While members of the international community have voiced major concerns about the potential health effects of radiation released in the nuclear crisis in Japan, University of Wisconsin experts said lasting health effects for citizens remain unlikely in a panel held Tuesday.
A scientist from the University of Wisconsin-Madison has been awarded the 2011 Stockholm Water Prize — the top award for scientists studying water-related activities.
MADISON, Wis. — A scientist from the University of Wisconsin-Madison has been awarded the 2011 Stockholm Water Prize , the top award for scientists studying water-related activities. Limnologist Stephen Carpenter is the Stephen Alfred Forbes Professor of Zoology at the UW. The award, which comes with $150,000 and a specially designed crystal sculpture, honors individuals and organizations “whose work contributes broadly to the conservation and protection of water resources and to improved health of the planet?s inhabitants and ecosystems,” according to the group.
American environmental scientist Stephen Carpenter has been named this year?s winner of the Stockholm Water Prize for his research on lake ecosystems and how humans and surrounding landscapes affect them. Carpenter is a professor in Zoology and Limnology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the United States.
Quoted: Greg Harrington, chairman of the water board and a UW-Madison environmental engineer.
To lay the groundwork for a nerve-electronic hybrid, graduate student Minrui Yu of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and his colleagues created tubes of layered silicon and germanium, materials that could insulate electric signals sent by a nerve cell. The tubes were various sizes and shapes and big enough for a nerve cell?s extensions to crawl through but too small for the cell?s main body to get inside.
Molly Jahn, a University of Wisconsin-Madison professor and administrator, has been named to a newly created Commission on Sustainable Agriculture and Climate Change, a group of international experts on agriculture, climate, food, economics and natural resources.
American environmental scientist Stephen Carpenter has been named this year?s winner of the Stockholm Water Prize for his research on lake ecosystems and how humans and surrounding landscapes affect them.
Quoted: Steven A. Ackerman and Jonathan Martin, professors in the UW-Madison department of atmospheric and oceanic sciences.
Steenbock?s on Orchard, the high-end Food Fight restaurant inside the new $210 million Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery building on the UW-Madison campus, is nearly as world class as the facility itself.
“The spike in asthma attacks in the fall, which is associated with colds and other viral airway infections, disappeared in the kids in the omalizumab (Xolair) group,” said study author William Busse, a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Thousands are dead and thousands more missing after the earthquake and tsunami hit Japan about a week ago.UW Madison Geoscience Professor Harold Tobin came in to Wake Up Wisconsin Weekend to discuss the earthquake and the tsunami.
Three stem cell researchers have been awarded the annual Albany Medical Center Prize in Medicine and Biomedical Research for their pioneering work in human stem cells. The winners announced Wednesday are Elaine Fuchs of Rockefeller University in New York City; James A. Thomson of the private, nonprofit Morgridge Institute for Research and the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Medicine and Public Health; and Shinya Yamanaka of Kyoto University in Japan and Gladstone Institute of Cardiovascular Disease in San Francisco.
Three pioneering stem-cell scientists were recognized today with the 2011 Albany Medical Center Prize in Medicine and Biomedical Research, a $500,000 award, the New York institution announced. The winners were Elaine Fuchs, a professor at Rockefeller University; James A. Thomson, a professor at the University of Wisconsin at Madison and at the University of California at Santa Barbara; and Shinya Yamanaka, a professor at Kyoto University, in Japan.
Three scientists who work in isolating human stem cells won the 11th annual Albany Medical Center Prize in Medicine and Biomedical Research, officials say.
Elaine Fuchs, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator at The Rockefeller University in New York City; James A. Thomson of the Morgridge Institute for Research in Madison, Wis. and the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Medicine and Public Health; and Dr. Shinya Yamanaka of Kyoto University in Japan and the Gladstone Institute of Cardiovascular Disease in San Francisco are co-recipients of the $500,000 prize.
The researchers plan to conduct a study next year that will specifically examine whether omalizumab, given one month before school starts and for four months during the fall, can decrease asthma exacerbations, said study researcher Dr. William Busse, an allergy and immunology researcher at University of Wisconsin-Madison.
After not initially recommending it for approval, Gov. Scott Walker today announced that he wants to allow UW-Madison to build a new $53 million School of Nursing Building. Under his proposal, UW-Madison would get $17 million in state-supported borrowing, rather than the $34.8 million the university requested from the state.
MADISON, Wis. — Acclaimed stem cell researcher and University of Wisconsin professor Dr. James Thompson is back in the national spotlight.Thompson was awarded the Albany Center Prize in Medicine and Biomedical Research. The $500,000 prize is the nation?s largest award in science and medicine, according to a press release from the UW School of Medicine and Public Health.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison?s Molly Jahn was named to the newly created Commission on Sustainable Agriculture and Climate Change. This group announced Friday features 13 international experts on agriculture, climate, food, economics and natural resources. Members plan to examine threats to food security due to climate change and increasing populations.
