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Category: UW Experts in the News

Raw milk has documented health risks, but if Kennedy leads HHS, its backers expect a boost

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

McAfee’s products have been linked to several outbreaks of E. coli, salmonella and campylobacter, according to the University of Wisconsin Center for Dairy Research. Even with on-farm testing, raw milk isn’t safe for public consumption, said Alex O’Brien, safety and quality coordinator at the Center, which is on the UW-Madison campus.

“The more people who consume it,” he said, “the higher the probability someone’s going to become ill.”

Hold up—does cheese have protein? And what kinds pack the most?

SELF

“Cheesemaking is a process of concentrating the solids originally present in milk,” Ben Ullerup Mathers, a research cheesemaker at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Center for Dairy Research, tells SELF. “Since protein is one of the main constituents of milk solids, the further you concentrate those solids, the more protein is in the final cheese. Since hard cheeses are the lowest-moisture cheeses, they will also be the higher-protein cheeses.”

Trump lawyers, aid to make initial appearance in court on Thursday in Wisconsin ‘fake electors’ case

NBC-15

If the case goes to trial, finding non-biased jurors may delay the case, UW-Madison Political Science Professor Howard Schweber said.

“It’s really hard to say how it will play out, but the confident prediction can be that it’s going to be a circus,” Schweber said. “These state prosecutions may be the best opportunity that we ever have to develop a record of what happened.”

The breath of colonialism continues to taint the air in Uganda

Eos

In the parts of the city inhabited by Africans during the period of segregation, levels of fine particulates known as PM2.5 are high enough to reduce life expectancy more than tobacco use or HIV infection, said the study’s lead author, air quality scientist Dorothy Lsoto of the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

“When you look at the air quality in these different places, it’s striking,” Lsoto said.

The research that aims to cheese

The Chronicle of Higher Education

On a recent Tuesday at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, sample number 435 lies supine on a lab table where it surrenders to a gauntlet of measurements.

Brandon Prochaska slides a thermometer into the pizza’s abdomen, and the digits tick upward to 205 degrees Fahrenheit. He and a group of other trained professionals jot the number down.

Nobel laureates vs. RFK Jr.? Have those nerds even tasted roadkill bear meat?

USA Today

On the flip side, John Lucey, a professor of food science and the director of the Center for Dairy Research at University of Wisconsin-Madison, told The Washington Post that drinking raw milk is “a really stupid, bad idea,” adding: “It’s almost like a doctor shouldn’t wash their hands before they go into an operating room.”

Empty nesters own some prime real estate. And they don’t seem very interested in leaving it.

MarketPlace

“Homeowners are aging in place,” said Mark Eppli, director of the James A. Graaskamp Center for Real Estate at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

That’s partly because most of them have mortgages at under 4%, but is also just a personal preference. “They get comfortable with the church they’re going to, with the drugstore they go to, the grocery store, to the bar, whatever it may be,” Eppli said.

The Wisconsin Green Party wants to double down in 2026. Will it work?

The Capital Times

“It becomes kind of a vicious circle if you don’t have success at some level on the ballot, some candidate who’s showing a path forward for the party, it becomes hard to then recruit people who want to run, and hard to recruit volunteers and donors,” said Barry Burden, a professor of political science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Wisconsin pediatrician helps author new early childhood literacy guidelines

Wisconsin Public Radio

For the first time in a decade, the American Academy of Pediatrics released updated recommendations on how pediatricians and caregivers can encourage early childhood literacy, with a Wisconsin doctor working on the effort.

Dr. Dipesh Navsaria, professor of pediatrics and human development and family studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, helped write the new literacy promotion policy statement and accompanying technical report. He told WPR’s “Wisconsin Today” what parents and healthcare professionals should know.

US fourth and eighth graders fall further behind in math

Wisconsin Public Radio

Steffen Lempp, a math professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, says over the last decade, the School of Education has changed how prospective K-8 teachers are taught math content to fully prepare them to teach children in the subject.

The UW-Madison math department used to teach these math content courses. Those courses are now taught by the School of Education, in classes that blend content and pedagogy in one.

Can raw milk make you sick? Officials crack down amid bird flu fears.

USA Today

Raw milk supporters say it contains more enzymes, probiotics (or the “good bacteria”), proteins and vitamins than pasteurized milk. They also say it helps prevent chronic health issues such as asthma and allergies, as well as ear and respiratory infections and fever, citing studies of European children living on farms. There’s little scientific evidence to support these claims, said John Lucey, director of the University of Wisconsin’s Center for Dairy Research and a food science professor.

