Wisconsin was the first state to resume hunting of wolves. A study released this week by University of Wisconsin scientists says that as many as one-third of Wisconsin’s gray wolves likely died at the hands of humans in the months after the federal government announced it was ending legal protections.
The aim of the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources was to have a hunting season that “resulted in no annual increase or decrease in the state’s wolf population.” Wolf hunts are annual events where hunters congregate to hunt the animals for sport, though this practice has become controversial in many countries. However, that no change in the wolf’s population goal was not met, says Adrian Treves, an ecologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and coauthor of the new findings.
In 1990, the late physician-scientist Jon Wolff and his University of Wisconsin colleagues injected mRNA into mice, which caused cells in the mice to produce the encoded proteins. In many ways, that work served as the first step toward making a vaccine from mRNA, but there was a long way to go—and there still is, for many applications.
esearchers at the University of Wisconsin have been monitoring the wolf population since protections were lifted, and say that poaching and a February hunt that drastically exceeded the legal limit on hunting were mainly responsible for the decline in wolves, The Guardian reported.
Seeking a simpler, less invasive alternative, a team led by the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Prof. Xudong Wang created a self-powered electrical patch that is surgically placed onto a bone-break site, but that is harmlessly absorbed by the body once its job is done. It’s called the fracture electrostimulation device, or FED.
Scientists debate what this floral rearrangement will look like. In some places, it may take place quietly and be easily ignored. In others, though, it could be one of the changing climate’s most consequential and disruptive effects. “There’s a whole lot more of this we can expect over the next decades,” said University of Wisconsin-Madison paleoecologist Jack Williams. “When people talk about wildfires out West, about species moving upslope—to me, this is just the beginning.”
Poaching and a February hunt that far exceeded kill quotas were largely responsible for the drop-off, University of Wisconsin scientists said, though some other scientists say more direct evidence is needed for some of the calculations.
Scientists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison estimated in a new study between 313 to 323 wolves were likely killed by humans between April 2020 and April 2021. Adrian Treves, a professor at UW-Madison and a lead author of the study, said the figures should raise concerns about further hunting seasons in the state.
Wisconsin’s gray wolf population plunged by as much as a third after they were removed from the endangered list in January. A study by the University of Wisconsin released on Monday found that poaching and a hunt in February were largely responsible for the huge drop in population numbers. Gray wolves in the lower 48 states were removed from the US Fish and Wildlife Service list of endangered and threatened species in January, soon before Donald Trump left office.
Earth’s vegetation is changing as quickly now as it changed at the end of the ice age 10 to 15 thousand years ago according to research in part out of the University of Wisconsin – Madison.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison has joined an international effort to create a pandemic prevention institute aimed at helping researchers, public health officials and governments respond quickly to future pandemics.
Amazing ideas come out of the University of Wisconsin – Madison every year. And the Baldwin Wisconsin Idea Endowment helps bring a select few to life.
Poaching and a February hunt that far exceeded kill quotas were largely responsible for the drop-off, UW-Madison scientists said, though some other scientists say more direct evidence is needed for some of the calculations.
The University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health is recruiting volunteers for a study testing a treatment that aims to help prevent the earliest memory loss due to Alzheimer’s disease.
Madison researchers are looking for people to participate in a clinical trial that is the first of its kind to study Alzheimer’s disease and memory loss. The University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health announced Tuesday it was searching for volunteers for the AHEAD study, which will test an experimental drug’s effectiveness to a large group of participants.
At UW-Madison, Dave O’Connor and Thomas Friedrich are conducting similar work. For 25 years, the professors have sequenced viruses like Zika, HIV, and influenza.
The University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health is recruiting volunteers for a Phase 3 clinical trial of a treatment aimed at stopping Alzheimer’s disease even before the first symptoms of memory loss.
Noted: Zoo veterinarians injected the bonobo in the hip with medication to render him unconscious. Then, Schroeder and a colleague, Kyle Bartholomew, both from the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Veterinary Medicine, injected Qasai with two additional medications, Lidocaine and Propofol.
