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Category: Experts Guide

This Wisconsin county keeps roads clear, saves money by using cheese byproduct. Here’s why

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Wisconsin State Farmer

Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Traffic Operations and Safety (TOPS) lab have found liquid brine in water highway maintenance cleared the state’s highways faster, provided better friction on roadways and reduced overall salt usage.

“The data tells a very positive story for winter highway safety in Wisconsin,” says Andrea Bill, associate director of the TOPS Lab, which is housed in the UW-Madison College of Engineering. “Liquid brine is an effective tool, and along with training, education and technology, our storm fighters are making effective reductions in the amount of chloride on our roads and improving the performance of winter roads.”

China told to drop marriage age to boost birth rate

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Newsweek

“Even lowering the legal age of marriage to 18 will do nothing to boost the fertility rate now that people have become accustomed to marrying young and having children later,” said Yi Fuxian, a senior scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, who conducts demography research. “China’s age of first marriage in 2020 was 29.4 years for men and 28.0 years for women, and it will continue to be delayed, following along the same path as Taiwan and South Korea.”

NIH funding cuts ‘a travesty to biomedical research,’ says UW research director

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Wisconsin Public Radio

An announcement from the National Institutes of Health earlier this month said the agency would slash support for indirect research costs paid to universities, medical centers and other grant recipients.

The change could leave research institutions like the University of Wisconsin-Madison scrambling for millions of dollars from other sources to support labs, students and staff.

Trump administration delays Wisconsin research funds by withholding, canceling review meetings

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Wisconsin Public Radio

“This is clearly a loophole which is now used to stall the reviews,” said Dorota Grejner-Brzezinska, vice chancellor for research at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. The impact of the postponement won’t be felt immediately, she said. But if the meetings can’t continue, it will have an impact in coming months.

“At the minimum, a delay. At the most extreme case, maybe funding won’t happen,” Grejner-Brzezinska said. “At the moment, we hope that it is just a delay. And are watching what’s going to happen next.”

Musk-backed SCOWIS attack ad features wrong Susan Crawford

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Wisconsin Public Radio

It’s a sign of an increasingly negative campaign environment, said Michael Wagner, an expert on political communications at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

“One thing that we’ve seen in our politics over the last several election cycles is an increasing willingness to take the shot, even if the candidate isn’t sure that the shot is accurate,” Wagner said. “The rush to get on air with negative ads, the appetite some audiences seem to have for them, all kind of contribute to the environment where mistakes like this can happen.”

Measles vaccination rates have fallen across Wisconsin, data shows

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Wisconsin Public Radio

There are several reasons for Wisconsin’s low and declining measles vaccination rates, said Jim Conway, a pediatric infectious disease professor at the University of Wisconsin’s medical school. A “recency phenomenon” is one of them, he said.

“These ‘old-fashioned diseases,’ as one parent said to me a couple weeks ago, just aren’t as concerning,” he said. “Because they’re considered diseases that affected all our parents, but they don’t see them as a current threat.”

Rule breaker investing: Pet Perks, Vol. 2

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The Motley Fool

Let’s move to pet perk number 2. This one’s a little bit quicker hitting. I was reminded that I got it from Jordan Ellenberg, the mathematician and the academic at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who joined me for Authors in August in 2023. His book “How Not To Be Wrong: The Power of Mathematical Thinking” is where pet perk, number 2, comes from. I’m going to quote him in a sec, but here it is, essentially. As you get richer as a person, as you get richer as an investor, you’re able to take more risk and that is indeed a pet perk.

A Michigan college student filed a lawsuit over a bad grade. It’s not the first time.

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Detroit Free Press

Donald Downs is a professor emeritus of political science at the University of Wisconsin. He co-founded the Academic Freedom Alliance, a nonprofit that defends the rights of professors to speak, teach and publish without interference. He said courts aren’t the right place to settle grade disputes.

“These are matters of academic freedom and it’s usually best leave it up to the professors, because they’re the ones who know the subject,” Downs said. “If you take it out of their hands, then who’s going to do it? Our position is a strong presumption in favor of the faculty members’ academic right to have discretion over grades.”

In pursuit of the best protein bar

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Wisconsin Public Radio

“We weren’t trying to design the best protein bar ever.” said Audrey Girard, who is an assistant professor in food science at the university. “We were trying to figure out how these protein bars harden so that someone else could take this, and then design the best protein bar ever.”

Finnish saunas are having a moment in Wisconsin

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Wisconsin Public Radio

Arnold Alanen is a professor emeritus of landscape architecture at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he researched the history of sauna structures. Alanen told “Wisconsin Today” that as a Finnish American, sauna has been a way of life for him from the beginning. He said he was first brought into a sauna as a very young baby, and then he caught on to the ritual when he was about 8 years old, living on his grandparents’ farm in Minnesota.

