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
** Pieces of the meteorite that fell in southwestern Wisconsin last week will be on public display Tuesday through Sunday at the UW-Madison Geology Museum. At least five pieces, each approximately the size of an “unshelled peanut,” can be looked at.
** A number of UW-Madison programs were recognized in U.S. News and World Report’s annual rankings of the “Best Graduate Schools.”
Two UW programs ranked among the top 10 nationally, with the chemistry department tied for seventh overall and the School of Education ninth.
Understanding the first Earth Day, said professor William Cronon, who studies American environmental history at UW-Madison, requires understanding that change â?? radical change â?? was in the air.
At least five fragments of a meteorite that fell in southwestern Wisconsin last week will be displayed for several days at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Geology Museum.
Professional and amateur meteorite hunters have flocked to southwest Wisconsin, to look for pieces of last weekâ??s meteor that lit up the night sky throughout the Upper Midwest. The Field Museum of Chicago has a team in Iowa County, along with the UW-Madison Geology Museum.
Geochemistry professor John Slaughter says the museum could put out a display this week with 6 or more pieces of the space rock. Ruben Garcia, a professional hunter, says the search has apparently not yielded as much as it should.
At least five fragments of a meteorite that fell in southwestern Wisconsin last week will be displayed for several days at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Geology Museum, officials said.
UW-Madison researchers are currently studying what they believe to be a fragment of the meteor that passed over the Midwest last week.
Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison on Friday got their first look at what they believe to be fragments of a meteor that set night skies ablaze over much of southern Wisconsin and Iowa earlier in the week. The fragment, which measures about 2 inches by 3/4 of an inch and weighs 7.5 grams, was found by a farmer west of Madison on Thursday morning, researchers said in a news release from the university.
When Ruben Garcia saw video of the meteorite that streaked across the Wisconsin sky on Wednesday night, it might as well have been the Bat-Signal. The professional meteorite hunter, known to many as Mr. Meteorite, was in his car the next day, driving from his home in Phoenix, bound for Iowa County to look for every chunk of that meteorite he could find.
The controversy over primate research is not going away any time soon, due to the paradox of primate research — the more similarities between monkeys and humans that are discovered, the more researchers will argue those similarities make it valid to use monkeys in research on human diseases. Primate advocates will continue to ask: How like us need they be before primate research is considered to be unethical?
(Amy M. Kerwin of Madison worked at the Harlow Center for Biological Psychology from 1999 to 2004.)
….This Thursday, Earth Day will mark its 40th anniversary with celebrations across the country. Events have been going on since last weekend and continue this week. One of the biggest is being sponsored by the UW-Madison program that bears the name of Nelson, who died in 2005 at age 89.
The Nelson Institute for Environmental Studiesâ?? two-day conference, “Earth Day at 40: Valuing Wisconsinâ??s Environmental Traditions, Past, Present and Future,” begins Tuesday at the Monona Terrace Convention Center and concludes Wednesday.
Former astronaut Harrison Schmitt, one of the last men to walk on the moon, has nothing good to say about President Barack Obamaâ??s plan to all but ground the Constellation program, which calls for a return to the moon by 2020 and human landings on Mars by the middle of the century.
â??Iâ??m afraid what the president and his administration want is for the United States to no longer be preeminent in space flight,â? Schmitt, an honorary fellow in the UW-Madison College of Engineering, says in a phone interview from Albuquerque, N.M., where he lives. â??And that has very, very serious consequences.â?
Whether itâ??s to mark Thursdayâ??s 40th anniversary of Earth Day or simply to herald the arrival of spring, now seems like a great time to check out one of southcentral Wisconsinâ??s many nature and environmental centers.
Researchers in Wisconsin are studying what they believe is a small portion of the meteor some Iowans saw streaking across the sky Wednesday night. A camera mounted on the dashboard of a Howard County Sheriffâ??s Department squad car captured the fireball as it crossed the Midwestern sky.
An apparent fragment from a meteor that lit up Midwestern skies this week has been recovered in southwestern Wisconsin, scientists said Friday.
Two farmers from southwest Wisconsin, near Livingston, found meteorites from Wednesdayâ??s meteor shower.UWâ??s Geology Department got to study one of them on Friday — but only for an hour.
Wisconsin researchers who study earth sciences are analyzing a piece of rock they believe is from Wednesday nightâ??s meteor.
It was more than just a meteor in the sky Wednesday night. That today from Professor John Valley of the University of Wisconsin-Madison Geoscience Department, who confirms meteorites have been found.
Quoted: Steven A. Ackerman and Jonathan Martin. As the baseball season dawns and summer is on the horizon, it seems a good time to examine the age-old baseball belief that a batted ball will not travel as far on a humid day as it does on a “drier” day.
As large as the halo seems, history suggests the object might only be the size of a softball or basketball, said James Lattis, the director of the University of Wisconsin Space Place in Madison.
Wisconsin researchers who study earth sciences are hoping someone comes forward with space rocks. An apparent meteor lit up the skies Wednesday night in parts of Wisconsin and Iowa, and as far east as Missouri. The National Weather Service says radar information suggests the meteor landed in southwest Wisconsin. If you find any fragments, researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison ask that you bring them quickly in for analysis.
