Post-doctoral fellowship is revolutionizing research at UW, according to experts.
Feminist Biology Initiative introduces gender-fair research to biology
Badger Herald
Category: Research
Grass and Shrub Fires More Destructive Than Forest Fires in U.S.
New York Times
Volker Radeloff, a professor of forest ecology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, who led the new study, pointed to both the Marshall fire and the recent Lahaina fire in Hawaii as two extreme examples of the risks wildfire can pose outside of forests. Both started with burning grasses and grew into devastating urban infernos.
Wildfires Threaten More Homes and People in the U.S. Than Ever Before
Scientific American
Forest fires are well known for their ferocity. They accounted for just 33 percent of houses destroyed by wildfires in the early 2000s, however, the study authors found after analyzing the locations of homes within wildfire perimeters since the 1990s. In contrast, 64 percent of such houses were destroyed by grassland or shrubland fires. This is because even though forest fires are particularly destructive to buildings, much more of the area burned in the U.S. is made up of grasslands and shrublands, says the study’s first author Volker Radeloff, an ecologist at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. “We had a hunch,” he says, “but the actual numbers surprised us.”
UW-Madison team works to identify lost service members from Wisconsin and beyond
Wisconsin Public Radio
Every county in Wisconsin has at least one service member missing in action since Pearl Harbor. A team at the University of Wisconsin-Madison is working to identify them and others at sites around the world.
Graduate and undergraduate students, professors and others at the university make up the team working on the Missing in Action Recovering and Identification Project, or UW MIA RIP. They all volunteer their time to travel to sites around the globe to find and repatriate the remains of soldiers lost in war.
Wisconsin veterans with PTSD could seek psilocybin treatment under a bipartisan bill
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder could have access to medicinal psilocybin treatment under a bipartisan bill.
The proposal would create a pilot program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison run in collaboration with the university’s Transdisciplinary Center for Research in Psychoactive Substances and its School of Pharmacy. Veterans age 21 and older suffering from treatment-resistant PTSD would be eligible to participate as long as they are not currently serving as law enforcement officers.
Bipartisan plan OKs studying the use of psychedelic mushrooms to treat veterans with PTSD
Wisconsin State Journal
UW-Madison would launch a study of the effects of psychoactive mushrooms on Wisconsin veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder under a bipartisan bill that circulated Thursday.
Childhood trauma linked to faster aging in adults, UW study finds
The Capital Times
New findings led by a University of Wisconsin-Madison researcher have revealed an important potential accelerator of aging: deprivation in early childhood.
UW enlists business leaders to push for new engineering building funds
Wisconsin Examiner
The University of Wisconsin-Madison kicked efforts to persuade the Legislature to come up with nearly $200 million for a new engineering building into higher gear Monday.
Democratic lawmakers propose funds for universal, free school meals
WORT FM
Earlier this summer, the Healthy School Meals for All coalition and UW-Madison Professor Jennifer Gaddis released the first statewide survey of the Wisconsin school nutrition workforce.
That report found that of the approximately 5,089 K-12 school nutrition workers across the state, 94% were women, and 88% were white.
It also found that four out of five school food workers who were not managers worked part-time, and that a quarter of schools across the state offered poverty-level starting wages for school nutrition workers.
How a UW-Madison project uses science, history to bring MIA soldiers back home
Wisconsin Public Radio
There are about 1,500 Wisconsin service members who are missing in action after WWII, the Korean War, the Vietnam War and the Cold War. We talk with a member of a team of scientists, historians and doctors who are trying to locate and recover their remains.
Why it may be better to skip raking your leaves
CBS News
There is an exception, according to the University of Wisconsin-Madison horticulture department. If your trees have serious foliar fungal diseases, you should be raking your leaves. “While most leaf spots on leaves are cosmetic and harmless to the overall health of the tree, fallen diseased leaves do serve as a source for spores that can infect next year’s emerging leaves,” according to a post from the school. “Significantly diseased leaves should be raked and removed from the area and disposed of properly, such as by burying, burning where allowed, or hot composting.”
