Skip to main content

Author: Kelly Tyrrell

The biggest science stories of 2018: From the edge of the solar system to crises on Earth – The Washington Post

Posted on
Washington Post

It was the year we left the heliosphere for the second time ever, and the year we got closer to the sun than ever. A year of biomedical breakthroughs and deadly disease outbreaks. It was a year in which humanity broke some crucial climate records (and not in a good way). IceCube is among the year’s top science stories, though Washington Post does not mention UW–Madison.

What We Learned in 2018: Science

Posted on
New York Times

One team of scientists visualized the threat communication systems within plants that help them fight back when under attack. Others presented the tantalizing suggestion of plant consciousness using anesthetic gas. And in rain forests, some plants’ fruits seem to send careful messages to specific animals, in order to spread their seeds.

Neutrino discovery launched a new type of astronomy

Posted on
Science News

Before scientists are fully confident that blazars can blast out high-energy neutrinos, researchers need to spot more of the wily particles, Murase says. To improve detection, an upgrade to IceCube will make the detector 10 times bigger in volume and should be ready by the mid-2020s, says Francis Halzen, leader of IceCube and an astrophysicist at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. If all goes well, the tiny particles may soon be revealing secrets from new corners of the cosmos.

Colleges Grapple With How To Help Rural Students On Campus

Posted on
National Public Radio

Many colleges and universities were caught by surprise when frustration among rural Americans spilled over into national politics during the 2016 election. That, in addition to steady declines in enrollment, has pushed some schools to pay more attention to rural students — and to recognize that these students need at least as much help navigating the college experience as low-income, first-generation racial and ethnic minorities from inner cities.

Exclusive: Controversial skeleton may be a new species of early human | New Scientist

Posted on
New Scientist

More than twenty years after it was first discovered, an analysis of a remarkable skeleton discovered in South Africa has finally been published – and the specimen suggests we may need to add a new species to the family tree of early human ancestors. According to a study led by Travis Pickering of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Little Foot had an arm injury. He suspects she fell onto an outstretched hand during her youth, and that the resulting injury troubled her throughout her life.

Welcome to the Eocene, where ice sheets turn into swamps

Posted on
Grist

Our current rate of warming will quickly lead us back to a climate that predates the evolution of modern humans, according to a new study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. That kind of rapid change has no direct comparison in all of Earth’s multi-billion year history.“The only thing that comes to mind is a meteorite impact,” says co-author Jack Williams, a paleoecologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Humans May Reverse a 50 Million Year Climate Trend After Just Two Centuries – Motherboard

Posted on
Vice

If the world’s greenhouse gas emissions are left unchecked, the Earth’s climate will be similar to how it was 50 million years ago by 2150. This period, known as the Eocene, was characterized by an ice-free Earth and an arid climate across most of the planet. This is the conclusion of new research published by UW–Madison researchers in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that used leading climate models and archaeological data to compare Earth’s future with its past.

Identity of Little Foot fossil stirs controversy

Posted on
Science

Clarke says Little Foot’s features most closely match A. prometheus, a species proposed in 1948 by anthropologist Raymond Dart. Yet the designation drew swift condemnation from paleoanthropologists Lee Berger, also at the University of the Witwatersrand, and John Hawks at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. In a paper slated to be published this week in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology, the pair argues that the name A. prometheus was originally poorly defined and shouldn’t be used to classify the remains.

UW study: Climates soon to resemble Earth’s long-distant past | Local | lacrossetribune.com

Posted on
LaCrosse Tribune

At the rate we’re emitting carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, we could turn the geologic clock back 50 million years over the course of a mere 200 years, according to a study from researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison published Monday in the Proceeding of the National Academy of Sciences.

UW-Madison climate study: Greenhouse gas levels high, warming likely

Posted on
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Levels of heat-trapping greenhouse gases have surpassed those from any point in human history and by 2030 are likely to resemble levels from 3 million years ago when sea levels were more than 60 feet higher than today and the Arctic was forested and largely ice-free, according to a new paper by researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

The World’s First Space Telescope – Scientific American Blog Network

Posted on
Scientific American

In July 1958, an astronomer at the University of Wisconsin–Madison named Arthur “Art” Code received a telegram from the fledgling Space Science Board of the National Academy of Sciences. The agency wanted to know what he and his colleagues would do if given the opportunity to launch into Earth’s orbit an instrument weighing up to 100 pounds. Code, newly-minted director of the University’s Washburn Observatory, had something in mind. Fifty years ago, on December 7, 1968, that idea culminated in NASA’s launch of the first successful space-based observatory: the Orbiting Astronomical Observatory, or OAO-2.

Regents review UW-Stevens Point plan

Posted on
WSAU - Wausau

The UW Board of Regents got an update on a plan that would cut some majors at UW-Stevens Point as the school wrestles with an $8-million budget shortfall. UWSP Chancellor Bernie Patterson and Provost Greg Summers met with the Regents’ Education Committee on Thursday in La Crosse.