The phase 1b study, to start in the second quarter of 2022, will evaluate the safety and immunogenicity of M2SR, the nasal spray vaccine FluGen is developing based on research by UW-Madison virologists Yoshihiro Kawaoka and Gabriele Neumann.
Noted: Researchers from the University of Wisconsin-Madison looked at data on covid-19 cases across the U.S. reported during the spring of 2020 and focused on comparing counties with prisons and jails to those without them. After controlling for other variables linked to covid-19 spread, like nearby nursing homes or population density, they found a clear link between having a state prison in the area and increased covid-19 cases.
“Our big takeaway from this research is that prisons are a particularly vulnerable type of facility when it comes to risk for disease spread, which may add additional stress to rural healthcare systems that are already struggling to cope with the pandemic,” study author Kaitlyn Sims, a doctoral student in agricultural and applied economics at UW–Madison, told Gizmodo in an email.
Noted: There are between 1,272 and 5,093 refugees in Brown County, according to a 2020 report by UW-Madison’s La Follette School of Public Affairs. However, the report found that many people in this community still need help with essentials like employment, housing, access to food and public aid and even school enrollment.
The University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health is recruiting volunteers for a study testing a treatment that aims to help prevent the earliest memory loss due to Alzheimer’s disease.
Babies Born With Low Birth Weight: Reflects the percentage of live births where the infant weighed less than 2,500 grams, or about 5.5 pounds. (2012-2018; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, The University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute. County Health Rankings & Roadmaps)
A report from the Elections Research Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, released this month, concluded that the Maricopa County recount “lacks the essential elements” of a credible review.
UW Health is seeking people at risk for Alzheimer’s disease, but with no signs of it, to study an experimental drug like one approved this month amid hope and controversy.
“The question we are asking is ’How does gravity make cotton roots grow?’ and the experiment is to remove gravity and the only place you’ll get to do that is on the space station,” [UW–Madison botany professor] Simon Gilroy said.
“It’s very rare to find a fossil like this, with a face in good condition. You dream of finding this stuff.”
JOHN HAWKS, a paleoanthropologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, speaking about the discovery of a massive skull that is at least 140,000 years old. Scientists said it could be a new species of ancient human.
Quoted: “We were very surprised,” says Timothy Gómez, professor of neuroscience at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, who led the new study. “We were expecting this to be all mTOR.”
She was studying athletic training at the University of Wisconsin-Madison when she met the athlete who would change the trajectory of her career.
Now a 34-year-old assistant professor at UW-Madison’s Department of Kinesiology, Mosinee native Julie Stamm was an undergraduate then, in the midst of the clinical portion of her studies — working with a high school football team, getting hands-on training in treating athletic injuries.
“We had a lot of concussions that fall, probably seven or eight just in preseason camp,” Stamm said.
Quoted: This suggests that butterflies as far north as Scandinavia are affected by habitat in countries like Chad and Nigeria. “It’s brilliant, really,” said Karen Oberhauser, a monarch expert and professor of entomology at the University of Wisconsin Madison, who was not involved in the study. “Until you know this, you’d never think that, ‘Wow, what’s going on so far away could have an impact.”
Noted: Regardless of the specific cause of your hamster’s hair loss, your veterinarian will be your best ally in coming up with a strategy to tackle the problem. Christoph Mans, DVM, a clinical associate professor of zoological medicine at the University of Wisconsin, said that in some cases deep skin scrapes are necessary for a diagnosis. Finding the cause can be important in case there’s a serious health problem at play.
Noted: Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison discovered that mindfulness meditation could actually enhance immune function. Participants in the study were injected with the flu vaccine. Half of them also received mindfulness training, while the others did not. After eight weeks, the mindfulness group showed greater levels of antibodies, effectively giving them better flu-fighting ability. (P.S. a strong immune response isn’t the only health benefit of meditation.)
Deb Fitzgerald sits down with Steve Vavrus, Sr. Scientist at the Nelson Institute at UW-Madison, to talk about climate change and what’s in store for Wisconsin in general and Door County’s specifically. They also discussed what’s causing climate change, and some ways people can change their behaviors to reduce their carbon footprints.
