COLUMBIA, Mo. – Science, faith, politics and morality swapped turns in the spotlight Thursday at a University of Missouri-Columbia symposium on stem cell research.
Though the two-day panel discussion, held Wednesday and Thursday, was billed as an apolitical effort to better understand the contentious research technique, signs of a potential statewide vote in November on stem cell research were hard
Q: Why do carrots spark in the microwave?
A: We scoured the UW-Madison campus until we found John Booske, a professor of electrical and computing engineering, who told us that vegetables that contain a lot of water and are cut with sharp edges, as carrots often are, can produce light in the microwave.
U.S. Sens. Russ Feingold and Herb Kohl of Wisconsin must keep pushing a bill to expand federal funding for embryonic stem-cell research.
The bill, which cleared the House, is stuck in the Senate as lawmakers jostle for and against it.
In the beginning, vitamin D research at the University of Wisconsin was all about building better bones, especially for children.
But “vitamin D therapy isn’t just for bones anymore,” pioneering UW-Madison scientist Hector DeLuca told a crowd of 250 at the Overture Center Tuesday night in a rare public lecture.
Now, he said, the vitamin D frontiers include developing treatments for psoriasis, dialysis patients, diabetes, osteoporosis, prevention of hip fractures, and even cancer.
Purdue University has opened an investigation into “extremely serious” concerns regarding the research of a professor who said he had produced nuclear fusion in a tabletop experiment, the university announced yesterday.
The loss of one of UW-Madison�s world-known engineering centers has caused the University to lose millions of dollars in grants and exposed the obstacles researchers on campus endure to seek adequate funding for their projects. As a result, it may be difficult to attract researchers to campus.
You sip a bitter gin and tonic, then the bartender says the next drink will be sweet. But he plays a trick, giving you another gin and tonic.
Your brain still thinks the second drink is sweeter, according to a study by UW-Madison researchers that found a neurobiological manifestation of the placebo effect.
A proposal to provide $2.5 million in state seed money to promote collaborative bio-medical research between the Medical College of Wisconsin and four other colleges in the region is in trouble because of concerns about what the money might be used for. Namely, embryonic stem cell research.
A proposal to provide $2.5 million in state seed money to promote collaborative bio-medical research between the Medical College of Wisconsin and four other colleges in the region is in trouble because of concerns about what the money might be used for. Namely, embryonic stem cell research.
Liquid crystals, which help display information on cell phones and laptops, could also prove handy in growing stem cells, UW-Madison researchers say.
More compassion and meditation are needed in psychology and academia today, according to neuroscientist Richard Davidson.
Davidson, a professor of psychology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, gave his lecture “Be Happy like a Monk” on Thursday in Milwaukee Central Library’s Centennial Hall, 733 N. 8th St.
Start thinking about sex, and imagine a couple from your parents’ generation indulging. What’s your reaction?
….John DeLamater’s research suggests that the level of an older adult’s sexual desires and activity will depend, in part, upon whether he or she has had lifelong negative attitudes about older generations. The UW sociology professor’s ongoing work is commissioned by AARP.
MILWAUKEE (AP) – The political battle over embryonic stem cells may keep the state from funding collaborative research between the Medical College of Wisconsin and four other colleges.
The Biomedical Technology Alliance, known as the BTA, has lobbied the state for $2.5 million that would be matched by private funds to promote shared research. But the Legislature is expected to wrap up most of its business Thursday.
Chickens are in the news yet again, although not for the reasons one might suspect.
Scientists from the universities of Wisconsin-Madison and Manchester, U.K., have reason to rejoice after a successful experiment, which caused hens to grow conical, saber-shaped teeth.
Gloria Ladson-Billings is considered one of the leaders in scholarship concerning the education of African-American children today. Most notably she is credited with the concept of “culturally relevant pedagogy,” which is explored in great depth in her book The Dreamkeepers: Successful Teachers of African American Children, where she asks the African-American community in her study to identify good teachers (regardless of race) and develops profiles of those teachers.
The politically charged battle over embryonic stem cells is threatening to derail state funding for collaborative research between the Medical College of Wisconsin and four other southeastern Wisconsin colleges.
The Biomedical Technology Alliance, known as the BTA, has been lobbying the state for $2.5 million in seed money that would be matched by private funds to promote shared research.
In the last few years, scientists have discovered that the early Earth cooled much faster than had been believed earlier, a finding that could affect our understanding of how quickly life appeared.
John W. Valley, professor of geology and geophysics at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, will speak on discoveries by himself and others, Wednesday at the Frontiers of Science Lecture, University of Utah.
