A Republican plan to punish students who disrupt free speech on college campuses ran into opposition Thursday at its first public airing in the Legislature, with critics saying it impedes the very thing it seeks to protect.
The discovery of a new human ancestor in 2015 stunned palaeontologists across the globe. Headlines lauded the work for rewriting our history; for filling gaps in the evolutionary record, while others claimed it had the potential to upend everything we know about our cultures and behaviours. This ancestor was dubbed Homo naledi.
John Hawks of the University of Wisconsin–Madison, Marina Elliott of the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg and their colleagues describe 131 new H. naledi specimens representing at least three individuals from another part of the cave system, the Lesedi Chamber, located about 100 meters from the Dinaledi Chamber.
When bones of a new human species were found deep in a South Africa cave a few years ago, they looked 2 million years old.
High-performing students could receive scholarships worth $5,000 per year to attend Wisconsin’s public universities under a Republican bill backers said Tuesday could keep the state’s top young minds from going elsewhere. But some are questioning the complex model lawmakers have devised to pay for the new scholarships, which would be funded by the proceeds from the sale of public land from one state agency to another.
A multiyear effort coordinated by a UW-Madison professor to painstakingly excavate thousands of fossils from a cave in South Africa has now assembled one of the most complete skeletons of a near-human creature ever found.
JOHANNESBURG — A species belonging to the human family tree whose remnants were first discovered in a South African cave in 2013 lived several hundred thousand years ago, indicating that the creature was alive at the same time as the first humans in Africa, scientists said Tuesday.
Just as a high-profile expedition to retrieve fossils of human ancestors from deep within a cave system in South Africa was getting underway in 2013, two spelunkers pulled aside paleoanthropologist Lee Berger. They had found what looked like an ancient thigh bone in a completely different cave. “Can we go get it?” they asked.
Africa’s richest fossil hominin site has revealed more of its treasure. It’s been a year and a half since scientists announced that a new hominin species, which they called Homo naledi, had been discovered in the Rising Star Cave outside Johannesburg.
Homo naledi, a strange new species of human cousin found in South Africa two years ago, was unlike anything scientists had ever seen. Discovered deep in the heart of a treacherous cave system — as if they’d been placed there deliberately — were 15 ancient skeletons that showed a confusing patchwork of features. Some aspects seemed modern, almost human. But their brains were as small as a gorilla’s, suggesting Homo naledi was incredibly primitive. The species was an enigma.
On a cloudy day in February, Will Cox pointed to a pair of news photos that prompted a room of University of Wisconsin, Madison, graduate students to shift in their seats. In one image, a young African American man clutches a carton of soda under his arm. Dark water swirls around his torso; his yellow shirt is soaked. In the other, a white couple is in water up to their elbows. The woman is tattooed and frowning, gripping a bag of bread.
RACINE, Wis. (AP) — Mechanical engineering students from University of Wisconsin-Madison are taking their book work off the page and onto the track for an international race car competition for college students.
UW-Madison will open a center for black students as the spring semester winds down Wednesday, in what one researcher called a positive step toward the university better supporting African-Americans on campus.
A year after a rash of racist incidents and student protests spread across its campus, the University of Wisconsin-Madison is opening a center for black students Wednesday in an effort to show better support for the black community on campus.
Share on twitter Share on reddit2Share on linkedin55OGphoto/iStockphotoHow science fares in the U.S. budget dealBy Science News StaffMay. 1, 2017 , 11:15 AMCongress has finally reached a deal on spending bills for the 2017 fiscal year, which ends on 30 September. House of Representatives and Senate leaders announced last night that they expect lawmakers to vote this week on an agreement that wraps together all 12 appropriations bills that fund federal operations.
A tiny, blonde 7-year-old girl stands in front of a chalkboard, hand whirring away at a complicated math formula in a scene from the new movie, “Gifted,” starring Chris Evans, Jenny Slate and Octavia Spencer.
Gov. Scott Walker expressed support for a bill that calls for suspending or expelling students who disrupt free speech on college campuses.
