The U.S. practices mass incarceration more than any other country in the world. In this hour, four members of UW’s School of Human Ecology approach the problem of mass incarceration, looking at the design of prison spaces, the impact on families of those behind bars, and the involvement of communities….
A new study says invasive species in lakes cause significant economic damage. The study examined the spiny water flea invasion of a single Wisconsin lake and calculated the damage to the lake’s water quality at $140 million. While the study focused on one lake, it points to the need for more data about the economic impact of invasive species, said study author Jake Walsh, a Ph.D. student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
In its sixth year, the University of Wisconsin–Madison’s “Cool Science Image” contest has lived up to its name.
While African-Americans are nearly twice as likely as whites to develop Alzheimer’s disease, a history of abuse and arrogance by the scientific community is frustrating efforts to recruit people of color to join dementia research programs.
The month of March may be all about the Madness, but it’s also National Athletic Training Month.
In honor of this month, the Department of Kinesiology at UW-Madison is busy collecting data about high school athletes.
“There’s certain orthopedic injuries that used to be reserved for baseball players with 20 years of experience,” assistant professor, David Bell, said.
“Now they’re seeing them in kids that are 14 and 15,” he continued.
An image of human tissue and blood cells that looks like an Impressionist painting, a blood-red moon, and a batch of stinkbug eggs are among the 10 images that won the 2016 Cool Science Image contest.
“Never tried sharing data like this before,” said the tweet. “Feels like walking into a country for the first time. Exciting, but don’t know what to expect.”David O’Connor of the University of Wisconsin-Madison was announcing his decision on February 14th to post online data from his laboratory’s latest experiment.
Between late April and the end of summer, lucky birders might catch sight of the elusive hooded warbler on Picnic Point, where at least one has been spotted in the last few years. Or they might do better venturing into Kettle Moraine State Forest’s thick understory, where the warblers nest in greater numbers.
Rural counties have higher rates of smoking, obesity, child poverty and teen births, as well as higher numbers of uninsured adults than their urban counterparts, according to the report, a collaboration between the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute. Large urban counties have lower smoking and obesity rates, fewer injury deaths and more residents who attended some college.
“What we think is going on here is that … in rural areas, there is a smaller population, fewer businesses, fewer taxes — and they’re struggling to offer as many opportunities as urban,” said lead researcher Bridget Catlin [senior scientist and director of MATCH]. “All of this has a significant impact on health.”
Presbyopia is a common visual condition, in which the eye’s lens stiffens to the point that it can’t focus on close objects. Glasses, surgery and regular contact lenses do help, but they also cause a loss in contrast, sensitivity and night vision. That’s why scientists from the University of Wisconsin, Madison are developing an alternative – self-focusing contacts that are inspired by a fish.
A possible pilot study would investigate the effects of mindfulness training on Madison police officers. MPD Chief Mike Koval says he’s working with the Center for Healthy Minds at the University of Wisconsin to plan the project to determine how mindfulness training affects a police officer’s physical and mental well-being.
If you are one of a billion people who rely on glasses to read small print, a self-adjusting liquid contact lens could one day restore perfect vision.
The Himawari geostationary satellites, operated by Japan’s meteorological agency, captured the sight of the moon’s shadow traveling across the Earth. Yasuhiko Sumida, a scientist visiting the Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, stitched them together into the video above. It was shared on the CIMSS Satellite Blog.
Noted: Dr. David Drake starts his mornings when the campus is just lit by a few headlights and street lamps. He’s on the look out for coyotes, the animals you hope you don’t see in your backyard. He leads the UW-Canid Project. “At least with some of our preliminary data, the coyotes are concentrating a lot of their time and activity to green spaces within the urban landscape,” said Dr. Drake.
Quoted: It was another sobering counterpoint to idea that women alone risk the health of their child the longer they wait to conceive them. But according to Maureen Durkin, an epidemiologist and professor of population health sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, researchers have long understood that the age of both parents has an effect on a developing fetus.
A national grant will help researchers at UW-Madison study concussions in soccer players.
The UW School of Medicine and Public Health received $300,000 from the National Operating Committee on Standards for Athletic Equipment.
Anyone can follow the pregnancy of a monkey infected with Zika virus in real time, thanks to a University of Wisconsin–Madison experiment in data sharing that’s unusual for biology.
Noted: The Rusty Batch Bumble Bee was first discovered at the Arboretum a few years ago and researchers said it works harder than any other bee species. They said its an important part of our State’s agriculture.
“They are crucial,” said Susan Carpenter, ranger unit coordinator at the U-W Madison Arboretum. “They are important for our food system.”
Noted: The Dalai Lama is also a longtime friend of the Center for Healthy Minds’ founder, Richard Davidson. The UW-Madison neuroscience professor, who is a participant, is looking forward to seeing the Dalai Lama.
Said Davidson, “He may not have any formal scientific training, which he clearly does not have, but he has an extraordinarily sophisticated understanding of how the mind works, because he’s been so attentive to his own mind.”
