Category: Research

Charles Darwin wondered if animals were aware of themselves. Allowed to visit a rare orangutan in the London Zoo, he brought a mirror and observed the ape apparently make faces at its own reflection. It?s hard to say for sure that the orangutan really was aware that its reflection was its own. Over a century later, a scientist named George Gallup turned Darwin?s idea into a more rigorous test. He would secretly put a mark on an animal?s forehead and see if it noticed the difference the next time it passed a mirror.

Experiments on monkeys suggest that the animals can recognise and react to their own image in a mirror. They altered their posture to look at their own genitals and other body parts they couldn?t see directly.

Rhesus monkeys typically don?t check themselves out in a mirror ? unless they?re wearing funky acrylic forehead blocks attached to hair-thin electrodes implanted in their brains.Given that fashion-forward apparel, these monkeys avidly use mirrors to examine and groom their heads and to inspect hard-to-see body areas, say neuroscientist Luis Populin of the University of Wisconsin?Madison and his colleagues.

Stem cell researchers on Thursday reported a new method for reprogramming adult cells into ones that act like more versatile embryonic stem cells, an advance that could open a new avenue for lab-grown transplant tissues.

Until now, monkeys were thought incapable of recognizing their reflection in a mirror. But a new study by Luis Populin, a University of Wisconsin-Madison professor of anatomy, finds that under specific conditions rhesus macaque monkeys do recognize their image in the mirror and display self-awareness.

Your dog, like most other animals, can?t look in a mirror and figure out the furry thing with eyes is her own reflection. But Wisconsin researchers have just proven that rhesus macaque monkeys can ? and are delighted when they do.

Monkeys showed signs of self-awareness for the first time after recognizing themselves in the mirror, according to a UW-Madison professor?s study published Wednesday.

Jennifer Ouellette, blogger and author of the books “Black Bodies and Quantum Cats: Tales from the Annals of Physics” and “The Physics of the Buffyverse,” will come to the University of Wisconsin-Madison to serve as science writer in residence from Oct. 4 through 8.

Bucky Badger is capitalizing on a season kickoff that has nothing to do with football. To celebrate the cranberry season – the harvest began last week – a new ice cream flavor debuts this week at the University of Wisconsin-Madison?s Babcock Dairy store. It showcases a cranberry innovation called Berry Bits, a fresh cranberry with most of the tartness (acidity) removed.

Almost three years after the first scientists reprogrammed human cells in Madison and Kyoto, Japan, researchers in Boston have developed a new process that appears to eliminate one of the major safety concerns while dramatically increasing the efficiency of the process.

It?s hard not to feel sorry for American embryonic stem cell (ESC) researchers.

Your dog, like most other animals, can?t look in a mirror and figure out the furry thing with eyes is her own reflection. But Wisconsin researchers have just proven that rhesus macaque monkeys can — and are delighted when they do.

The vast majority of the world?s rivers are reeling from pollution, over-development and excessive extraction, and billions of dollars of investment by rich countries to avert water stress have damaged biodiversity, a study released on Wednesday said.

A lifeless “dead zone” the size of Massachusetts in the Gulf of Mexico. Excessive irrigation. Mercury and pesticides in fish. Declining river water quality.

While many Wisconsin industries lost jobs during a five year period, the vast field of bioscience added them according a new report from the group Bioforward. Wisconsin bioscience jobs grew three percent in 2004-to-2009 while the state overall lost three percent of its jobs that same period according to lead researcher Sammis White.

An appeals court ruled Tuesday that government funding of embryonic stem cell research can continue for now. The U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington granted the Obama administration?s request to allow the funding from the National Institutes of Health while the government appeals a judge?s order that blocked the research.

The Obama administration on Tuesday won another round in its legal battle to permit federally financed embryonic-stem-cell research, as a federal appeals panel affirmed its earlier decision to lift a temporary injunction while litigation on the issue continues.

The National Research Council at noon Tuesday finally released its much-anticipated rankings of some 5,000 doctoral programs at institutions across the country. UW-Madison officials said in an e-mailed press release that 23 university programs ranked in the top 15 percent of their respective fields.

“It is wonderful, but not surprising, that many of our graduate programs are so highly rated,” UW-Madison Chancellor Biddy Martin said in the release. “The talent and hard work of our faculty, combined with the quality of our students and staff make our graduate programs among the best.”

The University of Wisconsin is taking a leap into the future with a grant from the U.S. Department of Energy to build an electron-producing gun on campus as the first step to creating a giant electron laser.

They say money can?t buy happiness ? but it can finance the research.When Richard Davidson, then a psychology doctoral student in the 1970s, told his advisers at Harvard that he planned to study the power of meditation, the scholars winced.

