Skip to main content

Author: knutson4

AT&T to discontinue traditional landline service in Wisconsin by the end of 2029

Wisconsin Public Radio

“I’ve watched the markets grow from just plain phone service to hybrid computers that are in our phones, so-called smartphones through which life is now lived,” said Barry Orton, a retired telecommunications professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

“Old fashioned copper wire-based phones, which we all used to have in the ’50s, ’60s, ’70s, ’80s and ’90s are now a thing of the past,” he added

Looking back at 2024 in higher ed

Inside Higher Ed

Meanwhile, colleges faced intensifying financial pressures, cutting programs and staff to stay afloat. Throughout much of the year, a fired University of Wisconsin chancellor fought to keep his job in what became a closely watched test of academic freedom. The presidential election and the implications for higher education as well as a growing conservative backlash against diversity, equity and inclusion programs loomed over the year.

The vagus nerve’s mysterious role in mental health untangled

Scientific American

Scientists, including Charles Raison of the University of Wisconsin–Madison and Andrew Miller of Emory University, have meanwhile identified mechanisms by which inflammation can cause depression. Inflammatory cytokines circulating in the blood can weaken or even breach the protective barrier between blood vessels and the brain. Once inside the brain, they trigger its immune cells, called microglia, to produce further inflammatory agents.

Partisan approach to farm bill delaying updates for Wisconsin farmers

Wisconsin Public Radio

Paul Mitchell, professor of agricultural and applied economics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said it’s fairly rare to see Congress have to pass a second extension to the farm bill. But he said the lack of cooperation between the parties has made it more difficult to reach the consensus needed to pass the large piece of legislation.

“Just like we walk up to the edge on these continuing resolutions to keep the (federal) budget going, the same thing is happening with the farm bill,” Mitchell said.

Anti-slavery movement charts its path forward

Politico

For his part, after helping to pass Colorado’s Amendment A, Allen decided to enroll in law school. He’s now in his final year at the University of Wisconsin Madison.

“Part of my reason for coming here was to answer some of the legal questions we had about our campaign,” he said. “In hindsight, I see how misinformed people are … One of the things we made very clear in the 2018 campaign is that our biggest opposition is a lack of clarity.”

San Diegans can drink their tap water. Many pay more at the vending machine anyway.

Voice of San Diego

“These are folks who can ill afford to spend that kind of money on what is really not a necessary thing,” said Manny Teodoro, a researcher at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who studied the water vending machine industry in a 2022 book, “The Profits of Distrust.” “Money spent on (vended) water is money that’s not spent on healthier food, on perhaps needed medicine and healthcare.”

This year’s FAFSA is open, and early reviews are positive

Wisconsin Public Radio

Delays and errors in the federal financial aid process created anxiety and headaches last year for high school seniors, their parents and colleges. But experts say this year’s rollout of the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA, has improved in several ways.

The U.S. Department of Education released the official application on Nov. 21, after seven weeks of beta testing.

As the Christmas Bird Count turns 125, a beloved birding tradition looks to the future

Audubon Magazine

With more people than ever taking part, the annual Audubon event is a growing force for science and nature conservation.

This trove of information has helped usher in entire new areas of research, like climate change ecology, says Benjamin Zuckerberg, a researcher at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. His work in the field utilizes large community science datasets to explore how birds, including common winter denizens such as Red-bellied Woodpeckers, Purple Finches, and Carolina Wrens, are shifting their movements in response to changes in temperatures. The data enable scientists to find answers to questions at an “unprecedented” level, Zuckerberg says.

Road to a top college: Majors to consider for future success

New York Post

We are living in a social media world. Such platforms are our go-to, real-time sources for both breaking news and product/service marketing, and much in-between.

It follows, then, that schools for wannabe social media magnates and journalism majors are a magnet. Top candidates include American University, Arizona State University, Boston University, New York University, Syracuse University and University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Would the UW System’s $855 million budget request bring Wisconsin closer to the national average?

PolitiFact

UW System President Jay Rothman defended his agency’s $855 million budget request by saying it “gets (Wisconsin) up to average” and steps up from its low ranking. Rothman is correct that Wisconsin ranks 43rd in the country when it comes to funding public, four-year universities.

Rothman’s math also adds up. Subtracting Wisconsin’s revenue per student from the national average, then multiplying it by the total number of students in the system, does total $457 million.

We rate Rothman’s claim True.

Raw milk has documented health risks, but if Kennedy leads HHS, its backers expect a boost

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

McAfee’s products have been linked to several outbreaks of E. coli, salmonella and campylobacter, according to the University of Wisconsin Center for Dairy Research. Even with on-farm testing, raw milk isn’t safe for public consumption, said Alex O’Brien, safety and quality coordinator at the Center, which is on the UW-Madison campus.

“The more people who consume it,” he said, “the higher the probability someone’s going to become ill.”

Hold up—does cheese have protein? And what kinds pack the most?

SELF

“Cheesemaking is a process of concentrating the solids originally present in milk,” Ben Ullerup Mathers, a research cheesemaker at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Center for Dairy Research, tells SELF. “Since protein is one of the main constituents of milk solids, the further you concentrate those solids, the more protein is in the final cheese. Since hard cheeses are the lowest-moisture cheeses, they will also be the higher-protein cheeses.”

