Grants help researchers promote Wisconsin idea, UW Dairy Research Program Manager says.
UW rises to sixth in national research expenditures, topping $1.7 billion
Badger Herald
Category: Research
Do pulsed microwaves cause brain injuries? UW-Madison researchers work to find out
Wisconsin Public Radio
Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison are launching the first comprehensive study into how pulsed microwaves might cause traumatic brain injuries.
Scientists confront a mystery: Why have U.S. bird flu cases been so mild?
STAT
The viruses circulating in cows could be less virulent than other versions of the virus, said Yoshihiro Kawaoka, a flu virologist cross-appointed to the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the University of Tokyo. But it’s impossible to prove that, given the animal studies don’t reflect it, he said.
Supplementing income off the farm, Social media warning labels, Powwow music
Wisconsin Public Radio
We learn how workers in Wisconsin are looking to bolster family farm income via employment in surrounding communities. Then a pediatrics professor shares research on social media and youth. And two members from the Wisconsin band Bizhiki discuss their new album of Indigenous music.
Breakthroughs in bioplastics may be coming
Wisconsin Public Radio
Despite recycling efforts, plastic accounts for 20% of the material in Wisconsin landfills and does not breakdown. But what if more of our plastic was biodegradable? Working on that is Erica Majumder, an assistant professor of bacteriology at UW-Madison, who joins us.
UW researchers hope to identify how the body processes different types of meth
Wisconsin Public Radio
Methamphetamine is typically associated with recreational drug use. But Heather Barkholtz, assistant professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Pharmacy, said the drug also has a place in medicine.
Paul Smith: Following Aldo Leopold’s teachings, a deer hunt on his old farm
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
A question sometimes is raised in the conservation community to help guide decisions: What would Aldo do?
The reference is to Aldo Leopold, former University of Wisconsin professor, pioneer in the field of wildlife management and author of “A Sand County Almanac,” the widely acclaimed collection of essays and inspiration for a “land ethic.”
UW-Madison ranks sixth nationally for research
WISC — CBS Channel 3
The University of Wisconsin-Madison now ranks sixth nationally for research ranking, according to the National Science Foundation’s annual rankings. Since 2018, it has ranked 8th out of 920 public and private universities.
New UW-Madison study tests how a federally legal form of THC could impact drivers
WMTV - Channel 15
A pilot study at UW-Madison is set to test how THC variants could affect drivers. Researchers decided to use the UW-Madison driving simulator to discover how Delta-8 THC and Delta-9 THC can impair the brain. Researcher and Assistant Professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences Heather Barkholtz said that the idea for the study came from the rising popularity of Delta-8 THC.
UW mechanical engineer launches study of the brain and the “Havana Syndrome”
WORT FM
A team of University of Wisconsin researchers, led by Professor Christian Franck, have obtained a grant to investigate how pulsed microwave beams might affect the brain. Christian Franck is the Bjorn Borgen Professor and H.I. Romnes Faculty Fellow at the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and the director of the UW PANTHER lab, which studies brain trauma.
UW-Madison ranks sixth in national research rankings, rising for the first time since 2016
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
The University of Wisconsin-Madison rose in national rankings on federal research activity after slipping for nearly a decade.
The government wants to develop this battery type
Autoweek
LENS will collaborate with eight universities, including Virginia Tech, University of Wisconsin–Madison, University of Maryland, University of Rhode Island, and a few others.
Western Wisconsin summit aims to reframe, humanize immigration
Wisconsin State Journal
An estimated 70% of the workforce on Wisconsin dairy farms is made up of undocumented immigrant workers, according to a UW-Madison study.
New Report Reveals Wisconsin Dairy Industry Up 16%, Contributing $52.8 Billion to State’s Economy
Hoard's Dairyman
The overall economic impact of Wisconsin’s dairy industry is bigger than ever, and dairy remains the leading sector of Wisconsin agriculture. This newly released data is from the Contribution of Agriculture to the Wisconsin Economy: An Update for 2022, conducted by the University of Wisconsin-Madison Department of Agriculture and Applied Economics.
