Category: Research

Acts of scientific fraud, such as fabricating or manipulating data, appear to be surprisingly common but are underreported to university officials, says a report published today in the journal Nature. And the institutions may have investigated them far too seldom, the report’s authors write.

The authors are Sandra L. Titus, an official in the research-integrity office, Lawrence J. Rhoades, the emeritus director of its education division, and James A. Wells, director of research policy at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. Mr. Wells previously worked for Gallup, where he directed the survey on research misconduct.

A survey suggests that many research misconduct incidents in the United States go unreported to the Office of Research Integrity. Sandra L. Titus, James A. Wells and Lawrence J. Rhoades say it’s time to change that.

Kristin Roovers didn’t mention her problems with U.S. authorities when she walked into the Ottawa Health Research Institute as a post-doctoral fellow in 2005 and landed a job exploring how cancer cells turn bad.

She walked out this week when her record of “extensive” data falsification and manipulation caught up with her.

“We don’t have any reason to believe scientists are any different in Canada than the U.S., unfortunately, with regards to scientific misconduct,” said Dr. James Wells, director of the office of research policy at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, who co-authored the study. Only a handful of cases a year ever come to the attention of Canada’s research agencies, which have been under pressure to be more proactive.

About 1,000 potential incidents of fabrication, falsification or plagiarism in scientific research go unreported every year, according to a survey that suggests such misconduct is far more prevalent than suspected.

On average, the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Research Integrity receives only 24 reports of suspected misconduct from academic and other research institutions yearly, according to a report in the journal Nature. The authors called for scientists and institutions to implement more safeguards against research fraud.

Research fraud happens even though the scientific community uses measures such as replicating original research, and evaluating it through a peer review system, said James Wells, a study author and director of research policy at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

MADISON, Wis., June 17 (UPI) — U.S. scientists studying minerals called zircons say a harsh climate might have scoured or even destroyed the surface of the Earth’s earliest continents.

University of Wisconsin-Madison geologist Professor John Valley said Zircons, the oldest known materials on Earth, offer a window in time back as far as 4.4 billion years ago. Because the crystals are exceptionally resistant to chemical changes, Valley said they are now used to determine the age of ancient rocks.

PARIS (AFP) â?? Mass extinctions that wiped out up to 90 percent of Earth’s flora and fauna were driven in large part by shifting ocean levels, according to a study published in Nature.

Understanding what made many of the planet’s living organism rapidly die out at least five times over the last half billion years remains one of the great challenges in paleontology and biology.

“The expansions and contractions of those environments have pretty profound effects on life on Earth,” said Shanan Peters, a geologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and sole author of the study.

It’s been some eighty years since primate research began at UW–Madison, bringing with it a hornet’s nest of ethical debate. For the most part, the public ignores the vitriol, viewing the rhetoric on both sides as extreme and out of touch with our normal, everyday concerns. Meanwhile the monkeys–in Madison, thousands of them–continue to live and die in captivity. Is it high time humankind decided what we think about it? (Story excerpt. Full story unavailable online.)

Men fighting over women? Nothing new there, based on the findings of a prehistoric mass grave in southwest Germany.

Durham University-led researchers say that genetic evidence from 34 skeletons dating back to around 5000 B.C. shows the deaths were the result of a tribal war over the need for female companionship.

The team, which included researchers from University College London, University of Wisconsin and a German government body, made the conclusions based on the strontium, carbon and oxygen isotopes signatures of the skeletons’ teeth. These give vital information about the skeletons’ geological origin and diet.

Reid Bryson, a pioneer in the field of climatology and a founder of the UW-Madison’s meteorology department and Center for Climatic Research, died Wednesday, June 11, at his home in Madison at the age of 88.

Bryson was among the first to explore the influence of climate on humans and human culture and, in turn, human impacts on climate.

He was an early developer of simple computer models to study the causes of past climate change, comparing those simulations with records of paleo-climate and human culture.

Madison’s Community Development Authority voted Thursday night to limit the fee it would charge to the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation for the use of CDA bonds in building WARF’s Wisconsin Institutes of Discovery.

The authority decided it would charge one-third of a 1 percent fee on up to $175 million worth of the bonds used to build the Institutes of Discovery, a dual public and private research center funded by three $50 million donations from the state, WARF and private donors John and Tashia Morgridge. The CDA authorized bonds for up to $185 million, making $33,000 the maximum discount WARF received on the project. If the total amount of bonds needed runs over $185 million, the CDA must hold another public meeting, restarting the process of issuing bonds.

WTMJ’s John Jagler chats with University of Wisconsin-Madison entomologist Phil Pellitteri about how the big floods we’ve seen could lessen the effect of mosquitoes this summer.

At least twice as many black bears probably are roaming the forests of Wisconsin as previously thought, according to a UW-Madison study.

The state Department of Natural Resources estimates the state’s bear population at 13,000. The study concludes there are at least twice that many, although that doesn’t mean people should be afraid to go into the woods, said Timothy Van Deleen, a UW-Madison wildlife ecology professor who conducted the study with student Dave MacFarland.