UW researchers study treatment for symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease in women
WISC-TV 3
The newest trial is titled Leuprolide plus Cholinesterase Inhibition to reduce Neurological Decline in Alzheimer’s, or LUCINDA for short. After seeing positive results with an earlier study, researchers are working to build a larger body of evidence to show if the treatment is working.
UW study examines potential treatment for Alzheimer’s disease
NBC-15
Researchers at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health are conducting a trial to determine whether the drug leuprolide, which is approved for prostate cancer in men, can be used to treat symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease in women.
UW-Madison PhD student searching for missing research boat
CBS 58
Ph.D. student from UW-Madison said she lost important research, and she could use your help in finding it. Chelsea Volpano said she lost her research boat in the waters of Lake Michigan Monday, Oct. 30.
Decolonizing science
PBS Wisconsin
In the high desert of Wyoming, two UW-Madison scientists, Ethan Parrish and Dave Lovelace, Ph.D, discuss their collaboration to decolonize their scientific disciplines in order to promote a more inclusive future for the next generation.
UW-Madison research proves your browser extension could grab your password and sensitive info
WISC-TV 3
When you type in a password, you often see a series of asterisks on your screen. However, that series of symbols means so much more to your software and for your digital security.
How and Why Do Violent Tornadoes Form?
Smithsonian Magazine
Atmospheric scientist Leigh Orf of the University of Wisconsin-Madison has taken advantage of advances in supercomputing to build ten-meter-resolution models that can directly simulate tornadoes. At this scale, turbulence comes alive, Orf says. His models reveal how small areas of rotation could combine to kick off a tornado. “It fully resolves non-tornadic vortices that merge together in ways that are very compelling and I’ve never seen before,” he says.
AI revolution in diabetes care: How technology is beating this silent killer
Forbes
Take the case of Rufus Sweeney, a 4th-year medical student at UW-Madison and Oklahoma Choctaw. When he discovered his pre-diabetes condition, he turned to glucose monitoring apps in the market that recommended lifestyle changes, from diet adjustments to sleep tweaks. His breakthrough came when he prioritized physical activity over all other app notifications.
Weather Guys: Sea ice update, waterspouts and celebrating 75 years of the Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences at UW-Madison
Wisconsin Public Radio
Sea ice is one way that scientists can learn about the effects of climate change. The Weather Guys are back to share about this year’s sea ice season. They’ll also fill us in on waterspouts and 75 years of the UW-Madison Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences.
New drone technology could help scientists finally understand how tornadoes form
Inverse
Most models working at coarser resolutions can’t actually see simulated tornadoes, inferring them instead based on areas of air with a lot of spins. Atmospheric scientist Leigh Orf of the University of Wisconsin-Madison has taken advantage of advances in supercomputing to build 10-meter-resolution models that can directly simulate tornadoes. At this scale, turbulence comes alive, Orf says. His models reveal how small areas of rotation could combine to kick off a tornado. “It fully resolves non-tornadic vortices that merge together in ways that are very compelling, and I’ve never seen before,” he says.
Can the gray wolf help control CWD-infected deer? Great Lakes tribes and UW scientists team up to find out
WUWM-89.7 Milwaukee
Last week, as scientists gathered inside a cozy research station in north central Wisconsin, not far from Minocqua, Michael Menon was one of the researchers in the room.
He’s the UW-Madison PhD student chosen to conduct the wolf study that’s being funded and co-led by the Great Lakes Indian Fish & Wildlife Commission.
Wisconsin poverty has come down from highs of the 2008 recession, but still above early 2000s lows
Wisconsin Public Radio
Steven Deller, the report’s author and an agricultural and applied economics professor at UW-Madison, said he attributes the state’s inability to return to the low poverty rates it saw in the late ’90s and early 2000s to a shift away from more highly-paid manufacturing jobs toward a more service-based economy, the state’s decline in unionization and a slow recovery from the Great Recession.
