A Wisconsin state Assembly committee has passed a Republican-backed bill opposed by the University of Wisconsin that would prohibit research using tissue obtained from aborted fetuses.
Wednesday’s vote makes the bill available for a vote by the full Assembly as soon as later this month. It’s unclear whether the measure has enough support to pass the Senate, where Republican Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald has not commented on its chances.
Buried deep inside a cave in South Africa, researchers have discovered the remains of what scientists are calling mankind’s closest ‘cousin.’ University of Wisconsin researchers are part of an international team investigating the discovery of homo naledi fossils.
“We have a new species of Homo, with all of its interesting characteristics,” John Hawks, a University of Wisconsin-Madison paleoanthropologist said.
What the scientists found was a species of human ancestor that had never been identified before: Homo naledi, an upright-walking hominid believed to be like a cousin on our family tree.
Two Republicans dissented Wednesday on parts of a bill allowing certain types of research using fetal tissue and banning certain other types, falling short of blocking the proposal but provoking a surprised reaction from the committee’s GOP chairman.
The excitement had been building for weeks, first as Alia Gurtov responded to a Facebook post seeking skilled and “skinny” paleontologists, then as she learned she was one of six women chosen, and finally now, as she crept through a South African cave, approaching a new chamber believed to hold clues to our earliest history.
For University of Wisconsin-Madison graduate student Alia Gurtov, a very pivotal morning in her life started like any other: Wake up, check Facebook.
When an amateur caver and university geologist arrived at Lee Berger’s house one night in late 2013 with a fragment of a fossil jawbone in hand, they broke out the beers and called National Geographic.
Researchers in South Africa discovered extensive remains of a previously unknown humanlike species in a subterranean boneyard, highlighting an early offshoot of humankind and raising questions about the origins of ritual burial and self-awareness, the scientists announced on Thursday.
Acting on a tip from spelunkers two years ago, scientists in South Africa discovered what the cavers had only dimly glimpsed through a crack in a limestone wall deep in the Rising Star cave: lots and lots of old bones.
A trove of bones hidden deep within a South African cave represents a new species of human ancestor, scientists announced Thursday in the journal eLife. Homo naledi, as they call it, appears very primitive in some respects—it had a tiny brain, for instance, and apelike shoulders for climbing. But in other ways it looks remarkably like modern humans. When did it live? Where does it fit in the human family tree? And how did its bones get into the deepest hidden chamber of the cave—could such a primitive creature have been disposing of its dead intentionally?
The two amateur cavers had to feel their way along the cave’s winding passages, crawl on their stomachs through an opening less than 10 inches high, ascend a jagged wall, cross a narrow ledge dubbed the “Dragon’s Back,” and make a 400-foot descent, sideways, through a vertical crack before finally arriving at the prize: a 30-foot-long chamber probably between 2 million and 3 million years old.
Scientists have discovered the fossilized remains of an unusual human-like creature that lived long ago. Exactly how long ago is still a mystery — and that’s not the only mystery surrounding this newfound species.
A Wisconsin bill that would limit the research use of fetal tissue from abortions is gaining momentum, over the protest of scientists who say the measure would stifle progress in disease research. The bill, approved today by a committee in the state assembly and expected to win the support of the full assembly this fall, is the first in what many predict will be a series of battles waged at the state level against the distribution and use of fetal tissue.
A University of Wisconsin-Madison fundraising challenge has exceeded expectations, with an endowment fund generating almost $250 million for professorships and chairs.
Biomedical researchers use fetal tissue in their quest to treat diseases. Sometimes they use older cell lines, other times fresh tissue. The bill an Assembly committee will vote on Wednesday would let Wisconsin scientists use the older lines, but it would become a crime to use new fetal tissue or to sell it.
Research could continue in the state on longstanding lines of tissue derived from abortions but University of Wisconsin-Madison officials say some science could be hindered, under a bill that Republican lawmakers are poised to advance Wednesday
A $200 million gift to the University of Wisconsin-Madison will help to attract and keep top-quality faculty, and has grown larger and faster than expected. UW alumni John and Tashia Morgridge put up $100 million dollars last year and urged UW supporters to match it. They figured that would take up to three years, but it only took seven months to raise an additional 125-million.
A University of Wisconsin-Madison fundraising drive that began last fall with a $100 million pledge has generated a quarter of a billion dollars, university officials announced Tuesday.
