The Wisconsin Idea is a concept that university research can help stakeholders solve real world problems. The theory is more than a century old. UW–Madison biochemistry professor Mike Sussman says now is the time to rejuvenate the Idea and use innovation, collaboration, and passion to achieve Wisconsin’s full potential.
Category: UW Experts in the News
Foundation Revisits Anti-Poverty Strategies with an Eye to Change
Noted: Elaborating on the timing of the publication, Katherine A. Magnuson, a poverty researcher at the University of Wisconsin, Madison and an editor of the double-issue journal, told Colorlines, “We felt it was important to bring together a set of fresh ideas that would engage with what we have learned about anti-poverty policies of the past in order to generate positive and innovative solutions.”
‘Accountability and Opportunity in Higher Education’
Noted: Also contributing essays to the volume are the two editors of the book, Gary Orfield, Distinguished Research Professor of Education, Law, Political Science and Urban Planning, and co-founder and co-director of the Civil Rights Project, at UCLA; and Nicholas Hillman, an associate professor of educational leadership and policy analysis at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. Orfield and Hillman responded via email to questions about their new book.
Watch an Atlas V rocket launch a next-generation weather satellite to space
Noted: The two satellites — part of the so-called GOES-R series — are a much needed upgrade to NOAA’s old weather satellites, which sport 1990s hardware. “Very few people still have a tube television in their house; they have a nice flat screen TV,” says Jordan Gerth, a research meteorologist at the Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies at the University of Wisconsin. “So the old satellite was built on that tube television technology, and it really doesn’t provide a crisp image that a nice LCD or plasma screen TV provides today.”
As Organic Produce Sales Grow, So Does Competition For Farmers
Noted: “Not only do we have still a vibrant local market for organic products including community supported agriculture, farmers markets and farm stands, but we also see increased interest in our grocery stores procuring local organic product to meet consumer demands,” said Erin Silva, assistant professor of organic and sustainable agriculture research at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Why Is California Rebuilding in Fire Country? Because You’re Paying for It
Noted: Nonetheless, local officials almost always decide that rebuilding makes sense despite the risk that the houses will burn again. Anu Kramer, a researcher at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, looked at what happened to 3,000 buildings destroyed by wildfires in California from 1970 to 1999. She found that 94 percent were rebuilt. The result is that fires consistently—and predictably—destroy homes in the same place.
This Smart Mouthguard Can Monitor Concussions
Noted: “It’s opened up the ability to measure head impact exposure in sports other than football,” says Dr. Brian Stemper, an associate professor in the joint department of biomechanical engineering at Marquette University and the University of Wisconsin. Earlier this year, Stemper’s team started using the Prevent mouthguard to measure head impact exposure in NCAA Division III football players.
Is Governor Walker’s Decision on Special Elections Politically Motivated?
A national group led by former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder filed a lawsuit this week against Gov. Walker — for not calling special elections in two vacant legislative seats. WUWM’s Marti Mikkelson asked UW-Madison Political Science Professor David Canon if Walker’s decision was politically motivated.
Cursed or Blessed? A History of Third-Term Governors
Noted: “The signature achievement of his 14 years as governor came in his third term — the ’Wisconsin Works’ welfare reform law,” says University of Wisconsin, Madison political scientist David Canon.
Science of smiles
Paula Niedenthal will present “The Science of Smiles” at 6:30 p.m. Monday, March 5, at the Waupaca Area Public Library. Niedenthal, a social psychologist and professor of psychology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, will share her research into emotions.
Republicans’ spat with Delta could hurt Georgia’s Amazon hopes
Quoted: “This could absolutely give Amazon pause,” said Neeraj Arora, a marketing professor at the Wisconsin School of Business. “The company has taken a stance on social issues in the past.”
Never Too Late To Operate? Surgery Near End Of Life Is Common, Costly
Noted: Dr. Margaret Schwarze, a surgeon and associate professor at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, said that older patients often don’t feel the financial pain of surgery because insurance pays most of the cost.
Special Report: Battling Alzheimer’s – a breakthrough
Just in Wisconsin, there are more than 110,000 people diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, according to experts at the Wisconsin Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center. And that number continues to grow.
Cambodia, Laos losing the last of their trees
Noted: Ian Baird, an associate professor of geography at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, says that in both Cambodia and Laos the high prices paid for precious hardwoods has also caused villagers to become heavily involved in illegal logging.
Black farmers finding their way in Pennsylvania
Quoted: “Many black folks came north not to continue their jobs as a farmer, but to move into the rust belt and fill the factories,” said Monica M. White, an assistant professor of environmental justice at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and author of the forthcoming book “Freedom Farmers: Agricultural Resistance and the Black Freedom Movement.”
