Category: Top Stories

The Obama administration is tightening oversight of high-stakes scientific research involving dangerous germs that could raise biosecurity concerns, imposing new safety rules on universities and other institutions where such work is done. Universities have been expecting the rules since last year, and depending on how much research they do, evaluating what meets the criteria “can be a lot more work,” said Rebecca Moritz, manager of select-agent research at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Climate change poses risks to human health just as pollution and lack of sanitation did a century ago, says a medical journal editorial that details the potential harmful health effects and the benefits of reducing greenhouse gas emissions. “Evidence over the past 20 years indicates that climate change can be associated with adverse health outcomes,” Dr. Jonathan Patz of the Global Health Institute at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and his colleagues concluded.

MADISON?P.J. Liesch takes a vial or two with him when he goes for a walk outdoors.

As the world becomes more complex in this age of technology and scientific discovery, academic powerhouses like UW?Madison are nurturing a new breed of basic research scientists who could change the way we treat, and maybe even cure, the diseases of our time. But basic research has a branding problem?it?s done quietly in labs on campus and without much attention or fanfare. Funding has slowed to a trickle in the last decade, and without it, the future doesn?t look as bright.

Despite being from Kansas, Dr. John Hawks had never seen storms like he experienced in South Africa.

?We want to enrich the public discourse around what science is and why it matters,? says Laura Heisler, director of programming for the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation. WARF produces the festival, now in its fourth year, in partnership with the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the Morgridge Institute for Research.

DIY Science is just one of an array of programs at UW-Madison designed to inform the public about scientific research on campus. Roughly 375 academic staff members work in science outreach, which helps fulfill the Wisconsin Idea, UW-Madison?s guiding principle to share the university?s resources to improve the lives of state citizens.

Starting next fall, researchers at UW-Madison will have access to a bigger and deeper pool of data about people?s jobs, salaries, educational levels and other factors.

Ten years ago, Robert Waterland got an associate professorship at Baylor College of Medicine and set off to study one of the nation?s most pressing health problems: obesity. In particular, he?s been trying to figure out the biology behind why children born to obese women are more likely to develop the condition themselves.

?We have to make sure new researchers are not leaving the field,? Pocan said Wednesday at UW-Madison?s Waisman Center as he announced the introduction of the Next Generation Research Act.

A short Vine loop that features a headline about sophomore Keven Stonewall in the New York Daily News received more than a half-million views last week. But the microbiology student?s research on a colon cancer vaccine has been attracting media attention for a while.

Yoshihiro Kawaoka, a UW-Madison researcher whose work with dangerous influenza strains made headlines this summer, says his work is not only extremely safe, but also has important implications for global health.