A proposed fetal tissue ban has been amended to allow continued work with widely used cells, but UW-Madison and biotech officials still oppose the measure, saying it threatens to shut down important medical research.
A record-shattering gift to help recruit and retain world-class faculty has grown to be worth a quarter-billion dollars thanks to urgent and strong support from alumni, the University of Wisconsin-Madison is poised to announce Tuesday.
The largest-ever gift to UW-Madison has turned out bigger than expected.
A University of Wisconsin-Madison fundraising drive that began last fall with a $100 million pledge has generated a quarter of a billion dollars, university officials announced Tuesday.
Facing what is sure to be a difficult retention season, given this year’s battles over the future of higher education funding and tenure in Wisconsin, the University of Wisconsin at Madison is today announcing the results of a massive donation-matching campaign aimed at recognizing top faculty members with endowed chairs.
UW-Madison is the 11th best public college in the country and the 69th top college overall, according to Forbes Magazine.
The head of a big Wisconsin paper company is donating $10 million for scholarships and faculty support at the University of Wisconsin.
Tom Falk and his wife Karen are both UW alums and have donated in the past.
Tom Falk and Karen Falk are donating $10 million to fund need-based scholarships and endowed faculty positions, according to a news alert.
A couple who worked their way through the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the 1970s are donating $10 million to their alma mater for need-based scholarships and endowed faculty positions in the schools of education and business to help future students get a similar education.
The university says the gift from Tom and Karen Falk, who graduated in 1980, will pay for two scholarships and two endowed faculty chairs in the schools of education and business.
A controversial technique to create flu viruses, now effectively banned, led to the discovery of a flu vaccine model that could be more reliable than today’s main method using chicken eggs, according to a study by UW-Madison scientist Yoshihiro Kawaoka.
A Madison-based research hub devoted to evaluating the environmental effect of nanotechnology has received $20 million in National Science Foundation funding over the next five years.
Called “Don’t be that guy,” the UW-Madison police campaign includes hundreds of posters in dorms and other campus buildings, as well as ads on scores of Metro Transit buses, emphasizing the importance of consent and telling men alcohol isn’t an excuse for sexual assault.
Madison, Wis. — Students are back on campus and the fall sports season is up and running at UW-Madison. While many of these student-athletes already have a lot on their plate between classes, practices, and games; some are adding another extra-curricular activity – community service.
Opposition is growing to a bill that could effectively ban the use of fetal tissue in research in Wisconsin.
After a summer of turmoil over budget cuts and tenure protections, chancellors in the University of Wisconsin System now must convince faculty and staff that all is not doom and gloom as a new academic year begins this week.
A defiant UW-Madison Chancellor Becky Blank, who won’t address her faculty in person until Oct. 5, has vowed to do everything possible to fend off competitors who attempt to lure away her best and brightest researchers. Wisconsin’s higher education woes were widely broadcast to a national audience as Gov. Scott Walker launched his presidential bid while he and state lawmakers were cutting education spending.
MADISON — A working group of Republican lawmakers in the Assembly is examining whether the state’s technical college system should be merged with the University of Wisconsin’s two-year campus network, mainly as a way to save money.
Madison-based American Family Insurance on Thursday pledged $40 million to the University of Wisconsin-Madison over the next 10 years, doubling its current support of academics, research, athletics and charitable activities.
American Family Insurance is doubling the amount of money it spends on advertising and donations at UW-Madison, pledging $4 million annually to the university for the next 10 years.
Nearly 700 University of Wisconsin-Madison faculty members have signed a letter to the editor of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel arguing that a bill being considered by the Legislature to ban the use of fetal tissue and cells would not only close off avenues of hope for patients, it would send a message to biomedical scientists and the biotechnology industry “that Wisconsin is no place to do business.”
The University of Wisconsin-Madison continues to be considered one of the best schools in the world. Two new rankings add to that reputation.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison is the second best college in the Big Ten and the 24th best in the world, according to the Academic Ranking of World Universities by Shanghai Jiao Tong University.
MADISON – One of the central issues in an ongoing heated legislative debate is whether modern medical research has moved beyond the need for using tissue from new abortions.
Antarctic scientists have confirmed the existence of cosmic neutrinos – ghostly particles that have traveled from the Milky Way and beyond. These particles carry messages from distant galaxies, and could potentially help solve several cosmic puzzles.