“The short answer is no, there are no proven benefits,” he told USA TODAY. “You are being conned with these claims,” he said. “This is snake oil.”

UW-Madison professor explains why people care about the year end music reveal on streaming platforms

WMTV - Channel 15

Jeremy Morris teaches media and culture at UW Madison and explained that people care about their most listened to music because it tells the story of a year in their lives. “It’s a part of your identity, it helps you express who you are and it helps you understand yourself right?” he said. “It’s very personal and it’s an intimate form of media. You spend a lot of time in a year if you’re someone who likes listening to music, it means a lot to you.”

Her son shot himself by accident with her gun. Should she be charged with a felony? In Wisconsin, it depends.

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

“It seems like the responses really vary based on the person and the place where the event occurs,” said Dr. James Bigham, a clinical professor at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health who teaches medical students about how to talk to patients about firearms injury prevention.

“It doesn’t necessarily seem like we have a uniform or universal application of the law.”

Act 10 could take center stage in upcoming state Supreme Court election

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

“It tends to be the court where the big battles get fought out,” said Barry Burden, a political science professor at University of Wisconsin-Madison and director of the university’s Elections Research Center. “Without a kind of regularly functioning legislative branch and executive branch working together, the court is the venue where the hot items, big ticket items, are being decided.”

Long before this week, South Korea had a painful history with martial law

National Public Radio

The country has faced a turbulent political history that saw authoritarian rule starting from its founding after gaining independence from Japanese colonialism all the way to the 1980s, according to Charles Kim, a professor of Korean studies at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

“This is a period in which there was a lot of political suppression, repression of the media, political violence against dissidents,” Kim said.

Texas could become a major producer of another source of renewable energy

ABC News

Green hydrogen is forecast to meet global energy needs that will not be easily satisfied by battery, wind or solar power, Gregory Nemet, professor of public affairs at the University of Wisconsin’s Energy Institute, told ABC News in 2021. Batteries, for example, currently can take up a lot of space and also weigh a lot, making their use an issue for air travel and long-haul trucking. Hydrogen, by contrast, doesn’t include those challenges and also stores better long-term.

Ag Briefs: UW expert says federal officials expected to require H5N1 milk testing

Wisconsin State Farmer

Dr. Keith Poulsen from UW-Madison’s Diagnostic Laboratory told Brownfield Ag News that a nationwide bulk tank or milk silo milk testing requirement is likely to be enacted this month. Poulsen says the new federal order should have more specific guidance about how officials can effectively perform a national surveillance. He said the Colorado model is likely to be adopted nationwide.

Despite state restrictions, Wisconsinites are receiving abortions via telehealth

Wisconsin Public Radio

The data comes from states with so-called “shield laws,” said Jenny Higgins, director of the Collaborative for Reproductive Equity at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. These laws give some legal protections to clinicians who offer abortion care by telehealth to people living in states with abortion bans or telehealth restrictions, she said.

Report: Wisconsin farm, food industry grows slightly behind the rest of state’s economy

Wisconsin Public Radio

“The size of the pie is getting bigger,” said Steve Deller, a UW-Madison professor of agricultural and applied economics and co-author of the report. “Agriculture’s slice of that pie is also getting a little bit bigger, but it’s not growing at the same pace as the state’s economy is growing.”

Huckabee pick as Israeli ambassador reflects long evangelical alliance

The Washington Post

If confirmed, Huckabee, a former Fox News host and Israel tour guide for Christian visitors, will be the first evangelical in the ambassador role. Evangelicals and other Christian Zionists — those who use Christian reasoning to argue for a Jewish state in some part of biblical Israel — could have only dreamed of this moment a half-century ago, said University of Wisconsin religious historian Daniel Hummel.

Supplementing income off the farm, Social media warning labels, Powwow music

Wisconsin Public Radio

We learn how workers in Wisconsin are looking to bolster family farm income via employment in surrounding communities. Then a pediatrics professor shares research on social media and youth. And two members from the Wisconsin band Bizhiki discuss their new album of Indigenous music.

Explainer: What are bomb cyclones and how do they form?

