Noted: The agreement with the University of Wisconsin Value Added Research Center, which does similar work for New York City public schools, could cost about $1.5 million. The first phase of the three-year project should be about $125,000, and school district officials have discussed finding outside funding sources to pay for most of the costs.
Some mariners blame rogue waves for the sudden sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald. Now, University of Wisconsin Sea Grant is testing a device that would warn ships about these giant waves.
The intense and dangerous wind storm and accompanying high waves the Great Lakes states experienced in late October is thought to be the same kind of storm that occurred on Lake Superior causing the fatal wreck of the ship Edmund Fitzgerald 35 years ago on Wednesday. A University of Wisconsin Sea Grant Institute-funded researcher is studying extreme waves in hopes of preventing future tragedies.
Freak waves are exceptionally large, steep and asymmetric and often occur in the Great Lakes, according to University of Wisconsin-Madison researcher Chin-Hsien Wu. He is currently investigating the conditions and locations prone to producing the dangerous waves, which can take down a vessel like the Edmund Fitzgerald.
One of those bears was a sow that set up house in Marathon County between Rib Mountain and Mosinee and became one of the stars of doctoral student Karl Malcom?s five-year project studying bear movements. She gave birth to four cubs in 2009 and again this year, giving the University of Wisconsin-Madison student a perfect opportunity to follow the young bears as they grew to adulthood and set out on their own.
Now that we?ve all calmed down from last week?s election, it?s time to look at what a Republican-led House of Representatives will mean for the country. They?ve talked about repealing the health care bill, extending the Bush tax cuts and, of course, making sure Obama is only in office for one term. We?ll have to wait and see whether they actually do any of these things, but the most concerning promise they?ve made isn?t one of these. It?s the promise to cut funding to science research.
A group of University of Wisconsin engineers have teamed with Wisconsin-based Trek Bicycle Corp. to aid in the development of the company?s latest bicycle products, gloves to help alleviate cyclist?s palsy.
Biomedical researchers could see their odds next year of winning a funding grant drop to 10% — half the already historically-low current success rate — said National Institutes of Health chief Francis Collins, warning scientists of slimmer federal budgets ahead.
Understanding the principles of ecology are so critical to many life decisions to Don Waller that the University of Wisconsin botany professor offers a basic ecology course for non-majors.
As for the thorny issue of stem cells, if Gov.-elect Scott Walker did move to limit UW-Madison researchers to adult stem cells, it might not make much difference: The Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation over the last eight years has moved much of the embryonic stem cell research to private facilities such as the Morgridge Institute and WiCell.
Professors like me, with established research credentials at animal-research-intensive universities who are also members of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, are rare. But a dual identity as a research faculty member and an animal advocate affords a unique perspective on both camps.
The Mole Lake Tribe is getting high marks from a Wisconsin educator for going green. Jeff Ackley is the Housing Director for Mole Lake?s Sokaogan Chippewa Community. He says it?s no surprise U-W Madison assistant professor, Sue Thering, is using some of the community?s green techniques to help students learn about green design.
The Bayh-Dole Act of 1980 granted universities the rights to most of the ideas that are developed in their labs with federal funds. That should have stimulated profit-seeking behavior by the universities, but few, aside from MIT, Stanford and the University of Wisconsin, have displayed a flair for it. Professors who disdain the marketplace are to blame, but so are the technology transfer offices themselves.
Alan Boyle writes: Political shifts will produce a fresh set of skirmishes over science issues ranging from stem cells to spaceflight. And when it comes to climate change, the skirmishes could well escalate into a war over science.
A tradition of Cajun cooking has emerged deep in the Northwoods of Wisconsin, spurred by the battle against the rusty crayfish. For years, students from the state university working with the department of natural resources have been hauling countless buckets of rusties from the waters of Sparkling Lake, five hours north of Milwaukee.
“What else are you going to do with them but eat them?” says Jake Vander Zanden, a University of Wisconsin, Madison, professor involved in the project.
A new study led by researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison underscores the often conflicting goals of feeding a growing global population and combating climate change.
Dear Editor: Regarding your recent article in which UW primate researcher Michele Basso said ?I had right on my side?: She certainly did, seeing as how a UW faculty committee conducted its own investigation.
…This whole research lab is a blight on the UW and Wisconsin. Perhaps Basso would like to take a primate?s place for a month if it is so right.
As we struggle to grow enough food to feed the planet, we are clearing forests that are a crucial protection against the warming climate, UW-Madison researchers have found. Scientists, for the first time, analyzed the tradeoff between agricultural production and the capacity of forests and other natural ecosystems to store carbon. Without the storage capacity of forests, more carbon dioxide ? the gas that is causing the climate to warm ? is released into the atmosphere. The research is important, according to UW-Madison scientist Paul West, because it could lead to practical methods of balancing our need to grow food and efforts to slow or counter climate change.
The first research center in the world to house both a brain imaging lab and meditation space, UW-Madison?s Center for Investigating Healthy Minds is holding a grand opening today. The center?s director, Richard J. Davidson, studies whether meditation promotes kindness and compassion. The 14th Dalai Lama donated $50,000 this year to support the center?s research.
