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Category: UW Experts in the News

Science maps the geography of human variation

Daily Cardinal

When Celera Genomics first sequenced the entire human genome in 2000, the scientific community and the world at large met the news with unbridled enthusiasm�and with good reason. Sequencing the three billion base pairs in human DNA in a little over a year was a staggering achievement.

Repairing nerves, receiving grants

Daily Cardinal

A multidisciplinary team of UW-Madison researchers recently received a five-year, $3.4 million grant to develop techniques for using stem cells to repair nerve damage in victims of diseases like Multiple Sclerosis, and to improve imaging technology to view the lesions and repairs at the cellular level.

The truth about the gray wolf

Wisconsin State Journal

Studies by researchers such as the UW-Madison’s Don Waller have shown that deer are decimating the understory of Wisconsin’s northern forests, especially cedar swamps. So studies are under way, Wydeven said, to understand the relationship between wolf predation and plant growth in Wisconsin’s forests.

Guidelines Aim to Ease Accounting Costs for Small Companies

New York Times

A committee of accounting experts published new guidance yesterday that it hopes will reduce the cost for small companies to document that their internal financial controls are adequate.

“It was important for us to demonstrate how smaller public companies can implement effective internal control in a different manner than do their larger counterparts,” said Larry E. Rittenberg, the chairman of the group, the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission, and an accounting professor at the University of Wisconsin.

Confederate flags spur speech debate

Badger Herald

Louisiana State University finds itself at the center of a First Amendment debate this week. A group of over 100 protesters has made its opposition clear to the prevalence of purple and gold Confederate flags at Tiger football games.

Government Flu Preparedness in Doubt (WPR)

Wisconsin Public Radio

(MADISON) A national survey shows doctors believe the federal government is very unprepared to deal with an avian bird flu pandemic that has killed more than 60 people worldwide. A researcher at the University of Wisconsin-Madison thinks the U.S. is ready, but adds that no country may be able to cope if the outbreak is widespread and resists treatment.

Dubious diagnoses for the legends of folklore

Daily Cardinal

Every now and again, the insatiable desire to explain the supernatural turns science and the paranormal into strange bedfellows. Modern medicine allows doctors and scientists to play the game of pin-the-condition-on-the-monster but since vampire and werewolf test subjects are hard to come by, their speculation is solely based on finding parallel symptoms between folklore legends and modern disease definitions.

Sexes reside on same mental page

Daily Cardinal

Men and women may be from the same planet after all, according to recent findings by UW-Madison professor of psychology Janet Hyde.

The recent study conducted by Hyde confirmed that men and women are fundamentally identical psychologically and that gender differences, such as math ability and self-esteem levels, have been greatly overestimated.

Bare-minimum diet: Is long life the payoff?

USA Today

Khurram Hashmi has drastically cut the calories he consumes ââ?¬â? eating mostly salads and raw vegetables ââ?¬â? in the hopes of living a longer, better life. But he’s hungry almost all the time.

ââ?¬Å?That’s something for me that has never gone away, but it is easier to accept now,ââ?¬Â says Hashmi, 37. He says he used to cheat, but not anymore. The hunger tells him that the diet’s working, he says.

ââ?¬Å?It is the only nutritional regimen thought to retard aging,ââ?¬Â says Richard Weindruch at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His studies have suggested that middle-aged mice can start the diet and still get the longevity benefit.

South Korean teachers, Howard-Suamico students learn from each other (Green Bay Press-Gazette)

Green Bay Press-Gazette

Sixteen-year-old Carly Terral giggles as she wraps the hand-embroidered scarlet skirt around her. Her classmates shout supportive suggestions ââ?¬â? ââ?¬Å?tie it around the frontââ?¬Â ââ?¬â? as she struggles to knot the long dangling ribbons of the outfit, known in South Korea as ââ?¬Å?hanbok.ââ?¬Â

Quoted: Sandra Arfa, the director of the English as a Second Language program at UW-Madison.

A Free And Easy Way To Learn Science

Wisconsin State Journal

Samuel Gellman, a UW-Madison chemist, considers it one of the scariest — but maybe among the most interesting – experiments he’s ever conducted.
On Sunday, Gellman, a tall and soft-spoken fellow who studies proteins, will attempt to talk with ordinary people about the science that he does for a living. He is the first scientist — the lab rat, so to speak — to participate in an experiment in communication called “Science Cafe.”

Scientists Are Missing The Whole Point

Wisconsin State Journal

For a guy who has dedicated his life to peace and compassion and tranquility, the Dalai Lama sure finds ways to upset establishments.
This time, those upset are scientists who are outraged that the Tibetan spiritual leader has been invited to speak at the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience next month in Washington, D.C.

He is scheduled to speak about research he has done with UW-Madison professor Richard Davidson that purports to show monks who meditate produce very strong concentrations of gamma brain waves, as measured by an electronic scanner.

We could be ‘Saudi Arabia of ethanol’

Wisconsin State Journal

Richard Shaten sees both sides. Though ethanol carries its own problems, burning ethanol blends releases less soot and carbon monoxide into the air than gasoline, said Shaten, a faculty associate who teaches energy economics at UW-Madison’s Gaylord Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies.

“I believe that every gallon of gasoline that is displaced by a gallon of ethanol lets us all breathe easier,” he said.

Podcasting: It’s more than just tunes

Wisconsin State Journal

One locally produced podcast that is gaining popularity is Earthwatch Radio, which is distributed to 120 commercial radio stations and other media outlets across North America. Since 1972, the program produced by the staff and students of the Sea Grant Institute and the Gaylord Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies at UW- Madison has provided news and information on advances in science and environmental protection. Earthwatch Radio’s podcast is helping it build an international audience, Web producer Richard Hoops said.

ââ?¬Ë?Technical virginity’ becomes part of teens’ equation

USA Today

Ten years after Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky’s relationship made oral sex a mainstream topic, there’s still plenty of debate over whether oral sex is really sex.

Quoted: John DeLamater, a sociology professor at the University of Wisconsin and editor of the Journal of Sex Research, a scholarly journal published by the Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality.