Thirteen-year-old “Ants and Agriculture” exhibit closes, new exhibit to come.
UW community says goodbye to ant colony exhibit at Microbial Sciences
The Badger Herald
Category: Research
30 Plants You Can Grow In An Indoor Hydroponic Garden
House Digest
Arugula (Eruca sativa) isn’t only delicious on sandwiches, bagels, and salads, but it’s also super simple to grow in a hydroponic garden, as told by Eden Green. Like other leafy greens, this plant is packed with good things such as vitamin K and iron. When growing arugula in a traditional garden, it is known to become weedy, as per the University of Wisconsin-Madison, so planting it indoors this way offers multiple benefits.
Volcano Watch: Big Island volcano Kīlauea gets weighed using gravity measurements
Big Island Now
Over the month of January, a three-person team comprised of HVO geophysicist Ashton Flinders, University of Wisconsin at Madison PhD candidate Claire Ruggles, and University of Wisconsin student Sophia Thompson will measure gravity at more than 400 locations around Kīlauea’s summit.
How AI can detect heart attack risk and outsmart No. 1 killer in US
CNBC
Cleerly has established a number of partnerships, including American College of Cardiology, Canon Medical, Heartbeat Health and several others. Cleerly works with a number of universities for its studies and clinical trials, including Mass General Brigham, University of Virginia, University of Wisconsin, Oregon Health Sciences University, George Washington University, Houston Methodist Hospital, UCLA and Scripps Clinic.
Counties with the longest life expectancy in Wisconsin
Wisconsin State Journal
See the counties with above-average life expectancy in Wisconsin using data from the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute.
Groups seek to bar the use of hounds while hunting in the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest
Wisconsin Public Radio
Noted: Wisconsin’s wolf population fell around 14 percent to 972 wolves after the 2021 wolf hunt, according to the Wisconsin DNR. Even so, state wildlife managers say data indicates the state’s wolf population is stable. However, some researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison say the agency is overestimating the state’s wolf population.
Where’s the beef? UW-Madison scientists develop, research artificial meat
Channel 3000
“Particularly, we are interested in the new products and the new technologies,” Masatoshi Suzuki, researcher and professor at UW-Madison, said.
Oregon primate research facility under scrutiny after deaths
The Washington Post
The other NIH-funded centers are run by the University of California-Davis, the University of Washington, Tulane University, the Texas Biomedical Research Institute, the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Emory University.
The Ins and Outs of the UW Zoological Museum
WORT FM
In an unassuming building off of West Johnson Street, sits the remains of around 750,000 animal specimens for scientific research in the UW Zoological Museum. One of five museum collections on the UW Madison campus, the collection provides hands-on research material for universities across the country.
Climate change is making conditions harder for Wisconsin trout. But there is hope.
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Noted: In a study published in the journal Ecosphere in December, Alex Latzka, a fisheries biologist with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, and Bryan Maitland, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Aquatic Sciences Center, compared annual brook and brown trout population numbers over nearly three decades with climate and weather data from the streams the trout swam in.
Direct Air Capture Could Help Pull Carbon Dioxide From the Sky
Business Insider
“The next decade is crucial because the amount of deployment required in the second half of the century will only be feasible if we see substantial new deployment in the next 10 years,” Gregory Nemet, a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a coauthor of the report, said during a press call.
How to protect your pets during flu season
Axios Dallas
They’ve spent the last few months working with the University of Wisconsin at Madison’s veterinary medicine school to coordinate a “clean break” among their dogs, housing exposed dogs in a separate area from others.
UW-Madison professor creates beet that actually tastes good
Wisconsin State Journal
Irwin Goldman has spent much of his career de-beeting the beet. A horticulture professor at UW-Madison, Goldwin is a plant breeder focusing on onions, carrots and beets in his lab. And while carrots and onions are just fine, beets take priority for him, since he’s the only person in the nation who’s working on breeding the plant.
Cancer blood test using DNA fragments brings hope for earlier detection, say researchers
Fox News
A University of Wisconsin–Madison research team was able to detect cancer in the bloodstream in most of the samples tested, it said. Muhammed Murtaza, professor of surgery at the UW School of Medicine and Public Health based in Madison, Wisconsin, led the study, which was published recently in Science Translational Medicine, a medical journal from the American Association for the Advancement of Science, according to the study’s press release.
A librarian recommends 5 fun fiction books for kids and teens featuring disabled characters
The Conversation
In 2019 the Cooperative Children’s Book Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison – a library that allows teachers, librarians and researchers to view books before deciding which ones to buy – found that only 3.4% of books it received from publishers included a character with a disability.