Public Invited to Next Dairy Task Force 2.0 Meeting

Posted on
WI Ag Connection

Leaders of the newly created Wisconsin Dairy Task Force 2.0 are opening the doors of their next meeting to the public to hear their ideas on improving the state’s dairy industry. Chairman Dr. Mark Stephenson, who is a dairy policy expert with the University of Wisconsin-Madison, says the group will meet December 13 at UW-Oshkosh at 10:00 a.m.

Ag women mentor industry future

Posted on
Agri-View

While at student at UW-Madison, Meyer also was a member of the Association of Women in Agriculture. “In addition to the professional contacts I’ve made through my Association of Women in Agriculture sisters, some of my most treasured friendships have their root in the organization,” she said.

Fewer acres, lower-cost crops, retirement, getting out? What’s a farmer to do?

Posted on
WI State Farmer

As farmers hustle to finish the harvest, there is no sign of a letup in the long-term slump in commodity prices that are now being fed by trade and tariff tensions. The result is “almost a perfect storm,” says Mark Hagedorn, a UW-Madison Division of Extension dairy/animal science agriculture educator in Eau Claire County.

Craft cider makes comeback

Posted on
Ag Update

To propagate artisanal cider trees, a producer often needs to graft. That’s exactly what 50 people opted to do on a Saturday afternoon this past spring as participants in the inaugural Hard Cider Apple Grafting Workshop hosted by the University of Wisconsin–Madison Center for Integrated Agricultural Systems.

School applications available

Posted on
Ag Update

The Wisconsin School for Beginning Market Growers will be held Jan. 11-13, 2019, on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus in Madison, Wisconsin. The school serves new and beginning farmers, and emphasizes organic-production methods and direct marketing.

UW-Madison marching band director nears end of career

Posted on
GM Today

Nostalgia has laced much of Leckrone’s last football season: In the back of his mind and in his assistants’ and students’ minds is a ticking clock, counting down the days, the rehearsals, the games he has left.
“Every event, someone will say, ‘This is the last time you’re going to do that,'” Leckrone said.

Dixon leaving lasting legacy

Posted on
Chippewa Herald

His influence off the field reaches much further. Dixon earned a spot as one of 13 finalists for the William V. Campbell Trophy, which annually recognizes the best football scholar-athlete in the nation—partly for his community activities that include mentoring youth at a correctional center, developing a program for student-athletes aimed at reducing the stigma of seeking mental health services and speaking to community and youth groups. Dixon was also nominated to the 2018 American Football Coaches Association Good Works team.

Foxconn to buy Wisconsin ginseng

Posted on
Agri-View

The partnership also will provide an opportunity for the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the UW-Carbone Cancer Center to engage in research surrounding the health benefits of ginseng, according to Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker.

Allan Bringe

Posted on
La Crosse Tribune

He was appointed to the Dairy Science faculty at UW-Madison in 1959. . . . Under Allan’s leadership, Wisconsin became the leader in development of the somatic cell testing program in cooperation with DHIA.

Spooner teaching garden wins award

Posted on
Eau Claire Leader Telegram

The garden, which is a joint effort among the Spooner Agricultural Research Station, the Spooner Area UW-Extension Office and UW-Extension North Country Master Gardener Volunteers, completed against entrants in its category from across the U.S. and in Canada.

Special Report: Secrets of the Lottery

Posted on
Ch. 58 - Milwaukee

Quoted: “You’re more likely to have a higher payout if you pick bigger numbers, and this is because when people choose numbers, they tend to choose numbers based on birthdays. So, the numbers 1-12 are chosen most frequently. And the numbers 1-30 are also chosen a lot,” said Laura Albert, the Assistant Dean in the College of Engineering.

Agricultural educator serves counties

Posted on
Ag Update

The University of Wisconsin-Extension in Barron and Polk counties has hired Becky Schley as a new agricultural educator. She will serve the two northwestern Wisconsin counties from a main office in Barron, Wisconsin.

Feature: One Hundred Years Since the End of ‘The Great War’

Posted on
Door County Pulse

Widder, a graduate of UW-Madison who served in the Army Reserves, continues to practice law at his firm in Madison. Beginning with Reynolds, who graduated in 1915, Widder was the third generation to attend the university after both of his parents attended. His daughter became the fourth.

“Education in the family was a given,” Widder said. “It began with Ed.”

What set the stage for August mosquito invasion

Posted on
WI Farmer

During this time, a series of storms dropped heavy rains across large swaths of Wisconsin and surrounding states. Much of southern and central Wisconsin received several inches of rain, and some counties were inundated with 10-plus inches of rain in short periods of time. Devastating flooding ensued, and it was only a matter of time before the mosquitoes responded as well.