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Category: UW Experts in the News

UW-Madison scientist reacts to announcement of water found on Mars

WKOW TV

A scientist at UW-Madison says while there’s been proof of water on Mars for almost 20 years, Monday’s announcement could determine whether there’s life on Mars.

“We had suspected that there was some ice underneath the surface that was melting and causing the water to flow down the slopes,” said Dr. Sanjay Limaye, a Distinguished Senior Scientist at UW-Madison. “I think most people had accepted that fact the fact that scientists can prove it that it is liquid water that is substantial.”

Students create inventions of the future in UW-Madison garage

WKOW TV

Some of America’s greatest innovations have come from garages, or basements. The makerspace called Garage Physics at UW-Madison is both.

It’s giving young scientists like Felix Tsao the ability to reach for something brand new. “It’s like a virtual reality project where basically it extends a digital experience to your vision,” said Tsao.

Quoted: Duncan Carlsmith, professor of physics.

Brain Series 3, Episode 3: Charlie Rose

Bloomberg News

On “Charlie Rose,” a look back at moments from the Charlie Rose Brain Series 3: Episode 3, the brain and gender identity. We are joined by Ben Barres of Stanford University, Norman Spack of Boston Children’s Hospital, Catherine Dulac of Harvard University, Melissa Hines of the University of Cambridge, Janet Hyde of the University of Wisconsin at Madison, and Nobel Laureate Eric Kandel of Columbia University. (Source: Bloomberg)

The science supporting gender-neutral marketing

CNN.com

Quoted: A few common perceptions held, according to psychologist Janet Shibley Hyde of the University of Wisconsin in Madison. Compared with women, men could throw farther, were more physically aggressive, masturbated more and held more positive attitudes about sex in uncommitted relationships.

Fiorina hitches rise in Iowa to untested strategy

Des Moines Register

Quoted: “What we’re seeing is campaigns experimenting with new techniques. Some will work. Others will not,” said campaign finance analyst Ken Mayer, a political science professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “It’s almost a legal fiction that they are separate from the campaign, but as long as that distinction is permitted, campaigns will leverage that.”

The University of Iowa’s plan to digitize the Hevelin Collection of fanzines helps us understand the Internet.

Slate

Quoted: Jonathan Senchyne, director of the University of Wisconsin–Madison’s Center for the History of Print and Digital Culture (and a former grad school classmate of mine), made a keen observation when I spoke to him about the Hevelin Collection: Many of the cultural developments we most closely associate with the Internet actually precede its emergence.

Justice Crooks dies at State Capitol

WISC-TV 3

University of Wisconsin law professor Howard Schweber said in an email to News 3, “By any reasonable standard, Justice Crooks must certainly be remembered as a conservative judge. But unlike some of the more recent generation of conservatives he was eminently capable of forming coalitions with his more liberal colleagues on issues where they found points of agreement. Whether one is a conservative or a liberal, we should mourn the loss of a jurist who was capable of having strong beliefs without being narrowly partisan.”

Justice Crooks dies at State Capitol

WISC-TV 3

Noted: University of Wisconsin law professor Howard Schweber said in an email to News 3, “By any reasonable standard, Justice Crooks must certainly be remembered as a conservative judge. But unlike some of the more recent generation of conservatives he was eminently capable of forming coalitions with his more liberal colleagues on issues where they found points of agreement. Whether one is a conservative or a liberal, we should mourn the loss of a jurist who was capable of having strong beliefs without being narrowly partisan.”

Pentagon enlisting outsiders to help search for US WWII MIAs

AP

Noted: Leaders of the University of Wisconsin’s Missing in Action Recovery and Identification Project plan to meet with military officials in Washington this month to discuss collaborations utilizing the college’s DNA and genetics expertise. Last year, UW-Madison helped identify the remains of Pfc. Lawrence S. Gordon, a Canadian-born U.S. soldier killed in France in 1944.

Greek leaders launch values-based recruitment

The GW Hatchet

Quoted: Markus Brauer, a psychology professor at the University of Wisconsin?Madison and an expert in effective group work, said there is an “incredibly high” chance that new members of sororities or fraternities will adopt specific values if they are stated and endorsed by the organizations’ leaders.

Experts sound off on new fantasy football sites

Channel3000.com

Quoted: Don Stanley, a marketing professor at the University of Wisconsin’s life sciences communication department, says the fad is a testament to the fast-paced times.

“[It] allows people to make a mistake, and then the next week, everybody’s right back in it, at the same starting line,” Stanley said. “That obviously has been very appealing to people.”

Millions of people have logged on and signed up so far this season – at least one site expects to dole out $2 billion over the fall, according to Stanley.

“That’s astounding when you think about it,” he says. “It’s unbelievable the scale of revenue that’s involved in these one-week leagues.”

Barry C. Burden: FEC isn’t right model for Wisconsin

Wisconsin State Journal

In his column last Sunday, Rep. Joe Sanfelippo, R-New Berlin, proposed replacing the nonpartisan Government Accountability Board with a partisan model based on the Federal Elections Commission … Whether the state’s campaign finance laws or election rules ought to be changed is separate from the structure of the GAB, but they have unfortunately been conflated. Now that the busy budget season is complete, the Legislature has an opportunity to consider some helpful reforms to state election laws.