How gambling nearly destroyed this college professor’s life
After becoming a mother in her teens, Sandra Adell became a prominent professor – but a trip to a casino nearly derailed her life. Joined by addiction specialist Nancy Irwin, she tells Megyn Kelly TODAY about her addictions and recovery, as recounted in her book, “Confessions of a Slot Machine Queen.”
10 super-rich spending most in midterm elections for Congress
Noted: “No one had heard of Kevin Nicholson, but suddenly this gift was available,” Barry Burden, who oversees an election research center at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, said of the Uihlein money. “I doubt that Kevin Nicholson would be a candidate — at least not a serious one — if he didn’t have the Uihlein family backing.”
Oldest Known Paintings Created by Neanderthals, Not Humans
Noted: “Neanderthals appear to have had a cultural competence that was shared by modern humans,” John Hawks, a paleoanthropologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, who wasn’t involved with the study, tells National Geographic. “They were not dumb brutes, they were recognizably human.”
Supporting local farmers markets all about sharing
New research from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the University of Wisconsin-Extension points toward ways Wisconsinites can help their local farmers markets.
Fed’s Crisis-Era, Bond-Buying Plan Was Largely Ineffective, Economists Say
The paper presented at the conference was written by David Greenlaw of Morgan Stanley , James Hamilton of the University of California San Diego, Ethan Harris of Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Kenneth West of the University of Wisconsin. It argues most of what people now believe of the asset purchases is likely wrong.
Fed Should Lean on Rate Cuts, Not QE, in Next Recession: Paper
While the Fed has not set an end point, the paper’s authors – David Greenlaw of Morgan Stanley, Ethan Harris of Bank of America Merrill Lynch, James Hamilton of University of California at San Diego, and Kenneth West of University of Wisconsin – said it should not go too far and consider larger and looser run-off caps.
Cave Paintings Found in Spain Are First Known Neanderthal Art
“Neanderthals appear to have had a cultural competence that was shared by modern humans,” says John Hawks, a paleoanthropologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who wasn’t involved with the study. “They were not dumb brutes, they were recognizably human
Ancient cave paintings turn out to be by Neanderthals, not humans
Other experts agree with the dates and that the timing means the art must have been created by Neanderthals. There’s no fossil evidence of modern humans in Spain that long ago, says John Hawks a paleoanthropologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who wasn’t involved in the research. “There’s no secret story,” he says. “The results are just, ‘Hey, Neanderthals were making these things, and you didn’t know it.’”
What Is Telehealth and Is It Right for You?
Noted: A study conducted by the Wisconsin School of Business found that increased use of e-visits might have unintended consequences.
“Our study shows that giving patients email-like e-visit access to their doctors, does not reduce the patients’ use of office or phone visits,” said Hessam Bavafa, study author and Assistant Professor of Operations and Information Management. “In fact, we find that e-visits lead to more office visits without obvious improvements in patient health. We also found that doctors accepted fewer new patients after they started using e-visits.”
Preventing a Silent Killer
“Most cows will revert back to positive calcium balance by six to eight weeks post-calving, meaning the calcium intake now equals or exceeds calcium outflow,” says Garrett Oetzel, DVM, professor at the School of Veterinary Medicine, University of Wisconsin-Madison. “However, she can draw on her bone calcium for up to four months into lactation, including during times of stress or low feed intake.”
Farmers adapt to changes in weather patterns
Farmers, the scientists said, are key actors in adapting to climate change or mitigating its effects. They manage 61 percent of the nation’s land. They are vulnerable to droughts, cold, heat and hail.
In 1968, Curtis Mayfield was the voice of victory for civil rights
“I think the reaction to the song was shock; Curtis had been such a voice for harmony and reconciliation,” says Craig Werner, an Afro-American studies professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the author of Higher Ground: Stevie Wonder, Aretha Franklin and Curtis Mayfield and the Rise and Fall of American Soul.
What to do when layoffs hit your office, but not you
Noted: Anthony J. Nyberg, a professor at the University of South Carolina’s Darla Moore School of Business, and Charlie O. Trevor, a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Business, write about the results of research in the Harvard Business Review. The recommend that company leaders focus on “communication.”
The U.S. State With the Most Bipolar Politics
The tallies were always close. And when turnout in cities like Madison and Milwaukee lags, urbanites can be swallowed by rural folks — and those latter voters have become more consolidated around the Republican flag in the last decade, says Barry Burden, director of the Elections Research Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Obama’s success in the state, and Hillary Clinton’s loss in 2016, proved, “Yeah, we could be very blue, but you have to excite and engage the base,” Burden says.
