Forbes Magazine has named the University Research Park & MGE Innovation Center at the University of Wisconsinâ??Madison as one of the top 10 technology innovation and development parks thatâ??s changing the world.
This is going to be a quick welcome to Deborah Blum (@deborahblum) who has just moved her blog, Speakeasy Science, to ScienceBlogs.
Honored: University Research Park & MGE Innovation Center at the University of Wisconsin: Started in 1984, this park hosts more than 110 companies that employ 3,500 people. Graduates include Madisons Exact Sciences, which is developing a non-invasive DNA test for detecting colon cancer. Exact Sciences trades on the Nasdaq and boasts a recent $160 million market cap.
The wind is simply air in motion, flowing from high atmospheric pressures to low pressures. Moving anything requires a force. The recent strong winds weâ??ve been having are due to a strong pressure gradient force. A pressure gradient is a measure of how much pressure changes over distance. So, when large pressure changes exist over a small distance, the pressure gradient force is large. Strong winds almost always result from large pressure gradients.
In rechargeable lithium-ion batteries – the most common type, used in things like laptop computers and cell phones – one of the two electrodes is graphite, a form of pure carbon consisting of sheets of carbon atoms. Lithium ions are forced between the carbon sheets when the battery is charged and come back out again when the battery is discharged, explains Robert Hamers, a Wisconsin Distinguished Professor and chair of the UW-Madison chemistry department.
The Pine Bluff Observatory was built in 1958 as a research facility for the UW-Madison astronomy department to replace the Washburn Observatory, said Terry Devitt, head of science communications for the university.
The UW Board of Regents on Thursday approved Phase I of University Research Park II at an estimated cost of $4.75 million. Phase I includes a 125-acre portion west of Junction Road between Valley View Road and Mineral Point Road.
The financial teaching grade is in for teachers â?? and itâ??s not good.
Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison surveyed K-12 educators and not surprisingly most instructors donâ??t think they are suitably trained to teach their students the basics of personal finance. The study, â??Teachersâ?? Background & Capacity to Teach Personal Finance,â??â?? was funded by the National Endowment for Financial Education.
The Madison company founded by stem cell pioneer James Thomson said Friday it has forged an agreement to use cell reprogramming technologies developed by a rival Japanese scientist.
Cellular Dynamics International Inc. negotiated a non-exclusive licensing agreement to use the techniques covered by Kyoto Universityâ??s patents on some of Shinya Yamanakaâ??s groundbreaking work. This makes the company, known as CDI, the first in the world to license key patents from both stem cell leaders involving an alternative to embryonic stem cells known as iPS, or induced pluripotent stem cells, CDI said.
Itâ??s a building that promises to bring bio-tech research to the forefront. The University of Wisconsin unveiled the first floor of its new Wisconsin Institute for Discovery on Thursday.
The UW Board of Regents on Thursday approved Phase I of University Research Park II at an estimated cost of $4.75 million. Phase I includes a 125-acre portion west of Junction Road between Valley View Road and Mineral Point Road.
While the study looked at the Midwest, regional food production could have similar benefits elsewhere, with adjustments for what kinds of produce were needed in those parts of the country, said Michelle Miller, associate director of the University of Wisconsinâ??s Center for Integrated Agricultural Systems, which helped fund the study.
In the aftermath of 9/11, UW-Madison officials hastened to assert that a campus-based nuclear reactor used for research and teaching posed little danger to the public or national security (see a 2002 Isthmus report).
Don Waller, a botany professor at UW-Madison, has plans to set up a citizen-based monitoring network that relies on deer hunters, teachers, students and naturalists to study the whitetailâ??s impacts on plant and habitat conditions.
Wisconsin is not one of the biggest centers for biotechnology in the U.S., but the state does rank in the upper 40 percent of all states in terms of companies and jobs in bioscience, a new report says. Wisconsin Commerce Secretary Aaron Olver said he is trying to â??meet as many companies and investors as possible and tell them about some of the great things going on in Wisconsinâ? â?? from the UW-Madisonâ??s Institutes for Discovery to the tax credits for investors in young technology companies.
Gov. Jim Doyle says two cutting-edge research centers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison will open in December. Doyle announced at a biotechnology conference in Chicago on Tuesday the Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery will open its doors just before he leaves office in January. The centers — one public, one private — are designed as a way to bring researchers together from across campus to tackle some of the most pressing issues in science and medicine.