Global Carbon Removal Efforts Are Off Track for Meeting Climate Goals
Scientific American
“Carbon removal looks a lot like renewables did like 25 years ago,” said Gregory Nemet, an environmental policy expert at the University of Wisconsin and one of the report’s co-authors. “Interesting technology: [It] could be really helpful for climate change, but [it’s] still small and not taken very seriously — in part because there wasn’t a lot of data about how much these technologies cost, how much we would need or how much there even was.”
Get your sleep! The negative effects of lack of sleep on your health
The Daily Digest
Research done by the University of Wisconsin-Madison shows that sleeping less than five hours a day affects the efficiency of leptin, the hormone that regulates your food intake, increasing your appetite.
Scientists study crowdsourced trail camera photos of Wisconsin wildlife
Wisconsin Public Radio
Snapshot Wisconsin has collected more than 2 million images caught on motion-sensor trail cameras. Researchers have looked at many of the photos and found further evidence of animals changing their behavior due to the presence of humans and loss of habitat.
Interview with associate professor Benjamin Zuckerberg, and Jonathan Pauli, a professor of wildlife ecology, both in the University of Wisconsin-Madison Department of Forest and Wildlife Ecology.
Las Vegas valley flood patterns are changing, new study shows
KLAS
This change in the urbanization of the valley is the focus of a new study published on Jan. 6 in The Journal of Hydrometeorology, from the Desert Research Institute (DRI), the Clark County Regional Flood Control District, the University of Wisconsin- Madison, and Guangdong University of Technology. The study shows that flood intensity in the valley took an “abrupt shift” in the mid-1990s.
UW-Madison researchers study psilocybin’s effects on opioid, meth users
The Capital Times
Through two new clinical trials, researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison hope to better understand how opioid and methamphetamine addictions can be treated using a different drug: psilocybin.
113-year experiment at UW-Madison ends this year. It will be crushing
Wisconsin State Journal
For more than 100 years, engineers at UW-Madison have been conducting an experiment pitting ordinary concrete against the test of time. The project, initiated by faculty member Morton O. Withey, began in 1910 as a 10-year test of the strength of concrete in the form of 6-by-12-inch cylinders. Dozens more cylinders were added in 1923, with a third batch in 1937.
Air pollution worse and more dangerous to urban dwellers with asthma, new study finds
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Quoted: Dr. Daniel Jackson, a professor of pediatrics and medicine in the School of Medicine and Public Health at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, helped conduct the study and he noted “pollution exposures” were the culprits in 30% of the asthmatic children tested.
“Ultimately, we’ve known for a long time that children in urban environments are more likely to have asthma attacks,” he said. “Clearly, the exposures there are quite different. (When) compared to other places in the country, there’s far more pollution associated with diesel and auto traffic.”
Lab-grown eye cells move toward human trials
Freethink
The idea: In 2011, researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison announced that they’d managed to coax stem cells into growing into three-dimensional structures, called “organoids,” which resembled retinas in early stages of development.
Snarl, You’re on Candid Camera
The New York Times
“The compression of species niches will likely lead to new interactions among species with unknown consequences,” Benjamin Zuckerberg, an ecologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and an author of the study, said in an email.
UW researchers developing plant-sourced fuel as part of Biden administration’s Transportation Decarbonization plan
WISC-TV 3
“You can think of the Midwest as the Middle East of agricultural residues,” said Tim Donohue, because his team at UW’s Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center dreams of black gold from a more straw-colored source.
25 Unique Looking Houseplants That Could Be Statement Pieces In Your Home
House Digest
Staghorn ferns (Platycerium bifurcatum) make wonderful houseplants. As told by the University of Wisconsin-Madison, younger and smaller plants can be grown in containers, however, the staghorn fern grows on trees in its natural environment. Because of this, some home gardeners mount theirs on wooden boards or bark slabs, which allow for perfect drainage and make the plants easier to manage.
‘They cleared the windscreen’: Prince Harry opens up about psychedelic use as research continues at UW-Madison
CBS 58
Quoted: For roughly a decade, professionals at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have been researching the impacts certain psychedelics, including psilocybin, can have on the human brain.
“There are some really encouraging trends that have been noted and encouraging study results that have been published across the country,” said Dr. Chantelle Thomas, a researcher at UW’s Department of Family Medicine and Community Health. “A lot of people are not aware that this research has been happening for quite some time at the UW.”
