A global warming study involving University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers says some climates of the world will be lost by 2100 and replaced by other climates not known in the world today.
Instances of disappearing climates would be primarily concentrated in tropical highlands and regions near the north and south poles. Places such as Wisconsin and the Midwest seem to escape the biggest changes.
Quoted: John W. Williams, an assistant professor of geography at UW-Madison
The duration of ice on Lake Mendota in Dane County has slipped from an average of four months between 1850 and 1870 to nearly three months for the 20 years ending in 2005, according to research at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
John Magnuson, a lake researcher at UW, said less ice cover could harm the health of some lakes.
Northeastern Wisconsin can and should capitalize on biomedical research â?? especially the stem-cell research currently being cultivated at the University of Wisconsin â?? former Gov. Tommy Thompson told a group of business and elected officials on Thursday afternoon.
When Jerry Chi-Ping Yin started his research lab in 1995, he spent the majority of his time conducting experiments and interacting with staff throughout the day.
Now, the University of Wisconsin-Madison molecular geneticist tends to hibernate in his office – writing, submitting, rewriting and resubmitting grants to fund his studies and pay seven salaries, a cost of about $400,000 a year.
Feeding chocolate to a bunch of middle-age, overweight people for weeks on end might not be as unhealthy as it seems.
Researchers found that six weeks of daily consumption of a dark chocolate cocoa mix significantly improved the blood vessel health of those who participated in the study. The study is the latest in a growing number that link reduced heart disease risk to flavonoids in dark chocolate and other food and beverages, such as red wine, green tea and dark-colored fruits and vegetables.
“There are hundreds, if not thousands, of flavonoids in every plant substance we eat,” said James Stein, director of preventive cardiology at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health. “This is a very hot area. This study confirms what other investigators have found.”
Q: Why do we itch?
Ben MacDonald
Grade 8
Sennett Middle School
A: Like so many questions that seem simple at first, this one gets complicated the moment you start scratching below the surface.
A congressional panel is investigating Purdue University’s handling of challenges to a university scientist’s controversial “tabletop” nuclear fusion research.
The House Committee on Science and Technology has raised questions about Purdue’s internal investigation of whether nuclear scientist Rusi Taleyarkhan thwarted efforts to test his findings. “Despite the university’s statement that no misconduct has occurred, many disturbing questions remain about the scope and adequacy of the investigation,” said Rep. Brad Miller, D-N.C., who heads the panel’s subcommittee on investigations and oversight.
Northeastern Wisconsin can and should capitalize on biomedical research â?? especially the stem-cell research currently being cultivated at the University of Wisconsin â?? former Gov. Tommy Thompson told a group of business and elected officials on Thursday afternoon.
Thompson, who suggested he will throw his hat into the 2008 presidential ring, said business leaders should be willing to attract companies into the Fox River
A new research institute will be established on the west side of the University of Wisconsin campus, the university announced Wednesday.
WARNING: Carbon monoxide kills hurricane survivors.
The irritating buzz of portable generators is a necessity in the powerless hours following a blackout for those attempting to save refrigerated foods, or power a TV or air conditioner. But you and your family could pay the ultimate price for such luxuries.
Quoted, David Van Sickle, Robert Wood Johnson Health & Social Scholar at the University of Wisconsin in Madison.
Global warming is a threat second only to all-out nuclear war and America has to act now, a famed environmentalist and geneticist told a Madison audience Tuesday night.
To not take action against climate change would be un-American for a country that put a man on the moon, said David Suzuki, 70, who has hosted the Canadian Broadcasting Corp.’s natural science series “The Nature of Things” since 1979.
Suzuki spoke to crowd of about 500 in the Union Theater as the last speaker in the 2006-07 UW-Madison Distinguished Lecture Series and got a standing ovation when he finished.
It’s a tantalizing thought: injecting stem cells isolated from a person’s own blood into an ailing heart in hopes of repairing years of accumulated decay. But so far, human trials testing cell therapies for heart attacks have yielded mixed results, creating controversy over various aspects of the treatment: the types of cells that are used, the way they are delivered, and when in the course of the disease they are given. With the next round of trials, scientists hope to nail down the precise set of conditions needed to effectively heal a sickly heart.
“If it works, it could revolutionize cardiology,” says Amish Raval, a cardiologist at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, who is running a stem-cell trial for heart failure.
MADISON — Nobody ever accused computer games of being too educational. The most that most players learn from hours in front of the gamepad is the best way to defeat a Strogg alien army or find the blue key that unlocks Level 17.
