Details of how scientists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and in The Netherlands mutated the H5N1 bird flu virus into a form that could cause a deadly human pandemic will be published only after experts fully assess the risks of sharing the information, the World Health Organization said Friday.
Researchers with the state Department of Natural Resources and the UW-Madison Sea Grant Institute have confirmed in recent studies that the enormous sturgeon in the Fox and Wolf River basins communicate in deep and rumbling sounds that are so low they usually can?t be heard by the human ear….The subsonic sounds made by the fish, which can reach weights of more than 200 pounds, are being studied by the DNR’s Ron Bruch and Sea Grant’s Chris Bocast.
Last year, labs at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and Erasmus MC in Rotterdam independently created mutant forms of avian influenza, known as H5N1, that can be transmitted directly among mammals. The natural strain can be caught only through close contact with infected birds.
One immediate question is what level of safety should be required for that research.
In a new report in the Journal of the American Chemical Society (JACS), scientists from the University of Wisconsin-Madison show that nacre can also be deployed in the interest of science as a hard-wired thermometer and pressure sensor, revealing both the temperature and ocean depth at which the material formed.
Most of us are horrible lie detectors in face-to-face interaction, and we?re even worse when it comes to knowing if someone is lying online. New research suggests, however, that there are certain linguistic signals we can look for to determine if someone is trying to hoodwink us.
Online daters who lie about their personal information such as height, weight and age leave a series of clues that identify them as liars in the language they use.
How do you really know if the person at the other end of that online profile you?re browsing is genuine or some lying creep? There?s no easy ruleset (there never is), but a new study found there are several fascinating word-watching ways you can better predict whether someone?s telling the truth or just feeding you a line.
It was with a profound sense of personal validation that I opened Volume V of the Dictionary of American Regional English to discover an entry for the term my family back in Kentucky used for the chamber pot: thunder mug.
Simple meditation techniques, backed up with modern scientific knowledge of the brain, are helping kids hardwire themselves to become kinder and pay better attention, says neuroscientist Richard Davidson.
In the upcoming year, University of Wisconsin researchers will potentially join other scientists in declaring a groundbreaking discovery from research that looks to confirm the existence of a particle known as the ?God Particle.?
The University of Wisconsin-Madison announced three finalists to become the next director of its Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies, and none of them currently work on campus.
Shortly before Thanksgiving science reporters and bloggers began buzzing about a newly created, genetically modified version of the deadly bird flu that could easily be transmitted between ferrets, which closely mimic the human response to flu.
….”It’s interesting that this research became a concern, because from my perspective I’m not worried about it,” Paul Umbeck, the director of UW-Madison’s environment, health and safety department, says after outlining for a reporter a lengthy list of federal and institutional regulations and safeguards in place to help oversee such potentially dangerous experiments. “But cutting-edge is always going to be somewhat controversial to somebody.” Or, in this case, seemingly to most everybody.
Lovelorn users are so desperate to believe people who describe themselves as tall, dark and handsome that they fail to notice clues which suggest all is not what it seems, it was claimed.
Science knows how to identify a liar (big hint: someone who keeps harping on his or her own honesty). So it makes sense, in our online-dating-filled modern lifestyle, that science would also figure out how to identify an online dater who is not being completely above board.
Watching a plant grow and develop roots can be as tedious as … watching a plant grow. But seeing plant development as it unfolds can expose just what happens to a genetically modified organism, and how certain gene expressions can make plants do certain things. Robotic cameras and machine-vision algorithms are making the process easier.Plant physiologist Edgar Spalding at the University of Wisconsin-Madison creates time-lapse movies of plant root growth in action
Eighty per cent of online daters lie on their profiles, a new study reveals – but liars give themselves away.
At a time of trillion-dollar budget deficits, why do we need a new ?Video Game Czar? in the White House? That Czar?or, Czarina, more precisely?is Constance Steinkuehler, a professor from University of Wisconsin whose appointment as ?Senior Policy Analyst at the White House Office of Science and Technology? constitutes, in the admiring words of USA Today, ?one of the most unconventional White House hires in recent memory.?
A simple math problem lies at the heart of a heated debate over whether scientists should be allowed to publish provocative research into the transmissibility of H5N1 flu. Assuming the avian virus could spread easily among people, just how deadly would an H5N1 pandemic be for humans?