MADISON, Wis., June 9 (UPI) — When forming attitudes on embryonic stem cell research, people are influenced by a number of factors, but science is not one of them, U.S. researchers say.

A team of University of Wisconsin-Madison communications researchers say that scientific knowledge — for many citizens — has an almost negligible effect on how people regard the field.

Obama’s ads tended to focus on themes of change and renewal, according to a study by the University of Wisconsin’s Advertising Project. Obama personally narrated 70 percent of his TV spots. His ads used the word “change” 39 percent of the time, more than any other candidate.

In a recent study, researchers at the University of British Columbia and the University of Wisconsin found that the U.S. government’s goal to produce 36 billion gallons of ethanol by 2022, with a maximum of 15 billion from corn, would most likely increase the nitrogen flow to the Gulf by 10 to 20 percent.

Madison, Wis. – In a finding that researchers found surprising, the public’s attitudes about embryonic stem cell research appear to be shaped more by things other than an understanding of science.

Writing in a recent issue of the International Journal of Public Opinion, a team of three communications researchers from the University of Wisconsin-Madison reports that for many people, scientific knowledge has an â??almost negligibleâ? impact on how people view stem cell research.

Kikkoman Foods Inc. said Friday it plans to open a research lab in Madison, expanding the Wisconsin presence of the maker of soy sauce and soy milk.

The Madison facility is expected to open in September staffed by a senior scientist from Japan and several other employees to be locally hired, chief executive Yuzaburo Mogi said.

Researchers from California say they have improved a groundbreaking technique that reprograms skin cells back to the embryonic state, making the procedure safer by relying less on the use of viruses and genetic modification.

The technique, first used last year by teams led by James Thomson at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Shinya Yamanaka of Kyoto University and the Gladstone Institute of Cardiovascular Disease, turned back a cell’s developmental clock by inserting four genes into the cell using a virus.

The University of Wisconsin System Board of Regents will vote Friday on whether to establish a graduate-level School of Freshwater Sciences at UW-Milwaukee – a unique program that aims to anchor the Milwaukee region as a global center of freshwater research.

A group of scientists at the University of Wisconsin at Madison says there is a new reason to toast to the benefits of red wine.

Scientists have long thought a natural compound called resveratrol, which is found in some red wines, could help slow the aging process by helping to protect tissues inside the body. The question has been whether just a glass or two of wine could really make a difference.

Anti-aging enthusiasts have been in a lather in recent years about the chemical resveratrol, present in red wine. For one thing, low levels of heart disease among French people (despite all the cheese and butter they eat) could be due to the red wine they also enjoy in liberal quantities, scientists say — maybe because of the resveratrol. Resveratrol may also mimic the life extension seen when animals are fed diets low in calories.

Red wine may be much more potent than was thought in extending human lifespan, researchers say in a new report that is likely to give impetus to the rapidly growing search for longevity drugs.

The study is based on dosing mice with resveratrol, an ingredient of some red wines. Some scientists are already taking resveratrol in capsule form, but others believe it is far too early to take the drug, especially using wine as its source, until there is better data on its safety and effectiveness.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A natural compound found in red wine may protect the heart against the effects of the aging process, researchers said on Tuesday.

In their study, mice were given a diet supplemented with the compound known as resveratrol starting at their equivalent of middle age until old age.

The Atlantic hurricane season starts Saturday, and some scientists will try something new this year to unravel the extremely complex mosaic that creates storms of varying intensities. Is it possible, the scientists are asking, that dust storms in Africa might weaken those Atlantic storms before they reach the eastern seaboard?

For several years now, scientists have had evidence that dust from storms across the vast expanse of the Sahara Desert drifts out over the Atlantic where it reflects some solar radiation back into space, thus cooling the ocean waters that fuel hurricanes. Cooler waters should mean fewer, or less intense, storms, according to recent studies.

Amato Evan of the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies is hoping that this year could tell something about the effect of Africa’s dust storms on Atlantic hurricanes. His computer model indicates a moderate level of dust storm activity for Africa this year, thus a moderate impact on Atlantic storms. It may take more extreme years to answer the question, but at least this is a start.

Drug discovery is a cruel business. A hundred thousand people die every year because of adverse drug side effects. Millions die too young because drugs just aren’t good enough.

The problem is that scientists invent medicines to treat people, but they have to use animal or tumor cells to do it. Heart cells, brain cells and liver cells all die when you try to keep them in a petri dish. So over decades researchers have come up with jury-rigged tests. They use preserved kidney cells extracted from a human fetus 30 years ago to see if an experimental drug will disrupt the rhythm of the heart. They use cells from a rat’s digestive tract with human receptors stuck in. They force huge doses of every potential medicine down the throats of rodents. “The system is failing,” says Gabriela Cezar, who left Pfizer to study stem cells at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Presidential contenders spent nearly $201 million â?? easily a record â?? on TV ads during the primary season that ends today, researchers said Monday.

Equally impressive: Campaigns in both parties put ads on the air nearly 330,000 times, according to the Wisconsin Advertising Project and TNS Media Intelligence/CMAG. That averages about 2,100 times a day since the first of the year.