But professors at the University of Wisconsin are on the vanguard of research into the idea that computer game technology can be a powerful learning tool, one that could transform education as we know it.
Gasoline-powered generators are a staple on many Wisconsin farms and are always hard to find in stores after storms, such as Midwestern tornadoes.
But a study by a UW-Madison researcher has found that, even when used properly, such generators can be deadly.
Leading research institutions, including the UW-Madison, have warned that years of stagnant funding are threatening U.S. progress in medical research.
Nine universities – including Johns Hopkins, Harvard and Yale – produced a report for Congress. It says promising research has been halted in midstream due to flat funding from the National Institutes of Health.
(Psychology professor Richard Davidson is quoted.)
Gov. Jim Doyle on Monday proposed giving more than $14 million in new state funding to several Milwaukee-area projects that could enhance the region’s aspirations to become a high-tech research hub.
Lifting the ban on taxpayer funding of research on new stem cells from fertilized embryos would better serve both science and the nation, the chief of the National Institutes of Health told lawmakers Monday. Allowing the ban to remain in place, Dr. Elias A. Zerhouni told a Senate panel, leaves his agency fighting “with one hand tied behind our back.”
Breaking with his boss, Elias A. Zerhouni, director of the National Institutes of Health, told members of Congress on Monday that President Bush’s restrictions on funds for research on human embryonic stem cells are blocking progress in the field and should be relaxed.
At the same hearing, four university scientists and Dr. Zerhouni testified that the agency’s flat financing also threatens to slow the pace of research advances in cancer and other diseases just as scientists are poised for major strides.
NimbleGen Systems — a Madison biotechnology company and UW spinoff that created a new way to make gene chips — plans to raise up to $75 million in an initial public stock offering.
A part of the brain associated with emotional learning and fear shrinks in people with autism, research suggests.
Teenagers and young men with autism in the study who had the most severe social impairment were found to have smaller than normal amygdalae.
The researchers from the University of Wisconsin suggested the amygdalae may shrink due to chronic stress caused by social fear in childhood.
A group of scientists, including a University of Wisconsin-River Falls physics professor, is drilling deep into the polar ice to get a clearer view of space.
“The goal of the project is knowledge. We want to learn more about the universe,” said Jim Madsen, who recently returned from his second trip to the South Pole for the project, dubbed IceCube.
Originally called AMANDA â?? Antarctic Muon and Neutrino Detector Array â?? the first phase of the project was completed in 2000 and gave way to IceCube. The new title is a bit easier to grasp. It is in the ice and will encompass a cubic kilometer.
The names are the result of a bunch of science types getting together, said Madsen, a Racine native who got his bachelor’s degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and his doctorate at the Colorado School of Mines. It was in Madison that he first met IceCube director and UW-Madison physicist Francis Halzen.
The Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, the body that controls UW-Madisonâ??s lucrative stem cell technology patents, has decided to play nice. Criticized for its high licensing fees even to other universities, the nationâ??s leading stem cell technology producer will now offer lower fees for universities and other non-profit research organizations.
In a recent report that probably went unnoticed outside the academic world, the Association of University Technology Managers released figures that show why the rest of us should be very happy that Wisconsin is a hotbed for scientific research.
The numbers demonstrate that investment in research is not just about professors working in labs; itâ??s about creating jobs for the 21st century economy.
As state lawmakers move on legislation to provide incentives for using biofuels instead of gasoline, several University of Wisconsin professors said they are concerned corn-based ethanol may not be a practical large-scale fuel source.
A contract to manufacture DNA-based flu vaccine has been awarded to the Waisman Clinical BioManufacturing Facility at UW-Madison’s Waisman Center.
The vaccine will be tested first on animals, with human testing expected to begin early next year during the flu season, said Allen D. Allen, chief executive of CytoDyn of Santa Fe, N.M., which developed the vaccine.
A component of green tea combined with a low dose of a COX-2 inhibitor may act in concert to slow the spread of human prostate cancer.
In the journal Clinical Cancer Research, they report that low doses of the COX-2 inhibitor celecoxib (sold as Celebrex), given along with a green tea polyphenol slowed the growth of prostate cancer in cell cultures and in a mouse model of the disease.
“Celecoxib and green tea have a synergistic effect, each triggering cellular pathways, that, combined, are more powerful than either agent alone,” Dr. Hasan Mukhtar from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, said in a statement.
Purdue University is about to become the first public university in the United States to sign a deal with a billionaire’s foundation that has been trying to provide $100-million endowments to universities to finance programs designed to kick-start commercialization of their inventions.
