Category: Research

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

For senior artist Kandis Elliot, postermaking is one of the best tasks of the job. Her series of educational posters started 4 years ago, when greenhouse and garden director Mo Fayyaz of the University of Wisconsin (UW), Madison, asked for a fruit poster. Introduction to Fungi is just the latest?and one of the hardest, because the botany department lacks a mycologist. And Elliot didn?t want to settle for a simple mushroom poster. ?There?s a gazillion of those things,? Elliot says. ?We wanted something that shows fungi as mushrooms but something more than mushrooms. Your beer, your wine, and your bread. The stuff on the back of your fridge.?

Last year, the UW-Madison beat back a Dane County Board resolution calling for an advisory panel to explore the ethics of primate research, much to the disappointment of local monkey defenders (see Rick Marolt?s opinion column, 10/14/10). Instead, the university agreed to host a series of forums, which many predicted would be a bust.

A world-renowned University of Wisconsin research center may be forced to limit available services and make staff layoffs as a direct result of a tight national budget for research institutions.

In the American tropics, thick woody vines called lianas are outpacing trees. They?re sucking up soil, nutrients and water, leaving less resources for the trees around them. University of Wisconsin plant ecologist Stefan Schnitzer studies these aggressive, fast growing vines known as lianas.

Every morning, mothers all over America leave their kids at home with nannies and au pairs or drop them off at the houses of family or leave them at daycare. With so many options, millions of working women have made this kind of surrogate parentage part of their everyday ritual. But that hand-off that may seem so simple is fraught with a range of emotions and challenges. Cameron MacDonald is the author of Shadow Mothers: Nannies, Au Pairs and the Micropolitics of Mothering and Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Cameron joined us to talk about her research into the topic.

Tens of millions of years before humanity sowed its first crops, a somewhat humbler organism was starting up its own large-scale agricultural operations. Leaf-cutter ant species depend on actively managed fungus farming to feed their teaming colonies.

Two days ago, the acclaimed British science journalist and blogger, Ed Yong, published a post titled I think you have all you need for a blog. This detailed an e-mail exchange with a public information officer who?d been approached for, surprisingly enough, information for a story.

A 30-year University of Wisconsin-Madison light research project would be terminated under President Barack Obama?s 2012 budget blueprint.

UW-Madison announced it will host three forums on campus that examine the ethics of using animals in research. These programs were first proposed this past summer, when the Dane County Board considered forming a citizens advisory panel to look at whether experimenting on monkeys at UW-Madison is humane and ethical — a measure which ultimately failed.

A mechanical engineering senior has for the second year in a row claimed the top prize in the University of Wisconsin – Madison?s Schoofs Prize for Creativity, the school said Monday.

UW-Madison needs more space to house monkeys for its animal research enterprise, university officials told a UW System Board of Regents committee on Thursday. Jon Levine, director of the Wisconsin National Primate Research Center on campus, told the Capital Planning and Budget Committee that some studies are being put on hold because current quarantine and holding facilities can?t handle the number of non-human primates required by university researchers.