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.
Wisconsin farmers are having a tough time getting loans needed for spring planting. The University of Wisconsin-Madison estimates net farm income dropped 56 percent in Wisconsin last year to about $1 billion – the lowest level since 2002.
In the lab that summer morning, Thomas Wernerâ??s heart pounded. The University of Wisconsin-Madison post-doctoral researcher had to sit down and take deep breaths before continuing the crucial experiment. Werner, who had grown up in East Germany hoping to study butterflies, had instead devoted more than three years to a species of the North American fruit fly, Drosophila guttifera.
Rick Bogle doubts the UW-Madison paid much attention to the stateâ??s animal cruelty statute until last year, when the local Alliance for Animals began questioning the legality of sometimes-fatal decompression experiments involving sheep (see Watchdog, 8/27/09, 9/24/09 and 10/8/09).
Milwaukeeâ??s so-called voucher students, who are given tax dollars to go to private schools, are performing at roughly the same levels in math and reading as their public school peers. That is the finding of an analysis that has concluded its third year in a five year longitudinal study on the Parental Choice Program.
The fact that a Madison-based tech company could raise $7 million in venture capital in the current financing climate is noteworthy. That the financing was led by one of the premier Silicon Valley venture capital firms may be the bigger story.
Local and state leaders have long acknowledged the importance of tapping into the big money financing firms on both coasts for the money, contacts and expertise necessary for the areaâ??s developing tech sector to reach its potential. To aid such efforts, officials have organized special fund-seeking trips to places like Boston and Silicon Valley. The Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation even opened an office in California.
Sean B. Carroll, a molecular biologist at University of Wisconsin-Madison, has been chosen by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute to be its next vice president for science education. Carroll will maintain his lab at UW-Madison.
In the lab that summer morning, Thomas Wernerâ??s heart pounded.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison post-doctoral researcher had to sit down and take deep breaths before continuing the crucial experiment.Werner, who had grown up in East Germany hoping to study butterflies, had instead devoted more than three years to a species of the North American fruit fly, Drosophila guttifera.
Focusing on this species of fruit fly, he and the other researchers in the lab of molecular biologist Sean B. Carroll, had made a prolonged assault on one of the key questions in evolutionary biology: how nature endows creatures with their colorful patterns, from a leopardâ??s dark spots to a butterflyâ??s bold swirls. In different species the patterns serve to attract mates, provide camouflage or provide other advantages in the struggle to survive.
The forest can be a blur of color and patterns, from the rosette spots on leopards and stripes adorning tigers to psychedelic butterflies and polka-dotted flies. Exactly how these animals got their funky coats has been a mystery … until now.
U.S. scientists say theyâ??ve learned the long-sought-after secret of how animals make spots, stripes and other coloring patterns.
“The Wingless molecule is deployed in this species at specific points in time and in specific places — the places where the spots are going to be,” study senior author Sean Carroll, a molecular biologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said in a news release.
How did the butterfly get its spots? A clever “pattern gene” turned them on, a study suggested Wednesday in the journal Nature. “Weâ??re all fascinated by animal colors and patterns,” says evolutionary biologist Sean Carroll of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, senior author of the study. “We found this one kind of fruit fly with polka-dot wings and decided to investigate.”
A University of Wisconsin senior recently received a $250,000 Hertz Fellowship to pursue graduate studies in the field of applied physical science.
Members of an animal rights group said they sued the UW Board of Regents on Monday, alleging that UW-Madison has not provided them with documents they requested related to eye movement research on monkeys and cats. PETA, the People for Ethical Treatment of Animals, said the university withheld videos and redacted information in other records when there was “no basis,” according to the lawsuit. UW-Madison officials told PETA that they withheld the information in the interest of ensuring academic freedom for the researchers. “Any such records constitute unpublished proprietary research data,” university officials said, according to the lawsuit.
An animal rights group alleges in a lawsuit that the University of Wisconsin illegally withheld public records related to animal testing at a Madison lab. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals filed the lawsuit Monday in Dane County Circuit Court. PETA alleges that pictures and videotapes of animal tests at the university should have been provided when requested instead of withheld.
Members of an animal rights group said they sued the UW Board of Regents on Monday, alleging that UW-Madison has not provided them with documents they requested related to eye movement research on monkeys and cats.PETA, the People for Ethical Treatment of Animals, said the university withheld videos and redacted information in other records when there was “no basis,” according to the lawsuit.
MADISON, Wis. — An animal rights group alleges in a lawsuit that the University of Wisconsin illegally withheld public records related to animal testing at a Madison lab.
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals filed the lawsuit on Monday in Dane County Circuit Court. PETA alleges that pictures and videotapes of animal tests at the university should have been provided when requested instead of withheld.
An animal rights group alleges in a lawsuit that the University of Wisconsin illegally withheld public records related to animal testing at a Madison lab.
An animal rights group alleges in a lawsuit that the University of Wisconsin illegally withheld public records related to animal testing at a Madison lab.
