Category: Research

UW-Madison will receive $246,249 to develop a high performing non-vapor compression cooling system

As if we needed further proof that chopping down the Amazon was a bad idea, a new study suggests that deforestation in Brazil had led to an increased incidence of disease.

Clearing forests in the Amazon helps mosquitoes thrive and can send malaria rates soaring, U.S. researchers reported on Wednesday.

“It appears that deforestation is one of the initial ecological factors that can trigger a malaria epidemic,” said Sarah Olson of the University of Wisconsin, who worked on the study.

Deer ticks have long inhabited Wisconsin but were never known to populate Milwaukee County – until now. A team of University of Wisconsin-Madison scientists recently surveyed Doctors Park in Bayside for the presence of ticks and found evidence suggesting that ticks were not just present in the county, but were living and reproducing there, too.

Animal experimenters in the US, beware: you may find yourselves facing criminal charges for simply doing your job. Thatâ??s what has happened to nine staff at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, who could go to jail or pay heavy fines for carrying out decompression experiments on sheep for the US navy.

Dear Editor: I read the article regarding the appointment of a special prosecutor to look into whether scientists should be charged after sheep died in University of Wisconsin experiments, violating a Wisconsin law that prohibits killing animals by decompression. I believe this law was enacted due to the excruciating pain animals endure when put through this procedure. It was made law for a reason. If the UW experimenters broke the law, they should be prosecuted. They are not above the law. The fact that they even think that makes me wonder how many other laws are broken due to the autonomous feelings such experimenters have.

After many years of laboring against animal research, the animal rights movement has gained momentum in Madison in recent months. Research opponents won a favorable court ruling earlier this month, packed a room for a public debate in March, and got the Dane County Board to take up the issue. But despite increased public attention, animal rights activists say there has been little change when it comes to the use of monkeys and other animals in scientific studies. “What weâ??re up against is still huge,” said Rick Marolt, a research opponent and member of the Madison-based Alliance for Animals. “Real change is still difficult and could be quite a ways off. But there is something rare going on.” Their efforts have also been buoyed by some high profile cases at UW-Madison.

Rebecca Nelson and John Pade are developing, educating and selling of products for aquaponics that their company â?? Nelson and Pade Inc. â?? seeks to make a difference in the way people grow or acquire food. Aquaponics is the combination of two practices: aquaculture (fish farming) and hydroponics (growing plants without soil). Nelson and Pade are putting into practice the research of James Rakocy, director of the University of the Virgin Islands Agricultural Experiment Station. Rakocy, a Milwaukee native and a 1967 UW-Madison graduate, has been developing aquaponics for 30 years.

Itâ??s axiomatic that even on the East Coast long sandwiches go by a host of names: hero (especially New York City), grinder (chiefly in New England), hoagie (mainly in Pennsylvania and New Jersey) and submarine (everywhere). Only if youâ??re an aficionado of the Dictionary of American Regional English are you likely to know that when kids still play hopscotch, they may call it “potsy” in Manhattanâ??but itâ??s “sky blue” in Chicago.

Most K-12 teachers lack basic training on how to teach money management to students, though many would like to.The study is an undertaking by researchers at UW-Madison. UW-Madison human ecology professor Wendy Way co-authored the study, which determined that nationally, relatively few educators are teaching personal finance education.

The study of technologies to clean wastewater and generate energy from algae and use new materials to reduce air pollution are among projects that will bring researchers at University of Wisconsin-Madison and University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee together.

After a long public discussion, the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee has a workable plan for its new School of Freshwater Sciences that should keep both the researchers and the schoolâ??s corporate allies happy.

It was the top story for several days last week on the health section of the influential BBC News website. But the story — on a site that typically boasts “74,900 pages were read in the last minute” — was an old one from 2003, inexplicably revived by lovers of Irelandâ??s favourite brew.”Guinness could really be good for you,” reads the headline, over a nostalgic picture of the long-running ad with the slogan: “Guinness Is Good For You”.

Insomnia isnâ??t just an annoyance, it seems. People who were chronically unable to get a good nightâ??s sleep were three times more likely to die of all causes than well-rested folks, a long-term study shows.