Wisconsin research team exploring ways to make cheese curds stay squeaky longer
Wisconsin State Farmer
John A. Lucey, professor of food science at UW-Madison and the director of the Center for Dairy Research, reported that national sales numbers for natural cheese curds have steadily increased to around $52 million in 2021. However, fresh cheese curds are still predominantly purchased in the Midwest.
UW-Madison’s record-breaking research spending fuels rise in national ranking
Wisconsin State Journal
The university announced the ranking change Monday alongside an announcement that it had spent a record-breaking $1.7 billion on research for fiscal year 2023, a 13.7% increase over the prior year. UW-Madison’s growth outpaced the national increase of 11.2% spent on university research and development, bringing the national amount spent to $108.8 billion.
PFAS cleanup idea for Dane County airport advances despite criticism
The Capital Times
High levels of PFAS have, as a result, plagued Lake Monona, with a University of Wisconsin-Madison study finding the lake’s foam had the highest concentration of PFAS in the state.
What is raw milk? And why is everyone talking about it?
bon appétit
“The people that struggle with milk can drink raw milk,” she says. Her claim isn’t in line with a study by John Lucey, a professor of food science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, which found “no obvious reason why raw milk could assist with lactose intolerance.”
UW-Madison study will inject people with meth to answer a decades-old question
Wisconsin State Journal
But a pair of researchers at UW-Madison hope to close that decades-old knowledge gap through a study in which they’ll inject 17 people with small doses of both kinds of methamphetamine to see how the “D” isomer present in illicit meth metabolizes in the body and whether that changes when the “L” isomer, the kind in nasal sprays, is present.
Raison lab studying effects of psilocybin
Badger Herald
The lab is seeking participants to study the effects of psychedelics on the conscious mind.
String theory is not dead
Knowable Magazine
“Many of the unsolved problems in particle physics and cosmology are deeply intertwined,” write physicists Fernando Marchesano, Gary Shiu and Timo Weigand in the 2024 Annual Review of Nuclear and Particle Science. String theory may provide the path to solving those problems.
Nanoink and printing technologies could enable electronics repairs, production in space
Phys.org
The flight path to these experiments began when a research team led by Iowa State’s Shan Jiang, an associate professor of materials science and engineering, and Hantang Qin, formerly of Iowa State who’s now an assistant professor of industrial and systems engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, wondered if their ink and printer technologies would work in the zero gravity of space.
Has Supreme Court candidate Susan Crawford opposed Wisconsin’s voter ID law?
Wisconsin Watch
A University of Wisconsin-Madison study estimated the law prevented 4,000-11,000 Milwaukee and Dane county residents from voting in the 2016 presidential election.
Do abortion policy changes affect young women’s mental health?
Medical Express
“The survey data shows just how strongly people feel about abortion policies,” said corresponding author J. Michael Collins, Ph.D., of the University of Wisconsin–Madison.
Planet 10 times the size of Earth is one of the youngest ever found
New Scientist
“We try to extrapolate from these other worlds how quickly planet formation might have taken hold in the early solar system,” says Melinda Soares-Furtado at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
UW-Madison genetic scientists sound alarm on AI overreliance, say there are persistent flaws in data
Daily Cardinal
Researchers in the Genetics-Biotechnology Center at UW-Madison published a study in September, raising concerns over issues found in AI-assisted genome-wide association studies and offer new statistical methods for improvement.
All life on Earth today descended from a single cell. Meet LUCA.
Quanta Magazine
“We tend to think that early life is somehow simpler, less sophisticated … but I don’t think there’s any reason to think that,” said Betül Kaçar, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Wisconsin, Madison who wasn’t involved in the research. “A complex ecosystem, to me, sounds more realistic.”
Report finds Wisconsin agriculture revenue on the rise, up nearly 11 percent from 2017
Wisconsin Public Radio
An economic analysis shows Wisconsin’s agriculture industry is pulling in more revenue in recent years but employing fewer people.
The report, titled “The Contributions of Agriculture to the Wisconsin Economy,” is published every five years. The newest survey found the industry earned $116.3 billion in revenue in 2022, the latest data available. That is a 10.9 percent increase from 2017. However, the numbers are nuanced, Steve Deller and Jeff Hadachek, co-authors of the report out of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said on WPR’s “Wisconsin Today.”
