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.
Field stations in a box
Isthmus
Category: Research
Wisconsin’s Seasonal Weather Might Look Different In Next 5, 10 Years, Experts Say
Wisconsin Public Radio
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.”
Claudio Gratton: Raising awareness is first step to improving plight of bees
Wisconsin State Journal
Gratton is a professor of entomology at UW-Madison.
UW-Madison’s Washburn Observatory reopens next week after long hiatus
Capital Times
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.
Tom Still: Why basic research matters at Wisconsin’s colleges and universities | Madison Wisconsin Business News | host.madison.com
Wisconsin State Journal
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.
Ask the Weather Guys: What is ‘sea smoke’?
Wisconsin State Journal
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.
Venturing to the Arctic for art
Wisconsin State Journal
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.
Blue Sky Science: What’s the science behind leap year?
Wisconsin State Journal
Noted: Jim Lattis is the director of the UW Space Place, which is part of the astronomy department at UW-Madison.
Sociologist opens door on devastating effects of evictions
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
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.
UW professor awarded prestigious national position in engineering
Badger Herald
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 company studies potential autism identifiers
Daily Cardinal
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.
Wisconsin Poverty – State Senate must focus on bills that improve economy
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
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.
Matthew Desmond’s ‘Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City’
New York Times
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.
BTN LiveBIG: Badgers’ ‘CAVE’ a haven for experiential learning
Big Ten Network
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.
Business, research interests likely stalled fetal tissue bill this session
Badger Herald
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.
Laughter may not be medicine, but it sure does help
Madison Commons
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.”
SHINE Medical wins NRC’s OK to build medical isotope plant
Wisconsin State Journal
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.
UW-Madison research team creates model to predict climate change
Daily Cardinal
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 across Wisconsin reaches highest level in 30 years
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
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.
Wisconsin Poverty Rate Reaches Highest Level in 30 Years
Wisconsin Public Radio
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.
Study finds Wisconsin poverty rate at 30 year high
Wisconsin Radio Network
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.
UW report says Wisconsin poverty level at 30-year high
Badger Herald
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.
UW professors win prestigious research fellowships
Wisconsin State Journal
Three UW-Madison professors have been selected as Sloan Research Fellows, one of the top awards given to young researchers.
UW-Madison team helping to develop system for thwarting cyberattacks
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
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.
Smart Sole Can Charge Your Smartphone as You Walk
Wall Street Journal
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
Balancing act
Isthmus
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 grad student updates research on Wisconsin prairies
Daily Cardinal
UW-Madison graduate student Amy Alstad released survey findings Friday about human influence on the rate of species change in Wisconsin prairies.
Zika researchers release real-time data on viral infection study in monkeys
Nature
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 Great Expectations of Matthew Desmond
The Chronicle of Higher Education
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.
How Planned Parenthood foes are thwarting research Into Alzheimer’s, Ebola, and more
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 scientist Dave Pagliarini wins presidential award
Wisconsin State Journal
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.
Study shows high school athletes at greater risk to lower body injury
Channel3000.com
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.
Critics: State’s plan to save bees provides little protection from pesticides
Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism (via Channel3000.com)
Quoted: Claudio Gratton, professor of entomology, who worked on the pollinator proposal for the state Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection; Paul Mitchell, associate professor and co-director of the UW-Extension’s Nutrient and Pest Management Program; Russell Groves, an insect ecologist and vegetable crop specialist at the UW-Madison Department of Entomology.
Critics: State’s plan to save bees provides little protection from pesticides
Capital Times
Noted: By 2012, virtually all corn seed, and about 30 percent of soybean seed planted in Wisconsin and across the country, was coated with neonics, said Paul Mitchell, a UW-Madison associate professor who co-directs the UW-Extension’s Nutrient and Pest Management Program. Neonic-coated seeds also are widely used on other crops such as potatoes and in lawns and gardens. Also: Russell Groves, an insect ecologist and vegetable crop specialist at the UW-Madison Department of Entomology, said farmers continually search for ways to reduce the risk of crop loss due to pests in part to meet consumer demand for low food prices. Groves said federal policies also incentivize larger farms, where natural pest solutions are less practical.
Specimens in State Herbarium linked back to George Washington Carver
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
They were just tiny black dots on sesame stalks, unnoticed except to the trained eye.