MADISON, Wis. — Madison neighborhoods are speaking out to the world with their own Web sites.
To get an idea of how the Web site works, think of each Madison neighborhood as a local news bureau. On staff are the people who live and work there.
“The idea is to focus on local news, community news, grassroots news and make it accessible to everyone across the city,” said project coordinator Chris Long of the UW School of Journalism.
Gov. Jim Doyle plans to lead a delegation of more than 150 Wisconsin industry leaders to Chicago for BIO 2006, the world’s largest biotechnology conference, on April 9-12.
Doyle will join leading Wisconsin stem cell researchers Dr. James Thomson and Dr. Gabriela Cezar, as well as Wisconsin life science executives, economic developers, state government officials, lawyers, venture capitalists, researchers, technology licensing representatives and higher education professionals to promote Wisconsin’s life science resources.
Prospects of a clean energy future will bring college students from throughout the Midwest to the University of Wisconsin-Madison over the weekend.
The students will partake in the first-ever Midwest Student Clean Energy Conference, starting Friday and ending Sunday afternoon, to learn about energy issues and the threats of global warming due to the rampant consumption of fossil fuels. As of Wednesday, 230 people had registered for the free event, which is at the Humanities Building on the UW-Madison campus.
The conference is related to the Campus Climate Challenge, a competition among 500 colleges in the United States and Canada to slow the effects of global warming by reducing their greenhouse gas emissions by 90 percent by 2050.
A mild winter across the Midwest has resulted in the early thawing of lakes throughout the state, and as a result, Lake Mendota is covered with floating chunks of ice, or in some places, no ice at all.
Not only does bird flu pose a potential global health catastrophe, its threat to national security could dwarf Sept. 11, a public health expert told a Madison audience.
“I don’t say that lightly,” said Laurie Garrett, who lives next to the World Trade Center site in New York and witnessed the 2001 terrorist attacks.
Garrett, former a medical and science writer for Newsday, is the only journalist to have ever been awarded the three big P prizes – the Pulitzer, the Polk and the Peabody. She spoke as part of the UW-Madison’s Distinguished Lecture Series to an audience of about 200 at the Union Theater.
Dear Editor: Madison Gas & Electric recently announced that it will end coal burning by 2011 at its Blount Street plant in downtown Madison, significantly reducing air pollution from the plant.
Students can learn more about dirty coal and all of the issues surrounding energy production and global warming by taking part in the first annual Midwest Student Energy Conference in Madison this weekend.
….Registration is free and open to students in any university across the Midwest.
Gov. Jim Doyle announced plans Wednesday to lead 150 prominent Wisconsin biotechnology leaders to BIO 2006, a Chicago conference, according to a press statement from his office.
BIO 2006 is the largest biotechnology conference in the world and will be held April 9 through April 12, 2006.
When Sheri Meland finishes her dissertation, it’s almost certain to garner lots of media attention. The topic is the impact of a person’s looks on their success – or lack thereof – in life.
She used 3,000 of the more than 10,000 people in the famed Wisconsin Longitudinal Study. The WLS subjects, all graduates of Wisconsin high schools in 1957, are among the most studied people in history, with researchers checking back with them in 1975, 1992 and 2002.
Meland has completed all of her research, but only a little bit of her analysis; with two young children and a booming business, finding time has been a challenge.
MADISON – Once again, some Wisconsin legislators are pushing state restrictions on human embryonic stem cell research – restrictions that would effectively move beyond President Bush’s 2001 order and put Wisconsin’s homegrown researchers at a competitive disadvantage.
Rather than adding a layer of unnecessary regulation, state lawmakers should await guidance from two panels — one federal and the other international — that have recently announced separate efforts to reinforce ethical guidelines for human embryonic stem cell research.
MADISON, Wis. — University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers released the results on Monday of a study that appears to reconfirm the public health effects touted by supporters of smoking bans.
MILWAUKEE ââ?¬â? Smoking-related diseases took more than 8,000 lives in Wisconsin during 2004, or more than 22 per day, according to a report released Monday.
Tobacco caused 81 percent of all lung cancer deaths and 15 percent of all heart disease deaths in the state, according to the report by the Wisconsin Division of Public Health, University of Wisconsin Comprehensive Cancer Center and the American Cancer Societ
SAN FRANCISCO ââ?¬â? The stem cell institute that California voters willed into existence with their approval of a $3-billion bond measure goes on trial today.
Plans state lawmakers unveiled to adopt an embryonic stem cell research policy have received opposition on the grounds of ethical irresponsibility and unnecessary scientific advancement.
