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February 22, 2021

Top Stories

Research

Scientists Just Changed the Rules of What You Can Do While You Sleep

Popular Mechanics

Quoted: Benjamin Baird, a sleep researcher at the University of Wisconsin–Madison who wasn’t involved in this study, told Scientific American the findings “challenge our ideas about what sleep is.” SciAm has more: Sleep has classically been defined as unresponsiveness to external environmental stimuli—and that feature is still typically part of the definition today, Baird explains. “This work pushes us to think carefully—rethink, maybe—about some of those fundamental definitions about the nature of sleep itself, and what’s possible in sleep.”

Higher Education/System

Branch campuses need time to work — Mary Hoeft

Wisconsin State Journal

Letter to the editor: University of Wisconsin System President Tommy Thompson has an idea for Wisconsin’s outstanding two-year universities. He’s wondering if they should be combined with the state’s technical school system. As a professor at one of UW System’s two-year campus for 49 years, I would like to answer President Thompson’s question with a resounding “no.”

Tech colleges may help UW campuses — John Poole

Wisconsin State Journal

Letter to the editor: The campuses have been severely underutilized for the past several years, ever since the concept of regionalization was implemented. Many thought returning to our roots (Richland started as a branch of Platteville) would be the saving grace for the campus, but that hasn’t proven to be the case.

Campus life

UW-Madison, student government at odds over how to help students struggling during COVID-19 pandemic

Wisconsin State Journal

UW-Madison administrators and the university’s student council are clashing over how to help students struggling because of the pandemic, with the council looking to put more money toward student rent payments using a strategy UW-Madison said is illegal, and the university taking an approach student government calls the bare minimum.

Crime and safety

Community

Health

“Covid Long-haulers”: Some Wisconsin patients battle symptoms one year later

NBC-15

Dr. Aurora Pop-Vicas is working to crack the case. She explained she’s seen similar outcomes with other respiratory viruses, but Covid presents unique challenges.“We are increasingly aware of how common this is because covid-19 is on the forefront of our efforts,” Pop-Vicas, UW-Madison school of medicine and public health infectious disease assistant professor said.

Athletics

Obituaries

UW-Madison Related

Oak Creek mom of teen with lung disease who questioned Joe Biden at town hall gets a call from the White House

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Noted: Engebrecht has been urging officials to prioritize people with significant health problems, or at least create wait lists so they could be contacted when extra doses are available. The family also has been taking precautions while awaiting doses of vaccine, to protect Nate, who recently moved back home from the University of Wisconsin-Madison because of the risk of COVID-19 on and around campus.