Railroad crossing bill moves down track
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Noted: Coyote meeting, chat: A public meeting on the Milwaukee County coyote trapping and tracking project will be held from 6 to 7:30 p.m. Monday at Wil-O-Way Underwood, 10602 Underwood Parkway, Wauwatosa. Researchers from the UW-Madison Urban Canid Project will discuss coyote ecology, coyote-human conflict and behavior modification as well as ongoing monitoring and management efforts. Representatives of the Milwaukee County Parks Department and DNR also will be on hand.
A Harvard Sociologist on Watching Families Lose Their Homes
New York Times
The first time the sociologist Matthew Desmond rode along during an eviction, he was shocked by the suddenness of “seeing your house turn into not your house in seconds.”
Survey Of Wisconsin Prairies Shows Some Plant Species There Are In Decline
Wisconsin Public Radio
About 60 years ago, renowned University of Wisconsin-Madison Botany Professor John Curtis and some of his students did a survey of plants growing in hundreds of prairie remnants in southern Wisconsin. Thirty years later, researcher Mark Leach returned to those same sites to find that many of those species had disappeared.
Mapping brains of people with epilepsy
Isthmus
An ambitious project to map the human brain by the National Institutes of Health has funded a four-year, $5 million statewide study to image the brains of people with epilepsy. Researchers at UW-Madison and the Medical College of Wisconsin have joined the NIH Human Connectome Project, a national library of medical imaging data being used to create maps of human brain connectivity.
UW Event Will Focus On Impact Of Alzheimer’s Disease In Black Communities
Wisconsin Public Radio
Free memory screenings and caregiving workshops will be part of a University of Wisconsin Health event in Madison dedicated to raising awareness of Alzheimer’s disease in African-American communities.
Assembly passes bills aimed at Alzheimer’s, dementia research and support
Wisconsin State Journal
Among the legislation passes is a bill to provide $50,000 in additional funding annually for Alzheimer’s research at UW-Madison
10-bill dementia research, funding package passes Assembly
WISC-TV 3
Noted: The 10-bill package includes proposals to spend $50,000 for virtual dementia tours, in which participants wear goggles to simulate dementia effects, and give the University of Wisconsin-Madison an additional $50,000 for Alzheimer’s research.
UW assistant geology professor co-authors climate change paper in science journal
Badger Herald
A University of Wisconsin assistant professor co-authored a paper which projects the impact of four different CO2 emission scenarios by 2300. Shaun Marcott, assistant professor in the Department of Geoscience at University of Wisconsin, is the co-author of a perspective paper published in Nature Climate Change on Feb. 8.
Assembly to take up dementia bills
AP (via WKOW)
The state Assembly is set to approve a package of legislation designed to help people cope with Alzheimer’s disease and dementia.
The 10-bill package includes proposals to spend $50,000 for virtual dementia tours, in which participants wear goggles to simulate dementia effects, and give the University of Wisconsin-Madison an additional $50,000 for Alzheimer’s research.
Applications being taken for crystal growing competition
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Quoted: “We’re trying to make the campus more accessible as a destination for the best and brightest students in our state,” said Ilia Guzei, director of the X-ray crystallography lab at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and the organizer of the contest.
Wisconsin dairy farmers worry about losing Latino workers
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Noted: According to a UW study, nearly 90% of Wisconsin’s immigrant dairy workers are from Mexico. Some of them have come here from other states, such as Arizona, that have passed laws cracking down on undocumented workers.
UW scientists team up with Big Oil to develop renewable jet fuel
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Low oil prices are restraining the ability of renewable energy technologies to compete, but work forges ahead on alternatives to petroleum-based fuels.
U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin: Strengthen America’s commitment to next generation of researchers
Wisconsin State Journal
U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin column: I have worked across party lines with U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and introduced the Next Generation (NextGen) Researchers Act. Our bipartisan legislation builds opportunities for new researchers, helps address the debt burden that young scientists face today, and invests in the future of research, science and innovation. This common-sense proposal, which cleared Senate committee consideration this month, would create the “Next Generation Researchers Initiative” in the NIH Office of the Director to coordinate all NIH policies aimed at promoting opportunities for new researchers and earlier research independence. The legislation also directs the NIH to consider recommendations from a National Academy of Sciences comprehensive study and report on fostering the next generation of researchers.