What Musk and Rogan got very wrong about climate change and meat
Sentient Media
In fact, there are many ways to measure emissions from meat production. The University of Wisconsin-Madison has outlined several methods, including the use of respiration chambers, which capture the gasses animals release during breathing, and the SF6 technique, a more advanced method where a tracer gas is used to measure methane emissions directly from livestock.
What happens under water in winter?
Popular Science
When it comes to determining the role that lakes play in global carbon cycling, those estimates are often drawn from summer data. Just using that small subset of data creates errors in estimates of atmospheric interactions and other downstream effects, said Hilary Dugan, an associate professor at the University of Wisconsin Department of Limnology.
Germany: Bavarian pterosaur fossil gives evolutionary clues
DW
Co-author Adam Fitch of the University of Wisconsin at Madison said the “Skiphosoura represents an important new way to study the evolutionary relationships between pterosaurs and how this lineage evolved and changed.”
For decades, installing E.V. chargers didn’t pay off for retailers. Now it does.
The New York Times
Now, new studies say retailers’ charging efforts may well be paying off: One peer-reviewed study by researchers at Boston University and the University of Wisconsin-Madison published this year looked at the impact of nearly 1,600 Tesla Supercharger stations in more than 800 U.S. counties and found a 4 percent increase in monthly visits for retailers within 200 meters of chargers after they were installed. The effects were most pronounced for retailers within 150 meters. The researchers also found a 5 percent increase in spending.
“We need to get better at understanding how cannabis itself impairs people”: UW Madison researchers study effects of driving while high
WISC — CBS Channel 3
UW-Madison researchers are studying the effects of Delta 8 and Delta 9 on driving performance, with the help of the University’s driving simulator. Delta 8 and 9 are hemp derived products that can produce a high feeling.
AI-Assisted Genome Studies Are Riddled with Errors
The Scientist
Despite these advancements, GWAS studies have their limitations, which scientists have tried to address with the help of artificial intelligence (AI). However, in two studies published in Nature Genetics, researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison identified pervasive biases these new approaches can introduce when working with large but incomplete datasets.2,3
Teenager infected with H5N1 bird flu in critical condition
Los Angeles Times
Nuzzo also pointed to a recent study published in Nature, led by Yoshihiro Kawaoka, an H5N1 expert at the University of Wisconsin, in Madison, that showed the virus that infected the first reported dairy worker in Texas had acquired mutations that made it more severe in animals as well as allowing it to move more efficiently between them — via airborne respiration.
Is It Time to Worry About Bird Flu?
TIME
That’s not to say respiratory spread is impossible, though. Two recent studies in ferrets—one by researchers at the CDC, and one led by a researcher from the University of Wisconsin-Madison—raised that possibility. The researchers isolated the bird flu strain that sickened the first person infected in the current outbreak and tested how infectious it was among ferrets. Although it wasn’t as contagious as the seasonal flu, the bird flu virus was capable of spreading among ferrets by droplets, the researchers found.
Wisconsin scientists study driving and THC impairment
Wisconsin Public Radio
Researchers at the University of Wisconsin–Madison are gearing up to administer set levels of delta-8 and delta-9 THC to people in a pilot study, and place them in a driving simulator.
Study committee considers draft legislation to hunt sandhill cranes, aid corn growers
Wisconsin Public Radio
In Wisconsin, only 17 percent of 2,769 people surveyed last December support a hunting season on sandhill cranes. That’s according to a study led by researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and funded by the International Crane Foundation. The organization has said crop damage by cranes should be solved by other means, saying a hunt wouldn’t have any significant benefit for farmers.
Framing the climate crisis around health: Wisconsin professor wants a narrative shift
Wisconsin Public Radio
After years of studying the deleterious effects of climate change on human health, a Wisconsin professor has come to view his work as less about devastation and more about hope.
“The health benefits of a low-carbon economy are so enormous.” Dr. Jonathan Patz recently told WPR’s “Wisconsin Today.”