The University of Wisconsin-Madison announced three finalists to become the next director of its Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies, and none of them currently work on campus.
Sometime this year, physicists could very well announce they have confirmed the existence of a particle so important it has been dubbed the “God Particle.” Its discovery would fill in a crucial missing piece of a model that, despite a few quirks, has been used for decades to explain the fundamental structure of the universe and all that it contains, including us. Standing with the scientists making that announcement will be some familiar faces to many here in our corner of the universe: researchers from UW-Madison.
“We have a long history,” said Francis Halzen, the physicist who leads another groundbreaking UW-Madison effort to build a neutrino detector in the Antarctic ice. “And I think a distinguished history.” But the word “distinguished” hardly captures the fizz and pop, the headines and the historical reach of some of the physics that has gone on here.
Half of American adults know someone who found love online, and while the internet plays a more important role than before in starting relationships it is also a forum for cheating and lies that ends them, according to a survey released on Monday.
Two University of Wisconsin engineers have received national honors from the National Academy of Engineering for their work in the areas of environmental engineering and nuclear reactor design.
Daydreaming during class paid off for UW-Madison student Eric Ronning. He won $11,250 on Friday at UW-Madison?s annual Innovation Days for an invention he came up with during an engineering lecture. “I space out a lot,” Ronning admitted, a sophomore from Lincolnwood, Ill., who is majoring in mechanical engineering.
A: Concrete generally is crushed into “recycled concrete aggregate,” or RCA, said Craig Benson, a distinguished professor of geological engineering and co-director of the Office of Sustainability at University of Wisconsin-Madison. Once steel is removed, old concrete can be crushed and used to replace aggregate (the mix of sand and gravel) in new concrete. Crushed concrete can also be used to replace gravel as fill or base layer in construction.
Experts will debate world oil supply.
UW-Madison Professor Alan Carroll will moderate a debate between two prominent oil experts Tuesday at Union South. John Hofmeister, founder of Citizens for Affordable Energy and former president of Royal Dutch Shell?s U.S. operations, will debate Tadeusz Patzek, professor and chair at the University of Texas-Austin Department of Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering, in the 90-minute forum “World Oil Supply: Looming Crisis or New Abundance?” The program begins at 6 p.m. in Varsity Hall II on the second floor of Union South, 1308 W. Dayton St. A reception will follow the event.
A: This winter began much warmer than normal, but where does this year?s mildness rank all-time? You might be surprised to learn that although we are in the top 10 warmest starts to winter, we are not really close to the top. In fact, we are experiencing only the sixth warmest Dec. 1-Feb. 8 in Madison history with an average temperature of 28.3 degrees Fahrenheit during that stretch.
Last month, scientists around the world agreed to temporarily halt certain genetic experiments with bird flu viruses. More than three weeks of that 60-day moratorium have already passed. And the scientific community is in the midst of a fierce debate about what needs to happen next.
Contrary to the belief that people who burn a lot of calories are less vulnerable to gaining weight, a new study finds they and slow burners alike tend to put on pounds during the sweets-filled holiday season. “This idea of regulating body weight by being a very active individual that exercises a lot is not being supported by our study,” said Dale Schoeller, a professor at the University of Wisconsin and the senior author of the study.
UW-Madison transportation safety expert David Noyce traces the roundabout?s bad rap back to Chevy Chase in the 1985 comedy “European Vacation.” Chase?s character, Clark Griswold, drives his family in an English rental car into the inner lane of a roundabout near London?s Lambeth Bridge. “They got stuck in the circle and couldn?t get out,” Noyce recalled Thursday. “So people had a negative view.” And a lot of motorists in Wisconsin still do.
There?s nothing worse than feeling hopeless and helpless when it comes to your child, says Anne Morgan Giroux.The Madison mother of three knows that feeling first-hand, since her oldest child, Lily, was diagnosed with epilepsy at age 2. At times, seizures were a regular, frightening occurrence for Lily. As any parent would, Giroux, 47, felt compelled to do something. So in 2007, she and her husband, David, executive director of communications for the UW System, established Lily’s Fund for Epilepsy Research. The fund is run through the UW Foundation and supports research at UW-Madison, including funding for a research fellowship position.
