Category: UW Experts in the News

The topic of discussion at a special seminar Wednesday night given by Jonathan Patz, MD, MPH, of the University of Wisconsin department of population health sciences and Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies, centered on the emergence of disease from global ecological change.

A University of Wisconsin professor plans to test his hypothesis that deaths occurring after Taser use are not a result of the darts but instead caused by the drugs present in the person�s system.

A stellar flare that originated before the dawn of recorded human history delivered a mighty burst of energy to the Earth last December, astronomers announced Friday.

Climate change, according to UW-Madison researcher Jonathan Patz, is about a lot more than melting ice caps.

It’s also about people getting sick.

WHEN Krishna Ella went to venture capitalists in 1995 he was laughed out of their offices. A molecular biologist at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, he was proposing to make hepatitis B vaccine in India, his native land, for a mere dollar a shot.

Next month President Bush will present both the National Medal of Science and the National Medal of TechnologyÃ?­-the nation’s highest awards in those fields-to affiliates of UW-Madison.

Madison, Wis. � A blend of mobile, electronic learning techniques could be the future of education.

Judy Brown, an analyst of emerging technology for the University of Wisconsin-Madison and director of the Academic ADL Co-Lab, spoke to the Madison chapter of the World Future Society last Thursday night about the developing trend dubbed ââ?¬Å?me learningââ?¬Â.

In the film “2001: A Space Odyssey,” a computer named HAL ran an entire spaceship. Likewise, at the Biotron, one of UW-Madison’s most advanced research facilities, an enormous server directs all building operations. Conditions need to be finely controlled because the Biotron houses some of the most revolutionary research conducted quietly on campus.

The annual Polar Plunge makes its way to Madison’s Lake Monona Saturday. The cold-water dive raises money for Special Olympics and also lets participants face their fears and test their limits in a challenging-but eminently harmless-environment.

Chair of the University of Wisconsin biochemistry department, Hector DeLuca, announced Friday he will be stepping down from his administrative position.

UW-Madison scientist Hector DeLuca, an international authority on vitamin D whose patents have earned the university millions in royalties, will step down in July as chairman of the biochemistry department he has led for the past 35 years.

A UW-Madison researcher has discovered a startling relationship between a breed of ants and the fungus from which the ants derive nutrients. The ants produce chemicals that protect the fungus from bacterial parasites. As the bacteria evolve to survive the pesticides, the ants evolve new pesticides against the bacteria, in a 50-million-year-old chemical arms race that could one day help humans design more precise antibiotics.

A researcher is looking for males and females ages 10 to 15 with fragile X syndrome.

Quoted: Andrew Cohn, a spokesperson for the University of Wisconsin-Madison�s Alumni Research Foundation.

A team of UW researchers has discovered how to revive dying neurons that are responsible for neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer�s and Parkinson�s.

UW-Madison received more funding for stem-cell research Thursday in the form of a $1.25 million grant presented to a team led by James Thomson from the Los Angeles-based W.M. Keck Foundation, according to a press release.

One month after the tsunami that hit shores of countries bordering the Indian Ocean, fear of a potential infectious-diseases outbreak arose. In a presentation at the Overture Center Tuesday evening, University of Wisconsin Medical School professor Dennis Maki said the potential plagues in the region are also a concern for tsunami victims.

In addition to improving attention and concentration, meditation might also create long-term changes in the brain that improve focus even when a person is no longer in a meditative state, according to a recent UW-Madison study of Buddhist monks and meditation scholars.

Amid opposition from religious groups and a lack of firm support from the government, UW-Madison scientists formed spinal motor neurons from human embryonic stem cells.

University of Wisconsin scientists are the first researchers to coax human embryonic stem cells into spinal motor neurons, a feat that could eventually lead to treatment of individuals with damaged nervous systems, causing disorders such as Lou Gehrig�s disease or muscular dystrophy.