Election results show how Wisconsin’s urban-rural divide continues to deepen
Wisconsin Public Radio
Katherine Cramer’s influential book “The Politics of Resentment” was published in March 2016 — just eight months before Donald Trump won the presidential election for the first time and ushered in a new era of American politics.
The book got national attention for the way it homed in on the urban-rural divide. Cramer, a political science professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, based the book on years of having conversations with people across the state in cafes, pool halls and other community spaces.
Wisconsin could lose out under Trump term targeting climate, clean energy policies
Wisconsin Public Radio
Efforts to combat climate change and shift to renewable energy have accelerated under policies and regulations put in place by President Joe Biden’s administration. Even so, it hasn’t been enough to reach net-zero emissions by 2050, according to Greg Nemet, energy expert and public affairs professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “We’re on track, but we need to really start pushing harder to get the adoption of electric vehicles, solar panels, wind power, heat pumps and all those things at a faster rate,” Nemet said. “I think what we’re looking at now is probably almost definitely slowing down.”
Morgan Edwards, assistant professor of public affairs at UW-Madison, said the slowing of emissions reductions may not be immediately evident in Wisconsin as much as they will in the long run. “We’re locking in long-term climate impacts that we’re going to see for decades to come,” Edwards said. “That’s things like more extreme weather events, warmer winters, more irregular farming seasons, which is a big deal across the country, but (also) in this state where we have a lot of agriculture.”
Why America Still Doesn’t Have a Female President
The Atlantic
But some people are biased against female presidential candidates. In 2017, a study found that about 13 percent of Americans were “angry or upset” about the idea of a woman serving as president. In an experiment that same year using hypothetical political candidates, Yoshikuni Ono and Barry Burden, political scientists at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, found that voters punish female candidates running for president by 2.4 percentage points. This means that a hypothetical female candidate would get, say, 47 percent of the vote, rather than 49.4 percent if she were a man.
How To Manage Your Emotions On Election Day
Forbes
As you spend time with people close to you, don’t be afraid to lean on them for social support. Research shows that you can literally outsource your negative emotions to those you’re closest to, minimizing their impact. In a groundbreaking study at the University of Wisconsin, researchers put people in MRI machines and threatened to shock them at random. There were three groups of participants: People who were alone. People who held the hand of a stranger. People who held the hand of a loved one.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.
Wisconsin farmers fault Trump on vow to deport immigrants, but some don’t believe he’d do it
Wisconsin State Journal
A 2023 UW-Madison survey of Wisconsin dairy farmers found that nearly 40% of farms have at least one foreign employee; other studies have estimated that immigrants account for up to 90% of the labor force in the dairy industry.
Bats may be a scary Halloween symbol, but they benefit humans, and save farmers money
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
In 2018, a study out of UW-Madison that analyzed bat poop found that little brown bats in Wisconsin were eating 17 different types of mosquitoes, including nine that carry West Nile virus. The same study found the DNA of 24 different agricultural pests in the poop — lending validity to the estimate that bats save Wisconsin farmers hundreds of millions of dollars per year on pesticides.
New images of RSV may hold key to unlocking new treatments
Daily Cardinal
A research team at the University of Wisconsin-Madison produced high-resolution images of RSV structure, important for RSV treatment options and vaccine development.
Research suggests women farmers may improve local economies
Wisconsin Public Radio
New research has found that communities with more women-owned or -operated farms have higher rates of business creation, lower poverty rates and a longer average life expectancy.
University of Wisconsin-Madison professor Steven Deller is a co-author of the research first published in January. Deller and colleagues argue that the reduction in rural poverty is particularly important.
Researcher highlights changing landscape of global warming
Badger Herald
NOAA Climate, Global Change Postdoctoral Fellow presents how warming factors change in the Arctic, North Atlantic, their global impacts.
UW-Madison’s AI research gets $15 million boost from WARF
Wisconsin State Journal
The Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation will give nearly $160 million to UW-Madison in grants to support research, with $15 million specifically aimed at further developing the university’s artificial intelligence enterprise.
Invest in solar and honor pioneering UW scientist, Farrington Daniels | Steve Kokette
Wisconsin State Journal
In the late 1800s and early 1900s, UW-Madison was an international leader in the first renewable energy to produce electricity for the public — hydropower. During some of those years, the Wisconsin River was known as the hardest working river in the world because it produced so much electricity.