Quoted: Mark Hobson from the University of Wisconsin Madisonâ??s Space Science and Engineering Center told Fox News he was pretty sure it was a meteor, though itâ??s still to early to tell.Â
With a paper last week in Nature, Sean Carroll would seem to be at the top of his game as a researcher. Yet his career is about to take a new tack: The day before the paper appeared, Carroll, a molecular biologist at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, was named vice president for science education at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Science caught up with Carroll last week to ask him about his new job.
UW-Madison Assistant Professor Ankur Desai from the Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Services said this morning he couldnâ??t say for sure what the object was but it probably was a small meteor.
Wisconsin researchers who study earth sciences are hoping someone comes forward with space rocks. An apparent meteor lit up the skies Wednesday night in parts of Wisconsin and Iowa, and as far east as Missouri.
Jim Lattis, of UW Space Place, said his best guess is that it was a chunk of space rock.”Iâ??ve seen really bright meteors, fire ball meteors from time to time over the years. It sounds like this was a particularly good example.” Lattis said.
Everyoneâ??s talking about the apparent meteor that lit up the sky around 10:15 p.m. on Wednesday, and the big question is: What was it? It could be a number of things, ranging from an extraterrestrial object to space junk or rocket casing, said Ed Eloranta, senior scientist at UW-Madisonâ??s Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences.
Some Apollo astronauts fretted aloud on Thursday as President Obama outlined his plans for realigning the nationâ??s space program. For the nationâ??s research universities, however, the mood was considerably more optimistic.
An apparent meteor â?? or possibly a piece of space junk â?? shot through and illuminated the night sky Wednesday, spurring dozens of people to flood the Dane County 911 Center with calls.
The object was first reported to the center about 10:15 p.m., and calls continued for more than an hour after that. Calls came from residents in at least five Midwestern states as the object tracked from west to east.
Quoted: Ankur Desai, an assistant professor in the Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, and Jim Lattis, director of Space Place
Over the past several years, Richard Davidson has peered into the minds of monks, pored over brain scans, analyzed neural procÂesses, and maybeâ??just maybeâ??discovered some of the keys to manufacturing happiness.
Botox may kill your wrinkles, but it could also cost you your social life, a new study suggests. Research from the University of Wisconsin-Madison published in the journal Psychological Science found that the wrinkle-smoothing treatment not only stops frown lines, it also increases the amount of time it takes to react to emotional events – potentially leading to socially awkward encounters.
The proposed restructuring of the graduate school moved toward a less sweeping reform, closer to the schoolâ??s current format, under a proposal introduced and debated extensively at the Faculty Senate Monday.
Free tickets to hear the Dalai Lama speak in Madison in May will be available starting Saturday. The 14th Dalai Lama will speak with Richard J. Davidson, director of the UW-Madison Center for Investigating Healthy Minds, on Sunday, May 16 at 2:15 p.m. in the Overture Center.
A few notes, quotes and observations from the UW-Madison Faculty Senate meeting held Monday evening at Bascom Hall.
Few topics tend to spark more emotional banter among faculty leaders than the schoolâ??s athletic department. So it was a mild upset when UW-Madison professor Murray Clayton summarized a committee report that examined whether the Athletic Board is properly overseeing the athletic department — and no one stood up to question the findings.
In the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a team led by Yue Xua of the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, Calif., finds “two small molecules that enhance the survival of human embryonic stem cells.” (Mentions UW-Madison.)
A farmer from a former Soviet republic plans to build his nationâ??s first on-farm cheese plant producing mixed goat and cowâ??s milk cheeses after spending two weeks learning from Wisconsinâ??s top dairy industry leaders. The Babcock Institute for International Dairy Research and Development at the University of Wisconsin recently hosted three Cochran Fellows from Turkmenistan for a two-week training program that included a combination of lectures, hands-on workshops and farm visits led by UW specialists and extension agents. Studies focused on animal health, nutrition, livestock reproduction and breeding techniques.Â
It may get rid of your wrinkles â?? but cost you your friends. Women who use Botox are sending the wrong social signals because their frozen facial muscles make it difficult for them to express the normal range of emotions.
David Havas, a psychologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, who led the study, says his research proves Charles Darwinâ??s theory that facial expression is an important factor in producing emotion in the brain.
Alejandro and Consuelo Huerta, immigrants from Michoac n, Mexico, and Salinas residents, spent a lifetime working in the fields so their three daughters didnâ??t have to. So, when the youngest one informed them she wanted to pursue a career in agriculture, they were puzzled.
A first-year doctoral candidate at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Huerta has just been awarded a research fellowship from the National Science Foundation, one of the coveted 2,000 that are granted each year. The three-year fellowship comes with a $30,000 annual stipend, $10,500 cost-of-education allowance and $1,000 international travel allowance.
The University Committee released a document Friday to help guide UW-Madison faculty through a discussion of the proposed restructuring of the universityâ??s research enterprise. This paper will get a first reading at Mondayâ??s Faculty Senate meeting.
The Land of Milk and Honey is exporting its equally famous Ramon-Grey Gold stone for a new building at the University of Wisconsin. Quarra Stone executive vice president John Rodell, who was in Israel as part of a special delegation of government and business leaders from Wisconsin, signed the agreement to purchase 12 containers of the stone.
Imago Scientific Instruments, a Fitchburg company that makes high-power microscopes providing 3D images, has been purchased by Ametek, a publicly traded company in suburban Philadelphia, for $6 million. Imago was founded in 1998 based on technology discovered at UW-Madison.