The breath of colonialism continues to taint the air in Uganda

Eos

In the parts of the city inhabited by Africans during the period of segregation, levels of fine particulates known as PM2.5 are high enough to reduce life expectancy more than tobacco use or HIV infection, said the study’s lead author, air quality scientist Dorothy Lsoto of the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

“When you look at the air quality in these different places, it’s striking,” Lsoto said.

The research that aims to cheese

The Chronicle of Higher Education

On a recent Tuesday at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, sample number 435 lies supine on a lab table where it surrenders to a gauntlet of measurements.

Brandon Prochaska slides a thermometer into the pizza’s abdomen, and the digits tick upward to 205 degrees Fahrenheit. He and a group of other trained professionals jot the number down.

Nobel laureates vs. RFK Jr.? Have those nerds even tasted roadkill bear meat?

USA Today

On the flip side, John Lucey, a professor of food science and the director of the Center for Dairy Research at University of Wisconsin-Madison, told The Washington Post that drinking raw milk is “a really stupid, bad idea,” adding: “It’s almost like a doctor shouldn’t wash their hands before they go into an operating room.”

Social intelligence: The other kind of smart

Forbes

In 2013, researchers at University of Wisconsin put people in MRI machines and threatened to shock them at random. The researchers measured fear activity in each person’s brain. And they found something incredible in the third group. Participants’ brains were much less active. They could literally outsource their fear to their loved ones.

More colleges offering free tuition to middle-class families

The Washington Post

In October, the University of Massachusetts said tuition and fees would be fully covered for instate undergraduates whose families earn less than $75,000 at all four of its campuses, while the University of Wisconsin made a similar announcement in August for students whose families earn less than $55,000. Last month, the University of Texas System announced it would waive tuition at all nine campuses for Texas residents making under $100,000 starting this fall.

Empty nesters own some prime real estate. And they don’t seem very interested in leaving it.

MarketPlace

“Homeowners are aging in place,” said Mark Eppli, director of the James A. Graaskamp Center for Real Estate at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

That’s partly because most of them have mortgages at under 4%, but is also just a personal preference. “They get comfortable with the church they’re going to, with the drugstore they go to, the grocery store, to the bar, whatever it may be,” Eppli said.

Wisconsin pediatrician helps author new early childhood literacy guidelines

Wisconsin Public Radio

For the first time in a decade, the American Academy of Pediatrics released updated recommendations on how pediatricians and caregivers can encourage early childhood literacy, with a Wisconsin doctor working on the effort.

Dr. Dipesh Navsaria, professor of pediatrics and human development and family studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, helped write the new literacy promotion policy statement and accompanying technical report. He told WPR’s “Wisconsin Today” what parents and healthcare professionals should know.

US fourth and eighth graders fall further behind in math

Wisconsin Public Radio

Steffen Lempp, a math professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, says over the last decade, the School of Education has changed how prospective K-8 teachers are taught math content to fully prepare them to teach children in the subject.

The UW-Madison math department used to teach these math content courses. Those courses are now taught by the School of Education, in classes that blend content and pedagogy in one.

Can raw milk make you sick? Officials crack down amid bird flu fears.

USA Today

Raw milk supporters say it contains more enzymes, probiotics (or the “good bacteria”), proteins and vitamins than pasteurized milk. They also say it helps prevent chronic health issues such as asthma and allergies, as well as ear and respiratory infections and fever, citing studies of European children living on farms. There’s little scientific evidence to support these claims, said John Lucey, director of the University of Wisconsin’s Center for Dairy Research and a food science professor.

“The short answer is no, there are no proven benefits,” he told USA TODAY. “You are being conned with these claims,” he said. “This is snake oil.”

Her son shot himself by accident with her gun. Should she be charged with a felony? In Wisconsin, it depends.

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

“It seems like the responses really vary based on the person and the place where the event occurs,” said Dr. James Bigham, a clinical professor at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health who teaches medical students about how to talk to patients about firearms injury prevention.

“It doesn’t necessarily seem like we have a uniform or universal application of the law.”

Act 10 could take center stage in upcoming state Supreme Court election

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

“It tends to be the court where the big battles get fought out,” said Barry Burden, a political science professor at University of Wisconsin-Madison and director of the university’s Elections Research Center. “Without a kind of regularly functioning legislative branch and executive branch working together, the court is the venue where the hot items, big ticket items, are being decided.”

Long before this week, South Korea had a painful history with martial law

National Public Radio

The country has faced a turbulent political history that saw authoritarian rule starting from its founding after gaining independence from Japanese colonialism all the way to the 1980s, according to Charles Kim, a professor of Korean studies at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

“This is a period in which there was a lot of political suppression, repression of the media, political violence against dissidents,” Kim said.

Texas could become a major producer of another source of renewable energy

ABC News

Green hydrogen is forecast to meet global energy needs that will not be easily satisfied by battery, wind or solar power, Gregory Nemet, professor of public affairs at the University of Wisconsin’s Energy Institute, told ABC News in 2021. Batteries, for example, currently can take up a lot of space and also weigh a lot, making their use an issue for air travel and long-haul trucking. Hydrogen, by contrast, doesn’t include those challenges and also stores better long-term.

Despite state restrictions, Wisconsinites are receiving abortions via telehealth

Wisconsin Public Radio

The data comes from states with so-called “shield laws,” said Jenny Higgins, director of the Collaborative for Reproductive Equity at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. These laws give some legal protections to clinicians who offer abortion care by telehealth to people living in states with abortion bans or telehealth restrictions, she said.