Category: Research

Madison, Wis. – The University of Wisconsin-Madison has claimed the number two spot in university research and now conducts $905 million worth of research annually, according to new statistics released by the National Science Foundation.

With science and engineering research expenditures totaling $832 million included in the overall total for fiscal 2006, UW-Madison has climbed one spot, surpassing the combined campuses of the University of Michigan, which held the number two spot in fiscal 2005. The overall figure of $905 million amounts to an average of $440,000 per UW-Madison faculty member.

On the maps, a countryâ??s dimensions bloat or shrivel based on its contribution to the greenhouse effect and its vulnerability to climate-related health threats. Almost all of Africa deflates to insignificance in the emissions map, and balloons enormously in the map of risk.

This situation makes the climate challenge fundamentally an ethical one, with the public-health costs of global warming greatest in the parts of the world that have contributed the least emissions, said Jonathan Patz, the lead author of the study.

Dr. Patz is a professor in the medical school at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies.

WASHINGTON, Nov 6 (Reuters) – Climate change should be treated as a public health issue, especially by the United States, the world’s biggest long-term emitter of greenhouse gases, health and ecology experts said on Tuesday.

An Earth transformed by climate change could lead to more climate-related diseases, especially those transmitted by insects and those borne by water supplies, the experts said at a meeting of the American Public Health Association.

The United States and other rich countries bear special responsibility because their climate-warming emissions will have a disproportionate impact on poor countries that emit the least and have the fewest resources to deal with public health problems, said Jonathan Patz of the University of Wisconsin.

Santa Monica, Calif. – Amended stem cell patent claims submitted by the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation should not be enough to overcome the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office examiner’s rejections of those patents, according to consumer groups who have challenged the patents.

In formal comments filed last week, the Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights and the Public Patent Foundation asked that the rejections first issued by the PTO be made final.

A comprehensive national survey found that the UW-Madison and other top research universities had extremely small numbers of under-represented minority faculty members in 2007.

Under-represented faculty were defined as blacks, Hispanics and American Indians, who made up 28.7 percent of the United States in 2006 and are gaining an increasing number of Ph.D. degrees. Asians, who made up an estimated 4 percent of the population, are not categorized as under-represented.

Like the other top 100 research universities studied, the University of Wisconsin-Madison had very few black or Hispanic faculty, and just one American Indian faculty member was listed among UW faculty in the 15 science and engineering disciplines studied.

The UW-Madison chemistry department is now providing a paid maternity leave for research assistants as a way of ensuring that more women advance to faculty status.

The policy was proposed last year when the 40-member faculty — which includes four women — voted to approve the idea of a 12-week maternity leave with pay, but the proposal became snagged in the legal department.

Breast-feeding seems to protect children from asthma later in life, but only when the mother does not have the respiratory disorder herself, U.S. researchers said on Thursday.

Dr. Theresa Guilbert of the University of Wisconsin-Madison wanted to see if longer breast-feeding — lasting four months or more — improved lung function in children.

A group of U.S. researchers have found that wildfires â?? fuelled by climate change â?? may be turning boreal forests into sources of carbon dioxide.

The boreal forests â?? found in northern Canada, Alaska, Siberia, China, Scandinavia and elsewhere â?? make up the second largest type of forest in the world behind the tropical rainforest.

Scientists have historically believed that the boreal forests act as a carbon sink, as trees absorb carbon emissions and reduce them in the atmosphere.

But new research from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, published in the Nov. 1 issue of the journal Nature, has found that the forests may be emitting more carbon than they are absorbing.

By now, you may have already had your fill of Halloween candy. Now you’re ready to see how it’s made. Many of us just see candy in the store and buy it. But science actually plays a huge part in the process of making candy, and all foods.

Instead of trick or treating, Wednesday night on the UW campus, food scientist Rich Hartel, is showing audience members how science is a part of sweets.

“Candy starts with science, all food starts with science. Understanding the science behind how things are made allows us to control the candy and make good candy.” says Hartel.

Malaysia, Thailand, Colombia, Uruguay and Ghana are poised to become the world leaders in biodiesel production, according to a new study.

That’s surprising, since the United States is the world’s leading producer and exporter of soybeans, a major source for biofuel — a promising short-term alternative to fossil fuels. The U.S. harvested 3.1 billion bushels of soybeans last year.

But when Matt Johnson and Tracey Holloway of the University of Wisconsin at Madison’s Center for Sustainability and the Global Environment studied which countries are best positioned to enter the burgeoning market for biodiesel, they came up with a list of developing countries with a strong agricultural base, stable governments and low debt.

How refreshing.

Tea, something that people around the world enjoy consuming, might actually be good for you.

“The most fascinating thing is, to my knowledge, there is no other natural product known that has such diversified effects,” says Hasan Mukhtar, vice chair of dermatology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

The Consortium for Educational Change and Prairie State College recently hosted a day-long workshop for PSC faculty and teachers and administrators from local school districts. The workshop was presented by Gloria Ladson-Billings, one of the leading researchers focusing on the education of black children.

