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.
Category: UW Experts in the News
Disposable personal income rose at a faster pace in October than the month before
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.
What does Donald Trump mean for housing in Madison, and Wisconsin?
“Regardless of who got elected, we would have said that there’s these deep structural crises in the housing system. And there are some really thorny trade-offs involved,” said Kurt Paulsen, a professor of urban planning at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “And you cannot just cut your way to housing affordability.”
Trump won the popular vote, contrary to claims online
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?
“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.”
Friday could be Camp Randall’s coldest game in 60 years. Experts give fans tips
“If you are protected and layered appropriately, you should be safe even in the temperatures that we’re expecting,” said Patrick Shahan, an assistant professor with the Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health and an acute care surgeon. “You just have to be mindful of being too cold.”
UW mechanical engineer launches study of the brain and the “Havana Syndrome”
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
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
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.”
Ryan Borgwardt likely wouldn’t face significant jail time after staging death, experts say
Clinical associate professor of law at University of Wisconsin Law School John Gross explained if Borgwardt returns home, he would likely be charged with a Class A misdemeanor for obstruction, but it’s not certain whether he could be charged with a Class I felony for insurance fraud.
How to survive a Thanksgiving dinner with relatives who disagree about politics
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.
What is raw milk? And why is everyone talking about it?
“The people that struggle with milk can drink raw milk,” she says. Her claim isn’t in line with a study by John Lucey, a professor of food science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, which found “no obvious reason why raw milk could assist with lactose intolerance.”
Lucy’s legacy
“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
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.
How big was Donald Trump’s 2024 election victory? 8 charts explain
“Trump’s victory was solid and convincing,” said Barry Burden, a University of Wisconsin political scientist. Still, “the 2024 elections were not a general endorsement of the Republican Party. Many Republicans down ballot did not perform as well as Trump.”
String theory is not dead
“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.
Trump’s second presidency will only accelerate America’s imperial decline
Written by Alfred McCoy, the J.R.W. Smail Professor of History at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
These disability doulas are helping people navigate life more comfortably
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.”
RFK Jr. says he drinks raw milk. How safe is unpasteurized milk?
Drinking unpasteurized milk is “a really stupid, bad idea,” said John Lucey, a professor of food science and the director of the Center for Dairy Research at University of Wisconsin at Madison. “It’s almost like a doctor shouldn’t wash their hands before they go into an operating room.”
Huckabee as Trump’s pick for Israel ambassador is a win for Christian Zionism. Here’s why.
“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.”
Neanderthals and early Homo sapiens buried their dead differently, study suggests
“The data are limited, but this is an impressive survey,” John Hawks, a paleoanthropologist at the University of Wisconsin–Madison who did not take part in this research, told Live Science. Notably, he said there appear to have been consistent burial practices that distinguished Neanderthal and early H. sapiens burials. This is surprising because all of these small, scattered populations wouldn’t be expected to share cultural practices over long stretches of space and time.
Nanoink and printing technologies could enable electronics repairs, production in space
The flight path to these experiments began when a research team led by Iowa State’s Shan Jiang, an associate professor of materials science and engineering, and Hantang Qin, formerly of Iowa State who’s now an assistant professor of industrial and systems engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, wondered if their ink and printer technologies would work in the zero gravity of space.
Christmas tree-killing insect in Michigan is bound for Wisconsin
An invasive insect that kills fir trees is threatening Michigan’s Christmas tree industry. And the woolly adelgids “are likely on their way to Wisconsin,” according to the Wisconsin DNR. Entomologist Phil Pellitteri joins us to talk about the tiny invasive insects.
Do abortion policy changes affect young women’s mental health?
“The survey data shows just how strongly people feel about abortion policies,” said corresponding author J. Michael Collins, Ph.D., of the University of Wisconsin–Madison.
Fearing birth control bans, Wisconsin women begin to plan ahead
Jenny Higgins, a professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said the scope of her work with CORE, the Collaborative for Reproductive Equity housed in the School of Medicine and Public Health, has not shifted as a result of Trump’s victory in the Nov. 5 presidential election.
However, “the landscape of contraceptive care in the state is likely to change drastically,” Higgins said.