Otis before-and-after photos show category 5 hurricane’s destruction
Newsweek
“The science on how hurricanes will change in the future is fairly complex and not entirely settled, but a few things are generally accepted,” Daniel Wright, a civil and environmental engineer at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Hydroclimate Extremes Research Group, previously told Newsweek.
New UW project aims to create sustainable plant-based plastics · The Badger Herald
Badger Herald
Project hopes to better local economies, environment using national grant funding.
Roughly 70% of Wisconsinites hold onto old opioid prescriptions. Drug Take Back Day can help.
Green Bay Press-Gazette
Expired and unused medications can fall into the wrong hands. Consider that less than 30% of opioid prescriptions are actually taken as prescribed for medical purposes. According to a recent study from Medical College of Wisconsin and the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, roughly 70% of people in Wisconsin hold onto their opioid prescriptions well past their need for medication, and it reaches nearly 90% in older Wisconsinites. One study found that leftover prescriptions accounted for nearly 40% of recreational use in high school seniors.
Wisconsin’s voter ID law would be enshrined in the state Constitution under GOP proposal
Wisconsin Public Radio
One 2017 study from the University of Wisconsin-Madison suggested the ID law depressed turnout in the 2016 contest between former President Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, although it did not measure which party affiliation non-voters may have aligned with.
Wisconsin receives regional tech hub designation from the federal government
Wisconsin Public Radio
The University of Wisconsin-Madison is one of the partners behind the tech hub application, and contributes to the biohealth industry through academic research and providing an educated workforce through its medical physics, biotechnology and medical engineering programs.
In a statement, Chancellor Jennifer Mnookin said the university is thrilled to be part of the collaboration that helped secure the federal designation.
“Our culture of innovation and strong collaborative spirit, both within the university and across the state, make us well-positioned to make the most of this important opportunity,” she said.
UW effort to map Down syndrome brain raises prospect of treatment for disorder
Wisconsin State Journal
In a lab near UW Hospital, Megan Jandy grows stem cells from people with Down syndrome — 10 batches of cells, most in three-dimensional clusters, each batch featuring one group with the extra chromosome that causes the disorder and one group without it.
Minimum wage hike to $15 would close racial, gender pay gaps
The Capital Times
Raising Wisconsin’s minimum wage to $15 an hour would bring raises to one in seven workers and reduce racial and gender pay gaps, according to a new report from COWS, a University of Wisconsin-Madison think tank.
Madison’s AVID/TOPS program helps more students graduate and go to college
Spectrum News
In Madison, AVID/TOPS is a partnership between the Madison Metropolitan School District (MMSD) and Boys and Girls Clubs of Dane County (BGCDC). It began in 2007. It functions as an elective class students have every day.
A new evaluation from the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Wisconsin Evaluation Collaborative found that the program is working.
Grammar changes how we see, an Australian language shows
Scientific American
Gary Lupyan, a psychology professor at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, says that words can organize the way we think about the world and shape the way we perceive it. In a recent experiment, he and his colleagues measured how hard it was for English speakers to assign circles colored in diverse ways to a random category (such as “A” or “B”) if the colors were easy to name (for instance, “red” or “blue”) or hard to name (“slightly neutral lavender” or “light dusty rose”). All the colors, regardless of how nameable they were in English, were equally easy to discriminate visually from one another. Even so, Lupyan and his colleagues found strong differences in participants’ ability to learn which circles went into the different categories based on how easily nameable the colors were.
UW-Madison announces groundbreaking study for suicide prevention
Daily Cardinal
The study, which is government-funded, aims to determine if a combination of targeted brain stimulation and meditation practices will decrease the number of suicides.
9 evidence-based reasons why anxiety disorder in teens is on the rise
MSN
A recent study on stress in rhesus monkeys by Dr. Ned Kalin, a psychiatrist at the University of Wisconsin—Madison discovered genetically inherited overactivity in three brain regions may cause someone to be more vulnerable to developing anxiety.
