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January 30, 2026

Research

Scientists just watched these entities rapidly evolve in Space. They could save our lives

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Popular Science

To fill in this knowledge gap, the research team (led by scientists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison) analyzed two bacterial samples of Escherichia coli (E. coli)—one located on Earth, the other on the ISS, and both infected with what is known as a T7 bacteriophage. Eventually, they found that while the outcome of the arms race remained the same in each location—the bacteriophage eventually infected its bacterial prey—there were distinct differences in how this battle played out between the two samples.

“Space fundamentally changes how phages and bacteria interact: infection is slowed, and both organisms evolve along a different trajectory than they do on Earth,” the authors wrote. “By studying those space-driven adaptations, we identified new biological insights that allowed us to engineer phages with far superior activity against drug-resistant pathogens back on Earth.”

UW-Madison, Immuto partner to target new colorectal cancer treatments

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WKOW - Channel 27

The University of Wisconsin–Madison and Immuto Scientific have teamed up to explore new therapeutic targets in colorectal cancer. According to the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, this collaboration aims to use Immuto’s AI-enabled platform to discover novel treatments for solid colorectal cancer tumors.

Dr. Dustin Deming, a professor of medicine at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, leads the project. “Our collection of patient-derived colorectal cancer organoids enables exploration of tumor biology and therapeutic vulnerabilities in ways that traditional models cannot,” said Deming.

Wisconsin researchers lead natural food coloring breakthrough as industry phases out artificial dyes

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WMTV - Channel 15

Within UW-Madison’s Department of Food Science, Professor Bradley Bolling has pioneered research of anthocyanins, natural pigments responsible for the vibrant hues in fruits like cranberries.

“We want to understand how the pigments in cranberry are stabilized,” Bolling said.

Bolling developed a patented process using lecithin, an emulsifier, to extract natural pigments from cranberries without using alcohol or acetone. This makes the process safer and more environmentally sustainable.

How NIH ending funding for human fetal tissue research could affect studies

Posted on
ABC News

Dr. Anita Bhattacharyya, an associate professor of cell and regenerative biology in the school of medicine and public health at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said she was hoping to apply for a future NIH grant to study human fetal tissue research and will now not be able to do so.

Bhattacharyya explained she currently uses human-induced pluripotent stem cells, which are reprogrammed cells that are similar to embryonic stem cells, in her work. However, the loss of NIH funding for human fetal tissue research could affect future work.

“My reaction was, ‘How are we going to do some of our research if we can no longer use human fetal tissue?'” she recalled to ABC News. “In particular, my lab studies Down syndrome and so we know that in Down syndrome, the brain develops differently to lead to the intellectual disability that people with Down syndrome have.”

Lost ancient Greek star catalog decoded by particle accelerator

Posted on
Scientific American

Some analysis will have to wait until the new images can be processed, but the researchers are already able to decode text from many of the raw data. “It’s one of the rare examples in research where you know very quickly that you have gotten good results,” says Uwe Bergmann, a physics professor at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, who is overseeing the experiment’s x-ray scanning.

Higher Education/System

The film students who can no longer sit through films

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The Atlantic

Everyone knows it’s hard to get college students to do the reading—remember books? But the attention-span crisis is not limited to the written word.

Professors are now finding that they can’t even get film students—film students—to sit through movies. “I used to think, If homework is watching a movie, that is the best homework ever,” said Craig Erpelding, a film professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “But students will not do it.”

US universities turn to lawyers as leaders in turbulent year

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Reuters
Three top U.S. universities selected former law school deans as their incoming presidents in recent months — a sign that campuses are seeking out leaders with legal expertise amid a challenging time for higher education.
Columbia University on Sunday named Jennifer Mnookin — a former University of California at Los Angeles School of Law dean and current University of Wisconsin-Madison chancellor — as its next president. The University of Michigan earlier this month chose former Washington University in St. Louis law dean and current Syracuse University chancellor Kent Syverud as its incoming president. In October, Georgetown University selected former Cornell law dean and current Seattle University President Eduardo Peñalver as its next top leader.

UW-Madison Chancellor says her role prepared her for Columbia University job

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Wisconsin Public Radio

“I well understand the significant uncertainties and heightened scrutiny many universities are now facing,” Mnookin wrote to members of the Columbia University community. “Moments like this demand, in my view, an urgent assertion of the role universities must play in civic life, a clear articulation of both our value and our values, and, simultaneously, a genuine openness to taking seriously the views of those who see the world differently, both inside our campus and in the broader world.”

Meanwhile, UW System President Jay Rothman plans to name an interim chancellor for UW-Madison before Mnookin departs in May.

Campus life

State news

How Trump’s Tom Tiffany endorsement scrambles Wisconsin governor race

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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

The Trump endorsement cuts both ways, said Barry Burden, political science professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and director of the university’s Elections Research Center. On the plus side, Tiffany doesn’t have to worry about draining his resources on a primary fight, and can immediately direct his focus on the general election.

The downside? Tiffany is now tied to Trump, whose popularity is suffering, and the president’s party traditionally struggles in midterm elections, Burden noted.

“He’s going to have to negotiate expressing his own identity as a candidate versus trying to take advantage of the enthusiasm that Trump voters have (for Trump) in particular, and to get them out,” Burden said.

Crime and safety

The schoolchildren of Minneapolis

Posted on
The New Yorker

She recalled the first time she did a drop-off. “I see a literal ice agent walking around, and he just walks right past me. I’m just not on his radar,” she said. She is white, and had on a red University of Wisconsin T-shirt. “But, yeah, I go up to this apartment, and this mom was on the verge of tears, who’s been at home with her kids in a stuffy apartment for, like, a month, you know?”

Arts & Humanities

Why Bad Bunny won’t get paid for the Super Bowl Halftime Show

Posted on
Forbes

“I think that there was absolutely a market decision behind selecting Bad Bunny,” says Jorell Meléndez-Badillo, a professor of Latin American studies at the University of Wisconsin who has collaborated with Bad Bunny to incorporate Puerto Rican history into his shows and music videos. “The NFL wants to expand internationally, so they are looking to target a broader market beyond the United States. He has a huge following in the United States, but this stage will also be amplified internationally by having someone like him.”

Business/Technology

Jefferson High School addresses AI misuse after inappropriate images shared among students

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WMTV - Channel 15

Josiah Hanna, an assistant professor of computer science at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, said AI tools can be valuable educational resources but are often misunderstood or misused.

“AI is a dual-use technology,” Hanna said. “You can do some really cool things with it, but yet unfortunately has this really unpleasant use case that people have found and exploited in a really harmful way.”

Hanna said AI-generated images can be particularly damaging because people tend to trust what they see, even when content is fabricated.

The rise of the slopagandist: Nick Shirley and others like him are reminiscent of yellow journalism of the 19th century, updated and turbocharged by social media algorithms.

Posted on
The Verge

Partisan media and shoddy reporting have a long history in the U.S., but one parallel stands out: the era of the so-called yellow press, which got its name from a cartoon strip published in papers featuring a child in a yellow shirt.

“It was a moment before professional news values had really set in, before there were professional codes of ethics,” says Lucas Graves, distinguished researcher at Universidad Carlos III de Madrid and a professor in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. The biggest newspapers, like the New York World and New York Journal, would run serious, reported news stories. But they “would also run stories to try to generate outrage and almost invent scandals in order to sell more newspapers,” Graves says.