Invasive snails become gourmet meal in Wisconsin episode of cooking show
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
There might be a new way to think of one particular species of invasive snail being found in Wisconsin’s water: as a part of a gourmet meal.
At least that’s the approach Minneapolis chef Yia Vang and Titus Sielheimer, a fisheries outreach specialist for the University of Wisconsin Sea Grant, made this summer, when they filmed themselves harvesting and cooking up Chinese mystery snails in northern Wisconsin.
Lab-Grown Retinas to Restore Vision Are a Step Closer to Human Trials
Science Alert
Scientists from the University of Wisconsin–Madison in the US have coaxed light-sensitive eye cells grown in a lab to reconnect after separation, an important step for transplantation into patients to treat various eye diseases.
‘Dream coming to life’: Miss America from Wisconsin talks win on stage, advocacy for nuclear power
Wisconsin Public Radio
The newly crowned Miss America, Grace Stanke, said she wants to spend her term promoting nuclear power as a cleaner way to reduce fossil fuel emissions.
“It doesn’t use a lot of land,” said Stanke, a Wausau native and University of Wisconsin-Madison senior studying nuclear engineering. “As our population continues to grow, we can continue to use that land for farming and agricultural purposes, and we can use that clean, zero-carbon energy coming from nuclear energy to power our cities.”
Quit counting cups of water: There’s no magic number for how much everyone should drink, study says
Channel 3000
ea.“There’s no one number out there for the 300 million Americans to consume,” said Dale Schoeller, a University of Wisconsin-Madison professor emeritus.
Study: Toxic PFAS chemical plume detected in Green Bay
Associated Press
UW-Madison researchers have traced movement of the chemicals in nearby groundwater and streams. In a report published last week, they said a plume had made its way into Green Bay, which extends 120 miles along northeastern Wisconsin and the south coast of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.
Study: Toxic PFAS chemical plume detected in Green Bay
AP News
University of Wisconsin researchers have traced movement of the chemicals in nearby groundwater and streams. In a report published last week, they said a plume had made its way into Green Bay, which extends 120 miles (193 kilometers) along northeastern Wisconsin and the south coast of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.
UW-Madison engineers use carbon nanotubes to better protect against brain injuries
Wisconsin Public Radio
University of Wisconsin-Madison engineers have developed a new shock-absorbing foam made from carbon nanotubes aimed at reducing traumatic brain injuries in U.S. soldiers. The material has been shown to absorb shock 18 times better than existing military helmet liners and could also offer athletes better protection against concussions.
In order to tackle big issues like brain injuries on the battlefront, UW-Madison associate professor of engineering and physics Ramathasan Thevamaran thinks small — as in micrometers. He and fellow engineers at the university have developed a way to make flexible carbon tubes, around a thousand times smaller than a human hair, into a new type of ultra-shock-absorbing foam.
UW-Madison researcher says drone-delivered defibrillators can save lives
Wisconsin Public Radio
When a heart stops, survival rates fall with every passing minute. A University of Wisconsin-Madison researcher thinks minutes and lives can be saved in rural areas with fleets of autonomous drones equipped with defibrillators.
And saving lives is in UW-Madison assistant professor and researcher Justin Boutilier’s blood. When he was growing up in Canada, his mother was a nurse and his father was a paramedic and firefighter.
How did the pandemic affect the Corona Beer brand?
Marketplace
A group of researchers from the University of Kentucky, the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Ohio State University actually set out to study how consumers reacted to the beer brand after its name became inadvertently associated with the coronavirus.
Suicide rates for LGBTQ+ teens dropped during online learning, but they’re still alarming
Wisconsin State Journal
UW doctoral student Erin Gill and assistant professor Mollie McQuillan, who authored the study, said finding solutions is particularly important as anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric increases, especially surrounding youth and schools — from lawsuits over school districts’ gender identity policies and discourse in the 2022 gubernatorial race to efforts to repeal sex education curriculum and challenges to children’s Pride displays in libraries.
Madison Children’s Museum to lead climate change project
Wisconsin State Journal
“Caretakers of Wonder” will be grounded in expert research from UW-Madison, including work by Richard Davidson, founder and director of the Center for Healthy Minds, and Jonathan Patz, professor of environmental studies and medicine and public health at the Global Health Institute and the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies. David Sobel, professor emeritus at Antioch University New England, is also a key player.
Do you really need 8 cups of water a day? UW study weighs in
Wisconsin State Journal
It depends on what food and other beverages you consume, along with factors such as your age, sex, size, physical activity and climate, a study involving UW-Madison researchers says.