If youâ??ve driven past Campus Drive and University Avenue lately, you likely noticed the exterior of the wedge-shaped Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery is nearly complete. The buildingâ??s twin institutes â?? the publicly funded Wisconsin Institute for Discovery and the private Morgridge Institute for Research â?? will house scientists doing research designed to improve human health. On Thursday, the public can visit Memorial Union to see a preview of the Town Center, or the first floor of the new building.
Noted: But that didnâ??t deter Stinchcomb or his co-founder, Jorge Osorio, a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Veterinary Medicine who grew up in Colombia, where dengue fever is endemic. Inviragen lined up $250,000 in angel funding and some grants from the National Institutes of Health, and initial animal trials of Inviragenâ??s vaccine were soon showing promising results. Even Schwarzer started to believe that this could be a compelling business proposal.
Gov. Jim Doyle said two cutting-edge research centers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison will open in December. Doyle announced at a biotechnology conference in Chicago on Tuesday the Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery will open its doors just before he leaves office in January.
Itâ??s hard to believe but another academic year is winding to a close.
Following are a few notes, quotes and observations from Monday eveningâ??s UW-Madison Faculty Senate meeting at Bascom Hall — the final such assembly of 2009-10.
** It took a little longer — OK, a lot longer — than some had anticipated, but the faculty senate finally gave the green light for the UW-Madison administration to move forward with plans to restructure the universityâ??s research enterprise.
The University Committee, the executive committee of the faculty senate, put forth a motion Monday to restructure. It featured four recommendations.
An attempt to protect a patent that covers embryonic stem cell research pioneered at the University of Wisconsin-Madison has suffered a defeat. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office last week reversed an earlier ruling rejecting challenges made to one of three patents held by the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation. The ruling was a victory for two consumer groups have asked the office to throw out the patents, which cover discoveries made by UW-Madison scientist James Thomson. They argue Thomsonâ??s work should not qualify for patents and that patent enforcement has hindered U.S. stem cell research.
Wisconsinâ??s biotech industry held its own during the first year of the recession, a new report shows. The stateâ??s bioscience sector grew at about the same pace as that of the rest of the country, according to the Battelle/BIO State Bioscience Initiatives 2010 report, which was released Monday by the consulting firm Battelle and the Biotechnology Industry Organization.
The Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation has suffered a blow in its effort to protect a key patent for embryonic stem cell technology.
Nearly nine months into his tenure as director of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, David Kappos said Monday that he thinks the agency still is stifling millions of potential jobs because of its inability to keep pace with the volume and complexity of the applications it receives.
Opponents of a much-contested set of stem-cell patents are claiming victory with a decision from the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), which declared one of the three patents invalid.
Powerful stem cells made by reprogramming adult tissue could reduce the need for animal testing of new drugs, according to a scientific pioneer of the technology.
Jamie Thomson, of the University of Wisconsin, told The Times that â??in-vitro trialsâ? based on so-called induced pluripotent stem (IPS) cells would refine pharmaceutical development so that fewer animal experiments would be required.
Molly Jahn, Cornell Ph.D â??88 answers seven questions about the future of American agriculture.
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Officeâ??s Board of Appeals and Interference has reversed an earlier decision from the Patent Officeâ??s re-examination division that upheld the claims of one of the stem cell lines held by the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation.
Consumer groups challenging a key patent covering embryonic stem cell research pioneered at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have won an appeal overturning an earlier rejection of their claims.
Time for that dreaded sex talk with your teenager? A new study suggests the writingâ??s on their Facebook wall.
Researchers report that teens who include sexual references on their Facebook profiles may very well be planning to have sex. “Parents and physicians are often seeking clues for when itâ??s time to have â??the talkâ?? about sex with a teenager,” Dr. Megan A. Moreno of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and co-author of a study on kidsâ?? posting on social networking sites, said in a news release from the American Academy of Pediatrics.
Clearly, something significant happened for the UW-Madison to revoke the animal-use privileges of researcher Michele Basso last year. But what, exactly? The Wisconsin State Journalâ??s March 19 article, which revealed the suspension, refers vaguely to Bassoâ??s alleged “lack of respect for veterinarians, incomplete record-keeping and instances where monkeys developed brain injuries.” It even quotes Basso plausibly describing the charges against her as vague.