Red wine does indeed explain why the French get away with a relatively clean bill of heart health despite eating a diet loaded with saturated fats, concludes a new study.

People living in France have a much lower incidence of coronary heart disease than those in Britain, despite their similar intake of saturated fats – a phenomenon known as the “French paradox”.

Now two teams have pierced that veil with unprecedented clarity. One team used the Spitzer Space Telescope, which can see through dust, to chart the positions and orbital speeds of more than 110 million stars. They discovered a big surprise: Two of the galaxy’s four spiral arms are actually just small side-branches. On the other hand, the central bar of the galaxy turns out to be nearly twice as big as previously thought, Spitzer team member Robert Benjamin of the University of Wisconsin, Madison, said at a teleconference today.

There is evidence that wine can have beneficial effects

A chemical derived from red wine could one day help keep the heart “genetically young”, claim researchers.

University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers found that resveratrol appeared to halt age-related changes in the function of heart genes.

Red wine may be the next best thing to the fabled elixir of youth, new research suggests.

A compound in the skin of red grapes has been found to curb the effects of ageing, even when taken in tiny doses.

Professor Tomas Prolla, from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the US, senior author of the research published this week in the online journal PLoS ONE, said: “Resveratrol is active in much lower doses than previously thought and mimics a significant fraction of the profile of calorific restriction at the gene expression level.”

Washington — The presidential candidates have spent almost $195 million on television ads so far in this extended primary season, with the Democratic contenders shelling out the bulk at about $136 million, an analysis of political advertising shows.

Democrat Barack Obama himself has outspent all the Republicans combined by more than $17 million. The GOP primary race ended in March when John McCain claimed his party’s nomination.

The University of Wisconsin’s Advertising Project analyzed data from the TNS Media Intelligence/Campaign Media Analysis Group, a firm that tracks political advertising. The study looked at more than 327,000 ads that aired during the primary season.

The tongue display design used by Payan’s team was developed by Kurt Kaczmarek and colleagues at University of Wisconsin, Madison, US, as an alternative to vision.

Milwaukee, Wis. – In Wisconsin’s desire to compete in the technology-based â??knowledgeâ? economy, public officials know the state cannot bring to bear the resources of a California, a Texas, or a New York, but it can use collaboration to stretch the assets it has.

This collaboration can be driven by a number of mechanisms, including public-private partnerships. These partnerships are growing in number, especially as federal granting agencies emphasize collaboration as part of their decision-making process. But even if this incentive did not exist, Wisconsin would have another, more powerful reason to pursue such partnerships – economic vitality, which is a motivating factor behind several initiatives.

A new report out of the University of Wisconsin says Barack Obama all but captured the Democratic presidential nod earlier this year. That’s when lopsided campaign spending helped Obama win nine consecutive nominating contests culminating with Wisconsin’s primary. (Audio.)

U.S. presidential candidates have spent nearly $200 million on television advertising so far this primary season, according to research done by the Wisconsin Advertising Project.

The data compilation released on Monday said that the majority of the spending has been by Democratic candidates, who have spent around $135 million on campaign advertising. Republican candidates spent about $57 million.

Drug discovery is a cruel business. A hundred thousand people die every year because of adverse drug side effects. Millions die too young because drugs just aren’t good enough.

The problem is that scientists invent medicines to treat people, but they have to use animal or tumor cells to do it. Heart cells, brain cells and liver cells all die when you try to keep them in a petri dish. So over decades researchers have come up with jury-rigged tests. They use preserved kidney cells extracted from a human fetus 30 years ago to see if an experimental drug will disrupt the rhythm of the heart. They use cells from a rat’s digestive tract with human receptors stuck in. They force huge doses of every potential medicine down the throats of rodents.

“The system is failing,” says Gabriela Cezar, who left Pfizer to study stem cells at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

If you take a look around Wisconsin, one thing is apparent: The land is continually changing. Housing replaces vacant lots and farm fields; farm fields have replaced prairies and savannas – grasslands with oaks. Cities, of course, arise and expand.

Two Midwestern scientists have edited a book that takes a close look at the ecological changes Wisconsin has experienced over the past decades.

“The Vanishing Present,” published by the University of Chicago Press and due out this fall, presents a picture of what has been lost, “how the land has been shifting under our feet in ways that don’t get much attention,” said Donald Waller, a professor of botany at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Waller worked on the book with Thomas Rooney, formerly a scientist at UW-Madison and now an assistant professor of biological sciences at Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio.

Ten years ago in a small, closet-like laboratory, James “Jamie” Thomson, an embryologist at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, changed the world by creating the first human embryonic stem cells. Few research experiments have generated as much hype or controversy. More recently, he played a key role in creating induced pluripotent stem cells, which might someday provide the benefits of embryonic stem cells without destroying embryos.

The Wisconsin Bio Industry Alliance also recently publicized a study by a University of Wisconsin-Madison professor indicating that ethanol production has not been the only cause of sharply rising corn prices. That study, by Renk Professor of Agribusiness Randall Fortenbery and a graduate student, found that export demand and speculative trading are among reasons prices have spiked.