Wisconsin Assembly votes to loosen rent-to-own laws; bill’s fate in Senate unclear
Quoted: “These (changes) not only will prevent consumers from standing up for their rights but also allow unscrupulous rent-to-own businesses to open and thrive in Wisconsin,” said Sarah Orr, director of the Consumer Law Litigation Clinic at the University of Wisconsin Law School.
Surgery may affect patients’ memory
“The cognitive changes we report are highly statistically significant in view of the internal normative standards we employ, and the large sample size of the control, or non-surgery, population,” said Kirk Hogan from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the US.
Why social media appeals after mass shootings have done little to change gun laws
University of Wisconsin researchers found a similar trend in their study of Twitter conversations after 59 mass shootings from 2012 to 2014. That research, which has not yet been published, analyzed 1.3 million tweets and 700 related hashtags, using machine learning to sort them into various categories, said political science professor Jon C. W. Pevehouse, who co-authored the study with Dhavan V. Shah, a journalism professor, and several others.
Should You Exercise When You Are Sick?
There’s some evidence that very intense exercise—running a marathon, say—can briefly suppress your immune function, says Dr. Bruce Barrett, a professor of family medicine at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health. But in general, physical activity is a great way to shield yourself from illness, he says.
Has Donald Trump ‘been much tougher on Russia’ than Barack Obama?
“The Trump administration has repeatedly tried to undermine the credibility of the FBI and intelligence agencies in their investigation and assessment of the threat to the integrity of U.S. elections by Russian operatives,” said Yoshiko Herrera, a political science professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
The Importance of ‘White students having Black teachers’: Gloria Ladson-Billings on Education – Classroom Q&A With Larry Ferlazzo
Gloria Ladson-Billings retired from the University of Wisconsin-Madison last month. She is the newly elected President of the National Academy of Education and a Senior Fellow at the Learning Policy Institute.
Depression and Caregiving
Caregivers of cancer patients are just as likely to be depressed as the cancer patients themselves, but a new study finds that they’re less likely to seek treatment. We talk with a researcher about the study and what we can do to take better care of caregivers. Interview with Kristin Litzelman from the School of Human Ecology.
Blue Sky Science: Does space go on forever?
Jim Lattis, director of UW Space Place, University of Wisconsin-Madison astronomy department: We really don’t know if space goes on forever. The universe is big enough that we can’t see all of it for a number of reasons. And there are ways that we could live in a space that doesn’t go on forever, but still has no actual edge to it.
Just Ask Us: What is the history of Black History Month?
Black History Month started as a weeklong commemoration in 1926 called Negro History Week and was the brainchild of Carter G. Woodson, an African-American historian, UW-Madison professor Brenda Plummer said.
The More Gender Equality, the Fewer Women in STEM
Noted: The findings will likely seem controversial, since the idea that men and women have different inherent abilities is often used as a reason, by some, to argue we should forget trying to recruit more women into the stem fields. But, as the University of Wisconsin gender-studies professor Janet Shibley Hyde, who wasn’t involved with the study, put it to me, that’s not quite what’s happening here.
Prevalence and danger of little known tsunami type revealed
On 4 July 2003, beachgoers at Warren Dunes State Park, in the US state of Michigan, were enjoying America’s Independence Day holiday when a fast-moving line of thunderstorms blew in from Lake Michigan. They scurried for shelter, but the event passed so quickly it didn’t appear that their holiday was ruined. “In 15 minutes it was gone,” says civil engineer Alvaro Linares of the University of Wisconsin, Madison.
Call of the (Urban) Wild
Noted: One expert on the cutting edge of coyote research is Dr. David Drake with the University of Wisconsin-Madison Urban Canid Project. UWUCP is shedding a light on many aspects of coyote behavior, and those findings, in turn, are illuminating how to create smarter coexistence strategies between humans and wild coyotes.
Call of the (Urban) Wild
One expert on the cutting edge of coyote research is Dr. David Drake with the University of Wisconsin-Madison Urban Canid Project. UWUCP is shedding a light on many aspects of coyote behavior, and those findings, in turn, are illuminating how to create smarter coexistence strategies between humans and wild coyotes.
Appointments, Resignations, Deaths
Noted: Barry Gerhart, acting dean and senior associate dean for faculty and research at the Wisconsin School of Business at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, to interim dean of the school.