Buried deep in the Antarctic ice, an observatory has spotted ghostly, nearly massless particles coming from inside our galaxy and points beyond the Milky Way.
The release of videos about Planned Parenthood is spurring state legislative efforts to ban or restrict use of fetal tissue for medical studies and treatments. (Subscription required.)
College students are increasingly staying away from buying textbooks as a way to keep their spending down as the sticker price for books continue to soar, along with other college costs. Textbook prices have climbed some 1,000 percent over the past four decades, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, with some titles now costing $400 or even $500. But students have been spending less on course materials in each of the past few years, according to a survey of the National Association of College Stores. Students’ average annual spending on course materials dropped from $701 in 2007-2008 to $563 in 2014-15, according to the association.
(Smal) departments could soon be merged with similar-size programs or much larger departments — the victims, some say, of state budget cuts that are forcing the university to reduce administrative costs. Others note such mergers have happened before and reflect the normal ebb and flow of small academic programs. The mergers don’t mean the fields of study will disappear from UW-Madison. Officials are working to merge the departments of Scandinavian, German and Slavic studies, while history of science could join the larger Department of History.
In the last week, a state legislator in Wisconsin suggested that professors defending the use of fetal tissue in research should think about the work of the notorious Nazi doctor Josef Mengele. Also in the last week, Ben Carson, formerly a professor at Johns Hopkins University known for his path-breaking research and now an anti-abortion candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, found himself questioned on his use of fetal tissue for research in 1992.
The bill, spearheaded by Reps. André Jacque, R-De Pere, and Joel Kleefisch, R-Oconomowoc, and Sen. Duey Stroebel, R-Saukville, would ban selling, donating and experimenting with fetal body parts resulting from abortions in Wisconsin.
A key Senate Republican told 27 News Wednesday that she cannot support the current version of an Assembly bill designed to ban the sale and use of aborted fetal tissue, because it would stop major medical research being conducted at UW-Madison.
Sen. Alberta Darling (R-RIver Hills) made those comments just one day after the Assembly Committee on Criminal Justice and Public Safety held a public hearing on the bill.
Gov. Scott Walker isn’t saying whether he supports the current version of a bill in the Legislature that would ban research involving aborted fetal body parts. Walker was asked Wednesday about the measure, which drew opposition from University of Wisconsin and private researchers at a public hearing Tuesday.
UW-Madison, which says it gets fetal tissue for research from four licensed tissue banks, is reviewing whether the banks meet federal regulations and university requirements.
A bill to ban some research on aborted fetal tissues at Wisconsin universities could face challenges in federal courts, which have struck down similar laws around the nation for failing to spell out what’s a crime and whats not.
MADISON — Republican lawmakers sponsoring a bill to ban research on aborted fetal tissue in Wisconsin — a proposal medical groups oppose — said Tuesday they were working on changes to protect work at the University of Wisconsin that uses existing cell lines.
Planned Parenthood and other groups could not profit from selling the tissue of aborted fetuses under a bill banning its sale and use, proponents of the measure told a state Assembly panel Tuesday.
Research in Wisconsin could still be conducted on tissue derived from fetuses aborted more than five years ago while the state would ban some current research at the University of Wisconsin-Madison that uses more recently aborted tissue, under a proposal that came before lawmakers Tuesday.
Republicans in the state legislature want to ban research in Wisconsin, using tissue from aborted fetuses, legislation which opponents fear could damage the biomedical industry in the state.
Abortion opponents and medical researchers packed a public hearing Tuesday to testify on a bill banning the sale and use of aborted fetal tissue.
Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison said a bill banning the use of fetal tissue would bring a halt to medical research on campus. The dean of the UW School of Medicine and Public Health, the Wisconsin Medical Society, the Medical College of Wisconsin and a trade association representing biotech companies are all lobbying against the measure.
Wisconsin legislators have begun quietly and unofficially discussing how the state’s 42 public universities and colleges—the 26 UW System campuses and the 16 technical colleges—might be realigned to deal with dwindling state aid. If approved, any shift would be the biggest realignment of higher education since the UW System was stitched together in 1971 by merging state colleges, the Madison and Milwaukee campuses, and two-year centers.
A group of Republican legislators will meet this week to discuss the possibility of merging the Wisconsin Technical College System and the University of Wisconsin Colleges and Extension, lawmakers said Monday.
