political stories. One of the most ubiquitous sources is Charles Franklin, a UW-Madison political science professor. For reporters on deadline, the gregarious Alabama native is a great source because he?s always happy to talk. However, for those of us who seek deep analysis of the nitty gritty of political data, few in Wisconsin are more qualified than Franklin, a nationally renowned pollster who is currently on leave from UW to conduct a public opinion poll at Marquette University Law School.
A new study from University of Wisconsin-Madison psychologist Paula Niedenthal suggests frequent pacifier use during the day may disrupt the emotional development of baby boys because it limits their opportunity to mimic the facial expressions of others – a tool that may help them better understand emotions and learn empathy.
Noted: Researchers are growing increasingly confident, though, that sleep evolved specifically to recharge the brain. Dr. Chiara Cirelli, a neuroscientist at the University of Wisconsin, has been studying the difference between sleep and quiet wake in humans. She says that while we?re awake, all of our neurons are constantly firing, but that when we?re asleep, the neurons revert to an “up-and-down” state in which only some are active at a given time. During some stages of sleep, all neuron activity goes silent. And that?s likely when the restful part of sleep takes place.
For all of the hyper-partisanship and divisiveness in Wisconsin politics these days, a small group of people say they back both Republican Gov. Scott Walker and Democratic President Barack Obama.
“We have seen that consistent pattern for a modest group of people,” said Charles Franklin, director of the Marquette University Law School poll.
The champion of mocking science was the late Wisconsin Sen. William Proxmire, whose Golden Fleece Awards enlivened dull Senate floor proceedings from 1975 until 1988. His monthly awards became a staple of news coverage. He generated good laughs back home by talking about a “wacko” in a lab coat experimenting with something seemingly stupid. Proxmire did not invent the mad-scientist stereotype, but he did much to popularize it.
….The United States may now risk falling behind in scientific discoveries as other countries increase their science funding. We need to get serious about science. In fact, maybe it’s time for researchers to fight back, to return a comeback for every punch line.
I was invited by UW-Madison last year to participate in a series of lectures exploring the ethics of animal research. I made the case that the reality of experiments on animals is largely hidden from the public and that many would consider what routinely happens to cats, dogs and monkeys in labs to be torture. I explained that many current experiments on animals have a tenuous link to improving human health.
Nearly 30,000 public school teachers and support staff went on strike in Chicago this past week in a move that left some 350,000 students without classes to attend. And while this contentious battle between Chicago Public Schools and the Chicago Teachers Union blew up due to a range of issues — including compensation, health care benefits and job security concerns — one of the key sticking points reportedly was over the implementation of a new teacher evaluation system.
Quoted: Rob Meyer, director of the Value Added Research Center in the UW-Madison School of Education.
A: Treatment with ionizing radiation can be used to sterilize foods as well as sensitive materials like medical supplies and equipment. And ionizing radiation can indeed alter the nutritional content of food to some extent, said Franco X. Milani, an assistant professor of food science and extension specialist at the UW-Madison.
A: The Beaufort scale is a method of estimating wind speed based on the general condition of the surface of a large body of water with respect to wind waves and swell. This scale allows sailors to estimate the wind speed just by observing the state of the sea surface. The scale has a long history, but was finalized in 1805 by Rear Admiral Sir Francis Beaufort, an Irish hydrographer in the British Royal Navy.
Dear Editor: I?ve been constantly disappointed in the UW-Madison?s failure to embrace ethical and humane research practices.
Scientists believe that stress could have a direct impact on short-term memory. In a recent study, a group of psychologists at the University of Wisconsin?Madison noted a link between stress and the mind?s ability to ?remember? information.
The University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health and GE Healthcare on Thursday announced a major partnership for creating a new imaging research facility. The aim of the project is to ultimately improve health care with better diagnostic tools, specifically imaging technology.
“This represents a remarkable opportunity to put UW-Madison at the very next cutting-edge frontier of diagnostic imaging and radiology research,” said Dr. Bob Golden, dean of the UW School of Medicine and Public Health.
There?s a new research project at the UW School of Medicine and Public Health that could help doctors determine if certain medical treatments and drugs are working.
This is a tale of two horses, one world famous despite the possibility it never existed, and one that most definitely did exist, in Madison, but then seemed to disappear. It involves a best-selling local novelist, a Dane County judge, an ancient city and a dinner next month in Madison. You might call it a mystery inside a mystery.
Mentioned: UW professor of classics William Aylward, an expert on Troy
Dear Editor: As a surgeon, a Wisconsin native and a UW-Madison Medical School alumnus, I was shocked and disappointed at UW?s dishonest attempt to defend the gruesome procedures conducted on unsuspecting cats in its labs by claiming they are the same as those performed on humans receiving implants to improve their hearing.
Talk about perfect timing…Just days after an animal rights group called on federal officials to investigate potential animal welfare violations related to the treatment of cats in invasive brain experiments at UW-Madison, the university is hosting its first forum of the new academic year examining the ethics of animal research.