Several public and private universities have rejected the money from the Alfred E. Mann Foundation for Biomedical Engineering because of concerns that the foundation was seeking too much control over the universities’ intellectual-property rights (The Chronicle, March 17, 2006).
The University of Wisconsin School of Medicine will conduct a clinical study looking at whether a patientâ??s own stem cells can be used to treat severe coronary artery disease, said a statement released Monday. The test is already going on at UW Hospital and Clinics, one of only 15-20 sites in the country to be participating in the study.
Two number theorists from the University of Wisconsin-Madison were flying above the clouds on their way to a conference in the summer of 2005, and halfway between Detroit and Manchester, N.H., a more than 80-year-old mathematical mystery unraveled.
When a basketball player struggles at the free-throw line, conventional wisdom provides an obvious solution â?? shoot extra free throws after practice every day.
But some organizations from high schools to the pro ranks â?? including the University of Wisconsin â?? are experimenting with a high-tech solution, showing the lengths some coaches go to get their players to hit a shot that can be frustratingly difficult for even the best.
68-year-old Steven Myrah could make the medical books if the procedure he underwent is successful. He was the first patient to undergo a new experimental surgery testing whether stem cells injected into weak areas of the heart can help blood vessels get stronger. Doctors mapped out his heart, found the weakened areas, and injected them with stem cells, or a placebo in some cases, to test whether they rejuvenate the tissue.
Trans fats have always been present in small amounts in animal products such as dairy and meats. However, large amounts of trans fats are now present in processed foods as a result of the addition of hydrogen to plant oils in a process called hydrogenation.
The MIT Club of Wisconsin, a state association for alumni of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is honoring a UW-Madison influenza researcher and a bioscience spinoff company.
The researcher, Yoshihiro Kawaoka, a UW virologist and professor in the School of Veterinary Medicine, has gained worldwide recognition for his research on how influenza viruses replicate and the genetic contributors to virulence.
Quintessence Biopharmaceuticals of Madison, a company that grew out of the research of UW chemistry and biochemistry professors Laura Kiessling and Ron Raines, is being honored in the small company category.
To retain minorities in science and engineering majors, culturally relevant ways to build self-confidence must be found and developed, according to preliminary results from a University of Wisconsin study.
The first-year results of the Sloan Project for Diversity in STEM Retention were presented as part of the “Wednesday Nite @ the Lab” series at the UW Biotechnology Center Wednesday. About 25 people attended the presentation of the three-year study.
Eleven of the universities that are the most active and successful in commercializing their inventions issued a series of suggestions last week for how institutions can best license their patents while serving the public good.
Among the suggestions: sue only when necessary; avoid licensing patents to companies that do not seriously commit to developing the inventions; be more stingy about exclusive licenses; and, particularly for inventions related to human health, find ways to carve out protections in licensing deals so that poor people and those in developing nations are not barred by patent rights from gaining affordable access to life-saving cures.
Cellectar, a Madison biotech company developing a shot-in-the-arm treatment for cancer, is about to take a big leap forward, thanks to a healthy wad of cash, a one-of-a-kind machine and a new, well-credentialed chief executive with big hopes and plans. Cellectar is a UW-Madison spinoff company.
Three computer whizzes from UW-Madison are headed to Tokyo this weekend to pit their brains – and endurance – against competitors from around the world.
They represent not only their own talent, but also what many hope is a resurgence of U.S. strength in the global computer science race.
Here’s one of Steve Myrah’s problems: He is such a huge fan of the University of Wisconsin basketball team that games, literally, are painful to watch, causing his angina to flare up and forcing him to pop nitroglycerin tablets to ease his chest pain.
Last week, he became the first heart patient in Wisconsin to enter a novel stem cell clinical trial using patients’ own cells to treat their heart disease.
Doctors at the University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics harvested adult stem cells from Myrah’s bone marrow so they could be injected into blood-deprived areas of his heart. The hope is that the cells will stimulate the formation of new blood vessels or the expansion of existing ones, restoring blood flow.
In a lab on the University of Wisconsin campus people are busy working on experiments. Looking around you would think it is a normal science lab for chemistry or physics class. But these people arenâ??t there because a grade depends on it. They are there because lives depend on the outcome of their research.
A report released Wednesday by the Association of American Medical Colleges was signed by the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundationâ??among other large research universitiesâ??to establish guidelines for institutionsâ?? technology licenses.
Wisconsin lawmakers must continue to provide state dollars for the Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery.
The first grants for research at the interdisciplinary center show how promising the venture is and why it must be strongly supported.
