The new Vera C. Rubin telescope in Chile that just started recording images of the night sky has 3.2 billion pixels – that’s billion with a “b” – making it the largest digital camera ever constructed. Interview with Keith Bechtol, an associate professor of physics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and the systems verification and validation scientist for the Vera C. Rubin telescope project.
The grant-funded research will also send University of Wisconsin students to farmers’ markets in Marathon, Portage, Wood, Waupaca and Adams counties this summer through summer 2027 to collect data on things like where are people visiting from, how much money do they intend to spend at the market and other area businesses, and what they love about farmers’ markets, Haack said.
Materials engineering programs typically have dozens of students, not hundreds. To put this into perspective, however, the Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts an average of just 10 job openings per year for neurologists in Wisconsin. Hopefully, no one would suggest that UW-Madison should stop training neurology residents, since most of us recognize that medical specialists are essential to the kind of society we want to have.
Partnering with Forward BIOLABS — one of the many tenants that call the research park home — URP helped create a new shared coworking lab incubator in Madison. Forward BIOLABS offers turn-key life science labs, fully equipped, maintained and supported with networking, training and other growth services aimed at startups.
“With millions of dollars of shared lab equipment, Forward BIOLABS is an ideal place to get started,” said Aaron Olver, managing director of the University Research Park. “And MERLIN Mentors creates customized volunteer mentor teams to help companies achieve liftoff.”
Housing financial stress has been rising among Wisconsin residents, and it is tied to an increase in negative health outcomes, according to a report from the University of Wisconsin-Extension.
The report found that housing instability is linked to worsened mental and physical health and may cause food insecurity, physical exhaustion, hypertension and lowered fertility. While this stress is more common among renters than homeowners, the consequential health impacts were linked more with older homeowners, co-author of the report and associate professor in the Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics Tessa Conroy said.
The Vera C. Rubin Observatory released its first images this week.This is the most advanced telescope and camera system available, allowing scientists to study these incredible, high-resolution time-lapse images.
They include a Ph.D. in physics and a UW-Madison professor, Keith Bechtol.
Written by rofessor of Scandinavian Studies, Folklore, and Religious Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
“They are expected to arrive from slightly below the horizon, where there is not much Earth for them to be absorbed,” Justin Vandenbroucke, a physicist at the University of Wisconsin–Madison who was not involved in the research but peer-reviewed it, tells CNN’s Ashley Strickland. Models predict these pulses would come in at angles of only one to five degrees below the horizon—these came through the ice at a much sharper 30 degrees, leaving researchers unable to identify their origins.
While rare, it’s important for people to be aware of meteotsunamis because they can be dangerous, said Chin Wu, a professor at University of Wisconsin in Madison who has expertise in meteotsunamis.
“The potential dangers are the water levels fluctuating back and forth, particularly once the water levels go up and go down as I see in the video. Once the water level goes down, they will drag the people out of the beaches and cause drownings.”
A true shift in what parenting means is more likely to come when raising kids isn’t categorized along the lines of “his” and “hers” at all, said Jessica Calarco, professor of sociology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
“Gender is more fluid than we give it credit for,” Calarco said. “Often these tropes become increasingly stereotypical the more they get used.”
“A lot of Wisconsin businesses have been struggling with finding employees, and they have been for a number of years, going back to before COVID,” said Steven Deller, a professor of agricultural and applied economics at UW-Madison and one of the report’s authors.
Earlier this year, the Trump administration had delayed grant review meetings at the National Institutes of Health and was calling for sweeping cuts to university research dollars. This left faculty scientists with limited funds to offer students.
Even though many of the review meetings are proceeding again, Wisconsin researchers said those delays have lingering effects. One of these is that fewer graduate trainees will be arriving on campus this fall.
“The whole idea for the (Rubin) observatory was so visionary when it was conceived (in the 1990s) that many of the technologies didn’t exist at that time” said Keith Bechtol, a physics professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Written by Anthony Hernandez, a faculty member in the Department of Educational Policy Studies at the University of Wisconsin—Madison (UW-Madison) who received a research award from the National Academy of Education/Spencer Foundation for his study on leadership in Hispanic-Serving Institutions.