Ladson-Billings shared her expertise and insights about the historical, social and economic causes of the achievement gap. She emphasized the importance of the power of culture for supporting the education of all children.

[MONTEVIDEO] Colombia, Ghana, Malaysia, Thailand and Uruguay are the top five developing countries likely to attract biodiesel investment because of their strong agricultural industries, relative stability and low debt, says a US study.

The analysis, ‘A Global Comparison of National Biodiesel Production Potentials’, was published online yesterday (24 October) in Environmental Science and Technology.

MADISON, Wis., Oct. 22 (UPI) — A U.S. study suggested that Thailand, Uruguay and Ghana might become the world’s leading producers of the emerging renewable fuel known as biodiesel.

Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies said biodiesel can be easily manufactured from vegetable oils and animal fats, making it one of the most promising, near-term alternatives to fossil fuels.

Baltimore, Md. – It’s easy to understand why individual legislators or even the Legislature as a whole would be miffed at the University of Wisconsin. Multi-million-dollar computer system flopsâ?¦ Lecturers who peddle unpopular conspiracy theoriesâ?¦ Administrators accused of bizarre behavior â?¦ and complaints about rising tuition and declining access.

But it’s sometimes hard to understand why those same lawmakers can’t look past their legitimate short-term concerns and take a longer view of the value of the university to the Wisconsin economy.

The way most experts see it, â??ignorance is at the root of conflict over science,â? write two communication scholars, but many â??ignore the possibility that their communication efforts might be part of the problem.â?

The authorsâ??Matthew C. Nisbet, an assistant professor of communication at American University, and Dietram A. Scheufele, a professor of journalism and mass communication at the University of Wisconsin at Madisonâ??say that for too long, scientists have clung to the â??popular scienceâ? model, which puts the news media in charge of educating the public about science that is controversial, such as embryonic-stem-cell research.

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Research in psychiatrically ill children and adolescents suggests that those with depression, anxiety and other so-called “internalizing” disorders are more likely to have allergies.

“These findings add to the growing body of evidence supporting an association between anxiety, depressive, and allergic disorders,” write Dr. Mauricio Infante and colleagues from University of Wisconsin, Madison in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry.

MADISON â?? Beth Donley, former general counsel for the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF), said Thursday that she expects the next president to loosen the reins on funding human embryonic stem cell research.

But whoever is elected â?? Republican or Democrat â?? will face stiff opposition from some quarters in Congress, said Donley, who spoke at a luncheon sponsored by WisBusiness.com, Madison Magazine and the Madison Club.

Skull caps, plenty of beds and hotel-like rooms shielded from electromagnetic waves that can throw off study results are among the features at Wisconsin Sleep, UW-Madison’s new sleep center.

Are boggy northern Wisconsin lakes contributing to global climate change?

Researchers at the UW-Madison are finding that such lakes, which are scattered across Wisconsin’s North Woods, break down organic matter in a way that may indeed create more carbon dioxide, which contributes to the warming of the climate.

Brookfield, Wis. – Wisconsin once received its fair share of classified research and defense dollars and would like to again, but first it has to get over what one business leader calls a â??Vietnam hangover.â?

The organization established to secure more classified research grants for Wisconsin colleges and businesses took center stage at a luncheon meeting of the Wisconsin Innovation Network’s Milwaukee-area chapter.

MADISON, Wis. — Al Gore’s crusade against global warming won him the Nobel Peace Prize, which he shares with the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on climate change.

A lot of the research done on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus is part of that prestigious group, WISC-TV reported.

“This is definitely the wake-up call, and what’s concerning to the climatologists is the rate of warming that we’ve had,” said Jonathan Patz, an associate professor at UW-Madison’s Gaylord Nelson Institute for Environmental Study.

Dr. Eric Sandgren has in recent years become an outspoken counterweight to the animal rights activists whoâ??d like to see his and other UW-Madison animal study laboratories shut down.

An associate professor of experimental pathology in the Department of Pathobiological Sciences, part of the UW’s School of Veterinary Medicine, Sandgren is chair of two animal-use oversight committees on the UW campus. As such, he has sparred with expert critics who condemn experimenting on animals as cruel, inhumane and unnecessary.

A UW-Madison researcher has identified another molecular change that could enable bird flu to become more dangerous in people.

Two Americans and a Briton won the 2007 Nobel Prize in medicine yesterday for developing the immensely powerful â??knockoutâ? technology, which allows scientists to create animal models of human disease in mice.

The winners, who will share the $1.54 million prize, are Mario R. Capecchi, 70, of the University of Utah in Salt Lake City; Oliver Smithies, 82, of the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill; and Sir Martin J. Evans, 66, of Cardiff University in Wales.

Dr. Smithies has credited his interest in science to his boyhood love for radios and telescopes, and for a comic-strip inventor whom he wanted to emulate. He earned a scholarship to Oxford, then dropped out of medical school to study chemistry before moving to the University of Wisconsin. Because of a visa problem, Dr. Smithies worked in Toronto for about seven years before returning to Wisconsin. He became a geneticist and moved to the University of North Carolina 19 years ago.