After the startling results of a 2015 survey on the incidence of sexual assault on college campuses across the country, most participating institutions have increased spending to combat it, a new report by the Association of American Universities found.
Republican lawmakers would require University of Wisconsin System institutions to discipline and potentially expel students who disrupt speeches on campus, and mandate that UW stay neutral on political controversies.
Some members of the UW-Madison’s student government and other campus groups demanded Thursday that Chancellor Rebecca Blank step down following the university’s condemnation of the Associated Students of Madison’s divestment legislation.
Republican lawmakers in Wisconsin and North Carolina are circulating bills that would require state universities to punish students who disrupt campus speech and remain neutral on political and social issues. Both are based on model legislation from the Goldwater Institute, a conservative think tank.
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — University of Wisconsin students who disrupt speeches and demonstrations could be expelled and campuses would have to remain neutral on public issues under a bill Republican legislators are pushing this week.
Republican state lawmakers are proposing a bill they say will help protect free speech rights on University of Wisconsin campuses.
Netflix’s new talk show, Bill Nye Saves the World, debuted the night before people around the world joined together to demonstrate and March for Science. Many have lauded the timing and relevance of the show, featuring the famous “Science Guy” as its host, because it aims to myth-bust and debunk anti-scientific claims in an alternative-fact era.
Greg Nemet, a professor in the La Follette School of Public Affairs and Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies, and Gregg Mitman, from the Department of History, were among 35 fellows announced by the Carnegie Corporation of New York on Wednesday.
From leading astronomy writer, Phil Plait, on the Wisconsin H-Alpha Mapper: One of my favorite things is to learn something new. Especially when it’s something big. In this case, I mean it literally: The galaxy is filled with warm, ionized hydrogen gas, it forms a huge pancake-like structure 75,000 light years across and more than 6000 light years thick, and it has a name: the Reynolds layer. Even better, when it was discovered, it was a shock, briefly defying explanation until better physical models of the galaxy made it more clear.
Excessive federal regulation of research is “seriously impeding the productivity of our scientists,” University of Wisconsin-Madison Chancellor Rebecca Blank told a U.S. Senate committee Wednesday.
MADISON – Unethical, intimidating and undemocratic tactics preceded the approval of a Student Council resolution critical of Israel on Wednesday night, according to pro-Israel students at University of Wisconsin – Madison.Pro-Israel Jewish students were feeling hurt and disappointed after student government approved a resolution calling attention to various progressive causes while also criticizing Israel. Even the school administration weighed in, issuing a late-night statement after the vote that called for “the need to act with integrity.”
Startled by data suggesting that sexual assault is common and underreported on campuses across the country, university leaders have increased staffing, training and support for students in recent years, according to a new survey of leading universities.
It’s not the size of your brain, it’s how you organise it. The most recently discovered species of early human had a skull only slightly larger than a chimpanzee’s, but its brain looked surprisingly like our own – particularly in an area of the frontal lobe with links to language.
A professor—the top faculty recruit for the Department of Gender and Women’s Studies—recently rejected an offer from UW-Madison, citing the “chilling effect” Wisconsin’s political climate has on the university, according to the chair of the department.
Before retiring, Holly Walter Kerby spent her career educating students about the atoms that make up the planet. From the periodic table to the basics of chemical bonding, students in her chemistry class at Madison College were shown the world around them — on a microscopic level.
Organizers of the March for Science said that the event in Washington, D.C., and the satellite marches across the country this weekend were just the beginning of a movement to champion science.
Ravi Kalla got his master’s degrees in engineering from UW-Madison and founded Symphony Corp., a health information company that employs a couple of hundred people in Madison.
“We can’t freeze tuition forever,” Rep. John Nygren, R-Marinette, told the Wisconsin State Journal, making him the second member of the Joint Finance Committee to indicate interest in allowing limited UW tuition increases.
When a pediatrician in Flint, Michigan, discovered dangerous levels of lead in children’s blood, she did something untypical for a scientist.