How to make the most of your first science festival
Discover
If you’re a science educator, professional development sessions and lectures on timely topics are often included in science festivals to enrich your curriculum. Take the Badger Talks series from University of Wisconsin-Madison for example, where professors will speak on topics like sustainability, psychedelics research and weather monitoring.
How to avoid, identify and treat concussions
CNN
Far from being something to brush off lightly, concussions are classified as traumatic brain injuries, Julie Stamm, author of the book “The Brain on Youth Sports: The Science, the Myths, and the Future,” told CNN Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta on the podcast Chasing Life.
“I often use the term concussion because it’s just so commonly used in sport especially. But it is a traumatic brain injury, and it’s often classified as a mild traumatic brain injury — and even that feels like it minimizes the injury,” said Stamm, a clinical assistant professor in the department of kinesiology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
PBS Wisconsin Education announces newest addition to ‘Meet the Lab’ collection, ‘Climate Trackers: Superpowered by Ecometeorology’
PBS Wisconsin
PBS Wisconsin Education is proud to introduce a new addition to Meet The Lab, a collection of online learning resources developed in collaboration with research labs on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus. This collection is designed to introduce middle school students to cutting-edge research and develop their identities in science. Like all PBS Wisconsin Education materials, Meet the Lab resources are available for free for all Wisconsin educators.
Upstream intervention: UW researchers to explore novel suicide prevention, well-being methods
Badger Herald
The Center for Healthy Minds and the Wisconsin Institute for Sleep and Consciousness are leading a study at the University of Wisconsin exploring suicide prevention methods that combine targeted brain stimulation with meditation, according to UW News.
UW graduate student builds AI model with visual processing capabilities
Badger Herald
Graduate student builds unique intelligence model, optimizes resources.
Madison schools see surprise enrollment increase
The Capital Times
Soldner said for the actual number of students enrolled, there is an increase of 17 in 3K special programming, 58 fewer students in 4K, 14 more in kindergarten and 48 more in grades 1-12. He said staff will work with the district’s data and research team and outside consultants at the UW Applied Population Lab, which does population projections, to better understand how this affects the overall trend.
Leaving office, State Public Defender Kelli Thompson says Wisconsin incarcerates too many
Wisconsin Public Radio
Noted: Wisconsin continues to have the largest disparity between Black and white male incarceration of any state, according to researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
The glamorous new face of nuclear power: Miss America, 21, launches PR blitz claiming atomic energy is the way forward – as popularity rockets 57% in just three years
Daily Mail
The reigning Miss America is preparing to pass on her crown but not before using a bit of its glamour to give nuclear power a PR rebrand.
Grace Stanke, 21, believes the US needs to boost its atomic energy capacity and she’s not alone.
Leftovers of cell division spread cancer’s genetic blueprint
New Atlas
A new study led by researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison examined the contents, organization and behavior of midbodies to gain a better understanding of what they do in the body.
“People thought the midbody was a place where things died or were recycled after cell division,” said Ahna Skop, corresponding author of the study. “But one person’s trash is another person’s treasure. A midbody is a little packet of information cells use to communicate.”
UW Center for Healthy Minds study looks to create understanding around well-being in depression
Madison365
“We are trying to study the impact of the app, which focuses on mindfulness and mental exercises integrated into daily life.”
Federal Home Loan Bank criticisms are short on facts and nuance
The Hill
The positive impact the FHLBanks have on housing affordability and a functioning mortgage market in this country has also been clearly demonstrated. A recent University of Wisconsin study estimates that the activities of the FHLBanks reduce interest payments on mortgages by $13 billion each year and make more than $130 billion of additional mortgage credit available each year.
UW-Madison awarded a $10.4M federal contract to help school mental health workers
Spectrum News
Education researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have secured a federal contract to open and operate a national center to combat growing mental health concerns in K-12 schools.
What Kind of Year Has It Been for Gardeners? An Aggravating One.
The New York Times
Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison determined that heating compost or soil to at least 104 degrees for three days will kill the cocoons, but solarizing isn’t an option in a bed containing plants.