Keith Bechtol, an associate professor in the physics department at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who has been involved with the Rubin Observatory for nearly a decade, is the project’s system verification and validation scientist, making sure the observatory’s various components are functioning properly.
He said teams were floored when the images streamed in from the camera.
“There were moments in the control room where it was just silence, and all the engineers and all the scientists were just seeing these images, and you could just see more and more details in the stars and the galaxies,” Bechtol told NBC News. “It was one thing to understand at an intellectual level, but then on this emotional level, we realized basically in real time that we were doing something that was really spectacular.”
The experimental Next Generation Fire System was developed by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, NOAA, and its Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies at UW-Madison. The tool detects and tracks wildfires in almost real-time using artificial intelligence to scan satellite images, helping firefighters nationwide to prioritize and quickly respond to blazes.
But delays with the institute’s five-year renewal and its fiscal year 2025 funding mean that work to develop, maintain and improve the system will pause, according to the institute’s director Tristan L’Ecuyer.
The excitement inside of a University of Wisconsin-Madison lecture hall Monday morning was comparable to a room full of sports lovers ready for the start of the Super Bowl.
ANITA was designed to search for the highest energy neutrinos in the universe, at higher energies than have yet been detected, said Justin Vandenbroucke, an associate professor of physics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The experiment’s radio antennae search for a short pulse of radio waves produced when a neutrino collides with an atom in the Antarctic ice, leading to a shower of lower-energy particles, he said.
When I approached graduation from Lake Forest College, I felt lost. How could I blend my passions into a career? I found the answer during a research internship at Rush University on a project funded by the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Disease. Today, at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, I am a doctoral candidate in epidemiology, the field that works to understand and reduce disease. My research and training are largely supported by the National Cancer Institute.
“I worry that it is being done too quickly, without appropriate scrutiny of the potential outcomes,” said UW-Madison’s Dr. Jonathan Temte.
The decision sent shockwaves throughout medical and public health circles, with Dr. Jonathan Temte, former committee chair and an associate dean at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s School of Medicine and Public Health, calling the removals, “totally unprecedented.”
Newly uncovered evidence from fossil corals suggests that sea levels could rise even more steeply in our warming world than previously thought.
“This is not good news for us as we head into the future,” says Andrea Dutton, a professor of geoscience at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Dutton and her PhD student Karen Vyverberg at the University of Florida led an international collaboration that included researchers from University of Sydney, University of Minnesota Twin Cities, Victoria University of Wellington and University of Massachusetts Amherst who analyzed fossilized corals discovered in the Seychelles islands.
John Hawks, a paleoanthropologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said the studies delivered a definitive answer to the question of the Harbin skull’s identity. “Mystery solved,” he said.
“I think we’ll learn a lot about what the capabilities of various A.I. protocols are from how well we can get them to generate material that’s of interest,” said Jordan S. Ellenberg, a mathematician at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who is part of a team applying for an Exponentiating Mathematics grant. “We have no intuition yet about which problems are going to be hard and which problems are easy. We need to learn that.”
The Morgridge Institute for Research, or MIR, at the University of Wisconsin–Madison has always been a bit of a mystery to me, and not just because the scientific research that goes on there exceeds my limited grasp of biology, chemistry and physics. (Or the fact that the building it shares with the Wisconsin Institute for Discovery, or WID, is at the nearly-impossible-to-navigate intersection of University Avenue, Campus Drive, North Randall Avenue and North Orchard Street.)
The effect on U.S. forecasting will be “like losing your eyesight: slow and torturous,” said Jonathan Martin, a professor of atmospheric sciences at the University of Wisconsin.
Americans who have grown up amid the “unheralded revolution” of ever-more-precise weather forecasts will find themselves in a world growing blurrier — even as the weather grows ever more volatile, Martin added.
“AGE-PRO provides the first measurements of gas disk masses and sizes across the lifetime of planet-forming disks,” research principal investigator Ke Zhang, of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said in a statement.
How much exercise is needed to counter the several hours of sitting we do every day? Our two regular physical therapists break it down. Then, we talk to a UW-Madison researcher about the science of color.
Both large and small dairy farms in Wisconsin depend on immigrant laborers to fill positions that go unfilled by local workers. Undocumented workers perform an estimated 70% of the work on Wisconsin’s dairy farms, according to a University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Workers study.