Paul Peercy, longtime dean of the UW-Madison College of Engineering, announced on Wednesday plans to retire. He will stay on until the international search for a new dean is complete, according to a UW-Madison news release. Peercy, 71, became dean in 1999. As dean, he oversees 14 undergraduate degrees and 22 at the graduate level.
Just off the coast of Sunset Beach in Cape May, N.J. lies an empty concrete shell. These are not the remains of a pier or other building lost to the seas, but of a ship that once traversed the Atlantic Ocean in a time of war. The final resting place of the S.S. Atlantis is both a curiosity and important part of U.S. history. In her life, she was a transport ship in the World War I Emergency Fleet. Now she intrigues tourists, often raising the question “how did a concrete ship manage to float?”
Students at the University of Wisconsin-Madison spend their nights shut in at the Engineering Centers Building answering this question year after year. These students are members of the UW-Madison Concrete Canoe Team (UW-CCT) and are tasked each year with designing and building a canoe out of concrete.
We?ve all heard of, if not ventured across, the soda/pop divide. In Pittsburgh, we?re close enough that it?s a day trip and doesn?t even require the wagon trains of old.
Now that laboratory studies have yielded a glimpse of H5N1 flu viruses that might spread rapidly in humans and cause a devastating pandemic, vaccine makers will be better prepared if one develops. Or will they?
University of Wisconsin researchers have discovered a link between large amounts of caloric intake and early onset of puberty in girls.
A University of Wisconsin-Madison study using primates could offer answers as to why girls are reaching puberty earlier, in some cases as young as age 7.
The breathalyzer has been used to determine if a person has been drinking. What if a new type could also detect certain diseases? UW-Madison researchers have developed technology that can distinguish between normal exhaled air and air that has been altered by disease. The research has been published online in the journal Metabolism, according to a news release from UW-Madison. UW-Madison biochemist and scientist Fariba Assadi-Porter, lead author of the research, said the method could lead to cheaper, faster and more sensitive methods of diagnosis.
Some state wildlife experts and even hunting proponents say Republicans may have over-reached last week in putting forth back-to-back proposals to hunt formerly endangered gray wolves and sandhill cranes, and there could be a backlash from non-hunters.
“It?s just lousy timing,” said Scott Craven, a recently retired UW-Madison wildlife ecologist. With the wolf just removed last month from the endangered species list, the non-hunting public is probably perplexed by what seems like a rush to hunt a species on which so much time and money was spent to restore and protect.
A new study asserts that marriages and cohabiting relationships aren?t all that different in the long run. Instead, after a few years, married couples look like unmarried couples on measures of well-being, health and social ties, researchers Larry Bumpass of University of Wisconsin at Madison and Kelly Musick of Cornell University write in the February 2012 issue of the Journal of Marriage and Family.
NEW YORK?Sparks flew Thursday night at a New York Academy of Sciences panel discussion about whether or not certain recent research into the H5N1 avian flu virus has created a major biosecurity threat and what, if anything, to do about it.
Steroids have been linked to the death of popular athletes, but a Wisconsin doctor claims steroids aren?t harmful at all.
In the midst of an ongoing UW discussion surrounding the ethics of animal research, the university will host a scientist renowned for his research on primates? level of cooperation at an ethics of animal research open forum Feb. 3. Frans de Waal, a psychology professor at Yerkes National Primate Research Center at Emory University, will discuss observed pro-social behavior of primates and elephants.
Does having a compassionate brain lead to changes in real life? UW-Madison researchers are launching a series of studies to find out how virtuous qualities, such as compassion and kindness, relate to an individual?s behavior in the real world. Dr. Richard Davidson, founder of the Center for Investigating Healthy Minds at UW-Madison, got a three-year grant worth $1.7 million from the John Templeton Foundation to do the research.
Some of the state?s top wolf scientists cautioned Wednesday that an Assembly bill establishing a wolf hunting season goes too far and does not offer enough protections against killing too many of the state?s 800 to 1,000 wolves and returning the animal to the federal endangered species list….Tim Van Deelen, a UW-Madison wildlife ecologist who helped author the wolf management plan, said the population goal of 350 was set 20 years ago and dramatically underestimated the capacity of the Wisconsin landscape to support wolves. Also, he said, there is little research on the impact of hunting on a recovering wolf population.
