Category: Research

Madison, Wis. � Mark Cook, a tenured animal sciences professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, had seen his patents get licensed out to several businesses, only to sit on the shelves.

He�d been working since the mid 1980s on biotechnology that was was not being promoted by any of the businesses to which it had been licensed through the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation.

LOS ANGELES, Jan. 10 – The chairman of California’s new $3 billion stem cell research institute wants to award its first grants in less than five months, even though the institute has no staff, headquarters or review procedures – a timetable that some board members fear is too ambitious.

Madison, Wis. ââ?¬â? To model something as big as the weather, the University of Wisconsin’s Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies needed a bigger computer.

In the winter night sky, just above Orion’s shoulder and not far from the gathering of stars known as the Pleiades, or the Seven Sisters, a mysterious and rare visitor to our corner of the universe is visible to anyone with a pair of binoculars.

A Wisconsin church leader predicts more schools in rural areas will consider incorporating creationism into lesson plans, and a UW-Madison historian who studies the issue thinks more court challenges are likely.

California’s new stem cell agency is generating a lot of talk – and it’s not all about the ethics of human embryonic research. First Amendment advocates are grousing about the veil of secrecy covering how the agency is coming together and where $3 billion in taxpayer money is going.

Traditional, rural Alaskan knowledge can now spread globally thanks to a joint effort between UW-Madisonââ?¬â?¢s Environmental Remote Sensing Center and the Alaska Division of Geological and Geophysical Surveys. Their MapTeach effort, or Mapping Technology Experiences with Alaska’s Cultural Heritage, is designed to combine geospatial information with traditional knowledge as a teaching tool.

Networking in the cold north

When I stopped up at the Capitol last week to say goodbye to retiring state Rep. DuWayne Johnsrud, most of the dead animals had already disappeared from his office.

Arthur Barclay “Chappie” Chapman, who became one of UW-Madison’s most accomplished animal genetic researchers, nearly moved to New Zealand to become a sheep farmer instead.

UW-Madison’s psychology department last year led the nation with $22.8 million in federal research grants, according to the National Science Foundation. That amount was almost equal to the entire federal research budget of UW-Milwaukee, and it was $10 million more than the next nearest university, Penn State.

UW-Madison is home to one of the nation’s premier psychology departments, ranking first in the country for federal research funding and employing a stable of academic stars with national and international reputations for work in brain imaging, emotions and other areas.

You are getting sleepy, sleeeepy … your eyelids are getting heavyyyyyy. … When I snap my fingers, you will forget everything you’ve ever heard about hypnotism.

Something like hypnotism had already been around for centuries when finally it was “invented” around 1775 by Franz Anton Mesmer, a German physician who used it to effect seemingly miraculous cures.

“Like a lot of people at the time, he was interested in these non-material forces such as electricity and magnetism,” says professor Thomas Broman of the UW-Madison history of science department.

The UW-Madison’s Space Science and Engineering Center does a higher volume of interesting work than most of us can comprehend — especially those of us who could muster no better than a merciful C in high-school physics.

Lake Wingra’s murky water could be clear within six years if an experiment starting next spring proves the lake can be cleaned of invasive plants and bottom-stirring carp.

The County Board’s Lakes and Watershed Commission gave the green light to Department of Natural Resources lake researcher Dick Lathrop to install a fish “exclosure” on the lake’s western shore, after an informal survey of residents at a public hearing earlier this month showed overwhelming support for the project.

Madison, Wis. � Imagining the effects of being able to manipulate materials just atoms at a time got a bit easier with the opening of Exploring the Nanoworld, an exhibit on display at the University of Wisconsin-Madison�s Engineering Centers Building.

University researchers hope efforts such as this one can make nanotechnology, the study of things on a scale of individual atoms and molecules, easier to grasp.

Imagining the effects of being able to manipulate materials just atoms at a time got a bit easier with the opening of Exploring the Nanoworld, an exhibit on display at the University of Wisconsin-Madison�s Engineering Centers Building.

Three years after President Bush announced restrictions on federally funded medical research using stem cells from human embryos, a California panel will meet today to begin the process of granting $3 billion in state money to stem cell researchers.

Three years after President Bush announced restrictions on federally funded medical research using stem cells from human embryos, a California panel will meet today to begin the process of granting $3 billion in state money to stem cell researchers.

Author: Paul Whalen, Departments of Psychiatry and Psychology and The Waisman Center, W. M. Keck Laboratory for Brain Imaging and Behavior, University of Wisconsin, Madison,

MADISON, Wis. — A higher education will not only prepare you for the future, but it may also help you live longer.

Madison, Wis. � Recently UW researchers have put enough monitoring equipment on a bicycle to make your head spin, addressed shockwaves in fusion reactors with soap bubbles, and found losing sleep makes you hungry. Interested? Read on.

Madison, Wis. � UW-Madison scientists have research on the brain. In the past few months, university biomedical researchers have been pouring their time and effort into projects that can combat neural disorders and help patients live normal lives.

Madison, Wis. � Accessibility technology developed by the University of Wisconsin-Madison�s Trace Research and Development Center will help people use the United States Postal Service�s automated postal centers to send packages this December.