Go ahead and send a text message while driving. Heck, feel free to drink alcohol too.It?s allowed – nay, encouraged – as long as you?re at UW-Madison?s new driving simulation laboratory. Located in the Mechanical Engineering Building, the simulator allows researchers to study such risky behaviors with no risk of an accident.
Research by the University of Wisconsin-Madison could influence federal policy on how to handle coal ash ? the byproduct of burning coal, typically to generate electricity. Although some environmental advocates consider it hazardous waste, it?s long been used in the state as aggregate material for road and construction projects. Wisconsin?s rules on recycling of fly ash, enforced by its Department of Natural Resources, could become a national model for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Since James Thomson of the University of Wisconsin-Madison became the first person to derive and grow human embryonic stem cells in 1998, the accomplishment has remained a considerable challenge for labs. The cells, which can become any cell in the human body, are notoriously finicky.
Now, a team from UW-Madison has developed a fully defined culture system that should result in more uniform cells, according to an article in the journal Nature Methods. Although human embryonic stem cells are not yet approved for use in therapy, the new culture system should also make them safer for such a use.
Scott Walker, please get the biomass boiler for the Charter Street heating plant up and running with your enthusiastic support. Gov. Jim Doyle, please support clean energy as much for the rest of your term as you did at the start. Businesses small and large, from farms to trucking companies, loggers and feedstock processors, are depending on your vision for a vibrant economy to support their job creation and innovation. Don?t pull the plug on the world-class research that UW-Madison can do on the innovative biomass part of the system.
Leaf-cutter ants put on quite a show. In established colonies, millions of “workers” cut and carry sections of leaves larger than their own bodies as part of a well choreographed, highly functioning society. “Anyone who has ever come across a trail of ants cutting leaves and watched that trail run through the forest can recognize how charismatic, and what kind of large impact they have on the tropical ecosystems in which they occur,” says bacteriologist Cameron Currie.
UW-Madison researchers will begin tests on a mind-training program that would provide a drug-free alternative to treat children diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder or high-functioning autism.
Rep. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., gave a grim outlook to a University of Wisconsin crowd Friday on the future of government help in the basic sciences, saying she believes the recent shift to a Republican majority in the House of Representatives does not bode well for its future.
Peanut wasn?t feeling well.
The 4-year-old guinea pig had an abscess in her jaw, the second one this year, and her owner had been told by her veterinarian that Peanut?s teeth might need to be pulled.
Toni Wanserski loves her pet, didn?t want to see her in pain and really did not want Peanut to lose her teeth. So her veterinarian in Plover suggested she take Peanut to the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Veterinary Medicine and its exotic species program.
Quoted: Steven A. Ackerman and Jonathan Martin, professors in the UW-Madison department of atmospheric and oceanic sciences.
Quoted: James Lattis, director of the UW-Madison Space Place.
A team of UW-Madison researchers has added another stem cell breakthrough to the university?s leadership in the field, figuring out a way to grow the cells on a large scale so they can be used for studies and potential therapies. “What we?ve developed is a very simple surface that anyone in the field could easily use to grow stem cells,” said Laura Kiessling, a UW-Madison professor of chemistry and biochemistry.
John Lee, a researcher at the UW, is using a $300,000 driving simulator to study how activities like texting are impacting drivers today and how features like personal computers will affect the drivers of tomorrow.
For advocates of cows grazing on grass rather than eating silage, the benefits to the environment, farmers and cows are clear. But the million dollar question is, how does the milk these cows produce taste? Will people want to buy and cook with grass-fed dairy products? In late October, a group was invited to UW-Madison?s Arlington Research Station for a ?Grass-fed Dairy Tasting,? as part of a three-year project aimed at working with farmers, dairy processors and chefs to build a market for grass-fed milk.
The 36-month project to build a market for grass-fed milk, which began in the fall of 2008, is funded by $148,133 from the North Central Region Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Grant Project. Project partners include owners of five farms in the Edelweiss Graziers Cooperative, cheesemakers, chefs, researchers from UW-Madison?s departments of Food Science, Dairy Science and Agronomy, and the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection.
Visitors entering the Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery at the UW-Madison at its Dec. 2 grand opening will encounter a striking blend of the past and the future.
Wisconsin scientists and start-up companies should continue to use human embryonic stem cells ? and their noncontroversial counterparts ? in ongoing research because they hold great promise for treating disease and injury, two panelists said Wednesday at the Early Stage Symposium.
Scientists will soon begin testing and developing a mind-training program that provides a drug-free alternative for treating attention deficit hyperactivity disorders (ADHD) and high functioning autism in children.
….A recent report by the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration finds that nearly 22 percent of Wisconsin residents between the ages of 18 and 25 reported alcohol dependence or abuse in the past year, and more than half of young adults admitted to binge drinking in the prior month. Stats for the overall population were dismal, too. Only three states, Minnesota, South Dakota and North Dakota, have worst rates of binge drinking for residents aged 12 and above.
The stakes were high last week in Katey Shirey?s 11th-grade physics class at Washington-Lee High School in Arlington County. Students worked diligently, wrapping reflective Mylar around cardboard boxes, thinking through the physics of their creations: solar ovens.
William J. Borucki and David G. Koch, both of whom received degrees from University of Wisconsin-Madison before going on to leadership positions with the Kepler space mission, were joint recipients of the first Lancelot M. Berkeley-New York Community Trust Prize for Meritorious Work in Astronomy.
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.