Clearing tropical forests for farmland is bad for the climate ? no surprises there. But now we?ve learned that it?s also an inefficient way to feed people. Paul West of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and colleagues worked out the potential yields of 175 different crops if they were planted in different parts of the world.
As croplands expand at the expense of native ecosystems such as forests, nature loses capacity to protect the world from climate change, U.S. researchers say.
Media recently got a preview of the Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery on the University of Wisconsin campus in Madison. George Austin, project manager for the $150 million dollar center, showed media around the showpiece building where important discoveries on human health will be made. The building incorporates space on three levels, for use by researchers with the Wisconsin Institute for Discovery and the Morgridge Institute for Discovery.
UW-Madison researchers are looking at ways dairy farmers can use milk from grass-fed herds to enhance the value of their operations. “This isn?t to validate grass-fed milk but to determine the best uses,” said project coordinator Laura Paine, grazing and organic agriculture specialist with the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection.
Quoted: James Lattis, director of UW-Madison?s Space Place.
Scientists are creating a new computer model of Dane County?s groundwater, a powerful tool that will allow them to better see and even predict the workings of the region?s natural water system that includes not only the water stored in stone deep beneath us but also the springs and lakes and streams that are connected to and fed by those underground supplies. The work by the Wisconsin Geological and Natural History Survey data and research will include everything from theses by UW-Madison students to pumping records from area water utilities.
The Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation will open a $205 million public/private research center in the heart of the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus on Dec. 2.
Carl Gulbrandsen, WARF?s managing director since 2000, talked about his vision for the new institutes and the foundation?s central role in the political debate about embryonic stem cells.
Earlier this year, Dan Schaefer at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, announced to the Wisconsin Livestock and Meat Council the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences? (CALS) plans to build a new state-of-the-art meat science and muscle biology research facility.
Did Evan Wynn, a state Assembly candidate running in the 43rd District, lie to the militant anti-abortion group Pro-Life Wisconsin or to the Wisconsin State Journal?
Wynn won the endorsement of Pro-Life Wisconsin, which asks its candidates to support a ban on embryonic stem cell research, which is vital to the University of Wisconsin?s pioneering and internationally respected stem cell research projects.
Two biomass power conversion projects in Wisconsin are progressing, one already operating and the other just beginning its transformation.
U.S. Senator Russ Feingold says cutting off embryonic stem cell research would be an inhuman thing to do.
UW-Madison was one of only seven schools to earn an “A” in the College Sustainability Report Card 2011. This report, produced by the Sustainable Endowments Institute, surveyed 322 campuses across the United States and Canada.
UW-Madison also was named an Overall College Sustainability Leader for its score.
Mighty winds continued to plague Wisconsin residents Wednesday. At the top of the UW-Madison Atmosphere Ocean and Space Sciences Building at 1225 W. Dayton St., a gust of 72 mph was recorded at 1:50 p.m., state climatologist John Young confirmed Wednesday.
After two days of howling wind, breezes of 15 to 20 miles per hour will feel downright calm. At the top of the UW-Madison Atmosphere Ocean and Space Sciences Building at 1225 W. Dayton St., a gust of 72 mph was recorded at 1:50 p.m., the state climatologist confirmed Wednesday.
Phil Pellitteri is renowned as the Madison area?s ?bug expert,? having worked for 32 years as director of UW-Madison?s Insect Diagnostic Lab. But it could easily have gone another way. Pellitteri worked in his family?s Madison-area trash removal business throughout high school and college, and his father wanted him to take over that business. Even during his first two years as a student at UW-Madison, he was a biochemistry major intending to go to medical school. It was only after what he called a ?particularly rough semester? that he stumbled into what would become his calling.
Some researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and private research firms are refuting statements made in the race for governor that adult stem cell research holds more promise than embryonic research.
Concerns raised in the race for governor about embryonic stem cell research are prompting members of the industry to speak up. Republican candidate for governor Scott Walker says he wants the state to support adult stem cell research, instead of work using embryonic stem cells.
Madison researchers who conduct both adult and embryonic stem cell research told reporters Tuesday (10/26) that “heated election rhetoric” is threatening to undermine their work.
The Wisconsin Institute for Discovery held a preview Tuesday to explain the creator?s goals and showcase the new building?s facilities before the grand opening Dec. 2.
As the third largest procurer of federal research contracts, UW-Madison has gone through a complex E-Verify implementation, according to Deb Ahlsted, the university?s director of international faculty and staff services.
Six years after it was first proposed, a cutting-edge, $150 million building that could lead to important discoveries in human health is nearly complete on the UW-Madison campus. The Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery building is set for a Dec. 2 grand opening. A glimpse inside the building reveals an environment ready-made for science ? both in the state-of-the-art research labs and the architectural design, which features wide-open spaces and flexible rooms.
Embryonic stem cell researchers stepped away from their microscopes Tuesday to dispute gubernatorial candidate Scott?s Walker?s statements about their work and oppose the Republican?s positions. Scientists at a news conference held in a lab at embryonic stem cell company Stemina never mentioned Walker?s name, but they said they wanted to set the record straight about the promise embryonic stem cells hold and what it would mean for Wisconsin to ban their work.