The study analyzed 5,600 people in 26 counties, looking at their water turnover, or the amount they took in and lost each day. Subjects drank water labeled with hydrogen and oxygen isotopes, a method first used in people at UW-Madison in the 1980s, allowing scientists to track water replacement and calories burned.
UW Madison Joins National Harm Reduction Research Network
WORT FM
In 2021, over 107,000 people lost their lives to opioid addiction across the country. Public officials across the country have been working to address the issue for years, but a new nation-wide harm reduction research network is looking to find new ways to address the problem.
Today, UW Madison announced that they are joining a new nationwide network to research and evaluate harm reduction services.
Dr. Ryan Westergaard is a professor of medicine at the UW School of Medicine and Public Health, and is leading UW Madison’s research wing of the initiative.
In praise of the monthly water bill
The Hill
The cost of delivering safe, clean tap water to every household and business in a community is massive. In fact, it may be among the most expensive of all human undertakings. That is why only the wealthiest countries have achieved it at high rates and why 2 billion people on our planet still lack it.
Co-authored by Manny Teodoro, an associate professor of public affairs at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
‘The foremost goal is to keep people alive’: UW-Madison joins national research network to prevent overdose deaths
Channel 27
As part of the National Institutes of Health national research network, UW-Madison will be investigating ways to better connect people with harm reduction services — like hotlines, syringe service programs and disease testing — and other care resources.
UW-Madison joins national network evaluating harm reduction services
Channel 3000
The nine-member network, established by the National Institutes of Health, will test the effectiveness of a range of tools designed to prevent drug overdoses, disease transmission and other harms. Researchers at UW-Madison will look at methods such as smartphone applications that improve access to services in urban and rural areas of Wisconsin.
‘Cats will be cats’: UW study finds cats don’t have preference for medication flavors
Spectrum News
Cats can be incredibly picky and sassy when it comes to their food.
But with medication flavors, they have little preference, according to a recent study by the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Letters to the Editor: If your mail carrier drives an EV, will you drive one too?
LA Times
One recent study, from the University of Wisconsin, found that eliminating the air pollution caused by our burning of fossil fuels would prevent more than 50,000 premature American deaths and provide more than $600 billion in health benefits annually. This is more deaths than caused by car crashes or guns.
Arianna Huffington’s Word Of The Year And Why It Matters For Workplace Mental Health
Forbes
Quoted: Professor Richard Davidson, professor at the University of Wisconsin, has shown that we can actually train ourselves to be happier through practice in very tangible and measurable ways by giving ourselves the resources to deal with the ups-and-downs of life.”
‘I was throwing up with anxiety’: how Democrats fought back in America’s most gerrymandered state
The Guardian
Noted: Wisconsin has the most gerrymandered legislative map in the country, designed to ensure the GOP has as easy a path as possible to capture majorities in the legislature, according to a University of Wisconsin-Madison study.
UW-Madison researchers seek to understand how forever chemicals move through soil
Wisconsin State Journal
Scientists at UW-Madison are working to better understand how toxic “forever chemicals” move through the ground, which could help communities like Madison find and clean up the manufactured compounds before they contaminate drinking water.
Christy Remucal, an associate professor of civil and environmental engineering at UW-Madison who specializes in PFAS but was not part of Gnesda’s study, said the research is a critical first step to being able to focus cleanup efforts.
UW-Madison to receive millions of dollars in federal spending bill
The Capital Times
A massive spending plan to fund the federal government for the rest of the fiscal year has been passed by Congress, including millions of dollars in investments for the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Black and Hispanic Students Far Less Likely to Receive Race-Matched Instruction
Diverse Issues in Higher Education
Noted: The team of researchers, led by Dr. Taylor Odle, an assistant professor of educational policy studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, found even lower levels of matching in crucial first courses in subjects like reading and writing, as well as gateway classes like algebra. Only 4% of Black students matched in reading and writing courses and only 6% in non-STEM math courses.
Black and Hispanic students had the highest match rates in remedial and developmental courses: 34% for Hispanic students and 17% for Black students. However, Odle’s team found that the faculty in these matches were more likely to be temporary staff or adjuncts, rather than tenured or tenure-track. Although contingent faculty may be equally good teachers as tenured faculty, their positions might limit them as mentors for students of color.
Kathleen Gallagher: Could Wisconsin be the center of a regional medical physics hub? The stage is already set.
