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May 27, 2025

Top Stories

Scientists have lost their jobs or grants in US cuts. Foreign universities want to hire them

Posted on
Associated Press

Brandon Coventry never thought he would consider a scientific career outside the United States. But federal funding cuts and questions over whether new grants will materialize have left him unsure. While reluctant to leave his family and friends, he’s applied to faculty positions in Canada and France.

“I’ve never wanted to necessarily leave the United States, but this is a serious contender for me,” said Coventry, who is a postdoctoral fellow studying neural implants at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Research

UW-Madison researcher discovers valuable chemical compound in engineered poplar trees

Posted on
Channel 3000

A UW-Madison researcher has made a surprising discovery that could transform how we source important chemical compounds used in everyday products, moving from fossil fuels to trees.

Brian Fox, a biochemistry professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, has identified parahydroxybenzoate—a chemical compound used in medicine, cosmetics, and food products that’s normally taken from oil—in biochemically engineered poplar trees.

How Trump cuts are driving 4 major challenges at UW-Madison this year

Posted on
The Cap Times

Wisconsin’s flagship state university is under pressure on a variety of fronts this spring, making it difficult to keep up with developments in the news.

As the Trump administration reshapes the federal government and its relationship with higher education, authorities in courtrooms, the state Capitol and university administration are also tackling big decisions that could affect campus life for years to come.

The internet is littered with advice. What’s it doing to your brain?

Posted on
Vox

“Research has overwhelmingly found that advice is really beneficial, and that people tend to under-utilize advice, usually causing them to make lower quality decisions,” says Lyn van Swol, a professor of communication science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who studies advice and information-sharing in groups. The catch, she notes, is that most of that research looks at advice from one, two, or three other people, not dozens, hundreds, or thousands of strangers on TikTok: “It’s overwhelming — it’s like a fire hose of advice.”

Everything you need to know about the ‘age-reversal’ supplement NAD+

Posted on
Essence

According to Guarente, pellagra is characterized by what are known as the four Ds; dermatitis, diarrhea, dementia, and death. “Pellagra turned out to be a disease of NAD+ deficiency and the molecules that could prevent and/or cure it were termed vitamin B3s,” he says, which Conrad Elvehjem, a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, proved in 1937.

‘It does kind of make me the breadwinner’: stay-at-home mom charges husband $2,700 a week for household labor — sparking a debate on TikTok

Posted on
Moneywise

Of course, not every household follows the traditional gender roles. But data from the University of Wisconsin-Madison finds that women still spend twice as many hours doing physical housework as their male partners.

It doesn’t stop there. Allison Daminger, an assistant professor of sociology, found in her research that in 80% of opposite-sex couples, women shoulder most of the cognitive labor — things like managing family calendars, planning meals and checking on homework.

The curse of Toumaï: an ancient skull, a disputed femur and a bitter feud over humanity’s origins

Posted on
The Guardian

Macchiarelli now brokered the publication of two of them on the widely read blog of John Hawks, a University of Wisconsin-Madison professor and longtime Sahelanthropus sceptic. In principle, to print images of someone else’s unpublished fossil was a clear breach of ethics. But then, Macchiarelli, Bergeret and Hawks reasoned, after Beauvilain’s article, the femur was no longer unpublished.

Higher Education/System

National Spelling Bee champions say it set them up for success: ‘You attain a level of mastery’

Posted on
Associated Press

Joanne Lagatta arrived at the University of Wisconsin in 1995 with a flawless academic record and an achievement on her resumé that she didn’t like to talk about — but that no other undergrad on the sprawling Madison campus could claim: Scripps National Spelling Bee champion.

The bee winner in 1991 at age 13, Lagatta nonetheless struggled adjusting to life outside her rural hometown of Clintonville, Wisconsin — until she got a push from a professor who was a devoted spelling-bee fan.

Harvard revokes tenure of embattled dishonesty researcher

Posted on
Inside Higher Ed

Harvard University has revoked the tenure of Francesca Gino, a dishonesty researcher in the business school who was accused of fabricating data, WGBH reported.

The move follows an internal investigation into allegations raised two years ago by the blog Data Colada that Gino had co-authored four academic papers that revealed “evidence of fraud.” Investigators determined that Gino had “engaged in multiple instances of research misconduct” in those papers, manipulating data to support her hypotheses, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Campus life

Country music is dominating Wisconsin’s summer concert season like never before in 2025

Posted on
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

28: Years it’s been since Camp Randall Stadium at the University of Wisconsin-Madison has hosted a concert tour. Country superstar Morgan Wallen will end the drought June 28, then become the first artist ever to headline the stadium for two consecutive nights, with a second show on June 29.

Community

Arts & Humanities

Board needs to work with community to keep MPS Italian Immersion Program open

Posted on
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

When I was a student at Rufus King, I took Spanish and Italian courses. Four years later, my younger brother Michael did the same.  After high school, I went on to study Italian at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and studied abroad in Italy. After graduation, I used my Italian language skills and taught 4-year-old kindergarten at the Italian Immersion School during the 2008-2009 school year.

Democratic troubles revive debate over left-wing buzzwords

Posted on
The Washington Post

Honestly, Democrats trip over themselves in an attempt to say exactly the right thing,” said Allison Prasch, who teaches rhetoric, politics and culture at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. “Republicans maybe aren’t so concerned about saying exactly the right thing, so it may appear more authentic to some voters.”

She added: “Republicans have a willingness to paint with very broad brushstrokes, where Democrats are more concerned with articulating multiple perspectives. And, because of that, they can be hampered by the words and phrases they utilize.”

Health

Report highlights increased concern for water quality, contaminants in Madison lakes

Posted on
The Daily Cardinal

The report also included more detailed metrics and information on weather and climate drivers, phosphorus data, clarity and conservation practices. It used data collected by the University of Wisconsin-Madison Center for Limnology, the Dane County public health, land and water agencies and the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, among other sources, as well as their own citizen science network called the LakeForecast monitoring network.

A big Trump administration cutback went nearly unnoticed

Posted on
The Washington Post

Aaron Perry, a former University of Wisconsin police officer and founder of the Perry Family Free Clinic, said he saw firsthand how Black men were being left behind by the health-care system.

“I would always ask them … what could be different?” Perry said. “And that’s when they would tell me, ‘I’m homeless. I haven’t eaten. I have a heart condition. I don’t have medication.’”

5 myths about food expiration dates and best-by labels

Posted on
The Washington Post

Kathy Glass, who recently retired as associate director at the Food Research Institute at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, said she respects “use-by” dates and other storage guidance (like an ideal fridge temperature) on refrigerated products, particularly those designed to be eaten cold.

“Many manufacturers have researched spoilage versus safety to determine those dates,” she said. On those keep-cold products, she said the phrase “use by” signals “they’ve done their studies to demonstrate that if you would use it by that particular date, and you kept it at a good refrigeration temperature, it should be safe.” Food should be refrigerated between 35 and 40 degrees, she said.

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