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Category: UW Experts in the News

What to know about the F5 tornado that destroyed 90% of a Wisconsin town in 1984

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Noted: Barneveld became part of a landmark study of tornado debris by University of Wisconsin-Madison meteorology professor Charles Anderson. In the days following Barneveld’s tornado, Anderson and his students placed ads in newspapers, conducted a ground survey and a mail and phone campaign seeking information on the fallout of debris.

Wisconsin will soon become an island surrounded by legal weed

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Noted: “Wisconsin’s budget situation is challenging but has not been as dire as that in Illinois,” University of Wisconsin-Madison political science professor Barry Burden said, adding that legislative leaders have remained firm in their stance against legalization for recreational use. Leaders in the Republican-controlled state Legislature have remained quite firm in their stance against legalization for recreational use.

Everyone Knows Money Influences Politics … Except Scientists

FiveThirtyEight

Quoted: “It is kind of a ‘duh,” said Eleanor Neff Powell, a professor of political science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She’s one of many researchers who have found evidence that money and politics are linked, just like American voters always suspected. McKay isn’t the first scientist to show that the two forces connect outside the roll-call vote.

Babies could eat more red meat, says IFT19 speaker

Food Business News

Quoted: Frank R. Greer, M.D., emeritus professor of pediatrics and nutritional science at the University of Wisconsin – Madison School of Medicine, made the case for consumption of heme iron found in red meat and dark poultry in a June 3 presentation in New Orleans at IFT19, the Institute of Food Technologists’ annual meeting and exposition.

How Korea was divided and why the aftershocks still haunt us today

Washington Post

New missile tests in North Korea have put the region back in the spotlight. The tests portend trouble ahead for President Trump’s extremely ambitious Korean agenda no matter how much confidence he has in Kim Jung Un.

–David P. Fields is the associate director of the Center for East Asian Studies at the University of Wisconsin and the author of “Foreign Friends: Syngman Rhee, American Exceptionalism, and the Division of Korea.”

Debate rages over 5G impact on US weather forecasting

Physics World

Quoted: Jordan Gerth, a meteorologist from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, says that the water-vapour signal lies in the spectrum band between 23.6 and 24 GHz and that 5G transmissions could easily leak into that range.  “It would be like noisy neighbours moving in next door with a very loud transmitter,” he told Physics World.

Sound it out: Why are Madison students struggling to read?

Isthmus

Quoted: Mark Seidenberg, a UW-Madison professor and cognitive neuroscientist, has spent decades researching the way humans acquire language. He is blunt about Wisconsin’s schools’ ability to teach children to read: “If you want your kid to learn to read you can’t assume that the school’s going to take care of it. You have to take care of it outside of the school, if there’s someone in the home who can do it or if you have enough money to pay for a tutor or learning center.”

Massive $390 million transformation of Milwaukee’s ‘forgotten river’ underway

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Noted: The study was conducted by the Wisconsin Initiative on Climate Change Impacts at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Daniel Wright, an environmental engineering researcher at UW-Madison who works on climate issues, described Milwaukee as a “hotspot for thunderstorm activity.”

“If you look north or south or west of Milwaukee, there are far fewer thunderstorms than over the city itself. Then you have to start scratching your head and asking, ‘What’s going on here?’ ”

Sound it out

Isthmus

Noted: Mark Seidenberg, a UW-Madison professor and cognitive neuroscientist, has spent decades researching the way humans acquire language. He is blunt about Wisconsin’s schools’ ability to teach children to read: “If you want your kid to learn to read you can’t assume that the school’s going to take care of it. You have to take care of it outside of the school, if there’s someone in the home who can do it or if you have enough money to pay for a tutor or learning center.”

Ask the Experts: How Will China Tariffs Affect Summer Shopping?

Offers.com

Quoted: “If the past is any guide, consumers, both households and firms, have taken the entire hit from the tariffs,” says Menzie Chinn, professor of Public Affairs and Economics in the La Follette School of Public Affairs at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “Theory says in principle Chinese producers could absorb some of the cost, but, in practice, recent studies have indicated the entire burden has fallen on U.S. purchasers.”

Weekend forecast: Lots of nice warm weather, some rain and a chance of bloodsuckers

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Quoted: Meanwhile, all that nice weather is also about to bring bugs out of their slumber, said P.J. Liesch, director of the University of Wisconsin’s insect diagnostic lab in Madison. “With the warmer temperatures coming our way, I’m definitely expecting insect activity to pick up in the near future,” Liesch said in an email.

Head of NOAA says 5G deployment could set weather forecasts back 40 years. The wireless industry denies it.

Washington Post

Quoted: Jordan Gerth, an atmospheric scientist at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, called CTIA’s blog post both “misleading” and “misinformed.” He noted that the canceled sensor was replaced by a similar one currently flown on two NOAA satellites while international agencies also fly such instruments.

Curricular Practical Training: What International Students Should Know

US News and World Report

Quoted: “There are consistent general eligibility requirements, such as maintenance of valid F-1 status and practical training directly related to the degree program. However, federal regulations on CPT are quite vague, so it is up to each institution to develop its own CPT policy and procedure that match institutional policies and procedures,” says Samantha McCabe, assistant director for SEVIS compliance with the University of Wisconsin—Madison’s International Student Services.

Wisconsin farmers digest what Green New Deal means for dairy

Madison.com

Agriculture makes up 9% of all U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. However, farmers receive a disproportionate amount of attention because the heat-trapping emissions from agriculture are primarily due to methane, said Horacio Aguirre-Villegas, a scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison biological systems engineering program.

Madison-area stem cell clinics part of ‘gray market’ under increased scrutiny

Wisconsin State Journal

Alta Charo, a UW-Madison law and bioethics professor, said patients might not realize that stem cell injections from umbilical cord tissue are different from bone marrow transplants — which are approved and have been performed for decades — and experimental therapies using embryonic or induced pluripotent stem cells, for which clinical trials are in early stages or have not begun.

What Happens to Those Who Live in Higher Education Deserts? | Education News | US News

US News and World Report

Quoted: At a time when two out of every three undergraduates enroll in a two-year or four-year degree program within 25 miles of their home, according to the Department of Education data, Nick Hillman, associate professor of educational leadership and policy analysis at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, says it’s time policymakers and politicians begin paying attention to geography inequality, one of the most overlooked aspects of college access and opportunity.

Summer’s coming, and drinking pink – some from Wisconsin – is a sweet (or dry) way to stay cool

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Quoted: Just how are red grapes turned into pastel-colored wine? We asked Nick Smith, University of Wisconsin Associate Outreach Specialist and Instructor of Wine Science.

“The most traditional version would be to take your red fruit and lightly press it or macerate it for a very short time on the skins to get a hint of color,” he said, noting that longer skin contact will give a deeper color. “And then you ferment it like you would any white wine.”