These are the newly arriving invasive species Minnesota’s agriculture dept. is worried about
CBS Minnesota
She turned to the internet for help. After a little detective work, she sent off her sample to the University of Wisconsin-Madison. It was soon confirmed she had a case of Asiatic garden beetle in her midst, the first ever seen in Minnesota.
Thermal modeling allows researchers to study physiology of Triassic period animals
Badger Herald
Teaching faculty in the University of Wisconsin Integrative Biology Department Scott Hartman spoke on how thermal modeling is an effective tool for predicting the End-Triassic Extinction period Sept. 28 at Birge Hall.
Advancements in kidney transplantation prove optimistic in new UW-Madison research study
Daily Cardinal
Dr. Dixon Kaufman, director of UW Health’s Transplant Research Center, worked with a team of UW-Madison researchers and specialists at Stanford University to optimize compatibility between host and recipient transplants.
UW researcher shares findings on effects of exercise on mental health
Badger Herald
“If you have a dysregulated dopaminergic, serotonergic or neurogenic system, exercise could help re-regulate that system,” UW professor Dane Cook says.
New study reveals high arrest disparities in Wisconsin, nationwide decrease in incarceration
WKOW-TV 27
Michael Light, another co-author of the study and a professor of sociology at UW-Madison, noted the percentage of Black men more likely to go to college has increased and is trending upward.
Why Are Carrots Orange? Scientists Reveal the Answer
Newsweek
In their research, which was a collaborative project with scientists at USDA-ARS, UW-Madison, UC-Davis, Bayer, and other collaborators from Poland, the authors also found that areas of the carrot genome under strongest selection by humans were genes involved in flowering.
How to Be Better at Stress
The New York Times
While we know that stress is associated with health problems, plenty of people with high-stress lives are thriving. How is that possible? In 2012, researchers from the University of Wisconsin-Madison published a seminal study looking at how 28,000 people perceived stress in their lives.
‘Doing your own research:’ What it means for trust in science, science institutions
Badger Herald
In a recent publication, University of Wisconsin Life Sciences Communication assistant professor Sedona Chinn and University of Michigan Communication and Media assistant professor Ariel Hasell look into the effects of “doing your own research” on COVID-19.
The effects of racial inequalities on education in Wisconsin
PBS Wisconsin
Access gaps, economic adversity and school segregation in Wisconsin lead to racial disparities in educational outcomes, with efforts growing to expand learning options for diverse groups of students.
When Washington Finally Turns To Deficits Relief, It Will Have Few Options.
Forbes
A detailed study done by the University of Wisconsin, show that despite the widespread agreement on both sides of the isle that the tax code needed radical reform, every reform effort was cautious in the extreme.
Hispanic representation in children’s books is quickly growing
ABC Action News
Every year, the Cooperative Children’s Book Center at the University of Wisconsin catalogs thousands of new books a year for various measures of diversity. In 1994, just 2% of children’s books were either by or about the Latino community — a community that comprises nearly 20% of America.
Living In A Poor Neighborhood Could Disrupt The Way Your Brain Functions
Forbes
To dig deeper, the researchers used the participants’ MRI scans and further assessed whether they lived in disadvantaged neighborhoods based on their zip code’s area deprivation index (ADI). The team was able to determine that by using Neighborhood Atlas, which was developed at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine’s Public Health.
College personal essays: How schools could end this nightmare.
Slate
olleges might think that essays help open up opportunities for students, but the opposite could be true. A new study by Taylor K. Odle, a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and Preston Magouirk, a data scientist at the District of Columbia College Access Program, looked at the nearly 300,000 students who started but never submitted an application through the Common App.
Advanced statistical model found to better predict El Niño, UW research says
Badger Herald
The first of the Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences colloquium series began Sept. 25 spotlighting University of Wisconsin professor Daniel Vimont’s summer research. Vimont developed stochastic-dynamic models to understand and predict the 2023 El Niño event.