UW In The News

CRISPR And Human Embryo Experiments Underway In The U.S. : Shots

“This is valid research, and I think it’s important research,” says R. Alta Charo, a bioethicist at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. “It has value not only for the possible use in the future for some number of conditions that would involve a live birth, but it has value for basic understanding of embryology, basic understanding of development,” Charo says.

When Super Bowl fans eat a billion chicken wings, the world eats the leftovers

U.S. and Canadian farmers will often export chicken wings with the flappers still attached to Asian markets such as Hong Kong, Thailand and Cambodia. Those markets have more of an appetite for the wingtips, according to Ronald Kean, an expert in poultry production at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

‘When Death Becomes Life’ Review: Doctors and Donors

Dr. Mezrich’s book braids unflinching medical history with frank clinical memoir. A transplant surgeon at the University of Wisconsin, he got his first inkling of his future vocation when he volunteered in medical school for the New York Firefighters Skin Bank, “an ‘elite’ group that would head out in the middle of the night to skin dead people.” The scare quotes around “elite” and the brazen verb “to skin” are typical of Dr. Mezrich’s rueful candor.

Early-Voting Laws Probably Don’t Boost Turnout

Meanwhile, a more recent study by political scientists at the University of Wisconsin, Madison discovered that, when not accompanied by other reforms, early voting actually leads to lower turnout — perhaps because the social and campaign-driven pressure to vote is not as focused as it is when voting must all occur on a single day.

Thinking like a doula: “Birth coaches” negotiate the roles of everyone in the birthing suite

Amy Gilliland believes that a positive birth experience has a lasting effect on the lives of both mother and baby. Gilliland should know: As a research fellow in the U.W.-Madison’s School of Human Ecology, she studies and teaches about the psychological needs of people during the birth experience.

How working from home helps the environment

Quoted: “Anything that reduces vehicle miles helps improve air quality and reduce emissions of the greenhouse gases that cause global warming,” said Jack Williams, a professor who researches global climate change in the Department of Geography at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Pundits who decry ‘tribalism’ know nothing about real tribes

Although “ethnic labels .?.?. have pre-colonial origins, they became comprehensive and rigidly ranked categories only in the colonial period; they were heavily influenced by imperial codifications and further transformed by politicized actions in the last half [of the 20th] century,” writes Merwin Crawford Young, a professor emeritus of political science at the University of Wisconsin at Madison.

Awake on the Table

“There’s plenty of evidence” that even without an explicit memory of surgery, humans can form implicit or subconscious memories under anesthesia, said Dr. Aeyal Raz, an anesthesiologist at the University of Wisconsin.

New blood thinners better than warfarin for atrial fibrillation

“Stroke due to atrial fibrillation tends to be quite severe,” said Dr. Craig January of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, who helped draft the new guidelines published in Circulation.

How a high-flying balloon could search for life on hellishly hot Venus

Conditions are more hospitable 30 miles above the surface. In fact, temperatures in this region of the atmosphere are much like those on Earth — “similar conditions to Miami, Florida in summertime,” said Kevin Baines, a planetary scientist at the JPL and the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

AP Exclusive: US Nobelist Was Told of Gene-Edited Babies

Quoted: It’s not clear how someone would have raised concerns about He’s project, said University of Wisconsin bioethicist Alta Charo, who was one of the leaders of the Hong Kong gene-editing conference where He gave details of the experiment.

Howard Schultz’s presidential ambitions draw backlash

Quoted: Barry Burden, a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who has studied third-party runs, agreed. However, he said Mr Schultz would face other obstacles to a winning candidacy.

Mystery outbreak of human viruses is killing chimpanzees in Uganda forest

’These are very common human viruses that circulate worldwide and cause ’the sniffles’ in kids,’ Tony Goldberg, a University of Wisconsin–Madison professor, said.

Lakes ‘skating on thin ice’ as warming limits freeze

“The deeper the lake is, the more heat storage it has and it takes more cold weather to get the lake down to a temp where it could freeze,” said Prof John Magnuson, a co-author from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

You can’t control what you can’t find: Detecting invasive species while they’re still scarce

Jake Walsh, University of Wisconsin-Madison: Most of the 10,000 ships lost to the bottom of the Great Lakes in wrecks over the past 400 years are still lost – hidden somewhere in 6 quadrillion gallons of water. Finding anything in a lake is a lesson in humility, so life as a freshwater biologist is always humbling. If we can’t account for huge steel freighters, imagine the challenge of finding a single tiny organism.