Quoted: “It compounds on itself,” said Jonathan Martin, a professor of atmospheric science at the University of Wisconsin Madison. “When you’re dry, you get warm. When you’re excessively warm, you tend to build and strengthen the anticyclone, which encourages continuation of clear skies, which in turn encourages a lack of precipitation, which makes it drier, which makes the incoming solar radiation more able to heat the ground.”
Quoted: “The spotter sensor is a basketball-sized, solar-powered yellow buoy that will be anchored,” said Chin Wu, a lead researcher from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “The GPS drifter tracker looks rather like a red post floating upright in the water. It will be drifting with the current. We’d appreciate it if the public would allow the equipment to operate.”
Quoted: “Previous evidence has shown that sleep may influence the development or progression of Alzheimer’s disease in various ways,” Barbara B. Bendlin, PhD, the study’s author from the University of Wisconsin–Madison, said in a statement. “For example, disrupted sleep or lack of sleep may lead to amyloid plaque buildup because the brain’s clearance system kicks into action during sleep. Our study looked not only for amyloid but for other biological markers in the spinal fluid as well.”
Two teams of researchers — one from the University of Wisconsin in Madison and the other at Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam, the Netherlands — designed experiments to identify which genetic mutations were essential for a successful jump from birds to people. They injected bird flu viruses into the noses of ferrets, waited for the viruses to replicate, and then transferred the new viruses to new ferrets. Soon the viruses evolved to become better at replicating in the ferrets.
Only counties with populations of 25,000 or more were included. The percentage of population reporting sub-optimal health is from the 2021 County Health Rankings and Roadmaps, a collaboration between the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
UW-Madison professors at the forefront of sequencing COVID-19 strains in the community are expanding their research tracking the virus’ spread while fostering closer ties with more public health agencies with the hope of improving future pandemic response.
Noted: John Hawks is an expert in paleoanthropology, genetics, and evolution. He is also professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Quoted: Keith Findley co-founded the Wisconsin Innocence Project, and was the co-director for years. Now he teaches on criminal law, evidence and wrongful convictions at the University of Wisconsin Law School.
“One of the things that innocence advocates have noticed over the years is that not always, but sometimes, prosecutors, when confronted with very powerful evidence of innocence, go to great lengths to try to preserve the convictions,” Findley said. “Including making plea offers that are essentially so good that it’s hard to turn them down, even for an innocent individual.”
Noted: Fittingly, the thrashing invaders were first confirmed in the state by both Williams and Brad Herrick, ecologist and jumping worm specialist at UW-Madison Arboretum. The worms were discovered during a 2013 talk they were leading about invasive species at the Arboretum in Madison.
In 2013 when the jumping worms were first documented, they were probably already established in Wisconsin and the Midwest, Herrick said.
“They have been in North America for around 100 years,” he said, creeping here from the northeastern part of the country. “The Midwest states have been the recent invasion.”
Herrick, also known as Dr. Worm by Williams, is beginning his PhD study on the biology, ecology and control of jumping worms. He is helping lead a statewide jumping worm survey beginning in July.
Noted: Milwaukee’s new traffic unit is using DOT data to focus its enforcement efforts on intersections and stretches of road identified as particularly dangerous. The DOT partners with the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Traffic Operations and Safety Laboratory to collect collision report data that flows in from law enforcement agencies across the state every day and organize it into an interactive statewide map of crashes.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison Carbone Cancer Center is looking at new ways to prevent colon cancer for those living outside city limits. Colorectal cancer is the second-most deadly form of cancer, but when caught early, it’s easy to prevent.
Research on UHSA’s campus will exclusively use Revive’s intellectual property, developed at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, with the aim to be the foundation for novel psychedelic therapies for research and commercial use in Antigua and Barbuda;
UW-Madison professors at the forefront of sequencing COVID-19 strains in the community are expanding their research tracking the virus’ spread while fostering closer ties with more public health agencies with the hope of improving future pandemic response.