Lawmakers wisely approved $50 million in state money last year to help build the first phase of the public-private Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery.
Wisconsin women, as a group, are still earning smaller paychecks than men, according to a new report. The report, issued by UW- Madison’s Center on Wisconsin Strategy and the Wisconsin Women’s Council, was timed for release on International Women’s Day on Thursday.
Universities have plumbed a rich source of cash in recent years by aggressively patenting and licensing faculty inventions, but some schools now want to set limits on the practice. An elite group–11 top research institutions and the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC)–have signed a pledge to take a kinder, gentler approach to licensing intellectual property. Yesterday, they released principles on the sharing of patented discoveries, urging other universities to follow their lead.
Q: How do we know there’s no alternative universe with different dimensions?
Selma Anderson Grade 8 Sennett Middle School
A: “We don’t know that,” says UW-Madison physicist Gary Shiu. “There could be many (universes) and we happen to be living in one of them.”
George Corrigan doesn’t consider himself the activist type.
But the 46-year-old patent attorney has mounted a campaign to stop the U.S. Department of Homeland Security from selecting land in the town of Dunn for the National Bio- and Agro-Defense Facility.
A legendary mathematical mystery, posed by the famous Indian mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan on his deathbed in 1920, has been solved by two UW-Madison number theorists.
The problem had to do with the nature and functions of a set of strangely recurring numbers called “mock theta functions.”
The Wisconsin State Journal’s Feb. 25 editorial, “Respond to global warming,” wisely called for more state action to counter the growing challenge of climate change.
(MADISON) Despite legal, ethical and financial challenges to embryonic stem cell research, a patent official for the UW-Madison says it continues to hold medical potential.
A statewide poll by Wood Communications shows 69 percent of those surveyed support embryonic stem cell research. But there are obstacles: Carl Gulbrandsen, the managing director of Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, points to what he calls the stateâ??s â??strong pro-life contingentâ? and federal restrictions on funding new stem cell lines. Both arise from concerns that discarded embryos from fertility clinics are destroyed during research. He says until scientists are able to reprogram adult stem cells, there are always going to be these ethical issues.
Dear Editor: I was disappointed by Rob Zaleski’s column on clean energy. The expert interviewed for the column, UW’s Jon Foley, dismisses nuclear power because it can’t provide more than 20 percent of our energy needs over the next few decades.
In an attempt to both inform and highlight research innovation, local business members and campus faculty gathered Friday for a stem cell symposium at the University of Wisconsin.
More hurricanes are striking the Atlantic Ocean, an historically low area of activity, according to a new study released by scientists from the University of Wisconsin and National Climate Data Center.
Q: Why do people in Wisconsin say “soda” while people in other parts of the country say “pop”?
A: Interestingly, this is the most frequent question put to staff at UW-Madison’s Dictionary of American Regional English (DARE), says senior scientist Luanne von Schneidemesser.
A panel of Madison-area entrepreneurs shared their business experiences Wednesday in an effort to tap into the young minds of University of Wisconsin students and promote entrepreneurial awareness.
Itâ??s a stereotype. When the scientist finally isolates the protein and solves the age old conundrum, he yells â??Eureka!â? in a fit of joy. These days, however, that shout is immediately followed by a call to the lawyers.
U.S. elderly adults who continuously participate in community groups are often spared losses in psychological well-being.
Individuals who were ongoing members of religious organizations in particular showed higher levels of personal growth than those who were not, according to an article published in the Journal of Gerontology: Social Sciences.
Emily Greenfield and Nadine Marks of the University of Wisconsin-Madison used survey data to track changes in respondents’ physical, psychological and social functioning over a five-year period.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison saw its licensing income – done through the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation – rise to $49.1 million in 2005 from $47.5 million in 2004, according to the latest annual report from the Association of University Technology Managers.
However, the UW dropped from third to fifth in the nation in licensing income.
Today’s college students are more narcissistic and self-centered than their predecessors, says a new study by psychologists who worry that the trend could be harmful to personal relationships and American society.
A groundbreaking adult stem cell report contains “significantly flawed” data, and its conclusions are “potentially incorrect,” says a panel of scientists.
The increasing intensity of hurricanes hitting the U.S. is partly driven by global warming, and the ferocity of storms to come is likely to increase as surface temperatures of the ocean rise, says a noted scientist visiting UW-Madison.
“The effects of global warming do not only concern scientists,” Massachusetts Institute of Technology Professor Kerry Emanuel told an audience at a public lecture Thursday. “I want to put this issue into a societal context.”
