Category: UW Experts in the News

Commenting on the significance of the work, Dr Laurence Loewe, assistant professor at the Wisconsin Institute for Discovery at the University of Wisconsin-Madison told the BBC:”Usually species without regular recombination are not very long-lived evolutionarily. However, the Amazon molly seems to have found a way of surviving for a surprisingly long time without accumulating signatures of genomic decay”.

The gap in well-being between black and white children in Wisconsin is the largest of any state, according to one recent report. Another recent study from a UW-Madison think tank found racial disparities in Wisconsin extend to areas including poverty, unemployment, education and incarceration.

Noted: Mike Wagner, a UW-Madison journalism professor who studies political messaging, said the priorities identified by the candidates reveal how they are trying to position themselves among the various Democratic voting constituencies.

Noted: According to UW Madison Assistant Professor of Textile and Apparel Design Marianne Fairbanks, many athlete’s uniforms are ’smart’ textiles- meaning the uniform is actually a piece of technology that can aid the athlete in competition.

Noted: Matthew T. Hora, an assistant professor in liberal arts and applied studies at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, who studies the path from college to the work force, says the report should “contradict the popular narrative about under-employed baristas and the need to redirect students away from these disciplines.”

Noted: “What’s left? Basically what’s left are charges,” said Andrew Reschovsky, a professor emeritus of public affairs and applied economics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “I think the future probably holds more fee increases.”

Noted: Barbra Bowers, an expert in long-term care at UW-Madison school of nursing says when choosing a facility, you should know that training and staffing levels can cause issues but advises doing your homework.

The next speaker at the monthly “Science on Tap” program in Minocqua has Northwoods ties and will discuss Wisconsin’s land ethic. Dr. Tim Van Deelen is a professor in the department of forest and wildlife ecology at UW-Madison.

Quoted: “There is a huge distrust within the political sphere and it would be surprising if it did not extend to formal institutions like schools,” said Diana Hess, dean of the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s School of Education and co-author of the 2015 book “The Political Classroom: Evidence and Ethics in Democratic Education.”

Noted: Looking for a Mersenne prime is very difficult, just like searching for a needle in a haystack, said Jordan Ellenberg, a mathematics professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

It’s pronounced “hoo-ga” and it’s a Danish world with no direct English translation — but Denmark native Dr. Claus E. Andersen teaches the concept to students of Scandinavian Studies at UW-Madison. So what does it mean? “The definition I use the most when I talk about it is pleasant togetherness,” said Andersen.

Noted: Along with labor worries, cheap credit and improvements in technology are coming together to tip the scales in favor of robotics on dairy farms, said Mark Stephenson, director of dairy policy analysis at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.

Quoted: Paul Mitchell, University of Wisconsin professor in the School of Agriculture and Applied Economics: “You might have been able to survive the first three years, using your excess capital, working capital, liquidity. But as things get tighter and tighter… some people just can’t do it anymore.”

Quoted: “Children should not take any cough or cold medications,” said Dr. Nasia Safdar, medical director of infection control at the University of Wisconsin Health. “They are not beneficial and might be harmful.”

Noted: The incarceration rate may indicate that local and state officials should further examine the impacts of Public Law 280 on Wisconsin native communities and reservations, according to Richard Monette, professor of law at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and faculty director of the Great Lakes Indigenous Law Center.

Noted: Janet Hyde, a psychology and women’s studies professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, has conducted several meta-analyses on the subject, and found relatively small behavioral, intelligence, and personality differences between genders.

Noted: More farmers are turning to seed or equipment companies for lines of credit instead of traditional agriculture lenders, something that could lead to more bankruptcy cases, said Paul Mitchell, director of the Renk Agribusiness Institute at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Noted: “Taken together, these results highlight how improved access to school resources can profoundly shape the life outcomes of economically disadvantaged children and thereby reduce the intergenerational transmission of poverty,” wrote the researchers, Kirabo Jackson of Northwestern University; Rucker C. Johnson of the University of California, Berkeley; and Claudia Persico of the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Noted: “This would be the earliest modern human anyone has found outside of Africa, ever,” said John Hawks, a paleoanthropologist from the University of Wisconsin, Madison who was not involved in the study.

Noted: UW-Madison political science professor David Canon says Walker’s speech is a good road map for the Governor’s re-election campaign; one in which Canon believes Walker will try to distance himself from the dysfunction in Washington.

A 2015 report from the Applied Population Lab at the University of Wisconsin said about 10,000 people leave the state annually, a trend that has been dogging the state since the Great Recession a decade ago. Census data showed the state’s population growth from 2014 to 2015 was 11,900 people, 39th in the nation.

Noted: There are multiple things that are lumped under the title of fake news, said Kathleen Bartzen Culver, Director of the Center for Journalism Ethics at UW–Madison.