UW-Madison agronomy and environmental studies professor Chris Kucharik details how limited rain and hot weather are contributing to drought conditions across southern Wisconsin.
Dr. Dudley Lamming is a faculty member at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Department of Medicine in the Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism. His latest study’s press release states that in 2014, Lamming was reading about an Australian study that had come upon something remarkable: The mice that had been fed the least amount of protein were the healthiest.
To be fair to the opponents of gain-of-function research, most experts agree that some extreme versions of this work are truly reckless, Moreover, as Jacobsen wrote, lab leaks have occurred with some frequency over the past few decades. An early controversy over gain-of-function research came to a head in 2011, when University of Wisconsin researcher Yoshihiro Kawaoka announced that his lab had successfully modified the highly lethal H5N1 bird flu to make it airborne among ferrets.
When we don’t sleep, we’re irritable, unproductive, and unhealthy. When we don’t sleep for prolonged periods of time—and suffer from what’s known as chronic insomnia—life gets even worse. Chronic insomnia is linked to near-countless physical and mental health issues. For instance, this research published in the scientific journal Circulation reports an association between insomnia and increased risk of heart disease and stroke. Other studies, including this new report released by the University of Wisconsin-Madison, conclude that sleep issues may increase the likelihood of developing Alzheimer’s.
The funds will also allow MadREP to update its comprehensive economic development strategy, called Advance Now 2.0, as well as the extensive accompanying reports on industry sectors. The 900 pages of reports, released in 2019 after years of research by MadREP and University of Wisconsin-Madison Extension, examined several key sectors for the region. Now, with new data released since, the agency would like to refresh those reports before acting on their findings. The agencies have not yet determined what contractors they will hire to conduct the studies.
Morgridge Institute for Research Virology Director Paul Ahlquist identifies both research advancements and social science as the key to tackling the next pandemic.
Quoted: Dry conditions have been holding pretty steady for the past month or so, said Christopher Kucharik, a climate researcher and professor of agronomy and environmental studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The longer they continue, though, the more intense drought becomes, with southeast Wisconsin moving from a moderate to severe level as June started and hot weather descended.
For hundreds of years, Wisconsin’s indigenous languages faced suppression and extermination. Concerted efforts to wipe out native tongues played out in a variety of arenas — from schools to government policies.
Enwejig hopes to address some of those past injustices. The group, which formed last year on the UW-Madison campus, works to bring visibility and recognition to Wisconsin’s native languages.
For more on the group’s mission, our producer Jonah Chester spoke with Brian McInnes, an associate professor of civil society and community studies/American Indian studies at UW-Madison.
A new center at UW-Madison will be studying health disparities in Wisconsin and beyond. Its early work will look at health outcomes in the state’s different neighborhoods. We talk with a doctor leading the research about the big questions she’s hoping to answer.
For the first time, cotton seeds will germinate and grow in space over the next few days, under the supervision down here of UW-Madison botany professor Simon Gilroy.
Gilroy says he wants to clarify this is not to supply fabric for those in orbit. “Yeah, our classic joke when talking about the experiment is the astronauts are going to make their own suits. It’s not what’s its for,” Gilroy tells WUWM.
A professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison is taking his experiments to new heights at the International Space Station (ISS).
Dr. Simon Gilroy is a botany professor at the university. An experiment he and colleagues have been working on for the past three years is now making its way to the ISS after being launched Thursday.
As storm-water infrastructure is failing, climate change is driving more frequent and intense rainfall. A 2019 study by University of Wisconsin researchers found in the eastern half of the United States, 100-year storms — ones with a 1 percent chance of happening in any year — were occurring almost twice as often as in 1950. In 2020, there were a record 20 storm and hurricane events each causing more than $1 billion in damages, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Researchers Dave and Shelby O’Connor spent the last year understanding the virus that shut down the world. But for decades, the husband and wife have worked to understand another deadly virus.
They’re using a $1.2 million dollar grant from the American Cancer Society to examine more than 200 rural primary care clinics in the upper Midwest.