The best news comes from brain researchers at the University of Wisconsin, who find from scans that adults in their middle and upper decades ?seem to have the ability to screen out or tamp down negative emotions; their amygdalae light up when they see positive images but ignore the disturbing ones.?
A committee that advises the federal government on biosecurity issues recommended last month that the details of two experiments on the H5N1, or avian, influenza — including research conducted by UW-Madison bird flu expert Yoshihiro Kawaoka — not be made public due to fears that terrorists could use the information to create a bioweapon. It took this government-appointed body more than a month, but on Tuesday it finally explained in detail why it made that recommendation.
The discussion of a hunting season will begin in earnest Wednesday morning with a legislative hearing on a Republican plan to allow public hunting and trapping of wolves in Wisconsin. Among those who will testify Wednesday (this) morning is Tim Van Deelen, a UW-Madison wildlife ecologist who has studied wolf populations. Van Deelen said Tuesday that, while he believes the state?s packs can probably sustain some level of public hunting, the impact of killing any percentage of a recovering wolf population has been little studied.
A UW-Madison scientist?s altered bird flu virus could mutate in dangerous ways if unleashed in nature, according to a statement Tuesday from the head of a government advisory board that earlier said sensitive details of the study shouldn?t be published. The chairman of the advisory board also said he wishes the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had submitted for review a paper published in another journal on creating a similarly modified strain of bird flu.
From whoopensocker to upscuddle, strubbly to swivet, 50 years after it was first conceived the Dictionary of American Regional English is finally about to reach the end of the alphabet.
Concerns that research about a genetically mutated form of bird flu could escape from labs or fall into the hands of bioterrorists led U.S. scientific advisers to ask two prominent journals to withhold key details on the groundbreaking research, the advisers explained Tuesday.
Researchers are used to explaining scientific processes. Recently they have taken to explaining themselves. As we reported last week, on January 20th scientists who have created a new, more contagious form of bird flu explained in Science and Nature that they would take a 60-day hiatus from their research. The work of Ron Fouchier of the Erasmus Medical Centre, in Rotterdam, and Yoshihiro Kawaoka of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, had created such alarm that American officials had asked the two leading scientific journals to censor it.
Citing safety risks of “unusually high magnitude,” a U.S. advisory panel has explained why it recommended limiting publication of two bird flu research papers in late December.
Members of the U.S. National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity (NSABB) on Tuesday defended its recommendation that details about how scientists made a virulent form of the H5N1 flu virus not be made public.
Details of a genetically altered strain of the deadly avian flu virus are “a grave concern” to public safety and should be kept under wraps, a federal advisory board declared Tuesday.
If you?re training for a new job someday soon with a video game controller in your hands, thank Constance Steinkuehler. Steinkuehler is on an 18-month assignment at the White House, studying the civic potential of video games.
A panel of scientists and science journalists discuss the debate over avian flu research, including work in University of Wisconsin?Madison labs.
….”That?s the new frontier,” said Gary Radloff, director of Midwest Energy Policy Analysis for the Wisconsin Bioenergy Initiative at UW-Madison. What?s exciting for ethanol plants is that much of the progress is taking place under their roofs. “So the ability to take advantage of that pre-existing infrastructure is good business and good environmental consideration. We don?t need to reinvent the wheel,” said John Greeler, director of education and outreach at the UW?s Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center.
The new DNR wolf regulations have led to speculation about the creation of a public wolf-hunting season. Despite opposition from some groups, UW-Madison Associate Professor of Environmental Studies Adrian Treves said he believes legislation will be passed in 2012. According to his research, most Wisconsin residents endorse a wolf hunt. Treves warned that while the state needs to have some authority over the wolf population, “the successful conservation of wolves depends on people tolerating them, accepting them, and that tolerance has been declining,” Treves said.
The newest Earth-observing satellite, launched into orbit last October, has been renamed to honor the late Verner Suomi, a University of Wisconsin-Madison professor often called the father of satellite meteorology.
Another researcher whose work on the H5N1 avian flu has been delayed from publication because of the recommendations of a U.S. government advisory board, and who agreed to a 60-day moratorium on further work, has written that studies of the potentially dangerous virus — including work that creates strains that might infect and sicken humans — must go on.