“The weekly sauna tradition was something that we did on our farm, just without interruption. We would do it every Saturday evening,” he said. “It became such an integral part of my life, as well as of our family.”

‘Heartbreaking to slow down’: UW-Madison researchers warn funding cuts would delay new treatments for cancer, more

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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, one of the nation’s top research institutions, are wary of potential cuts to funding under the Trump administration that they warn could slow their work and delay new treatments for cancer and other diseases.

On Collaborentoring: Xueli Wang offers advice for embracing mentoring as a form of collaboration.

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Inside Higher Ed

Written by Xueli Wang, the Barbara and Glenn Thompson Endowed Professor in Educational Leadership at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. With a focus on community colleges and postsecondary STEM education, her research examines educational practices, structures and policies that promote students’ holistic well-being and equitable access, experiences and outcomes.

An election for a single state Supreme Court seat becomes the ‘blockbuster’ political fight of 2025

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CNN

“It’s going to be a blockbuster,” said Barry Burden, a political scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. In a state where a Democrat controls the governor’s mansion and Republicans hold the legislative majority, the state Supreme Court “is the center of the action,” he said. “It’s become a place where a lot of hot-button issues people care about get decided.”

We asked Wisconsin Puerto Ricans to share their favorite songs from Bad Bunny’s album, here’s what they said

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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Jorell Meléndez-Badillo, an assistant professor of history at University of Wisconsin-Madison, knows the album better than the average listener.

That’s because he’s the mastermind behind the visualizers highlighting Puerto Rican history that accompany each track on the album. Bad Bunny’s team reached out to Meléndez-Badilloafter his book “Puerto Rico: A National History” published last year.

Study: Americans vastly underestimate public support for diversity and inclusion

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PsyPost

Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison became interested in this topic because they wanted to understand a puzzling contradiction. On one hand, many people express support for diversity and inclusion. On the other hand, discrimination and exclusion remain persistent problems in society. The researchers wondered if part of the problem might stem from inaccurate perceptions of what others believe.

The study, “Diversity and inclusion have greater support than most Americans think,” was authored by Naomi Isenberg and Markus Brauer.

Would Susan Crawford have to recuse from any abortion case? Why experts say she wouldn’t.

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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Howard Schweber, a professor emeritus of political science and legal studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, noted many judges previously worked as criminal prosecutors or defenders.

“It would be absurd to suggest that those judges must recuse themselves from any case involving a crime,” Schweber said.

Study: Guardian Caps do not reduce concussion risk for Wisconsin high school football players

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Wisconsin Public Radio

Wearing a padded cover over a football helmet does not reduce the risk of concussions for high school athletes, according to a new study using data from Wisconsin.

The study was conducted by University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Department of Orthopedics andRehabilitation during the 2023 football season. Its peer-reviewed findings were published on Jan. 28 in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.

From the Gulf of America to Fort Bragg, what’s behind Trump’s name changes?

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BBC

“The act of naming is a way that presidents can reshape their vision of the nation,” said Allison Prasch, a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who studies political rhetoric.

Trump’s choices in his second term send a clear message about his priorities too, she said. “It is elevating a very nationalist, imperialist vision of the United States,” Prasch said.

Public data removal impacts university research

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The Badger Herald

When this kind of data is taken away from journalists, researchers and the public, it can have big consequences for what we are able to learn, University of Wisconsin School of Journalism and Mass Communications professor Michael Wagner said.

“Being able to use public data to write stories that can hold the powerful to account is the lifeblood of good journalism and so journalists need to have access to public data to tell their audience how our leaders are using,” Wagner said. “And so to take these down and prevent journalists and researchers from using them, makes it a lot harder for us to hold power to account.”

Are we in a Constitutional crisis?

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WORT FM

We aren’t yet in a constitutional crisis, but we are in the middle of a constitutional revolution, says Howard Schewber, an emeritus professor of political science and legal studies at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Trump’s barrage of executive orders is radical, according to Schweber, because it denies Congress the authority of its power over the president.

The relationship between the gut and brain has an effect on addiction, disease and behavior

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Wisconsin Public Radio

Vanessa Sperandio, professor and chair of the medical microbiology and immunology department at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, has studied how the connect between the intestinal system and the brain — called the gut-brain axis — plays into addiction. Sperandio explained that E. coli, the bacterium famous for making people violently ill, always lives in our guts. She found that when there’s an overgrowth of E. coli, a person becomes more susceptible to cocaine addiction.

