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Category: UW Experts in the News

Update: UW scientist praises court ruling that allows stem cell funding

Wisconsin State Journal

A leading scientist at UW-Madison praised a ruling Thursday lifting a recent ban on federal funding for embryonic stem cell research but said an ongoing court case still calls the future of the funding into question. “It?s good news; we hope this will allow the research to go on unimpeded,” said Dr. Tim Kamp, director of the university?s Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine Center. “The challenge is that it?s hard to plan for the future with this on-again, off-again situation.” A federal appeals court permitted federal funding of embryonic stem cell research to proceed while it considers a judge?s ruling last month that had temporarily shut off the funds.

Embryonic stem cell funding allowed — for now

Madison.com

The government may resume funding of embryonic stem cell research for now, an appeals court said Thursday, but the short-term approval may be of little help to research scientists caught in a legal battle that has just begun. It is far from certain that scientists actually will continue to get federal money as they struggle to decide what to do with research that is hard to start and stop.
Quoted: Dr. Norman Fost, director of the bioethics program at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, who was on the National Academy of Sciences committee that wrote the first national guidelines on embryonic human stem cells.

Obama To Hold Rally In Madison

WISC-TV 3

Quoted: “It?s going to be great to have the president back in Madison,” said Evan Giesemann, chairman of the University of Wisconsin-Madison College Democrats. “He obviously has a lot of fans here, and it will be great to hear his message.”

Dalai Lama gives $50K to support brain research

Madison.com

The Dalai Lama is putting his money where his mouth is. The Tibetan spiritual leader has given $50,000 from his personal trust to support research into the science behind kindness and compassion at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The grant to the school?s Center for Investigating Healthy Minds comes after the Dalai Lama promoted its work during a visit to Madison in May.

Geology: A trip to dinosaur time

Nature

The key to answering all of these questions will be accurate dating of the core. This will help to correlate the Songliao records with their marine counterparts. “Without a precise timescale, the values of any other pieces of information that can be recovered from the core would be diminished tremendously,” says Bradley Singer, a geochronologist at the University of Wisconsin?Madison.

Seven Tips for Overcoming E-Mail Overload

ABCNEWS.com

Quoted: “Have certain messages go directly into folders that you can look at just when you want to,” said Joanne Cantor, director of the Center for Communication Research at the University of Wisconsin?Madison and author of “Conquer CyberOverload.”

English assimilation process not always speedy

Deseret News (Salt Lake City)

Noted: German immigrants to the Badger State between the 1830s and 1930s actually found little reason to master English, “appearing to live and thrive for decades while speaking exclusively German,” concluded Miranda Wilkerson, then an assistant professor of German at Western Illinois University and Joseph Salmons, a professor of German at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

GOP nomination for governor hard to predict

Wisconsin Radio Network

Quoted: UW-Madison Political Scientist Charles Franklin says the race has been a very difficult one to handicap, since there?s been almost no recent public polling directly comparing the two candidates. He says that creates a situation where conventional wisdom can ?run away? and we just don?t know what the outcome will be. 

Dr. Richard E. Rieselbach and Dr. Robert N. Golden: Expand primary care and community health centers

Capital Times

One hundred years ago, following a whirlwind visit to 155 medical schools, Abraham Flexner issued a report that reshaped American medicine. His observations and recommendations led to major changes in U.S. medical education. Our nation?s medical schools subsequently provided innovations that have dramatically transformed the practice of medicine, thereby greatly improving public health.

Nevertheless, according to a recent Commonwealth Fund report, the U.S. health care system is the most expensive in the world and consistently underperforms other countries on most measures of performance. Thus, our medical schools, which currently lead the world in biomedical research and health professions education, are faced with a challenging mission if they are to continue their leadership in improving health.

Amid a rise in artisanal butter, state to make it easier to get a buttermaker license

Wisconsin State Journal

Wisconsin is the only state that requires a buttermaker license, and it?s an arduous process to get one. It may soon get easier for would-be buttermakers throughout Wisconsin. In January, the state Agriculture Board approved a scope statement to propose revising the licensing of buttermakers. Such a change would provide more flexible training and education options for potential buttermakers. Current regulations require an apprenticeship of up to two years. Proposed rules would bring that down to 120 hours. Part of the new process would also involve a new Buttermakers Short Course, the first of which will be held Sept. 14-16 at UW-Madison through the Center for Dairy Research. The course is full.

Going green: UW-Madison program helps businesses be eco-friendly

Wisconsin State Journal

A new UW-Madison program to evaluate and promote sustainable business practices is helping Wisconsin companies earn recognition for going green, cutting waste and being socially responsible. ?There were many companies that were actively engaged on these sustainability issues, but they weren?t getting any credit for it,? School of Business professor Thomas Eggert said. ?They were doing things, but no one knew what they were doing.? That?s why the goal of Eggert?s Green Masters Program is as much to publicize the successes of company participants as it is to provide a viable framework for those actions.