Letter to the editor: Fetal tissue crucial for medical advancements
Badger Herald
Letter to the editor from UW-Madison undergraduate student, Ryan Prestil, president of the Student Society for Stem Cell Research, opposing current efforts in the state to restrict fetal tissue research.
Madison’s wily coyotes: An uptick in encounters has some worried, others delighted
Capital Times
Noted: A University of Wisconsin-Madison research project looking at the habits and health of urban coyotes and foxes has emerged as something of an ambassador for the animals. “What we’re really trying to do with this project, in addition to understanding how these animals are using the urban landscape and understanding how health or not healthy these animals are, is trying to engage the public and educate the public and increase the public’s tolerance of these animals so we can increase a peaceful coexistence,” said David Drake, the lead researcher for the UW Urban Canid Project, which studies the urban habits of both coyotes and their cuter, less-threatening cousins, the foxes.
Historic research found at UW Madison
WMTV NBC 15
UW Madison professor and researcher Kenneth Cameron made a monumental discovery this week.
Fungi samples found by George Washington Carver, the famous African American scientist, were discovered after sitting untouched for over fifty years.
Leonard Pitts Jr.: Sitcoms help ease bigotry, UW study suggests
Wisconsin State Journal
Column cites research of Sohad Murrar, a doctoral candidate in social psychology at UW-Madison, who used the Canadian TV show “Little Mosque on the Prairie” to test whether entertainment media can reduce prejudice.
Cycle for Sight – A Q&A with McPherson Eye Research Institute volunteer Marshall Flax
Madison Magazine
Noted: MM: How has the McPherson Eye Research Institute and its events enhanced the Madison community?
For those who have an interest in vision – in the broadest sense of the word – the McPherson ERI is a place where one can present or consider new ideas. The events that are presented range from cutting edge research to basic information about vision and eyes from the cellular to the cultural. By providing a greenhouse for research and ideas, the McPherson ERI helps to keep UW-Madison as a world leader in vision research. This, in turn, helps to foster growth and development in departments and labs throughout the UW, which brings in more resources that can benefit a number of other environments.
Q&A: What’s so punk rock about operations research? Plenty, says UW’s Laura Albert McLay
Capital Times
Q&A with Associate Professor of Engineering Laura Albert McLay about operations research, in which mathematical models are used to aid decision-making, offers much more benefit to the world than trying to win the lottery.
UW Researchers Work To Study Zika Virus In Monkeys
Wisconsin Public Radio
Despite the constant media attention the Zika virus has received so far in 2016, University of Wisconsin-Madison pathologist David O’Connor thinks people shouldn’t panic.
UW-Madison researchers genetically reprogram cells
Daily Cardinal
UW-Madison researchers published a journal Feb. 11 detailing how they genetically reprogrammed the most common type of cells in mammalian connective tissue into master heart cells.
The research team, led by Timothy J. Kamp, said that the technology they created has the possibility of producing a virtually unlimited amount of the three major types of cells in the human heart, according to a university release.
UW-Madison engineers discover process to turn off genes
Daily Cardinal
A group of UW-Madison engineers has discovered how to turn on and off specific genes within bacteria, according to a university press release.
“We were frustrated because synthetic biology is littered with examples of artificial factors that can turn on and turn off gene expression under different conditions, but they only work for certain genes,” said Brian Pfleger, a UW-Madison associate professor of chemical and biological engineering.
UW researchers will tackle Zika virus study
NBC15
As the Zika virus continues to make headlines around the world, researchers here in Madison are working hard to find answers to questions surrounding the outbreak. Next Monday they are hoping to start their research on the virus’ effects.
“I’m excited about this in the same way a meteorologist would be excited about a hurricane,” said David O’Connor. He’s one of the professors heading the Zika virus study at UW, and there are many reasons why he is passionate about this study.
Baa-ad for business
Isthmus
Believe it or not, Wisconsin is the Silicon Valley of sheep cheese.
UW-Madison picked as the site for first-ever organic research endowment
Wisconsin State Journal
A unique organic agricultural research opportunity in the form of a $2 million endowment has been created for UW-Madison with help from two organic food companies.