Most of us spent our summers doing the standard things, from yard work to browsing farmers? markets, maybe a camping trip or two. Ask UW-Madison botanist Don Waller how he spent his summer, however, and you?ll likely feel your summer was somewhat lacking in excitement. Waller spent a good part of his summer staring down feral camels in Australia. It seems they are a problem there, much as we have problems with feral cats. Only these are camels. And there are lots of them.
The University of Wisconsin denied a series of claims filed by the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals Wednesday morning that accuse two UW federal institutions of animal cruelty.
For nearly two decades, University of Wisconsin students have explored mysteries in the sky via Universe in the Park programming hosted in state parks, which allow students of all ages to explore astronomy-based questions in real perspective.
One of the nation?s few extension poultry specialists for small flocks, Kean also writes the Answer Man column for Backyard Poultry magazine. Most of the problems he deals with have to do with chickens who are too fat, he says. Along with his work for the UW Extension, Kean has spent nearly two decades on the academic staff at UW-Madison, where he teaches poultry courses in breeder flock and hatchery management, plus a companion animal biology class for non-biology majors.
Technology is changing the world, and the bioscience and health care industries are no exception, a biotechnology booster and venture capitalist told a conference in Madison on Wednesday. That means today?s biotechnology companies will have to find new ways to succeed, said G. Steven Burrill, a UW-Madison graduate and one of the featured speakers at the daylong 2012 Bioscience Vision Summit at Monona Terrace.
An animal rights group is calling on federal officials to investigate potential animal welfare violations related to the treatment and use of cats in invasive brain experiments at the University of Wisconsin-Madison….Eric Sandgren, who oversees animal research at UW-Madison as director of the university?s Research Animal Resources Center, was adamant that UW-Madison did not violate any federal regulations and says he welcomes an investigation.
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals accused the University of Wisconsin-Madison Wednesday of violating multiple provisions in the federal Animal Welfare Act during a 2008 research study.The study, which focused on sound localization, conducted various surgeries on cats, including the implementation of cochlear implants, which involves implanting an electronic device in the ear to restore hearing. Researchers experimented on cats because the feline auditory system is similar to that of humans.
Star gazers still have a few more chances to admire the night sky from Wisconsin state parks this fall through the University of Wisconsin-Madisons Universe in the Park program.
Star gazers still have a few more chances to admire the night sky from Wisconsin state parks this fall through the University of Wisconsin-Madison?s Universe in the Park program.
A University of Wisconsin study regarding the interaction between red and white blood cells and platelets within blood vessels recently revealed a new understanding through the use of computer simulation.
Kelly Underwood is a typical University of Wisconsin-Madison junior, scrambling to get into a class she desperately needs at the start of a new school year.
But finding a seat in a chemistry class here, and at UW-La Crosse and UW-Stevens Point, is an especially high-stakes race.Buildings with science labs constructed 40 to 50 years ago weren?t designed to keep up with expanding enrollments and evolving science, UW officials say.
That?s especially true as the number of students pursuing science-related fields grows exponentially to match workforce opportunities, and science encompasses emerging fields such as biotechnology and nanotechnology.
National business leaders who understand the importance of research universities to our economic future are telling Wisconsin lawmakers that they need to put more state money into the University of Wisconsin-Madison. ?America is driven by innovation ? advances in ideas, products and processes that create new industries and jobs,? the report says. ?In the past half-century, innovation itself has been increasingly driven by educated people and the knowledge they produce. Our nation?s primary source of both new knowledge and graduates with advanced skills continues to be our research universities.
The study of economics has been derisively called the ?dismal science? since the mid-19th century. But no one would describe labor economist Laura Dresser, associate director of the UW-Madison?s Center on Wisconsin Strategy, as dismal ? even if the statistics she produces these days aren?t particularly cheerful. Dresser?s work at COWS focuses not just on the numbers but on providing policy ideas to help close the ever-widening wealth gap in the U.S.
“This column avoids politics, but we are equipped to speak about science….Climate change is a serious issue, and policymakers would do well to plan for the challenges it poses to our way of life.
A: The first known scientific use of hurricane naming arose in the Pacific during World War II. It was an easy and effective way to distinguish one tropical cyclone from another on the weather maps, said Steve Ackerman, a UW-Madison professor of atmospheric and oceanic sciences and director of the Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies. The system was simple and alphabetical: The name of the first storm of the season would begin with A; the second, B; the third, C; and so on.
MADISON, Wis.-Three businesses in the University Research Park are making changes that reinforce the companies? commitment to Madison, according to the University Research Park director. Epicentre and Aldevron will move operations into the research park?s 80,000-square-foot Accelerator building. Exact Sciences will move into space Aldevron is vacating.