“If you have an expansion of E. coli … you enhance … cocaine addiction behaviors, cocaine seeking behaviors, cocaine administration behaviors,” she said.

There are countless examples of gut bacteria influencing our lives. Maggie Alexander, an assistant professor of medical microbiology and immunology at UW-Madison, is studying how the gut-brain axis affects autoimmune diseases, where the immune system attacks healthy parts of the body.

“There’s been this really strong connection of microbiota and autoimmune conditions,” Alexander said,

On YouTube, living vicariously through pregnancy announcements

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Newsweek

“Social media may be playing a role in pushing the birth rate down, in part by promoting the perception that people should really only have children if they can give those children what we might think of as ‘Pinterest-perfect’ lives,” said Jessica Calarco, an award-winning sociology researcher at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Beyond Bad Bunny: 5 essential Puerto Rican history reads

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Los Angeles Times

Dubbed his “most Puerto Rican album ever,” the record was released with 17 informative visualizers that outlined key moments in Puerto Rican history. Each installment was written by professor Jorell Meléndez-Badillo of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, who used his own academic book, “Puerto Rico: A National History,” as a reference.

New analysis praises Wisconsin system as way to reduce child labor violations

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Wisconsin Public Radio

“Sanitizing the facilities can be a very dangerous job in meat packing and poultry processing,” said Alexia Kulwiec, an attorney and an associate professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School for Workers. “It’s bloody work. It’s dangerous work. Sometimes folks turn on the equipment to clean it, even though they should not. That’s an instance in which people will get harmed.”

2 GOP state lawmakers pushing to advance nuclear energy in Wisconsin

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Wisconsin Public Radio

Two Republicans who chair state legislative committees on energy and utilities say they want to bring more nuclear power online in Wisconsin in the coming years.

To start that effort, they introduced a resolution calling on the Legislature to publicly support nuclear power and fusion energy.

Restrictions on CDC communications, Concerns about bird flu, An album inspired by Wisconsin’s landscape

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Wisconsin Public Radio

We learn how new restrictions on communications by federal health agencies could affect public health. Then, we look at how the ongoing bird flu epidemic is affecting farmers and whether it could surge. Then, we talk with a pianist inspired by Wisconsin’s landscape.

Wisconsin education leaders left confused about legality of Trump executive order on K-12

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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

“This executive order raises a lot of issues over who really controls public education,” said Suzanne Eckes, a University of Wisconsin-Madison professor whose work focuses on K-12 legal issues and school policy. Public education has historically been a state and school board function, she said.

“Typically, the federal government isn’t saying, ‘You’re going to do this social studies curriculum, and you’re going to use this book, and everybody in the United States is going to learn about slavery or World War I or the American Revolution in this way,'” said Eckes, speaking from her perspective and not as a representative of the University of Wisconsin.

$900 million in Institute of Education Sciences contracts axed

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Inside Higher Ed

“It basically literally means we are stepping back in time decades, that we are now gonna look at data on CDs, they’re gonna be mailed out across the country instead of stored securely in an online data platform,” said Taylor Odle, an assistant professor of education policy at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who studies college access and success. “It’s gonna be a huge waste of my time and a huge waste of the department’s time to have to process all of these new applications.”

‘Real brutal capitalism.’ Wisconsin nursing home sales surge, quality drops

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The Capital Times

“We tend to be going more and more towards a real brutal capitalism, I think everywhere,” said Barbara Bowers, a professor emerita at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s School of Nursing. “And it’s fine if it’s about the quality of your television set. But it’s a different issue when it’s the quality of somebody’s life. I think we treat this as any other commodity, which is really unfortunate.”

A federal judge temporarily blocks Trump administration’s new NIH funding policy

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NPR

“Cutting the rate to 15% will destroy science in the United States,” says Jo Handelsman, who runs the Wisconsin Institute for Discovery at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. “This change will break our universities, our medical centers and the entire engine for scientific discovery.”

Wisconsin farmer groups feel impact of Trump administration’s funding freeze

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Wisconsin Public Radio

Soybeans is one of the major commodities purchased by USAID, according to agricultural economist Paul Mitchell at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

But Mitchell said foreign food aid also includes shelf-stable foods that may be produced by Wisconsin farms and food processors. With the agency’s website largely down, he said it’s almost impossible to determine what products could be affected.

The winners and losers of Trump’s steel and aluminum tariffs

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The Washington Post

It’s unclear how long it will take for consumers to feel the impact and to what extent. That’s in part because it depends on how much steel or aluminum is used to make the product, said Lydia Cox, an economics professor at the University of Wisconsin at Madison.

