Category: Research

Ramping up ethanol production for alternative fuels will worsen the “dead zone” in the Gulf of Mexico, a stretch of water unable to support aquatic life, according to a report co-written by the University of British Columbia.

The U.S. Senate’s recently announced plan to triple production of ethanol made from corn starch by 2022 will increase the zone by 10 to 19 per cent from the 20,000-square-kilometres â?? an area roughly the size of New Jersey â?? it has recently occupied, the report said.

A PLANNED increase in US ethanol production from corn would spell environmental “disaster” for marine species in the Gulf of Mexico, said a co-author of a science study.

A boost in corn production will worsen the Gulf’s so-called “dead zone”, an area with so little oxygen that sealife suffocates, said Simon Donner, a geographer at the University of British Columbia in Canada.

Dr Donner and Chris Kucharik of the University of Wisconsin used computer models to conclude that growing enough corn to meet US biofuel goals set for 2022 would cause a boost of 10 to 34 per cent in nitrogen pollution in the Mississippi and Atchafalaya Rivers, which run into the Gulf of Mexico.

Helping reduce reliance on fossil fuels is expected to create jobs in the renewable energy sector as well as training opportunities for the state’s technical college system.

With that in mind, the state Technical College System and others will host a three-day Wisconsin Renewable Energy Summit beginning Wednesday at the Midwest Airlines Center in Milwaukee. Among the presenters will be UW-Madison’s Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center.

A key patent on human embryonic stem cells (ESCs) is back from the dead – in a form that seems less likely to stifle research.

James Thomson of the University of Wisconsin-Madison isolated the first human ESCs in 1998. This work and earlier experiments with cells from monkeys was covered by three US patents granted to the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation.

A decade ago, a 150 rhesus monkeys from the Henry Vilas Zoo were shipped to Tulane University in New Orleans.

And, that’s where they died.

At the zoo Saturday a group of animal rights activists returned to remember the monkeys.

Hereâ??s a place thatâ??s unlikely ever to be a vacation spot for Yankee pitcher Joba Chamberlain: Lake Myvatn, in Iceland.

Myvatn, translating from Icelandic to English, means Midge Lake.

During mating season, the air at Lake Myvatn can also be thick with male midges, each hovering, waiting for a female to join him. â??Itâ??s a like a fog, a brown dense fog that just rises around the lake,â? said Anthony R. Ives, a professor of zoology at the University of Wisconsin.

Aided by satellite monitoring, scientists at the University of Wisconsinâ??s Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies have updated their study of cyclone formation in the eastern Atlantic Ocean off of Africaâ??s west coast. Their findings, released last moevels (Voice of America)nth, appeared about the same time as tropical Cyclone Ivan struck Madagascar in the Indian Ocean east of the African continent.

The UW Board of Regents today approved a land swap allowing construction of an underground holding facility for thousands of rats and mice for research use on the UW-Madison campus.

The project will be located in the 1200 block of Campus Drive at North Orchard Street, as part of the Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery, a biomedical research complex.

Approval of the land swap between the UW-Madison and the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation was needed so a $20 million plan that includes a receiving dock as well as the 10,000-square-foot “vivarium” — a facility for live animals for observation and research — could proceed.

If you think there are too many midges in Scotland, try visiting Iceland where blizzards of the bugs form.

In the journal Nature, a team of ecologists from the University of Wisconsin, The University of Iceland and Royal Holloway, University of London, report on the flighty behaviour of algae munching midges in Iceland’s Lake Myvatn, which means “midge lake” in Icelandic.

The global blood supply â?? going vein-to-vein, from donor to warehouse to hospital to patient â?? is tough to track. And tracking problems are part of the reason that thousands of bags of critically needed blood are thrown out every day.

Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison are hoping to use radio-frequency identification (RFID) technology to create a way to better track blood supplies around the world. That, according to Alfonso Gutierrez, RFID lab director at the university, could lead to better handling and fewer instances of patients receiving the wrong blood.

Wisconsins role in the commercialization of embryonic stem cell research has received a boost from the U.S. patent office, which rejected a challenge to a key patent held by the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation.

MADISON, Wis. — Federal regulators are upholding a patent that covers embryonic stem cell research discovered at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

An examiner with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office said that one of three patents held by the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF) can stand. It hasn’t yet ruled on two others being challenged.

Critics had asked the patent office to throw out the patents, which cover discoveries made by UW-Madison scientist James Thomson. They argue the patents have hindered research in the U.S.
The research foundation disputes that claim.

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If scientists could produce a tiny robot that could travel through your body and heal damaged tissue, eradicate disease-carrying microbes, and even wipe out a cancerous tumor, would you support their efforts?

Maybe not, especially if you are an American. Skepticism of experimental science is rampant, and scholars across the land are struggling to understand why, and what they can do to change attitudes. Studies sponsored by the National Science Foundation have found a widespread suspicion among the public that too many scientists are trying to “play God” by manipulating life, and that the government is inept when it comes to protecting its people.

“The United States is a country where religion plays an important role in peoples’ lives,” Dietram Scheufele, a University of Wisconsin-Madison professor of life sciences communication told participants at a recent meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. “European countries have a much more secular perspective.”

The Morgridge Institute for Research on Monday named stem cell pioneer James Thomson as director of regenerative biology and principal scientist.

A star UW stem cell researcher will play a key role at a new private research center in Madison.

James Thomson is named director of regenerative biology for the Morgridge Institute for Research being built on campus.

Thomson was first to isolate human embryonic stem cells in 1998. Last year, his team succeeded in turning skin cells into the equivalent of embryonic stem cells.

University leaders hope Thomson’s appointment will help recruit scientists to conduct breakthrough research.

MADISON, Wis. — A world-renowned stem cell scientist and researcher has accepted a key position with the Morgridge Institute for Research, the private, not-for-profit division of the Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery.

Jamie Thomson, the first member of the scientific team at the research facility, will be the director of regenerative biology. Thompson is currently a professor of anatomy at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Medicine and Public Health and will retain that position in addition to his new role. The announcement was made at a news conference at the UW Health Sciences Learning Center on Monday afternoon, WISC-TV reported.