The Iceman Cometh Out
Noted: As Ramzi Fawaz, a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, has pointed out, superhero comics are the only popular genre in which anomalous bodies are not just tolerated but celebrated: The same thing that makes you look weird means you can save the world.
Impact of trauma on kids, families
Doctor Ryan Herringa is a UW Health Psychiatrist who studies how trauma affects children and their families. He has advice for parents on how people can heal from tragic events.
Millennials hold key in reversing negative impact of climate change on global health
Many of the panelists — including Mitman, who credited Wisconsin for his ability to undertake interdisciplinary — highlighted the Wisconsin Idea as one of the main reasons Wisconsin is a great place to foster planetary change.
Madison community leaders say business models need to be more sustainable
The Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies and the Grainger Center for Supply Chain Management hosted a lecture Thursday on sustainability-focused business and conservation.
UW-Madison assistant professor helps create privacy policy chatbot
Kassem Fawaz, an assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering at UW-Madison, partnered with colleagues from the University of Michigan and the Ècole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne in Switzerland to create the program.
In a Less Snowy World, Can White-Coated Animals Survive?
Noted: As Ben Zuckerberg, a professor of ecology at the University of Wisconsin, puts it, winter coat color has huge “fitness consequences.”
There’s no such thing as naturally orange cheese
Noted: “Today it’s used to bring out the tradition of the cheese, more so than to even out fluctuations over the year,” says Gina Mode, one of the lucky few people who gets to work with and research cheese at the Center for Dairy Research at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (she also grew up on a dairy farm). She explains that cows today, and really for much of the past century1, are fed year round on grain-based feed, not grass. And it’s the grassfed cows that have variations in their milk.
How to talk to children about school shootings
As adults we have a lot of questions after Wednesday’s deadly school shooting in Florida, but children have their own concerns. Karyn Riddle is an associate professor at the UW School of Journalism and Mass Communications where her research focuses on the effects of exposure to media violence.
Valentine’s Day: Talk Money with Your Honey
Quoted: There’ll be plenty of flowers and candy given out today, but to make love grow, you need to have a talk with your honey about money. That’s the advice of Christine Whelan, a clinical professor who directs the Money, Relationships and Equality initiative at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. One of her sayings is, “Roses are red, violets are blue; talk about money and grow your love, too.”
A NASA satellite spotted this strangely prominent pattern of long, sinuous clouds over the Pacific
Noted: Just to make sure, I checked in by email with Scott Bachmeier, a research meteorologist with the University of Wisconsin’s Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies. “Those are indeed ship tracks — a few cases are documented on our blog,” he wrote back. For more imagery, make sure to click on that link to the excellent CIMSS satellite blog.
Why Is It So Hard for Democracy to Deal With Inequality?
Before reform, Byron Shafer, a political scientist at the University of Wisconsin, writes in “Quiet Revolution: The Struggle for the Democratic Party and the Shaping of Post-Reform Politics,”
there was an American party system in which one party, the Republicans, was primarily responsive to white collar constituencies, and in which the other, the Democrats, was primarily responsive to blue collar constituencies.
Jobs, relationships elude adults with autism
Understanding the daily lives of adults with autism will help researchers identify the types of resources they need to succeed in various areas of life, says lead researcher Megan Farley, a senior psychologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Waisman Center.
Finding love online: What research shows
It’s almost Valentine’s Day, and if you’re looking for love, chances are you may be thinking about looking online. News 3 sits down with Catalina Toma, an associate professor at UW-Madison, who has been researching online dating and the role of technology.
Researchers look into drug that may improve prognosis for dense breast tissue
Dr. Karla Esbona, from the UW Carbone Cancer Center, talks about a new research study that looks at an FDA approved drug that may improve the prognosis for patients with dense breast tissue.
Cow College presents strategies for feeding forage
During the 56th annual UW-Extension Cow College’s second session, Dr. John Goeser and Dr. Randy Shaver, from the UW-Madison Dairy Science Department, reviewed lab results from 2017 forage and grain, and offered strategies to help producers get the most milk from their feed.
Madison looks to make Park Street ‘smart’
Additionally, the city’s engineering division and UW-Madison’s Traffic Operations and Safety Laboratory will coordinate with Metro Transit to install units on buses that run the route several times a day.
Olympic Games impact on host country South Korea
Quoted: UW Madison’s Dr. David Fields, a historian who actually lived in South Korea on and off, was living in South Korea in 2010 when the country found out it was not selected to host.
“I remember they had a countdown through Seoul, and countdowns all over the place, until the day the decision was going to be made. I can remember a feeling of disappointment among many of my friends when they didn’t get it that first time, nor did they get it the second time,” recalled Fields.