Planet 10 times the size of Earth is one of the youngest ever found
“We try to extrapolate from these other worlds how quickly planet formation might have taken hold in the early solar system,” says Melinda Soares-Furtado at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
‘Government by the worst’: why people are calling Trump’s new sidekicks a ‘kakistocracy’
“Hayes’ term was absolutely being described as a kakistocracy,” said Kelly Wright, assistant professor of language sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. (1880 was also a general election year in the UK, another country known for its contributions to the English language. That year, William Gladstone became prime minister for the second time; perhaps his opponents were among those giving the word a boost.)
All life on Earth today descended from a single cell. Meet LUCA.
“We tend to think that early life is somehow simpler, less sophisticated … but I don’t think there’s any reason to think that,” said Betül Kaçar, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Wisconsin, Madison who wasn’t involved in the research. “A complex ecosystem, to me, sounds more realistic.”
Report finds Wisconsin agriculture revenue on the rise, up nearly 11 percent from 2017
An economic analysis shows Wisconsin’s agriculture industry is pulling in more revenue in recent years but employing fewer people.
The report, titled “The Contributions of Agriculture to the Wisconsin Economy,” is published every five years. The newest survey found the industry earned $116.3 billion in revenue in 2022, the latest data available. That is a 10.9 percent increase from 2017. However, the numbers are nuanced, Steve Deller and Jeff Hadachek, co-authors of the report out of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said on WPR’s “Wisconsin Today.”
China set to lose over 50 million people in population crisis
Demographer Yi Fuxian of the University of Wisconsin-Madison has previously cast doubt on dragon years, pointing out they have generally had a negligible effect on births in China in recent decades.
Holiday budgets by city (2024)
“For many consumers, overspending happens when they feel time crunched or make snap decisions in response to discounts or limited offers,” said Amber M. Epp, an associate professor of marketing at the Wisconsin School of Business at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “Consumers can save money in the traditional ways by making budgets and lists this time of year, but also by comparison shopping and seeking out discounts for items already on their lists rather than impulse buying when presented with sales.”
Best credit cards for November 2024
“The market’s best credit cards are often indicative of the health of the economy, because their use can give insights into consumer perceptions and acceptability of interest rates, consumer spending habits as well as consumer debt,” said Cynthia Jasper, a professor of Civil Society and Community Studies, School of Human Ecology, University of Wisconsin-Madison.
In France, a family reckons with World War II Allies’ legacy of rape and murder
Mary Louise Roberts, professor emerita at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, was one of the first scholars to consult French as well as U.S. archives for her 2013 book, What Soldiers Do.
“Towards the end of the summer of 1944 there really was a problem with rape,” she says. “And the United States Army, at the highest levels of SHAEF, was concerned about it.” SHAEF was the acronym for the Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force, commanded by Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower.
What happens under water in winter?
When it comes to determining the role that lakes play in global carbon cycling, those estimates are often drawn from summer data. Just using that small subset of data creates errors in estimates of atmospheric interactions and other downstream effects, said Hilary Dugan, an associate professor at the University of Wisconsin Department of Limnology.
How Wisconsin lost control of the strange disease killing its deer
I drove south out of Madison, Wisconsin, along solitary rural roads until I arrived at a secluded home set amid scattered forest and open prairie. Waiting inside for me were two men: Michael Samuel, a retired professor of wildlife ecology at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, and Bryan Richards, the emerging-disease coordinator at the US Geological Survey’s National Wildlife Health Center.
Coca-Cola causes controversy with AI-made ad
Neeraj Arora, the chair of marketing research and education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said the reason why the company faced backlash for this specific advertisement, and not for “Masterpiece” last year, could be because many consumers recognize Christmas as an integral part of the company’s brand, and AI technology acts as a disruption.
“Your holidays are a time of connection, time of community, time to connect with family, and that’s sort of a big part of what the holidays are about,” Arora said. “But then you throw AI into the mix that is not a fit, that is not a fit with holiday timing, but also, to some degree, also Coke, what the brand means to people.”
Germany: Bavarian pterosaur fossil gives evolutionary clues
Co-author Adam Fitch of the University of Wisconsin at Madison said the “Skiphosoura represents an important new way to study the evolutionary relationships between pterosaurs and how this lineage evolved and changed.”
