Author: jnweaver

Bring up the subject of pacifiers among new parents, and you?ll probably spark a spirited conversation that will wake up every sleeping baby within a block or so. Now, a UW-Madison study is likely to fuel even more debate about the trusty old nuk. Or nuki. Or binky. Or na-na. Or whatever you have chosen to call the device that serves as a remarkably effective volume control for most babies. Paula Niedenthal, a psychology professor and lead author of the study, found that boys who used pacifiers as babies scored lower on tests that measured their emotional development.

She helped discover the “God particle” and she?s going to talk about it this week. UW-Madison physics professor Sau Lan Wu will give a free public lecture Thursday about the two decades she spent searching for the Higgs boson particle, which scientists believe they found in July. It was hailed as one of the most important scientific discoveries in a century and had a team of UW-Madison researchers, led by Wu, playing leading roles figuring out the physics of, and building and operating, the $10 billion machine used to discover the particle.

More than a few people in politics and media have expressed frustration that many reporters instinctively seek out the same ?expert? sources when writing political stories. One of the most ubiquitous sources is Charles Franklin, a UW-Madison political science professor. For reporters on deadline, the gregarious Alabama native is a great source because he?s always happy to talk. However, for those of us who seek deep analysis of the nitty gritty of political data, few in Wisconsin are more qualified than Franklin, a nationally renowned pollster who is currently on leave from UW to conduct a public opinion poll at Marquette University Law School.

Nearly 30,000 public school teachers and support staff went on strike in Chicago this past week in a move that left some 350,000 students without classes to attend. And while this contentious battle between Chicago Public Schools and the Chicago Teachers Union blew up due to a range of issues — including compensation, health care benefits and job security concerns — one of the key sticking points reportedly was over the implementation of a new teacher evaluation system.

Quoted: Rob Meyer, director of the Value Added Research Center in the UW-Madison School of Education.

A: Treatment with ionizing radiation can be used to sterilize foods as well as sensitive materials like medical supplies and equipment. And ionizing radiation can indeed alter the nutritional content of food to some extent, said Franco X. Milani, an assistant professor of food science and extension specialist at the UW-Madison.

A: The Beaufort scale is a method of estimating wind speed based on the general condition of the surface of a large body of water with respect to wind waves and swell. This scale allows sailors to estimate the wind speed just by observing the state of the sea surface. The scale has a long history, but was finalized in 1805 by Rear Admiral Sir Francis Beaufort, an Irish hydrographer in the British Royal Navy.

Most of us spent our summers doing the standard things, from yard work to browsing farmers? markets, maybe a camping trip or two. Ask UW-Madison botanist Don Waller how he spent his summer, however, and you?ll likely feel your summer was somewhat lacking in excitement. Waller spent a good part of his summer staring down feral camels in Australia. It seems they are a problem there, much as we have problems with feral cats. Only these are camels. And there are lots of them.

One of the nation?s few extension poultry specialists for small flocks, Kean also writes the Answer Man column for Backyard Poultry magazine. Most of the problems he deals with have to do with chickens who are too fat, he says. Along with his work for the UW Extension, Kean has spent nearly two decades on the academic staff at UW-Madison, where he teaches poultry courses in breeder flock and hatchery management, plus a companion animal biology class for non-biology majors.

An animal rights group is calling on federal officials to investigate potential animal welfare violations related to the treatment and use of cats in invasive brain experiments at the University of Wisconsin-Madison….Eric Sandgren, who oversees animal research at UW-Madison as director of the university?s Research Animal Resources Center, was adamant that UW-Madison did not violate any federal regulations and says he welcomes an investigation.