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Quoted: At the heart of Great Lakes medical physics research is the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Department of Medical Physics. It was the first such department in the country and is the largest in terms of faculty members and graduate students, said Brian Pogue, department chair and a professor in the UW-Madison School of Medicine and Public Health.
“We have close to 100 grad students working on medical imaging technologies,” Pogue said. “We have an army.”
Medical Physics’ faculty are among the university’s top royalty recipients and have developed world class technologies like the tomotherapy radiation technique, the ubiquitous pinnacle radiation treatment planning software, and lunar bone mineral densitometry to detect osteoporosis.
Study finds Indigenous people face high financial burden of Alzheimer’s disease, related dementias
Spectrum News
A new University of Wisconsin-Madison study finds that Indigenous people face high health and financial burdens from Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias.
Researchers said it costs $880 million to $1.9 billion annually in additional health care-related costs for dementia diagnoses among Indigenous people.
“Taken together, this work exemplifies the potential benefits of offering programs to prevent, accurately diagnose and treat Alzheimer’s and related dementias among Indigenous adults,” said Adrienne Johnson, assistant professor of medicine, UW School of Medicine and Public Health, and lead author of the study, in a press release.
Dairy Management CEO received $2.68 million pay package in his last year on job
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Quoted: “It may be hard to set another record in 2023, but there is a possibility of increased exports,” Robert Cropp, professor emeritus at University of Wisconsin-Madison Cooperative Extension professor said in a recent column.
Each dollar of net farm income results in an additional 60 cents of economic activity as farmers spend money in their local communities, according to University of Wisconsin research.
Two Cheers for the Tyrant in the Corner Office
Bloomberg
A host of studies show that even in regular people power produces over-confidence, risk-taking, insensitivity, intolerance and a higher likelihood of treating other people as means rather than ends. The so-called “cookie monster study,” conducted by psychologists at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, shows that randomly assigned “powerful people” are more likely to help themselves to second cookies, eat with their mouths open and get crumbs on their faces.
Engineer vying for Miss America uses platform to show women can succeed in male-dominated fields
Wisconsin Public Radio
A University of Wisconsin-Madison student from Wausau will be the first nuclear engineer to compete in the Miss America contest Dec. 15. Grace Stanke, who was crowned Miss Wisconsin in June, is using her platform to advocate for nuclear energy while showing women they can succeed in male-dominated industries.
Dog Flu Outbreaks Hit Shelters, Clinics Across North Texas
NBC Dallas
Upper respiratory infection and canine influenza have recently plagued pet shelters across North Texas, including at DAS. Toward the end of November, the government-operated shelter began working with professors from the University of Wisconsin School of Veterinary Medicine to come up with a plan to stop the spread and potentially save lives.
The Elon Musk Neuralink animal cruelty allegations, explained
Vox
Wayne State University in Michigan has induced heart failure in dogs, researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison deafened two cats with an antibiotic to study hearing implants, and the Department of Veterans Affairs implanted devices into cats’ skulls to study sleep disorders (one employee said it gave them nightmares). Last year, Vice reported on the mental health crisis among those who kill animals for science.
What’s the best way to treat spider plants?
House Digest
Spider plants (Chlorophytum comosum) are a species of great houseplants that are known to be easy to grow, tolerant of neglect, and adaptable to many conditions. They are native to the south African coast, as explained by the University of Wisconsin-Madison, so they are used to warm temperatures and consistent sunlight. Truthfully, these are the only two things the spider plant needs besides some water.
Fresh off win on same-sex marriage, Sen. Tammy Baldwin proposes federal travel fund for women seeking abortions
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Noted: Researchers from the University of Wisconsin-Madison estimated in an August report that patients in 42 of the state’s 72 counties would see the distance they have to travel to get an abortion increase by an average of 82 miles, one-way. In Milwaukee and Dane counties, which accounted for 56% of the state’s abortions before the Dobbs decision, residents would have to travel 70 and 120 more miles to reach an abortion clinic, respectively. In the state’s 30 other counties, the distance to an abortion clinic didn’t change because they were already closest to an out-of-state clinic.
Wisconsin’s Assembly maps are more skewed than ever. What happens now?
The Capital Times
Noted: A majority of both Democrats and Republicans support nonpartisan redistricting, according to a recent poll conducted by UW-Madison communications professor Mike Wagner …
But even within communities there are voters with different views and interests. One way to keep more of them engaged could be new legislative configurations and voting systems that have been tried in some European countries, said Mark Copelovitch, a political science professor at the La Follette School of Public Affairs at UW-Madison who has studied alternative voting and redistricting models abroad.