Noted: “We know that these discussions or conflicts concerning money are difficult for couples to handle,” says Lauren Papp, a psychologist and professor at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.Papp conducted a study of 100 married couples who kept diary entries about their arguments. During the 15-day period of the study, the spouses reported squabbling more often about issues other than money — for example, the kids or household chores.
Noted: Let’s get philosophical for a minute: Is the best price always the best deal? A recent study from the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Wisconsin School of Business suggests that shoppers consider a retailer’s reputation as well as its prices. Savvy shoppers will think twice before buying from a less reputable merchant.
Noted: Author Michael Collins is a professor of Public Affairs and faculty director of the Center for Financial Security, University of Wisconsin—Madison and editor of the book A Fragile Balance: Emergency Savings and Liquid Resources for Low-Income Consumers, Palgrave Macmillan.
Noted: The gala, added in 2012, draws a throng of media and serves as a fundraiser for the graduate studies programs at UW-Madison’s Center for Dairy Research.
During the course of a professional friendship spanning more than two decades, UW-Madison neuroscientist Richard Davidson has had many opportunities, formally and informally, to discuss his research with the Dalai Lama.
Little is known about the Zika virus. First identified in 1947, the reach of the disease in both geographic and population terms was barely noticeable for decades. However, new cases have rapidly increased since May 2015, starting in Brazil and spreading as far as Mexico, Puerto Rico and even the continental United States.
On today’s Wisconsin Life we’ll be learning about a recent discovery at the Wisconsin State Herbarium: Century-old research specimens collected by the historically prominent scientist, George Washington Carver.
U.S. inventor George Washington Carver, known for his creativity with the peanut, has excited modern scientists with an unexpected find: century-old specimens of fungus.
Quoted: “We have a 50-foot well filled with ice, and at the bottom, we’ve got about six feet of rock. And we’re doing testing of both configurations or both media. So we’ll go through the 50 feet of ice and then drill some rock, which represents what we’ll be doing in Antarctica,” said Chris Gibson, the engineering project manager for the ASIG drill.
Never mind Punxsutawney Phil. The thirteen-lined ground squirrels that hibernate in plastic drawers in the UW-Madison Biotron take their cues from Hannah Carey.
Typical Wisconsin seasons might not be so typical in the coming years, particularly the Badger State’s notoriously cold winters, according to two University of Wisconsin-Madison professors. “We’ll still have winters,” said Steve Ackerman, director of the Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies at UW-Madison and a professor of atmospheric sciences. “But they will be shorter and warmer.”
Gratton is a professor of entomology at UW-Madison.
Keep your fingers crossed for clear skies Wednesday night, because UW-Madison’s Washburn observatory will be open for public stargazing for the first time in nearly two years.
There are 115 universities in the United States that can lay claim to an “R1” rating from the national organization that ranks research institutions, and Wisconsin is now home to two of them: UW-Madison and UW-Milwaukee, which joined the elite Research Level 1 list in February.
Noted: Steve Ackerman and Jonathan Martin, professors in the UW-Madison department of atmospheric and oceanic sciences, are guests on WHA radio (970 AM) at 11:45 a.m. the last Monday of each month.
Noted: Zanichkowsky will be among the some 200 artists, scientists, architects and educators who have taken the trip since 2009. Those alumni include artist Stephen Hilyard, professor of digital arts at UW-Madison, who did the Arctic residency in 2012.
Noted: Jim Lattis is the director of the UW Space Place, which is part of the astronomy department at UW-Madison.
Noted: Manhattan-based Crown Publishers, which also is publishing a mass-market edition for British readers, chose Milwaukee for the national book launch, which takes place Tuesday. Desmond will speak at Marquette University Law School and Boswell Book Co., followed Wednesday by an appearance at his grad-school alma mater, the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Long time University of Wisconsin professor James Rawlings joined a group of scientists across the country that have been recognized for their outstanding contributions to science throughout their careers.
UW-Madison spin-off organization Stemina Biomarker Discovery is attempting to create a biological method to diagnose autism by screening blood samples.
CEO Elizabeth Donley and UW-Madison professor in the Department of Animal Sciences Gabriela Cezar founded the company in 2006, according to a university release.
Noted: Even as the nation’s economy was recovering from the Great Recession, the number of Wisconsin residents living in poverty averaged 13% — the highest since 1984, according to a trend analysis by UW-Madison’s Applied Population Laboratory.
Lamar, his sons and some other adolescent boys from their Milwaukee neighborhood are sitting around, playing cards and smoking blunts, when there is a loud and confident knock on the door, which could be “a landlord’s knock, or a sheriff’s.” Mercifully it is only Colin, a young white man from their church, who has come to read them passages from the Bible, most of which Lamar knows by heart. The subject wanders off to God and the Devil, with Lamar adding, “And Earth is hell.” “Well,” Colin corrects him, “not quite hell.” An awkward silence falls.
To describe different levels of human thought, the ancient Greek thinker Plato came up with the Allegory of the Cave. Essentially, he described a metaphorical situation in which some people (the ones with true knowledge) could see the world as it really is. But many more only experienced life as a series of shadows upon a cave wall, never really understanding what was going on.