It’s also on the businesses to decide what added costs they should pass along to their customers, she said: “If you had a 25 percent increase on 50 percent of your costs, that’ll be a pretty sizable [potential] increase” in prices.

NIH cuts could stall medical progress for lifesaving treatments, experts say

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NBC News

Dr. Robert Golden, the dean of the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Medicine and Public Health, said indirect costs aren’t just administrative tasks, or “waste,” but the physical structures and equipment needed to do “top tier” research.

“I’ve been at several public institutions, including the NIH early in my career, and never saw waste to a striking degree,” he said. The NIH’s change, Golden said, “will have a profound significant impact on everything,” including utility charges, building out the laboratories where scientific experiments are done and finding cures for patients.

More Wisconsin communities rejecting fluoride in water. Health groups say fears unfounded.

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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Patrick Remington, emeritus professor at UW-Madison’s School of Medicine and Public Health who began his career at the CDC, said some who oppose fluoride because of its risks aren’t weighing them against the benefits — something people do every day when they choose to drive a car, have a drink or make other choices.

The benefits of fluoride are clear: less tooth decay, Remington said, while the science doesn’t yet show neurodevelopmental problems for children who ingest fluoride at the level in the U.S. water supply.

A UW-Madison historian’s work became a key feature of Bad Bunny’s new album. Here’s how

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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Jorell Meléndez-Badillo, an assistant history professor, revived the Puerto Rican history course at the University of Wisconsin-Madison last spring. It hadn’t been taught in seven years, and the university planned to cut it, he said.

This year, he’s teaching Puerto Rican history to a global audience

The sex mushroom hunters of Nepal

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Bloomberg

“It’s really an amazing medicine that deserves more attention,” says Tawni Tidwell, a biocultural anthropologist at the University of Wisconsin at Madison’s Center for Healthy Minds, where she specializes in pharmacological innovations in Tibetan medicine. Tidwell, who spent years studying across the Indian subcontinent, says the mushrooms don’t supercharge her sex drive—she just feels energized after taking them—but she has seen dramatic results in other people’s libidos. “Men report their erections are more functional, stronger and longer,” she says. “It works for women, too.”

‘It infuriates me’: why the ‘wages for housework’ movement is still controversial 40 years on

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The Guardian

Callaci, a professor of history at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, has written a book, Wages for Housework, which chronicles the radical 1970s feminist campaign that argued for recognition of the economic value of domestic labour. In truth, she explains, it was a recipe for revolution, designed to smash capitalism and its underpinning myth that women just love keeping house so much they’ll do it for nothing.

‘Built to burn.’ L.A. let hillside homes multiply without learning from past mistakes

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Los Angeles Times

People continued to move into fire-prone foothills and valleys. Between 1990 and 2020, the number of homes in the metro Los Angeles region’s wildland-urban interface, where human development meets undeveloped wildland, swelled from 1.4 million to 2 million — a growth rate of 44%, according to David Helmers, a geospatial data scientist in the Silvis Lab at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

This first-of-its-kind plant discovery could help boost pantry-staple crop yields — here’s how it works

Posted on
The Cool Down

Improving crop productivity is on the United Nations’ list of Sustainable Development Goals for the 21st century, and a recent discovery by University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers may be able to help.

“For the first time, we realized that the effect of these photoreceptors is not everywhere along the stem and that different photoreceptors control different regions of the stem,” as Edgar Spalding, a professor emeritus of botany at UW–Madison, explained in the piece.

Marriages in China plunged by a record last year, fanning birthrate concerns

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NBC News

“Unprecedented! Even in 2020, due to Covid 2019, marriages only decreased by 12.2%,” said Yi Fuxian, a demographer at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

He noted that the number of marriages in China last year was less than half of the 13.47 million in 2013. If this trend continues, “the Chinese government’s political and economic ambitions will be ruined by its demographic Achilles’ heel,” he added.

Influenza-A leads record respiratory illness spike in Dane County

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WMTV - Channel 15

Health officials say that the peak in respiratory illnesses hit Dane County late this year, leaving hospitals and urgent care facilities packed.

“It did start late and it really came on like wild fire,” said Dr. Jim Conway, pediatric infectious disease doctor with UW Health Kids and medical director of UW Health’s immunization program.

Should Wisconsin require school districts ban cell phones in class?

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Channel 3000

But UW Health Kids pediatrician and researcher Dr. Megan Moreno said schools should take care to do what’s best for their students. She said when it comes to social media and mental health, there isn’t a population-level impact.

“So when kids are feeling really anxious or over stimulated, a lot of patients that I see have really well-developed mechanisms that they can use their phone to calm down,” Dr. Moreno said.