Following a January publication of FierceBiotech that named UW-Madison as one of five places in the world that have shown the most promise and commitment to biotechnology innovation, the state has made concerted efforts to expand and build up the industry to cement its position on the world�s biotechnology stage.
The “Moovada” has everything that most sport utility vehicles owners would want – good gas mileage, low pollution and decent performance.
You won’t find the vehicle on car lots yet. Rather, it’s the name given to a souped-up Chevrolet Equinox by a team of University of Wisconsin-Madison engineering students – their entry in a nationwide contest to build a more fuel- efficient car.
On Thursday, the students received a boost when automotive parts supplier Johnson Controls Inc. presented them with a turbocharged hybrid battery system to use in the crossover SUV.
An assistant professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison will receive a fellowship award for her research proposal to study how people choose to do online research.
Kyung-Sun Kim, in the School of Library and Information Studies, will receive the 2006 Samuel Lazerow Fellowship from the Association of College and Research Libraries for her anticipated study.
The University of Wisconsin-affiliated WiCell Research Institute, the nation�s first stem cell bank and leading stem cell research institution, will soon lose one of its top researchers.
Is Josef Stalin making a comeback among Russia’s youth? Researchers Sarah Mendelson and Theodore Gerber, a professor of sociology at UW-Madison, recently wrote that many young Russians “do not view Stalin ââ?¬â? a man responsible for millions of deaths and enormous suffering ââ?¬â? with the revulsion he deserves.”
School science days typically fall into two categories, according to Tom Zinnen, a biotechnology outreach specialist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
There’s the science fair, where certain students research their projects for a week, then present their findings to the rest of the student body. And there are the “science spectaculars” where a scientist comes to the school and, with the help of two or three students pulled on stage, performs for a watchful audience.
On Wedesday, Zinnen brought a third type of science day to Lowell Elementary School in Waukesha.
Rudyard Kipling may have told us how the leopard got its spots, but it has taken two UW- Madison researchers to tell us how the chicken lost its teeth.
There is a connection between poor reading-readiness and naughtiness in pre-school boys, research suggests.
The link between illiteracy and delinquency in teenagers is well known, but it has not been clear which comes first and when the problem occurs.
Quoted: Research co-author Dr Terrie Moffitt.
Matthew Harris didn’t flinch at the crocodilian-like teeth flashing six inches in front of his face. He didn’t scream or whimper, either.
Instead, he sat back, shook his head and leaned in for a better look.
That’s because Harris, a researcher at the University of Wisconsin-Madison last year, wasn’t looking into the mouth of a giant, dentition-ridden reptile.
The first scientist hired at Madison’s WiCell Research Institute has been named director of the University of Connecticut’s new human embryonic stem cell laboratory, the university said Tuesday.
Ren-He Xu, a developmental biologist and expert in growing human embryonic stem cells, will receive a tenure track faculty appointment along with the opportunity to develop a new stem cell institute for the university. Xu is a staff scientist at WiCell with no faculty appointment.
Wisconsin is losing one of its top stem cell researchers to Connecticut, but the loss could open the door for more opportunities for researchers here to supply stem cells to a greater number of universities and research labs.
Ren-He Xu, the first employee of the WiCell Institute six years ago and now the senior scientist at the institute, has been named director of the new human embryonic stem cell lab being developed at the University of Connecticut.
Madison, Wis. ââ?¬â? Ren-He Xu, the WiCell Institute’s first employee six years ago and senior scientist there, has been named director of the University of Connecticut’s new human embryonic stem-cell lab.
Xu led the University of Wisconsin-Madison team that last year found out how to make some human stem-cell cultures viable without depending on mouse “feeder” cells to keep them alive.
The destruction of the tropical rainforest has been occurring in the Amazon for decades. Now scientists say the drastic changes to the landscape may be hazardous to human health as the area becomes more hospitable for the mosquito that carries malaria.
Having an MRI is an uncomfortable experience, especially going in head first. You inch into the machine until the smooth metal cylinder surrounds you. The machine hums ominously, and you would love to know what is going on around the rest of your exposed body, except you cannot sit up to find out.
Attine ants ââ?¬â? the first animals to deliberately start growing their own food ââ?¬â? have caught the attention of some University of Wisconsin researchers.
When you walk into one of Madison’s many young biotechnology companies, sometimes what you don’t see is as significant as what you do see.
NimbleGen Systems may be an example of that.
There is no fancy new building. NimbleGen, at 1 Science Court, is on the older side of University Research Park (east of Whitney Way). The do-it-yourself “front lobby” – more like an office-sized dent in the wall – consists of a few chairs and a small table with a phone on it, from which visitors ring up the employees they’re seeking.
