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January 14, 2026

Top Stories

Federal civil rights complaint against UW-Madison filed over scholarships

Wisconsin Public Radio

The Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty filed a civil rights complaint against the University of Wisconsin-Madison on behalf of conservative students on campus.

The firm alleges the school is offering about two dozen race-based scholarships. WILL is asking the U.S. Department of Education to investigate “race-based practices” on behalf of its client, the Young America’s Foundation.

UW-Madison research foundation seeks next ‘diamonds’ amid federal cuts

The Cap Times

The organization is set to provide $206.9 million in total support to UW-Madison and the Morgridge Institute for Research this school year, including $50 million toward research projects and nearly $36 million for faculty, graduate students and staff.

Now in its second century, the nonprofit faces challenges, though. The Trump administration’s widespread cuts to federal research funding could limit the number of discoveries coming to WARF.

Research

What UW-Madison researchers learned from an experiment in outer space

The Cap Times

Vatsan Raman never expected he would send a research experiment to outer space.

“This is like a box that’s sitting on our lab bench one day, and the next day it’s on a rocket that’s going up to (the International Space Station). … It was really quite surreal,” said Raman, an associate professor of biochemistry at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Viruses may be more powerful in the International Space Station’s microgravity environment

Space

To better understand how microbes may act differently in space, researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison studied bacteriophages — viruses that infect bacteria, also called phages — in identical settings both on the ISS and on Earth. Their results, published recently in the journal PLOS Biology, suggest that microgravity can delay infections, reshape evolution of both phages and bacteria and even reveal genetic combinations that may help the performance against disease-linked bacteria on Earth.

“Studying phage–bacteria systems in space isn’t just a curiosity for astrobiology; it’s a practical way to understand and anticipate how microbial ecosystems behave in spacecraft and to mine new solutions for phage therapy and microbiome engineering back home,” said Dr. Phil Huss, a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and one of the study’s lead authors.

State news

What to know about child grooming, E-Verify and other passed bills

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

The other proposed amendment would prohibit governmental entities from discriminating against or granting preferential treatment to any individual or group on the basis of race, sex, color, ethnicity or national origin in public employment, public education, public contracting or public administration, according to the resolution memo.

Bill author David Murphy, R-Hortonville, said the proposed amendment was meant to bring “merit, fairness and equity back to the state of Wisconsin.”

UW-Madison Related

What to know about wild turkeys in Wisconsin: restoration, records, population

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

The first shipment of 29 wild turkeys was flown to Wisconsin on Jan. 21, 1976.

It was received at the La Crosse airport by about a dozen people, including DNR wildlife biologists Carl Batha and Ron Nicklaus, a few members of local conservation clubs and Tom Yuill, a University of Wisconsin-Madison professor who specialized in wildlife diseases.