UW-Madison stem cell research pioneer James Thomson is one of three winners of this year?s Albany Medical Center Prize in Medicine and Biomedical Research, which some call ?America?s Nobel.?
Thomson was the first to isolate and grow human embryonic stem cells in the lab, in 1998. He helped discover a new way of creating stem cells in 2007 by reprogramming skin cells back to their embryonic state.
Joseph Bisognano sounds strained as he describes his current task: laying off 13 of the 40 staff members at the Synchrotron Radiation Center that he directs at the University of Wisconsin?Madison.
Are U.S. nuclear power plants prepared to handle the extremities mother nature has to offer? To help us answer that is Michael Corradini, University of Wisconsin-Madison professor of engineering physics, and is an expert on nuclear power and nuclear safety. Corradini ensures us that the reactors in the United States are absolutely safe.
A recent UW study finds that white nurses work harder to ease their patients? suffering when those patients are also white. The finding fits in with decades of research showing a pattern of black patients consistently receiving less treatment from doctors and nurses than white patients. But it may not take much to fix this racial bias.
The Wisconsin Longitudinal Study has tracked members of the Wisconsin class of 1957 since their graduation to inform researchers and policy makers of the effects of physical and emotional health, as well as life experience, over time.
People all over are looking for some historical context regarding the explosions at Japan?s Fukushima nuclear plant, caused by earthquake activity. Chairman of the UW-Energy Institute Mike Corradini says it?s inaccurate to compare the incident to the massive meltdown at Chernobyl. He says the radiological consequences of the Japanese incident are more similar to Three Mile Island.
The Alliance for Animals held their annual Vegantine?s Dinner on February 12. Individuals were honored for giving exceptional respect to animals in our society. Todd Finkelmeyer of the Capital Times was awarded the Heart of Journalism in recognition of his balanced and consistent reporting on the use of animals at UW-Madison, where the use of animals would otherwise remain hidden and unexamined.
It is unclear at exactly what point the phrase “stem cell” entered the vernacular, one of very few scientific terms that achieve the status of, say, DNA in not requiring a detailed explanation every time it is written down or spoken.
Dear Editor: The otherwise well-informed and thoughtful Ed Garvey was off his game in a recent column when he implied that fearless sifting and winnowing still guides the UW-Madison. I wish he was correct. (“Don?t put UW under rightwing thumb.”)
Ed must not know about the carefully cataloged collection of 628 videotapes comprising nearly two decades of its experiments on monkeys that the university destroyed a few years ago to prevent the public from seeing just one of them. He must not be aware that unlike Scott Walker?s much criticized weeks of delay in responding to public records requests, that the university routinely takes many months to respond when the records have anything to do with its animal experimentation ? and then routinely censors key data.
APPLETON ? Animal lovers alarmed by a provision in Gov. Scott Walker?s biennial budget bill were surprised to learn the law has long empowered local authorities to sell stray dogs to universities for scientific research.
More than 7,000 students, educators and parents will meet on the UW-Madison campus for the 27th annual National Science Olympiad Tournament May 18-21.
The University of Wisconsin will host the National Science Olympiad Tournament for the first time in May 2011, a prestigious competition which will draw participants from across the U.S. to the campus? newest facilities.
Scientists have identified several genes that may play a role in determining strength, speed and other aspects of athletic performance. But there are likely hundreds more, plus many other traits and experiences that help determine athletic ability, said Dr. Alison Brooks, a pediatrician and sports medicine specialist at the University of Wisconsin in Madison.
And according to the University of Wisconsin in Madison?s Dr Alison Brooks, a paediatrician and sports medicine specialist, there are several other genes that may play a role in athletic ability ? not to mention other life factors, physical and mental traits and experiences that can shape kids.
Once the darling of the Madison area high-tech scene, TomoTherapy has been sold to a Silicon Valley-based company in a deal both firms say will help them in the competitive medical devices space.
The new owner, subject to regulatory approval, is Accuray Inc. of Sunnyvale, Calif., which trades under the ARAY symbol. The firm has about 450 employees and sells the “CyberKnife system,” an image-guided radiosurgery system used for the treatment of solid tumors. TomoTherapy, a UW-Madison spin-off which has been struggling to turn a profit, has about 350 employees at its headquarters off Old Sauk Road.
TomoTherapy is likely to keep making its radiation therapy machines in Madison even after Accuray buys the company, but there could be other staff cuts, the head of the Sunnyvale, Calif., company hinted Monday. ? TomoTherapy, established in 1997 based on technology with UW-Madison roots, has a Hi-Art system that spirals around a patient firing radiation beams at cancerous tissue.
Madison-based TomoTherapy is being sold to Accuray in a deal valued at about $277 million, it was announced Monday. The companies signed a definitive agreement that calls for Accuray to buy TomoTherapy for $4.80 per share in cash and stock. The companies said the transaction will create a premier radiation oncology company.
(TomoTherapy was a university-based start-up company co-founded by UW-Madison researchers Rock Mackie and Paul Reckwerdt.)