Reuters

A bomb cyclone’s winds can reach hurricane force – 74 miles (119 km) per hour – and stronger. These storms tend to form during winter and can spawn copious amounts of precipitation. They have life spans of about a week during which they grow to peak intensity over roughly four to five days and then dissipate over the last two, according to Jon Martin, a professor of meteorology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Disposable personal income rose at a faster pace in October than the month before

MarketPlace

There are some factors that could limit spending next year: Menzie Chinn, a professor of economics and pulic affairs at the University of Wisconsin, said delinquency rates have been rising and some consumers don’t have a lot of savings to fall back on.

“Those have been largely depleted, particularly among those income groups that are, let’s say, at median or below median income,” he said.

Trump won the popular vote, contrary to claims online

FactCheck.org

Barry C. Burden, a professor of political science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, explained to us in a Nov. 25 email, “Trump has not won an outright majority of the popular vote; that would require surpassing the 50% threshold. He has won a large plurality, which means that he attracted more votes than each of his opponents, but he is just short of a true majority.”

What exactly is shoofly pie anyway?

HuffPost

“Shoofly pie is a classic Pennsylvania Dutch pastry,” said Mark Louden, a professor of Germanic linguistics and director of the Max Kade Institute for German-American Studies at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. It’s an “apt symbol of traditional Pennsylvania Dutch culture as it incorporates elements from Old World Europe but is a fundamentally New World phenomenon.”

UW mechanical engineer launches study of the brain and the “Havana Syndrome”

WORT FM

A team of University of Wisconsin researchers, led by Professor Christian Franck, have obtained a grant to investigate how pulsed microwave beams might affect the brain.  Christian Franck is the Bjorn Borgen Professor and H.I. Romnes Faculty Fellow at the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and the director of the UW PANTHER lab, which studies brain trauma.

Eat avocado to lower cholesterol, put on antiperspirant before bed and 11 more tips to have a great week

Yahoo Life

Talking to yourself out loud can be a great way to problem-solve — especially for people who regularly misplace things, Gary Lupyan, a psychology professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, told Time. For example, if you lost something in your home, saying what you’re looking for out loud (keys, remote, your favorite sweatshirt) can “keep its visual appearance active in your mind as you’re searching,” Lupyan explained, making it more likely for you to spot it.

Millions from tax refunds go to pay hidden fees, report finds

The Washington Post

Sarah Halpern-Meekin, director of the University of Wisconsin’s Institute for Research on Poverty, agreed, cautioning that some taxpayers would wait longer for their refunds — or be unable to afford the up-front cost of tax preparation altogether — without these services.

“It’s easy to critique any products that are offered that incur costs or high interest rates, but we also need to ask what happens if those go away,” she said. “Is it better to pay a fee and then get to avoid eviction or avoid having your heat cut off? There are consequences for being credit-constrained.”

How to survive a Thanksgiving dinner with relatives who disagree about politics

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Co-authored by Amber Wichowsky, an associate professor with the La Follette School of Public Affairs and holds the Leadership Wisconsin Endowed Chair for the Division of Extension at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and Allison Keeley who is pursuing a master’s degree in international public affairs at the La Follette School.

Lucy’s legacy

The Washington Post

“The common conception is that we’re finding the grandmother [of humanity], and we’re never finding that,” said John Hawks, a paleoanthropologist at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. “Culturally, these are our ancestors  they are our connection to the past.”

Wisconsin tees up high-stakes Supreme Court race with partisan control on the line

The Hill

Howard Schweber, professor of political science and legal studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, explained that some of the issues worth keeping an eye on are abortion, elections, Act 10 — Walker-era legislation that curtailed collective bargaining rights for many public employees — redistricting and religious freedom.

String theory is not dead

Knowable Magazine

“Many of the unsolved problems in particle physics and cosmology are deeply intertwined,” write physicists Fernando Marchesano, Gary Shiu and Timo Weigand in the 2024 Annual Review of Nuclear and Particle Science. String theory may provide the path to solving those problems.

These disability doulas are helping people navigate life more comfortably

HuffPost

When I ask Sami Schalk, associate professor of gender and women’s studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and author of “Black Disability Politics,” how disabled people should prepare for the next Trump term, she says, “The state is going to abandon disabled people more than ever. Informal networks of care and support are the only way we survive.”

Huckabee as Trump’s pick for Israel ambassador is a win for Christian Zionism. Here’s why.

USA Today

“These are the people that were loyal to Trump in the first administration, were loyal to him when he was out of power and are now going to be close to the center of the second administration,” said Daniel Hummel, a religious historian at the University of Wisconsin in Madison and a leading expert on evangelical support for Israel.  “I don’t know how they would be any closer — but I don’t see any daylight right now.”