A controversial bill that would have banned the use and sale of aborted fetal tissue failed to make it through the Assembly this session, but one expert said he expects similar bills to be proposed in the future.
University of Wisconsin political science professor Barry Burden said the Legislature did not take up the bill likely because of overwhelming opposition from businesses and research organizations that were worried it would push jobs out of the state and shut down essential research.
Noted: Research “is accelerating right now,” said Dorothy Farrar-Edwards, chair of the department of kinesiology at University of Wisconson-Madison and core leader of outreach, recruitment and education at the Wisconsin Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center, referencing recently passed legislation that will give $300 million to the National Institute of Health specifically for Alzheimer’s research in 2016.
Also quoted: Barbara Bowers, professor and associate dean for research in the school of nursing at UW, said “decades of research” have shown that “social engagement is actually one of the most important things you can do for quality of life and longevity.”
Noted: Piefer was in the UW-Madison’s nuclear engineering Ph.D program, and after getting his degree, he developed the technology, he said, and forged a partnership with the private, nonprofit Morgridge Institute for Research on the UW campus.
A research team led by UW-Madison atmospheric and oceanic sciences professor Galen McKinley released new information regarding the capacity for oceans to absorb carbon dioxide emissions, according to a university news release. The researchers hope their model will more accurately address climate questions.
Poverty in Wisconsin hit its highest level in 30 years during the five-year period ending in 2014, even as the nation’s economy was recovering from the Great Recession, according to a trend analysis of U.S. census data just released by University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers.
A new analysis from the University of Wisconsin-Madison Applied Population Laboratory shows that poverty is on the rise in Wisconsin. In 2014, the most recent data in the study, the poverty rate reached 13 percent, the highest rate since 1984. The rate increased 20 percent in just five years between 2010 and 2014.
Poverty in Wisconsin is at its highest level in 30 years, according to a trend analysis of U.S. Census data by University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers.
According to a recently published University of Wisconsin Applied Population Laboratory report, the state’s poverty level has worsened significantly in the last several years despite economic growth.
The lab’s analysis of U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey data collected between 2005-09 and 2010-14 revealed poverty reached 13 percent — its highest level in 30 years — during the latter period, Malia Jones, assistant scientist at the Applied Population Laboratory, said.
Three UW-Madison professors have been selected as Sloan Research Fellows, one of the top awards given to young researchers.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison is one of three schools working with non-profit research institute SRI International under a $5.3 million federal grant to develop technology to thwart particularly costly cyberattacks.
Scientists at the University of Wisconsin have developed a new energy-harvesting technology capable of capturing energy produced as humans walk. WSJ’s Monika Auger reports. Photo: UW-Madison College of Engineering
Balance is like breathing. It’s essential, and we take it for granted when it comes easily. Without a reliable sense of balance dressing, cooking, driving and many job skills become exhausting tasks.
UW-Madison graduate student Amy Alstad released survey findings Friday about human influence on the rate of species change in Wisconsin prairies.
Researchers in the United States who have infected monkeys with Zika virus made their first data public last week. But instead of publishing them in a journal, they have released them online for anyone to view — and are updating their results day by day. The team is posting raw data on the amount of virus detected in the blood, saliva and urine of three Indian rhesus macaques, which they injected with Zika on 15 February. “This is the first time that our group has made data available in real time,” says David O’Connor, a virologist at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and a leader of the project, whose scientists have dubbed themselves ZEST (the Zika experimental-science team). He hopes that releasing the data will help to speed up research into the nature of the virus that has spread across the Americas.
The selling of sociology’s next great hope began with a long talk between a literary agent and her potential client. Jill Kneerim was a veteran dealmaker known for helping Boston-area academics publish trade books. She’d done it for Stephen Greenblatt, shepherding the Harvard Shakespearean’s Will in the World (W.W. Norton) onto the bestseller list. She’d done it for Caroline Elkins, also of Harvard, whose history of colonialism in Kenya, Imperial Reckoning (Henry Holt and Company), won the Pulitzer Prize. Now here was Matthew Desmond, an urban ethnographer eager to fight poverty. Another Cambridge star paying a visit to her office near Boston’s North Station.
After an anti-abortion organization released videos portraying Planned Parenthood as callously haggling the price of aborted fetuses, legislators have attempted to restrict research using such material, while scientists have found their work limited and riskier. Interviews with Anita Bhattacharyya, Gail Robertson and Alta Charo.
UW-Madison scientist Dave Pagliarini has been selected by Pres. Barack Obama as a recipient of the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers.
The first comprehensive study of lower extremity body injuries in high school athletes shows those who specialize in one sport are at a much higher risk of injury.
Quoted: “We found overall slightly less than 40 percent specialized in a sport, meaning they really concentrated on that one sport. They may play in multiple sports, but concentrated on one,” says Tim McGuine, senior scientist at UW School of Medicine and Public Health and author of the study’s findings.