System President Ray Cross and UW-Madison Chancellor Rebecca Blank said Thursday that letting the Board of Regents decide how to measure UW institutions would be more effective.
Video: UW-Madison wants to increase diversity in its enrollment by inviting Latino students to campus Wednesday and Thursday.
Nine months after UW Health and UnityPoint Health-Meriter announced plans for a joint operating agreement and a merger of health insurance plans, the organizations have signed formal agreements and been cleared by the Federal Trade Commission, they said Monday.
Matthew Desmond, who earned his master’s and doctoral degrees from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, on Monday won the Pulitzer Prize in General Nonfiction for a book based on research conducted in Milwaukee.
UW-Madison has launched the STEM Diversity Network, a website collecting resources on science, technology, engineering and math to boost recruitment, retention and success of people of diverse backgrounds working and studying in those fields.
The items removed include several controversial items affecting the University of Wisconsin.
Just over 91 percent of respondents said that budget cuts – as UW-Madison tightened its belt to reflect a $250 million cut in state funding to the UW-System in the 2015-2017 budget – decreased their enthusiasm for working at the school.
University of Wisconsin-Madison student government is praising Republican leaders for removing provisions from Gov. Scott Walker’s budget that would have allowed students to opt out paying some fees.
Students who feel marginalized on campus — by race, gender or sexual orientation — and their allies are engaged in a battle over “safe spaces” with classmates who insist they, and the speakers they invite to campus, can say what they like, no matter who finds it offensive.It’s a culture war for the 21st century that some say threatens America’s bedrock value of freedom of speech.
The university said by news release that Cory Cotter, Emily Jewell and Lucas Oxtoby were winners of the scholarship, while Elizabeth Penn was selected as an honorable mention.
MADISON — Any doubts that key parts of Gov. Scott Walker’s budget face significant hurdles among fellow Republicans who control the Legislature have been erased after three days of hearings that exposed rare bipartisan opposition to the spending plan.
When President Trump proposed a cut of nearly 20 percent in support for the National Institutes of Health, many wondered how the administration would even attempt to find such reductions. The answer emerged in the congressional testimony last week of Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price, who argued the government could save billions without hurting research by cutting back on the overhead reimbursements to colleges and universities.
The Legislature’s audit committee has authorized a review of University of Wisconsin System schools’ relationships with their private foundations.
Questions about the relationships between University of Wisconsin System schools and their private foundations could mean less aid for the system when the state budget is completed, the state Senate’s top Republican signaled Thursday.
Questions about the relationships between University of Wisconsin System institutions and dozens of private foundations could loom over a proposed increase in state funding for UW, Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald said Thursday.
Every year, a panel of artists and scientists at UW-Madison judges the scientific and artistic value of beautiful images and videos created by the university’s science students, faculty and staff.
Eleven UW-Madison professors who are in their mid-career stages have been honored as outstanding faculty.
Gov. Scott Walker’s spending plan for the 2017-19 biennium is the “best budget” the University of Wisconsin System has seen in 10 years, System President Ray Cross told lawmakers on Thursday.
State legislators are hoping to order an audit of the relationship between University of Wisconsin System schools and their private foundations.
University of Wisconsin System President Ray Cross said Thursday that Gov. Scott Walker’s proposed budget for state colleges and universities is a “move in the right direction.”
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Questions about the relationships between University of Wisconsin System schools and their private foundations could mean less aid for the system when the state budget is completed, the state Senate’s top Republican signaled Thursday.
Democrats on the Legislature’s finance committee are questioning provisions in Gov. Scott Walker’s budget that would allow students to opt out of some fees.
I’m sitting in a small conference room at the Madison Concourse Hotel with 11 strangers at tables arranged so we’re all facing each other. Under other circumstances, it would be uncomfortable.
Deja vu is looming over the University of Wisconsin System. Thursday morning, UW System President Ray Cross will make a pitch to the Legislature’s powerful Joint Finance Committee for more than $100 million in additional state funding in the next biennium.
