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July 18, 2025

Research

Water sport or crime? The bitter fight over wave-making boats

The Wall Street Journal

William Banholzer, an engineering professor at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, has been traveling to town meetings arguing research doesn’t support banning the boats. Banholzer, who owns a wakesurfing boat but says that doesn’t affect his conclusions, said studies show about 70% of a wave’s energy is dissipated at around 200 feet.

“If you’re taking my rights away, you better have a preponderance of evidence on your side, and they don’t,” Banholzer said.

Class of 2025: five PhD students reveal realigned priorities in wake of COVID and cuts

Nature

“Things are a mess, and it feels like a lot of unnecessary changes have been made to hinder science,” said David Rivera-Kohr who will defend his biochemistry PhD at the University of Wisconsin–Madison later this year. “It takes a toll mentally, but it also makes my principal investigator and lab group more conservative about our spending. We don’t know how long the money is going to last or whether new funding will come in, so we’re trying to cut costs.”

Science reveals dogs’ favorite type of TV

Popular Science

“I thought it was very well done,” Freya Mowat, a veterinary ophthalmologist at the University of Wisconsin who researches canine visual psychology but was not part of the new study team, tells Popular Science.

The new results are also closely aligned with a 2024 survey study conducted by Mowat and a separate group of dog researchers at the University of Wisconsin.

Campus life

State news

Crime and safety

Lawsuit over UW-Madison’s reinstatement of former Badger football player can proceed

Wisconsin State Journal

A lawsuit that targets UW-Madison’s decision to reinstate a former Badgers football star accused of sexual assault will go back to a lower court.

The 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals judges on July 11 overturned the dismissal of a lawsuit a woman brought against the University of Wisconsin-Madison over its decision to reinstate the player.

Arts & Humanities

With PBS funding cut, will the next generation be raised by ‘Skibidi Toilet’?

The Washington Post

Rebekah Willett, a professor at the University of Wisconsin at Madison who studies children and media, said she often hears from parents whose children run into upsetting content that’s recommended by YouTube’s algorithm. (One child, she said, looked up baby animal videos, which led to videos of animals giving birth, which led to videos of humans giving birth.)

Business/Technology

Seeking corporate tax insights? Check out the expanded audit report

Forbes

“Regulators introduced expanded audit reporting to increase the usefulness of the audit report to investors by requiring the auditor to discuss the most challenging issues. However, Prior research generally finds that key audit matters do not influence investor perceptions of audited companies,” says Dan Lynch, a professor of accounting at the Wisconsin School of Business.

UW Experts in the News

Human rights defenders are fleeing El Salvador as Bukele cracks down

Rolling Stone

“The point isn’t that Trump is a ‘Latin American’ dictator — or an Eastern European one like Orban — the point is that they are all, along with the people who work under them, part of contemporary right-wing networks,” explains Patrick Iber, associate professor of history at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “It’s a dynamic system for mutual support. And it is one in which authoritarian ideas get reinforced, enemies get defined, and the leaders get to imagine themselves as engaged in a project of national redemption.”