Report: Lots Of Access To Pre-K, But Quality Sometimes Lacking

Quoted: “Particularly in large urban areas they can’t afford to have a class that low,” said Graue, director of University of Wisconsin-Madison Center for Research in Early Childhood Education.

How to Stop Rogue Gene-Editing of Human Embryos?

Quoted: In a recent New England Journal of Medicine article, R. Alta Charo, a bioethicist at University of Wisconsin-Madison, recommended a “comprehensive ecosystem of public and private entities that can restrain the rogues among us.”

Evers Walks Back Comments As Legislature’s Attorney Says He Can’t Stop ACA Lawsuit

Quoted: Howard Schweber, University of Wisconsin-Madison political science professor, said it could be up to the judicial system to decide the dispute.

How low-income parents are working to to help their children with autism

That means the needs of an untold number of children aren’t being met. It also has serious ramifications for research, because it can skew estimates of autism, says Maureen Durkin, an epidemiologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison: “It means that the prevalence of autism is probably even higher than we’re measuring.”

Where Sloths Find These Branches, Their Family Trees Expand

For almost ten years, Jonathan Pauli and M. Zachariah Peery, professors at the University of Wisconsin, and their colleagues have been tracking a group of sloths in Costa Rica. The animals are equipped with radio collars that transmit their location five or six times a month, so the team knows where each sloth’s usual territory is.

Alcohol-related disease overtakes hepatitis C as top reason for liver transplant

There is nothing magical about six months, according to Dr. Michael Lucey, medical director of the University of Wisconsin liver transplant program. He said it shows a poor understanding of alcohol abuse as a “very complex behavioral disorder.”

Scientists are learning how to farm on Mars through trail and error

Quoted: “Watering plants in space is really hard because water moves differently because there’s no gravity. If you get the water onto soil particles, it’ll just creep over the surface,” said Simon Gilroy, a botanist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who researches the effects of gravity on plant growth. He was not involved with the new study.

Warning as researchers find common cold and other human viruses are killing wild chimps in Uganda

’These are very common human viruses that circulate worldwide and cause ’the sniffles’ in kids,’ Tony Goldberg, a University of Wisconsin–Madison professor, said.

Losing the Humanity of Transplants

Surgeons like me, who work in the field of organ transplant, have been repeating a cliché for decades about the idea of using other animals’ organs to replace failing ones in humans: “It’s the future, and it always will be.” By: Joshua Mezrich

China seems to confirm scientist’s gene-edited babies claim

Quoted: The statement shows that “scientific leadership is taking this situation seriously,” said Alta Charo, a University of Wisconsin bioethicist and one of the leaders of the Hong Kong conference.

The Cotton Plant That Sprouted on the Far Side of the Moon Has Died

Quoted: He adds that though the project was cut short, he still considers it a success. And other scientists agree, including Simon Gilroy, a professor of botany at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who was not involved in the study.

Government shutdown frays America’s safety net

Quoted: “A safety net that has a frayed bottom to it makes people much less, feel more financially fragile and financially vulnerable than they already are,” J. Michael Collins, a professor at the University of Wisconsin- Madison, told ABC News.

Is It Ethical for Alcoholics to Get Liver Transplants?

Before he found out he needed a new liver, Herbert Heneman was not your typical corner-of-the-dive-bar alcoholic. Heneman, the Dickson-Bascom professor emeritus of management and human resources at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, grew up in St. Paul, Minnesota. He had a happy childhood and a very supportive family. He describes his parents as somewhat heavy drinkers, particularly his father, but he remembers no health issues, legal problems, or family crises related to alcohol.

This post is adapted from Mezrich’s new book,When Death Becomes Life: Notes From a Transplant Surgeon.

Protecting monarch butterflies’ winter home could mean moving hundreds of trees

Quoted: Rising temperatures and habitat destruction at the butterflies’ breeding sites in the United States and Canada are the major drivers of monarch declines, says Karen Oberhauser, a conservation biologist at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

R. Kelly and the silencing of black women in history

Quoted: “It is incredibly courageous for the survivors to come forward, given the gross misogyny and disregard for black women and girls in the country and worldwide,” insists Bianca J. Baldridge, an Assistant Professor in Educational Policy Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and author of the forthcoming book entitled Reclaiming Community: Race and the Uncertain Future of Youth Work.