Restoring sight, $20 at a time

Channel3000.com

One of the places where Madison makes a singular contribution to a better world is through the work of the Combat Blindness Foundation, founded by UW Opthamologist Dr. Suresh Chandra. The Foundation is a world leader restoring eyesight to people in developing countries. It is an extraordinary organization doing extraordinary work.

Study: Children in school provide warning system for flu in community

Channel3000.com

Noted: “If I’m seeing a patient in the clinic and I know that influenza is hitting in the schools around, I’m much more likely to be thinking of it and treating the patient appropriately,” said Dr. Jon Temte, a professor of family medicine at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health.

Temte directed the $1.5 million study funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The study is looking at students in the Oregon School District and working to accurately diagnose influenza cases among students.

Walker campaign donors, vendors nervous after debate performance

WKOW TV

Noted: “Well, money is obviously essential at this point in the campaign,” said Professor David Canon, a political science expert from UW-Madison.

Canon told 27 News Walker can weather his falling poll numbers for quite awhile, but not without financial support.

“You want to be able to be able to fund your campaign staff in as many of these early states as you can,” explained Canon. “If you have to start cutting back and put all your eggs into Iowa, then that’s a pretty tough position to be in.”

The incredible journey

Isthmus

Quoted: John Rodstrom, a UW-Madison grad student who studies migratory fish was one of the volunteers Saturday at Goose Pond. “It doesn’t matter if you are a bird, a fish or a butterfly,” he says. “If you need to migrate in order to reproduce, then habitat loss along your migration route can be a significant problem.”

Another Hazard for Migrants in Europe: Poisonous Mushrooms

New York Times

Quoted: The death cap is an invasive species in the United States. It typically poisons a few people a year in California, often immigrants from Southeast Asia who confuse it with paddy straw mushrooms from their homelands, according to Anne Pringle, a biologist at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, who studies toxic mushrooms.

The official poverty measure is garbage. The census has found a better way.

Vox.com

Noted: The official poverty measure was developed by the Social Security Administration’s Mollie Orshansky in 1963 and defined as three times the “subsistence food budget” for a family of a given size. As former acting Commerce Secretary Rebecca Blank (then a Brookings Institution fellow, now chancellor of the University of Wisconsin Madison) explained in 2008 congressional testimony:

Why it’s time to take Donald Trump’s candidacy seriously

Deusche Welle

Quoted: “To pursue his presidential bid, Trump has already sacrificed some significant business relationships, including his hit television program,” said Barry Burden, who heads the Elections Research Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “He should be taken as a genuine candidate who is competing to win. It is an unconventional campaign but it is real.”

Weird Microscopic Animal Inspires New Kind of Glass

Live Science

Noted: Because the structure of glasses is usually random, finding one of these materials that has most or all of its molecules “pointing” in the same direction is rare. And not only is a molecularly structured glass hard to come by, it’s also really desirable, according to lead study author Shakeel Dalal, a graduate student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Madison nuns to attend events as a part of Pope Francis’ visit

Channel3000.com

Noted: “Francis is interested in coming to the United States to confirm he’s standing alongside American Catholics, but at the same time I do think that this visit is intended to push the envelope a bit when it comes to a series of issues that are, again, issues that unite Catholics and non-Catholics,” says Giuliana Chamedes, a history professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who focuses on the Catholic religion.

UPDATE: President to allow students to apply earlier for college aid

WKOW TV

Noted: “You have to try to engage the public, and by going to Iowa, an early presidential state where he’ll get more attention, the President is bringing more attention to this issue,” said Mike Wagner, a professor of journalism and political science at UW-Madison.

Wagner said the issue isn’t terribly controversial, and thus we might see Obama and a Republican-controlled congress work together in coming up with some changes to FAFSA.

“Most people want to try to send their kids to college and lots of people need student loans to do it, or at least under the current system they do,” Wagner said. “So this is a way for Republicans and Democrats to work together for something that benefits people who vote for both sides.”

Plants That Are Predators

New York Times

Quoted: “In environments that are sunny and moist but nutrient-poor, the capture of prey can give plants a real competitive advantage,” said Thomas Givnish, a professor of botany at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Carnivorous plants thrive in open bogs; in damp, fireswept sand; by roadside puddles; in the leached mud of a mountainside — bright, sodden spots where competitors are negligible, the insects gullible, and nutrients alone limit plant growth.

UW pediatric program uses golf to ease childhood incontinence

Badger Herald

Noted: The program differs greatly from many others, as it works with children and families to educate them. It covers issues such as hygiene before evaluating children’s conditions and starting noninvasive methods like biofeedback, Patrick McKenna, a professor of urology at UW and head of pediatric urology at UW’s American Family Children’s Hospital said.

Climate change affects lakes, walleye in complex ways

Scientists are still trying to figure out how a changing climate affects walleye and other species of fish. Most don’t expect the walleye to be a winner. As global climate change continues delivering warmer temperatures and heavier rains to Minnesota, lakes and their inhabitants will feel it. “One of the places you expect climate change to make a big difference is in changing the mix of species that do best in a lake,” said John Magnuson, director emeritus of the Center for Limnology — the study of inland waters — at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Democratizing the Maker Movement

Huffington Post

Noted: Two of the researchers doing this work are Erica Halverson, an Associate Professor of Curriculum and Instruction at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and Kimberly Sheridan, an Associate Professor of Educational Psychology at George Mason University.