TomoTherapy was
It?s not exactly a scientific formula but Skip Evans has discovered that if you combine a scientist, good beer, and a crowd of curious people, you come up with a very interesting Sunday afternoon. Evans is the founder of a unique Madison event called Science Pub. There have been other, earlier versions of the science gatherings but this one has been going strong for nearly two years now. About once a month at Brocach Irish Pub and Restaurant on the Capitol Square, the Science Pub has hosted a leisurely and free-wheeling discussion with a scientist, often from UW-Madison.
Quoted: Giri Venkataramanan, a professor of electrical and computer engineering at UW-Madison.
Quoted: Steven A. Ackerman and Jonathan Martin, professors in the UW-Madison department of atmospheric and oceanic sciences.
Researchers from the University of Wisconsin and Department of Natural Resources have captured nearly 300 white-tailed deer in northern Wisconsin in recent weeks for studies on buck survival rates, predator impacts on fawns and the deer?s impact on habitat. These are the largest deer-research projects in Wisconsin history.
Some people have taken issue with a provision in Governor Scott Walker?s budget proposal that allows pounds to transfer stray dogs to University system research facilities. The problem with turning this into a “Gov. Walker hates dogs” story is that it simply isn?t true. The statute currently exists in Wisconsin, Walker is simply making a small amendment to the wording due to the proposal to break the University of Wisconsin-Madison off from the rest of the University system.
A lobbying group has been created to advocate for Chancellor Biddy Martin?s New Badger Partnership, which includes the university?s proposed split from the UW-System, in the state legislature.
Having recently read The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks I was looking for more “science for laypeople” books. Deborah Blum won a Pulitzer Prize for science journalism and is a professor at the University of Wisconsin. One of her former students recommended The Poisoner?s Handbook: Murder and the Birth of Forensic Medicine in Jazz Age New York, and I?d also heard from several mystery readers that it was a really fun book, if you don?t mind a little chemistry with your drama.
Boaters and anglers around Wisconsin are more aware of the potentially detrimental effects of invasive species spreading between Wisconsin waterways and are actively taking preventative measures to stop their spread, a new survey said.
With a federal budget battle showdown underway, science looks like collateral damage, say former federal officials, with proposed cuts to research that they consider severe. At stake, they warn, is the nation?s long-term economic growth.
Quoted: Susan Lederer, a medical historian at the University of Wisconsin.
As faculty leaders in research and discovery at UW-Madison, we are writing to share our support for the additional flexibility that Chancellor Martin has been seeking through the New Badger Partnership.
Quoted: Mark Saffman, a professor of physics at UW-Madison.
Quoted: Steven A. Ackerman and Jonathan Martin, professors in the UW-Madison department of atmospheric and oceanic sciences.
Noted: A February 2011 report, “Declining Deer Hunters,” a study on Wisconsin deer hunting participation by Dr. Richelle Winkler at the University of Wisconsin?s Applied Population Laboratory.
Quoted: Timothy Donohue, director of the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Nine out of 10 researchers believe using animals is “essential” in studies, according to an online poll of nearly 980 biomedical scientists from across the globe conducted by Nature magazine. Of those who participated, 70.3 percent report using animals in experiments. The poll does note some mixed feelings about the issue, with a third of those who work on animals noting they have “ethical concerns” about the role of animals in research, and 16 percent reporting they have “misgivings” about some of their work.
It took a collaborative effort to make Scott Bachmeier feel simultaneously like “death warmed over” and “a rock star.”
The 49-year-old skier from Madison relished that combination of exhaustion and exhilaration as he pushed himself toward the finish line of the 2010 American Birkebeiner in Hayward. The effort and the cheers wiped away remnants of the depression he felt after a series of neurological and spinal problems left him without use of his legs.
As he struggled through the emotional valley, the glimmer that he could ski again, and ski in the Birkebeiner with a sit-ski developed through the University of Wisconsin, provided valuable motivation.
John Wiley, the former UW-Madison chancellor, is a physicist by training, and accustomed to his profession?s penchant to undersell its accomplishments to any audience – except other physicists.
Quoted: UW-Madison professor Cameron Macdonald.
A new study by University of Wisconsin researchers said hearing loss in middle-age men is common, but could be addressed by changes in lifestyle.
About 10 per cent of middle-aged Americans show signs of a hearing impairment some of which might be preventable, a large new study suggests.
A new survey of mostly middle-aged adults reveals that among people aged 45 to 54, one in nine shows signs of hearing impairment.
The authors, led by Scott Nash of the University of Wisconsin, determined someone was hearing impaired if at least one ear had trouble hearing various sounds within the range of human speech.
Noted: The UNL team, as well as researchers from other institutions, has made discoveries that could lead to faster, smaller and smarter electronic devices. The team is part of a larger research effort led by Chang-Beom Eom, professor of materials science and engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
FluGen, of Madison, has received $7.8 million to begin human clinical trials, probably this fall, of its product: a painless, microneedle skin patch the size of a poker chip that will be used to deliver vaccines against influenza and other illnesses. Its technology is licensed through the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation.