Quoted: Dietram Scheufele, a science-communications and public-policy expert at the University of Wisconsin?Madison.

The Titan Arum, commonly known as the corpse flower, has bloomed in the D.C. Smith Greenhouse. It?s the first time the 9-year-old plant has flowered.

That children born to well-off homes are more vulnerable to autism has been a topic of curiosity and research among experts for decades. But a new study of around half a million American children, published this week in PLoS One, adds some startling concrete numbers to that aspect of the ongoing investigation into autism?s roots.

A UW-Madison economist says the next governor and Legislature will have to dig out of a deeper budget hole than what officials last reported.

One of UW-Madison?s “corpse flowers” (scientific name: Titan Arum) is beginning to open today. That, of course, means the smell of rotting meat will soon be emanating from UW-Madison?s greenhouses.

The Titan Arum, also known as the corpse flower, has bloomed in the D.C. Smith Greenhouse, on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus. The pungent bloom will last for 24 to 48 hours, according to officials.

Dear Editor: The Dane County Board?s decision not to question the way experimental monkeys are treated at the UW-Madison Primate Center serves to perpetuate the monkeys? unnatural and cramped lifestyle. Perhaps a future board will see the wisdom of providing a more humane existence to captive animals.

One day in 2007, Dr. Giulio Tononi lay on a hospital stretcher as an anesthesiologist prepared him for surgery. For Dr. Tononi, it was a moment of intellectual exhilaration. He is a distinguished chair in consciousness science at the University of Wisconsin, and for much of his life he has been developing a theory of consciousness. Lying in the hospital, Dr. Tononi finally had a chance to become his own experiment.

The Dane County Board of Supervisors ruled against bringing the discussion of UW-Madison?s primate research onto the floor Thursday night, providing a blow to advocates on both sides of the debate.

Members of the Dane County Board of Supervisors voted down a resolution to create an advisory panel specifically focused on animal research conducted at the University of Wisconsin Thursday night.

Efforts to convince the Dane County Board to form a citizens advisory panel to examine whether experimenting on monkeys at UW-Madison is humane and ethical are dead following a vote Thursday night at the City County Building.

The unfolding legal dispute over human embryonic stem cells shifted to the political arena today as senators sounded off and prominent scientists pleaded their case before a Senate subcommittee hearing.

Noted: As an example, Rotenberg pointed to the technology transfer program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The 75-year-old Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation is considered a leader in turning university research into products that benefit society, and using the licensing income to support further scientific investigation. Emily Bauer, a licensing manager at the foundation who specializes in plant technology, said it generally prefers nonexclusive licensing because it wants the technology to be widely used. She said the foundation doesn?t usually award exclusive licenses for agricultural products. But in some cases, she said, exclusive licensing is the only way to get the technology into the marketplace.

In education today, data is king. It?s used to prove school effectiveness, track student achievement and even, in some cases, set teacher pay. The trick for schools is getting quality metrics and using them to assess individuals and effect positive change in the classroom.

Dear Editor: The University of Wisconsin-Madison has been a responsive partner to the Dane County Board, providing information requested on animal research programs to board members and staff.

Our commitment to open, transparent research extends to a series of public forums. The first of those forums has been scheduled for November, and has already drawn an enthusiastic response from the community. We hope members of the public join in the discussion.

Those hoping to convince the Dane County Board a citizens advisory panel should be formed to examine whether or not experimenting on monkeys at UW-Madison is humane and ethical are facing a critical vote Thursday night.

Although such a resolution was approved by the Health and Human Needs Committee on June 29 by a 5-2 margin, it stalled in the Executive Committee on July 8. So Al Matano, who is lead sponsor of the resolution, introduced a motion to withdraw from all committees, and the Dane County Board is slated to vote on this issue at Thursday?s meeting.

It is 8:30 on a crisp September morning, the start of a busy day for preschoolers at the Waisman Center?s Early Childhood Program, a nationally renowned laboratory school.

At a piano in the gym, a teacher holds a 4-year-old named Michael in her lap and helps him tap out “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star.” She speaks to him using both sign language and a singsong voice. Several other boys driving toy cars swerve around another teacher doing duty as traffic cop. A student teacher is coloring at a table with students.

Governor Doyle and UW officials are absolutely right to join the effort to appeal a recent federal court ruling that has stopped major stem cell research dead in its tracks. Sometimes you wonder if it?s worth the effort to devote resources to issues being decided at the federal level, but the impacts of this ruling on the state of Wisconsin, and the citizens of the state of Wisconsin are too significant to ignore.

A group of Dane County Board members Thursday night will attempt to pull a resolution from committee so that the entire board can vote on whether to form an advisory panel to study the ethics of experimenting on monkeys at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. A majority of the board ought to join that effort.