The Board of Appeals and Interferences (BPAI) of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office issued a decision on April 28, 2010 in the inter partes re-examination of U.S. Patent No. 7,029,913, granted to University of Wisconsin-Madison professor and internationally-recognized stem cell researcher Dr. James Thomson. In the decision, the BPAI rejected the claims of the patent, reversing an earlier determination by a USPTO examiner.
A University of Wisconsin-Madison associate professor and Extension specialist has been awarded the 2010 Pound Award for her work at the schoolâ??s College of Agricultural and Life Sciences. Eileen Cullen was recognized for her work with integrated pest management implementation.
The meteor that lit up the sky in southwestern Wisconsin on April 14 has spawned its share of wacko science stories: everything from aliens to zombies. But about an hour away from where it landed, the science behind the meteorite is no less wild.In Weeks Hall on the UW-Madison campus, in-depth studies of the meteorite got under way Thursday. The science that will unfold over the next six months is expected to be out-of-this world: Researchers could end up finding out details on the material from which our solar system was birthed, or how to blow apart a threatening asteroid.
UW-Madison researchers are asking anyone who finds a meteorite they believe is from the April 14 event to register their find. Professor John Valley said the information will be used to create a database and a map that shows the scatter field, or location of the meteorites in southwestern Wisconsin.
Political officials and leaders from 30 Midwest research institutions, including University of Wisconsin Chancellor Biddy Martin and Gov. Jim Doyle, attempted to find solutions to the mounting monetary challenges of conducting research at the university level at a meeting Wednesday.
The changing face of journalism and the speed with which news travels are creating ethical dilemmas for news outlets, according to Stephen Ward, a UW-Madison professor who heads the Center for Journalism Ethics. Ward will convene a conference Friday of journalists and academics to debate how ethical standards can be upheld as small, specialized newsrooms spring up and news increasingly is broken as it happens by untrained citizen journalists.
Cellular Dynamics International has raised another $40.6 million in private equity financing, and Sam Zell, owner of the Chicago Tribune, is one of the investors.
Founded by UW-Madison stem cell pioneer James Thomson, CDI produces human heart cells from stem cell lines derived from skin or blood samples from adults. The heart cells are used by the pharmaceutical industry to test the effect of drug candidates on heart function.
The National Institutes of Health on Tuesday reapproved a handful of popular embryonic stem cell lines owned by WiCell, a nonprofit research institute and private support organization of UW-Madison that advances stem cell science.
This means these lines can once again be used in studies backed with federal research dollars.
This is big news to stem cell researchers, who have been expressing frustration with President Barack Obamaâ??s new stem cell policy because it had been creating new barriers and jeopardizing years of experimentation.
Four human embryonic stem cell lines that were first created in 1998 in the UW-Madison lab of James Thomson got re-approved for use in federally funded research Tuesday.
That includes one line, H9, that has been cited in hundreds of research studies and is integral to the research of scores of scientists.
Mentions a 2009 study by Adrian Treves, of the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, found that as many as 17% of hunters in wolf range were willing to illegally shoot wolves.
Four of the original lines of embryonic stem cells developed at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have been reapproved for use by the National Institutes of Health, the university announced late Tuesday.
The federal approval includes nine lines that had never before been eligible for federal funding and four long-used lines derived by researchers at the University of Wisconsin, known as H7, H9, H13 and H14. H9 is the most widely used.
“Its a big day for researchers in the United States,” said Erik Forsberg, executive director of the WiCell Research Institute in Madison, Wis., which applied for the approval. “The fact that these lines will now be listed on the registry and available for research will ease the mind of many scientists.”
A researcher said the barrage of digital distractions in todayâ??s social world is exploiting the brainâ??s inability to multitask, creating a more scatter-brained population.
“You really canâ??t multi-task. The brain canâ??t multi-task,” said Joanne Cantor, director of the University of Wisconsinâ??s Center for Communication Research.
The National Institutes of Health announced Tuesday that 13 additional lines of human embryonic stem cells are eligible for federal funding, including the most widely used line.
A group of University of Wisconsin-Madison students have developed a system to help give those in developing countries electricity in their homes. UW-Madison electrical engineering graduate student Dan Ludois was looking for a way to provide power to people in developing countries without any.
Itâ??s now an established scientific fact: Smut is GOOD for you. Corn smut, that is. For years, scientists have assumed that huitlacoche (WEET-LA-KO-CHEE) — a gnarly, gray-black corn fungus long-savored in Mexico — had nutritional values similar to those of the corn on which it grew. But test results just published in the journal Food Chemistry reveal that an infection that U.S. farmers and crop scientists have spent millions trying to eradicate, is packed with unique proteins, minerals and other nutritional goodies. Researchers at University of Wisconsin convinced a local organic farmer in 2007 to deliberately infect a field of corn with the fungus, and then harvest and sell it.
