College of Agricultural and Life Sciences
There has been a recent trend in society with people wanting to know where their food is coming from due to concerns about food safety and Wisconsin is no exception. In an effort to include local fish in Wisconsin’s local food movement, Wisconsin Sea Grant (WSG) launched the “Eat Wisconsin Fish” outreach program in 2014. …
Imagine having the ability to rid the world of genetically inherited diseases. Scientists have created a gene-editing tool called CRISPR/Cas-9 that allows scientists to edit heritable and non-heritable genes at a faster rate and lower cost. This could lead to the elimination of diseases such as sickle-cell anemia and cystic fibrosis in the near future. …
Story by Ysabella Bhagroo. Ysabella is an undergraduate student majoring in LSC and the Department of Life Sciences Communication’s 2017-18 Lenore Landry Scholar. As Wisconsin’s red fox and coyote populations grow, Madison is seeing an increasing number of these urban canids establishing their homes closer to campus. Recently, LSC chair Dominique Brossard, associate professor Bret Shaw, and …
In spring 2017, Laura Strugnell (B.S. ’17) tapped the mail icon on her phone and found an email sent to the Life Sciences Communication (LSC) undergraduate student listserv. Strugnell was searching for a job, and the email advertised a communications position in Texcoco, Mexico at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (known as CIMMYT for its …
Story by Ysabella Bhagroo. Ysabella is an undergraduate student majoring in LSC and the Department of Life Sciences Communication 2017-18 Lenore Landry Scholar. It’s the stuff of science fiction – artificially whitening clouds, injecting reflective particles into the stratosphere, seeding the oceans with iron – all to reverse the escalating consequences of climate change. With …
The following story was written by Caroline Schneider of CALS External Relations. It has been adapted and republished here. In early August 2017, an international team of scientists announced they had successfully edited the DNA of human embryos. As people process the political, moral, and regulatory issues of the technology — which nudges us closer to nonfiction …
By Kelly April Tyrrell, UW–Madison University Communications Social media has erased many of the boundaries between leaders and the people they represent, between experts and the lay public, between scientists and nonscientists. It has enabled people to communicate directly and interact in unprecedented ways. At the University of Wisconsin–Madison, a survey of 372 scientists engaged …
A popular course in the Department of Life Sciences Communication is LSC 625: Risk Communication taught by LSC chair, Dominique Brossard. The course teaches students how to talk about risk and explains the complexities of risk in the context of the other knowledge they have gained through LSC classes. “Many of the emerging topics in science …
Story by Sarah Krier. Sarah is an undergraduate student majoring in LSC and the Department of Life Sciences Communication 2016-17 Lenore Landry Scholar Populations of the Hawaiian honeycreeper, a colorful bird native to Hawaii, struggle to survive due to bird malaria transmitted by non-native mosquitos. Gene-editing and de-extinction techniques could offer promising avenues for adapting …
Each Friday during the semester a group gathers in Hiram Smith Hall to discuss ongoing research projects, many lead by graduate students, surrounding public opinion on controversial science issues. The group is the Science, Media & the Public (SciMep) research group which explores issues relating to the social, legal, and ethical implications of scientific issues and emerging technologies. …