Why are there so many ladybugs and lady beetles around Wisconsin this fall?
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Wisconsin sees dozens of species of small beetles this time of year, including ladybugs, but one is particularly prevalent: the multicolored Asian lady beetle, according to P.J. Liesch, director of the UW-Madison Insect Diagnostic Lab.
“The [Asian lady beetles] are the ones that folks are really seeing a lot of at the moment,” Liesch said. “Those particularly beetles are very active, flying around and coming to structures because they’re looking for sheltered wintering spots.”
AI is transforming weather forecasting. Is the U.S. falling behind?
The Washington Post
Another AI model, developed by NOAA and the University of Wisconsin, has shown skill in predicting the rapid intensification of hurricanes, an area where global AI models have struggled.
California’s oil czar isn’t sweating this refinery closure
POLITICO
The letter says the change has the potential to reduce prices at the pump without harming the environment. There’s room for debate on both fronts. Newsom’s letter cites a UC Riverside study that found E15 wouldn’t increase nitrous oxide emissions, but a 2022 University of Wisconsin-Madison study found that the blend increases upstream emissions.
UW-Madison study shows gaps in care for Hmong nursing home residents
Channel 3000
Wisconsin is home to the third largest population of Hmong Americans in the United States. But a new case study from the University of Wisconsin-Madison shows for the aging members of this community, there’s a gap in their quality of life in nursing homes.
“This work is also personal, right?” And for medical anthropologist Mai See Thao, the study conducted with researchers at the University of Minnesota and the University of Iowa was work that felt nostalgic—and not in a good way.
“Growing up in Wisconsin, my grandmother and my aunt went through the nursing home experience,” Thao, who is ethnically Hmong, said. “My aunt was actually doing very poorly because she was restricted to eating only the nursing home food. And so she was starving a lot of the time as well as my grandmother.”
Save 25 times your expected retirement spending, and other advice from a pro
Barron's
Research from the University of Wisconsin showed that the spoils of working longer have accrued to those who need it the least. If you are healthier and wealthier, you are more likely to keep working.
When dementia changes a loved one’s personality
The New York Times
To get on top of — and feel less toppled by — mood changes, it’s helpful for caregivers to remember that those shifts are caused by changes in the brain, said Dr. Nathaniel Chin, a geriatrician and associate professor in the department of medicine at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
“They’re no one’s fault,” he said, and recognizing this can help you “feel less upset at your loved one.”
Limits on non-citizen voting: What to know about Wisconsin’s Nov. 5 referendum
Wisconsin Public Radio
Even if local officials in Wisconsin wanted to let non-citizens vote on local races or proposals, it’s not clear whether current state law would allow that change, according to analysis from the State Democracy Research Initiative at the University of Wisconsin Law School.
“Courts in other states have reached divergent conclusions about whether provisions akin to Wisconsin’s current constitutional text allow municipalities to authorize local noncitizen voting,” the analysis noted.
Citizens-only ballot measures make newly naturalized Americans voting for the first time feel on edge
NBC News
A review from the nonpartisan State Democracy Research Initiative at the University of Wisconsin Law School concluded that the Wisconsin ballot measure “will not have any immediate practical impact on voter eligibility,” since existing law already prohibits noncitizen voting in federal and state elections.
What experts say about taking psilocybin as an alternative treatment for depression
CNN
For a good number of people antidepressants have been a blessing, at least at the beginning of treatment, said Dr. Charles Raison, a professor of psychiatry and human ecology at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health in Madison.
“I always start by saying, ‘Thank God, we have them.’ Many people can say, ‘Wow, I was pulled out of a pretty deep hole,’“ said Raison, who is also the director of the Vail Health Behavioral Health Innovation Center in Colorado where psilocybin is studied.
If you’re biting your nails over the election, use these expert tips to reduce stress
CNN
“We are in a generally heightened state of stress caused by events around the world,” said neuroscientist Dr. Richard Davidson, founder and director of the nonprofit Center for Healthy Minds at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where research on Tibetan Buddhist practitioners found that meditation literally changed their brains.