Dear Editor: Recently in the Cap Times, Amy M. Kerwin wrote that â??monkeys deserve more than living in a small cage their entire lives.â? I could not agree more, having visited the UW monkey colony several years ago and having come to the same conclusion.
The monkeys I saw seemed very sad, listless and probably crazy. These animals are normally social and active, yet at the UW thousands are kept isolated in small, plain cages for their entire lives as the subjects of research.
Q: Will the recent volcanic eruption in Iceland lead to a change in global weather patterns? A: While the eruption certainly has had impact on aviation and the weather of the immediate area, the eruption will not have a global impact nor affect Wisconsinâ??s weather, say Steven Ackerman and Jonathan Martin.
“Itâ??s hard to get students interested in rural areas,” said David Mott, an associate professor at the UW-Madison School of Pharmacy, where a survey showed that 14 percent of graduates work in rural communities.
Chuck Mistretta, a medical physics and radiology professor at UW-Madison School of Medicine and Public Health, was selected to receive the 2010 Technology Achievement Award by the MIT Club of Wisconsin. And Jo Ann Carr, who retired on March 30 as director of media, education resources and information technology for the UW-Madison School of Education, received the Wisconsin Educational Media and Technology Associationâ??s Lifetime Achievement Award at this yearâ??s annual conference.
Non-native plants and animals are those that come from somewhere else, usually another country. When they start to reproduce in a new location theyâ??re said to be “naturalized.” Only a few of the naturalized plants and animals will become invasive, said Don Waller, a professor of botany and conservation at UW-Madison.
Children who are diagnosed with autism are described as being “on the spectrum,” sitting along the range of neurological impairments, from mild to severe, that compose autism spectrum disorders, or ASDs, but it could be said those so diagnosed are not the only ones on an autism spectrum.In the politically-tinted scientific world, there is what might be called a spectrum of causality, a sweep of beliefs about autism yielding two opposing viewpoints – those who believe the globe is engulfed in an autism pandemic constituting a major public health crisis, and those scientists who say it is all a myth. Put UW-Madison Dr. Morton Anne Gernsbacher in the latter group.
Pets big and small were on display at the University of Wisconsin – Madison Veterinary Schoolâ??s open house Sunday afternoon.Hundreds of people showed up to see how doctors treat pets.
The sports stars get a lot of press and attention — thatâ??s as it should be. Still, there are other kinds of stars out there who shine brightly in their own fields of endeavor. One wonderful example is Madisonâ??s own Kathy Sykes.
Sykes, who is a graduate of West High School and the University of Wisconsin, is the head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agencyâ??s Aging Initiative in Washington, D.C. She is described as a one-woman institution, the only full-time EPA employee working on the intersection of the environment and aging. As such, she has developed the framework for the National Agenda on the Environment and Aging. This is based on scientific collaboration and on input from public forums and the aging network.
Itâ??s tough all over when cheese and Harleyâ??s canâ??t even get some love from the Wisconsin Legislature. Bills that would have named Harley-Davidson Wisconsinâ??s official motorcycle and the bacterium that converts milk into cheese the official state microbe appear to be dead this year.
Perhaps legalizing the sale of raw milk is a bad idea whose time has come. But I believe itâ??s a mistake from a food safety and public health perspective at a time when Wisconsin is moving assertively in other directions to protect and promote the health of its citizens. â?? Charles J. Czuprynski, director, Food Research Institute, and professor, UW-Madison Department of Pathobiological Sciences
Scientists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison got two hours Friday to look at another rock brought to them by another farmer who said his house was hit by the meteorite during Wednesday nightâ??s fall. Geology professor John Valley said the Wisconsin fragment is about the size of an unshelled peanut. He said it seems to be legitimate because itâ??s covered with the distinctive blackened crust created when a meteor superheats in the Earthâ??s atmosphere.
Organizers of a new website about Gaylord Nelson and the first Earth Day report itâ??s getting tens of thousands of hits per day. http://nelsonearthday.net is run by the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies at the UW-Madison. The site includes film, audio, photographs and other items about former Wisconsin senator and Earth Day founder Gaylord Nelson, including a 1970 clip of him speaking about the growing interest in environmental issues in Milwaukee