Experts have been working on the IceCube project for years now, and they say that the experience has helped them reshape the way they deal with everyday problems. The nature of the project does not allow for anything else, they add.
There?s nothing like temperatures that can reach minus 100 degrees Fahrenheit to keep you on your toes. For engineers Erik Verhagen and Camille Parisel, working in Antarctica on a project appropriately called “IceCube” is both challenging and exciting. While there are ways to get used to the harsh climate, these experts have to be very resourceful to fix technical difficulties so far away from “civilization.”
Breaking news! Nervous people smoke more than other people. More breaking news: they also find it harder to quit. Those may not be the kinds of insights that get the attention of the Nobel committee, but a new study in the journal Addiction shows how even so straightforward an idea may yield lifesaving benefits. Psychologist Megan Piper of the University of Wisconsin-Madison Center for Tobacco Research and Intervention (UW-CTRI) wanted to determine what keeps dead-enders hooked.
Researchers at the University of Wisconsin Madison and private research firms are refuting statements made in the race for governor, that adult stem cell research holds more promise than embryonic research.
Concerns raised in the race for governor about embryonic stem cell research are prompting members of the industry to speak up. Republican candidate for governor Scott Walker says he wants the state to support adult stem cell research, instead of work using embryonic stem cells.
Scientists had no idea the cells they took from a Baltimore woman?s tumor in 1951 would be so valuable some day. Before she died of cervical cancer at age 30, the woman had no idea the cells were taken, and, until years later, neither did her family. Monday night at the Kohl Center, science writer Rebecca Skloot shared with hundreds of people the story about the woman whose family she spent 10 years working with to write her book, ?The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks.? Skloot?s visit was part of UW-Madison?s Go Big Read program, a book program meant to engage students, faculty, staff and community members. It was initiated by Chancellor Biddy Martin.
A medical device industry consortium has been established by the Morgridge Institute for Research, the new private, nonprofit organization that will make up half of the UW?s Institutes for Discovery. “The idea is to have a consortium whereby common technology can be developed together, and we can jointly go after federal grants and share knowledge from one member to another,” said Thomas “Rock” Mackie, director of medical devices at Morgridge.
HealthMap.org?s new mobile phone application “Outbreaks Near Me,” which accepts and relays wildlife health reports to the WHER site. Scientists at the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the U.S. Geological Survey National Wildlife Health Center in Madison created the WHER site. Users create accounts online to register sightings of sick or dead wildlife. Everyone can visit the site and view the reports.
Forget the Old Farmers? Almanac, caterpillars are expecting a mild winter. UW-Madison bug expert Phil Pellitteri has been checking out the woolly bear caterpillars, noting the size of the reddish band around their middle. ?The ones from this year ? I would say it?s approaching 60 percent ? 55 to 60 percent ? of the total body length, which is a good sign. Whereas if it?s relatively minimal ? 20 or 30 percent ? that?s not a good sign.?
Like many researchers, UW-Madison neuroscientist Ronald Kalil would not classify himself as a very political person. He doesn?t subscribe to a specific party and tries to “keep an open mind about all sides of an issue.” His primary commitment is to cutting edge research, searching for regenerative therapies for brain injuries.
Retired business executive Michael Cudahy, who last year dropped plans to help fund University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee?s Innovation Park development, has agreed to donate $2 million for the effort.
UW-Madison will be hosting author Rebecca Skloot Monday night at the Kohl Center. Skloot penned “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks,” which tells the story of an African-American cancer patient who was the unwitting donor of the “HeLa” cells — which were used to further numerous advances in modern medicine.
Skloot will lead a community discussion which will touch on a range of issues related to bioethics and diversity. The event starts at 7 p.m.
Quoted: Steven A. Ackerman and Jonathan Martin, professors in the UW-Madison department of atmospheric and oceanic sciences.
Wisconsin gubernatorial candidate Tom Barrett favors including embryonic stem cells in research and treatment, whereas candidate Scott Walker opposes it. What is all that about?
The two gubernatorial candidates in Wisconsin disagree over embryonic stem cell research. Thursday (10/21) Democrat Tom Barrett tried to make a point about the future of such research by talking to those afflicted with ailments it might someday cure.
The Democratic candidate in the race for governor continues to go after his Republican opponent?s views on stem cell research.
Happy cows do indeed come from Wisconsin thanks to a recent web site created by two University of Wisconsin researchers.
A team of investigators from the U.S. Department of Agriculture is looking into the UW-Madison?s record of citations regarding the use of animals in research, which could lead to fines or other sanctions.
In an academic-corporate partnership that may represent the future of stem cell research, Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago has teamed up with a biotech company to begin the first human trials of a therapy derived from embryonic stem cells.
Noted: Separately on Monday, the University of Wisconsin filed with the appeals court its own 50-page amicus brief. Among its arguments: that Congress has clearly signaled its belief that current law allows funding of stem cell research, by doling out some $550 million for the research since 2002. In light of this, the university?s lawyers write, ?appellees? core claim that the [law] `unambiguously prohibits? such research borders on the frivolous.?