MADISON, Wis. — If you find yourself away from a computer or TV when a winter storm rolls in, you can still follow the weather’s progress from a cell phone.
WISC-TV’s “gadget guy,” Steve Van Dinter, explained Thursday how cell phones have developed to allow users the ability to see radar, satellite dates and local forecasts.
Religious conservatives around the country are up in arms over a Wisconsin bill that would ban the teaching of intelligent design as science in the state’s public schools.
Focus on the Family, the evangelical Christian advocacy group led by founder James Dobson, panned the legislation this week on its Web site.
….Meanwhile, the University of Wisconsin-Madison scientists who helped draft the Wisconsin proposal are contacting friends and allies in other states, hoping to curry the introduction of similar legislation around the country.
The University of Connecticut Health Center has hired an expert on human embryonic stem cells and also has reached a tentative agreement to lease a Farmington building as headquarters of its new stem cell institute, university officials said Wednesday.
As soon as April, UConn scientists will be ready to work with human stem cell lines, including those ineligible to receive federal funding.
Overseeing the human stem cell effort will be Dr. Ren-He Xu, a senior scientist at the WiCell Research Institute, a private laboratory affiliated with the University of Wisconsin. WiCell creates human embryonic stem cell lines and distributes them to scientists nationally.
(MADISON) Scientists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison are a step closer to reconstructing one of the body�s building blocks. They�ve discovered a way to make an important protein in the lab, something researchers have tried to do for 30 years.
Collagen is a common protein used in everything from hair conditioner to plastic surgery. In medicine, it�s used to rebuild tissue destroyed by burns and wounds. Currently, most of the collagen used comes from cows.
The hope is to someday manufacture the substance in a lab. UW-Madison biochemistry professor Ronald Raines says this would prevent possible transmission of animal disease to humans, along with other undesired effects.
A Michigan company that is developing a psoriasis treatment based on licensed technology developed by UW-Madison Professor Hector DeLuca has filed for an initial public offering of stock.
….DeLuca, chairman of the UW Department of Biochemistry, is the world’s leading expert on the metabolism and mechanism of vitamin D with more than 150 active patents in the U.S. and more than 1,200 patents outside the U.S.
Many of us do not automatically associate the word ââ?¬Å?bossââ?¬Â with ââ?¬Å?mentor.ââ?¬Â However, increasingly in laboratories around campus many head scientists and researchers have found themselves having to fulfill both roles for the many undergrad future scientists they employ.
Animal rights activists held one of a series of monthly presentations showcasing UW-Madison primate experiments Tuesday. The program, Primate Vivisection A to Z, focuses on individual researchers in alphabetical order, with the aim of highlighting alleged animal abuse going on in the National Primate Research Center located on campus.
Feb. 14, 2006 ââ?¬â? – The power of hand-holding has long been enshrined in culture — from The Beatles’ “I Wanna Hold Your Hand,” to the 1970 film, “Love Story,” to famous works of art.
Now a new study — to be published later this year in the journal Psychological Science — purports to show that holding hands can have real physiological benefits.
Dr. Richard Davidson — who runs a brain imaging lab at the University of Wisconsin-Madison — ran an ad in a local newspaper, recruiting 16 couples whom he identified as happily married.
WASHINGTON — President Bush presented science and technology achievement medals yesterday to 15 laureates who have done work that has revolutionized organ transplants, led to development of global positioning systems, and helped feed millions around the world.
Honored: Edwin N. Lightfoot, University of Wisconsin, for research in how the body controls insulin levels and oxygenates blood.
There’s Nothing Like a Sympathetic Primate
During a pregnancy, it’s not unusual for the spouse to share some of the symptoms. Men have been known to experience nausea, headache, backache and, perhaps most common, weight gain.
Fifty-two undergraduate engineers took part in this year�s Innovation Days, where they vied for prizes that judged their creativity, prototype design, presentation and design notebooks. The diverse array of inventions included an Antarctic ice drill, a mobile microcrane to aid in building log cabins and a remote-controlled window washer.
Faculty at the University of Wisconsin held the first-ever Darwin Day Outreach Symposium in Ingraham Hall Saturday.
Sean Carroll would like nothing better than to show Charles Darwin, the 19th century father of the theory of evolution, around his UW-Madison genetics lab.
“After a couple of days of catching up,” said Carroll, a genetics professor. “I think he’d be blown away.”
They’ve been to Ireland and China and the thoughts of creative class guru Richard Florida, and Milwaukee’s leaders are urgent that we need more brainpower.
People in Wisconsin’s largest city are way behind on getting degrees, our graduates leave and our economy’s in danger of looking at Mississippi’s taillights.