New Legislation has recently been proposed to the UW-Madison student government concerning the creation of a new committee. The Sustainability Committee of the Associated Students of Madison would focus of issues concerning sustainability on campus. There are four areas of focus that this committee plans to address while in existence. These are campus water use, energy use, land use and food sourcing. Solutions to these important issues will come through policy mechanisms in student government and working with UW-Madison faculty and administration.
The Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation has lost as much as $14 million in licensing income on a key drug, and stands to lose even more when the drug begins losing patent protection in 2014.
The Wisconsin Science Festival returns for its second year from Sept. 27 to 30. The schedule includes music, art and — hold onto your hats — explosions.
A new survey shows the University of Wisconsin-Madison and its alumni foundation have earned more than $57 million in fiscal 2011 from licensing research innovations.
UW-Madison, thanks to its partnership with the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, remained among the national leaders in commercializing its academic research during the 2011 fiscal year, according to an annual survey of the Association of University Technology Managers released earlier in the week. Only one Big Ten Conference institution had more licensing income than UW-Madison?s $57.7 million, with Northwestern University bringing in a whopping $191.5 million -? tops among all colleges and universities.
?The list changes year-to-year, but the thing about WARF is we have remained consistently strong because UW-Madison is a world class university,? says Carl Gulbrandsen, the managing director of WARF. ?We wouldn?t be able to do any of this without a great university.?
When the climate began to warm during the last Ice Age about 23,000 years ago, much of the Northern Hemisphere was covered in ice. University of Wisconsin geologist Anders Carlson studies ice sheet melt from land and ocean sediment cores. His study describes what prehistoric Earth was like in North America and Northern Europe some 140,000 years ago.
Noted: But the results also have some researchers scratching their heads. The results are quite different from a 2009 study of monkeys in a colony in Wisconsin that found a clear survival edge from age-related diseases like diabetes, cancer and heart disease in calorie-restricted animals. That study also saw a trend toward longer life for monkeys on the diet when all causes of death were considered.
Results from a new National Institute of Aging study of monkey diet and longevity contradict those of a 2009 University of Wisconsin?MAdison study, but taken together the two experiments add nuance to our understanding of nutrition and life span.
Study of long-term diets in monkeys finds no difference in lifespan among monkeys fed fewer calories ? contrary to findings from a UW?Madison study published in 2009.
Also unlike previous years, most buildings have air conditioning, which is the most important thing for people to have during a heat wave, according to Richard C. Keller, a medical history and bioethics professor at UW-Madison. Keller is currently compiling an account of the heat wave that spread across France and central Europe in 2003. An estimated 70,000 people in Europe ? 15,000 in France alone ? died in early August from temperatures reaching 104 degrees. There is no death toll for this summer?s heat wave in the United States. ?There wasn?t an epidemic of heat wave deaths this summer,? said Keller. ?There is much more air conditioning in the U.S. and it is more widespread.?
A dairy plant addition and a new meat science and muscle biology laboratory are on the drawing board for the University of Wisconsin-Madison, with half the money to build them being raised privately by the dairy and the meat industries, respectively.
If, after all that?s happened, you still can?t understand the appeal of Gov. Scott Walker and his arch-conservative allies, you might consider the roles of race and rural identity in Wisconsin. They seem to be crucial drivers in the anti-government tidal wave that has washed over our political landscape. That is a central finding of a major paper by Katherine Cramer Walsh, a University of Wisconsin-Madison political scientist who has been widely applauded for a research style that relies more on personal interaction and group observation than on polling.
Paying for new academic buildings requires universities to engage in creative financing, and sometimes conduct ambitious fundraising from special interests that could benefit from the research produced there.
Deborah Blum was raised by an entomologist father and a literary mother, she writes on her website, which left her little choice but to grow up and become a science writer. Blum?s 2010 book, ?The Poisoner?s Handbook,? received rave reviews for its melding of science and mystery in the telling of the story of a pair of Jazz Age scientists fighting to catch killers and create the science of forensic detection. Here, Blum chooses three books that speak to the drama science creates.
A: On a day with high ice clouds, you are likely to see shiny, colored regions at either side of the sun. These are sundogs, an optical effect caused by refraction and dispersion of the Sun?s light through ice crystals. When the light rays strike the boundary between the air and water, like an ice crystal, several things can happen. Some rays are turned back in the direction from which they came, the familiar process of reflection. Other rays are transmitted into the crystal. Some of the transmitted rays change direction, a process known as refraction.
A. You probably don?t, according to Yaohui ?Gloria? Xu, dermatology professor at UW?Madison. ?You may get a few new freckles, but it?s more likely the ones you have already are just getting darker,? Xu said. Exposure to the sun triggers the release of a brown skin pigment called melanin, the reason people with darker skin have fewer sun-related skin problems. ?It?s a defense mechanism,? Xu said. ?Melanin is a natural photo-protector. It does what the chemicals in sunscreen do, and even better. It disperses the high energy of the sun?s rays.?