Kelly Elizabeth Wright, an assistant professor of language sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and the lead editor of Among the New Words, said that it can be difficult to pinpoint when a phrase is created, and whether or not the language comes from African American Language or if it is just used within Black communities.
“I don’t think that it’s inaccurate to say that Black Twitter and other online spaces were using these terms maybe first or more visibly than when it was floating around in high school classrooms all across the country this year,” Dr. Wright said. “I also don’t think it’s inaccurate to say that young people online are using this term. I think both things can be true at the same time.”
Researchers from the University of Wisconsin–Madison and the University of Florida led the project, working with colleagues at the University of Sydney, the University of Minnesota Twin Cities, Victoria University of Wellington, and the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
“This is not good news for us as we head into the future,” said Andrea Dutton, a professor of geoscience at Wisconsin.
Neurosurgeon and professor Mahua Dey is concerned her team’s effort to develop a glioblastoma vaccine at the University of Wisconsin-Madison could stall as sweeping actions by the Trump administration to curb federal health funding trickle down to individual labs.
It’s important to note, however, that the study’s findings are limited — researchers conducted testing on mice and only tracked health effects for about three days after exposure. Plus, microplastics are difficult to quantify — if another team of researchers did the same study, their findings may vary, says Hoaran Wei, an assistant professor in the department of civil and environmental engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
FEMA Director David Richardson recently claimed he was unaware that there is a hurricane season in the United States. There most certainly is such a season.
The Atlantic hurricane season climatologically runs from June 1 through Nov. 30, with the most active part of the season being mid-August through mid-October.
Poker puts into focus the same gender dynamics that can create anxiety for women in a patriarchal society, says Jessica Calarco, a sociologist, professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and author of ”Holding It Together: How Women Became America’s Safety Net.” “You’re expected to read the room, stay composed, and manage risk — much like women do every day in a world that asks them to carry everything without appearing to struggle,” she tells me.
UW-Madison researchers, who study Wisconsin’s lakes, are grappling with uncertainty as cuts to the National Science Foundation (NSF) could threaten decades of freshwater research.
Professors Emily Stanley and Hilary Dugan from the UW-Madison Lab for Limnology have dedicated their careers to studying freshwater systems, with Lake Mendota serving as a key research site.
A new study by the University of Wisconsin’s School of Medicine and Public Health has found that the level of regret reported by transgender individuals following gender-affirming surgery is less than 1%, which is significantly lower than the regret associated with having children, getting a tattoo, or undergoing plastic surgery.
James Li is the A. A. Alexander Associate Professor of Psychology and an investigator at the Waisman Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He told WPR’s “Wisconsin Today” that Kennedy’s statements on the harms of medications like Adderall aren’t based in science.
“The evidence is quite clear that the medications that are currently FDA-approved and prescribed to treat ADHD in particular are fairly well tolerated. They don’t lead to early mortality … and they are generally very beneficial when used properly under doctor’s orders,” Li said.
Dr. Eric Sandgren, a professor emeritus at the UW-Madison who headed the university’s animal research operations for a decade, ending in 2016, calls these directives “nothing new.” Researchers, he says, have for some time been moving away from the use of animals as other models have become viable. “This just formalizes something that’s happening already.”
Dr Jae-Hyuk Yu, a professor of bacteriology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, recommends using a bleach solution (one tablespoon of bleach per gallon of water), an Environmental Protection Agency-registered kitchen disinfectant, or an alcohol-based spray for sanitizing hard surfaces, especially after preparing raw meat. And when handling cleaning chemicals, use gloves and ventilate well. He recommends cleaning fridge shelves monthly and ensuring your fridge is consistently under 40F (4C) to prevent bacteria from lurking around.
Bats, birds, turtles, coyotes and more are the subject of study and conservation efforts, especially in the spring when they can be readily seen. We talk again to David Drake and Jamie Nack, wildlife specialists with UW-Extension, about these and other Wisconsin critters.
All that most students see of the University of Wisconsin Zoological Museum (UWZM), located in the Noland Zoology Building, is the fourth floor staircase’s sign prohibiting entrance from all other than museum staff.