A free public workshop on competition and regulatory issues in the dairy industry will be held from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. June 25 in the Union Theater at UW-Madison, 800 Langdon St. The workshop is the third in a series of five around the nation being conducted by the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

I was pleased to see that People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals has petitioned to bring criminal charges against UW-Madison for causing the painful death of numerous sheep. It is beyond my imagination that researchers could carry out experiments causing this type of cruelty to research animals. And how can the university conduct experiments that according to the State Journal article are illegal?

As the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico grew worse, government officials suspected that BP was underestimating the leak. So they reached out to a small number of scientists across the country for a second opinion.

One of the researchers they contacted was Anders Andren, a professor of civil and environmental engineering and director of the University of Wisconsin Sea Grant Institute.

Back in April we wrote about sheep at the University of Wisconsin who died of the bends.Seriously, we did.

Itâ??s going to be an out-of-this world night at the ballpark in Madison tonight. Brooke Norsted, head of outreach for the Wisconsin Astrobiology Research Consortium, admits a night at the Madison Mallards game is not your typical science event. Astrobiology night at Warner Park Stadium features interactive science stations, extremophile trading cards, a researcher throwing out the first pitch and researchers dressed as planets and moons.

Two University of Wisconsin-Madison scientists each will receive $200,000 unrestricted research prizes from the Greater Milwaukee Foundation. The 2010 Shaw Scientist Award grants will go to Anjon (Jon) Audhya, an assistant professor of biomolecular chemistry, and Eric Strieter, assistant professor of chemistry.

UW-Madisonâ??s Institute for Research on Poverty is celebrating the 20th anniversary of its Summer Research Workshop next week by offering five free talks that are open to the public.

The keynote speeches, which take place Monday through Wednesday, will center on issues related to the poor in the United States, and efforts to reduce poverty.

A Wisconsin judge has appointed a special prosecutor to determine whether criminal charges should be filed against nine University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers and officials responsible for experiments that killed sheep.

A Dane County judge, siding with a petition brought by the Madison-based Alliance for Animals and national group PETA has determined that UW-Madison officials may be subject to criminal penalties for fatal decompression experiments involving sheep and has authorized the appointment of a special prosecutor to review the matter further.

A judge appointed a special prosecutor Wednesday to weigh animal cruelty charges against nine University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers and officials responsible for experiments that killed sheep.

Two University of Wisconsin-Madison assistant professors will receive the 2010 Shaw Scientist Awards, the Greater Milwaukee Foundation announced on Wednesday.

Anjon Audhya, assistant professor of biomolecular chemistry, and Eric Strieter, assistant professor of chemistry, each will get a $200,000 unrestricted prize from the James D. and Dorothy Shaw Fund. The funding provides needed support to young scholar-scientists engaged in groundbreaking research in the fields of genetics, cell biology and cancer research at critical stages in their careers, according to a release from the UW-Madison news service.

Fridayâ??s departure of nuclear engineer Arden Bement after 6 years as director of the National Science Foundation (NSF), to head a new science policy institute at Purdue University, has left the $7 billion foundation in the hands of acting director Cora Marrett.

In an effort to raise awareness of astrobiology research on the UW-Madison campus, members of the Wisconsin Astrobiology Research Consortium WARC will set up interactive science stations and hand out “extremophile” trading cards prior to Friday nights Madison Mallards baseball game at Warner Park.

At the bottom of the world here, astronomers are building an observatory that uses the ice cap of Antarctica as a lens and the planet Earth as a filter.

UW-Madison professor Gary Splitter conducted his infectious disease research in one of the universityâ??s highest security labs. To work with brucella, a restricted germ, he and his staff had to pass FBI background checks and fill out piles of paperwork. Despite the precautions, at least two of his staff got infected with brucellosis â?? one with cysts in the brain. And in a separate incident, members of Splitterâ??s lab broke federal rules by creating an unauthorized, drug-resistant strain of the disease. The problems in Splitterâ??s lab highlight potential risks of dealing with biological materials. An investigation into the unauthorized experiments cost him dearly â?? he lost his lab privileges for five years â?? but it also revealed serious deficiencies in the universityâ??s biosafety system. Two reports show UW-Madison allowed its Office of Biological Safety to crumble in recent years, at the same time that research on campus was growing dramatically.

They are the highly trained, generally well-paid employees in the vanguard of American innovation: people who work in biotechnology labs. But the cutting edge can be a risky place to work.

The federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration requires all companies to provide safe work environments for their employees. But when it comes to the special risks faced by biotechnology workers, OSHAâ??s current rules are spotty.