Behind the locked doors, however, the museum’s extensive collections of animal skins and skeletons serve as a powerful resource for research and learning.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison lost at least $12 million in federal research grants since the start of the Trump administration, forcing faculty and researchers to shut down projects, lay off staff and scale back scientific progress.
Dr. Ellen Selkie, an assistant professor at UW-Madison and principal investigator on a now-defunded National Institute of Health-funded study, said her team enrolled more than 325 adolescents from across Wisconsin and collected comprehensive data to explore a question they believed to be at the center of national concern: How does social media affect youth mental health?
Lake Huron is about 183 miles wide and 206 miles long, the University of Wisconsin Sea Grant says.
Rising housing costs have been forcing some Wisconsinites to delay medical care, which can lead to negative health outcomes for residents and communities.
That’s according to a new report from the University of Wisconsin-Extension as part of a project examining livability in rural communities led by Tessa Conroy, associate professor of agricultural and applied economics at UW-Madison.
When a Thai princess was looking to reinvigorate her country’s dairy industry, she quickly turned to the University of Wisconsin-Madison for help. The UW-College of Agricultural and Life Sciences answered her invitation with experts from the departments of animal and dairy sciences, and biological systems engineering. They, with financial support from Thailand, recently put their boots on the ground to start an exchange of ideas that will benefit both nations.
Written by James Pikul, an associate professor of mechanical engineering at UW-Madison.
A University of Wisconsin-Madison survey found that a quarter of providers might shut down without some form of direct aid from the state and a third would close at least some classrooms.
Written by ssociate professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison Collaborative for Reproductive Equity released a study this spring showing that during the 13-month period in which abortion was largely unavailable in Wisconsin, OB-GYNs struggled to provide care for pregnant patients and treat pregnancy complications because of unclear legal guidelines.
“Cave ecosystems are so fragile that if you start pulling on this thread, what else are you going to unravel that may create bigger problems in the cave system?” said University of Wisconsin–Madison wildlife specialist David Drake to the Badger Herald’s Kiran Mistry in December.
Incidentally, if you’re trying to figure out how to find these kinds of dairy recalls, you might want to visit the website of the University of Wisconsin’s Center for Dairy Research, which maintains a Dairy Recall Tracker. It’s regularly updated with any new recall notices from the Food and Drug Administration, letting you find about any new food recalls quickly and easily. It’s a handy tool that can help you figure out what dairy products should and shouldn’t be in your fridge.
Historically, hypergamy—when a woman marries a man of higher social or educational status—was the norm. However, this trend is gradually reversing. In the United States, according to sociologist Christine Schwartz of the University of Wisconsin, the proportion of couples where the woman is more highly educated than her partner increased from 39% in 1980 to 62% in 2020.
University of Wisconsin-Madison nuclear fusion startup Realta Fusion raised $36 million dollars with the hope of building the world’s first commercially viable and operating nuclear fusion device prototype by 2028.
We also found something we did not expect: a gender gap in how students respond to rising housing prices. University enrollment among male students drops sharply as housing costs rise. For female students, the pattern is different. In some cases, female enrollment actually increases, perhaps because women see education as a long-term investment worth making, even in tough times. But when tuition and housing costs rise together, even that resilience begins to falter.
UW-Madison political philosophy professor Annette Zimmerman considers economic motivations for locating AI data centers in Wisconsin and political conflict over how this industry can impact jobs.
Together, the moves have left health experts, vaccine makers and insurers uncertain about what to advise and what comes next.
“It’s going to add a lot of confusion overall,” said Ajay Sethi, an epidemiologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
The study, performed by researchers from the University of Arizona and the University of Wisconsin, observed Uranus four times (2002, 2012, 2015, 2022) in the 20 years using NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope.
The UW–Madison Transdisciplinary Center for Research in Psychoactive Substances supports research and education into psychedelic drugs and related compounds. The idea is to learn how these psychedelic substances may help mood or behavior in ways other forms of therapy can sometimes fall short.
For the last 10 years, the center at UW-Madison has been part of a psychedelic renaissance in the science community, one that comes after decades of negative media attention stymied research and public perceptions.
Written by Kevin P. Reilly, president emeritus of the University of Wisconsin system. He served as president of the system from 2004 to 2013.