Is raw milk safe? Science has a clear answer
Boiling is an even more aggressive form of heating than pasteurization, which was developed to kill pathogens while minimizing changes to milk’s flavor and composition, says John Lucey, a food science professor at the University of Wisconsin, Madison and director of the university’s Center for Dairy Research. “Boiling is a very substantial heat treatment whereas pasteurization is much gentler,” he notes.
Repeatedly doing the same activity can lead to muscle imbalance — and pain
Muscle imbalance occurs when physical activity isn’t varied. Our PT experts Lori Thein Brody and Jill Thein-Nissenbaum are here to talk about the symptoms and treatments for muscle imbalance.
Learn more about ‘American Indians and the American Dream’ with this ‘University Place’ Q&A and episode
In this episode of University Place Presents, host Norman Gilliland and his guest Kasey Keeler, assistant professor of American Indian and Indigenous Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, discuss the topic, American Indians and the American Dream, which she explores in her book of the same title.
Milwaukee, Madison first responders using whole blood in trauma response
Providers on air ambulances are usually able to give blood components like red blood cells and plasma. But Dr. Ryan Newberry, assistant professor of emergency medicine at UW Health, said research shows that someone who is bleeding to death needs all of the components in blood.
“(Whole blood) can help temporize or slow bleeding, especially if we can give it in that first hour after your injury,” said Newberry, who is also assistant medical director of UW Health’s Med Flight. “That allows us to have a little more time to get you from wherever that injury occurred, the side of the road, a back field, a community emergency department, and get you to a trauma center.”
Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson to back Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. for US health secretary
Patrick Remington, the former dean of public health at the School of Medicine and Public Health at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said it’s hard to tell in advance how Kennedy would lead the Department of Health and Human Services.
“Time will tell how his personal views over the past several years will translate into actions as secretary,” he said. “I think it’s important to understand sometimes people’s views change when their roles and responsibilities change.”
Law expert breaks down potential charges Ryan Borgwardt could face after faking his own death
John Gross, Clinical Associate Professor of law at the University of Wisconsin told WMTV 15 News that while faking his death is not a crime on its own, actions Borgwardt took before fleeing the country could result in criminal charges.
Microsoft to use diesel-fired generators as backup power for data centers
Production of renewable diesel from plant oils has increased in recent years amid wide use in transportation fuel, according to Mary Blanchard, associate director of the Wisconsin Energy Institute at the University of Wisconsin in Madison.
“It generally meets a 50 percent greenhouse gas reduction compared to petroleum-based diesel fuel,” Blanchard said, noting some companies claim even higher emissions reductions.
Wisconsin Supreme Court to hear arguments in lawsuit over Meagan Wolfe ‘holdover’ appointment
Bryna Godar is a staff attorney with the State Democracy Research Initiative at the University of Wisconsin Law School. She said one of the complicating factors in the Wolfe case is that none of the parties are asking the court to overrule the 2022 decision on holdover appointments.
She said it’s rare “for a court to voluntarily overrule” a prior decision without parties asking justices. Still, Godar said the battle over Wolfe’s appointment wouldn’t be happening if not for the Prehn decision two years ago.
“And so, we’re kind of taking that as a given rule in Wisconsin, and going from there,” Godar said. “And saying, OK then, what does that mean in this situation?”
Kathryn McGarr on Trumpism and lessons from American history
UW-Madison journalism professor Kathryn McGarr considers questions about historical parallels between the second Trump administration and the mid-20th century’s America First movement and McCarthyism.
Christopher Saldaña on funding for Wisconsin schools in 2025
UW-Madison education professor Christopher Saldaña considers the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction’s 2025 budget request and record-setting new funding approved in school referendums in 2024.
Her neighbor’s trees were killed by the emerald ash borer. Now they’re falling onto her home.
There are several preventative emerald ash borer treatments homeowners can have administered to their trees annually in the spring.
Some of the most affordable treatments are sprayed onto trees and cost approximately $30 to $50 per each. Pricier, longer-lasting options can be directly injected into tree bark, said PJ Liesch, director of the Insect Diagnostic Lab at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Wisconsin is facing an uptick in food recalls. Here’s why
Consumers should observe good food safety practices in order to protect themselves against food-borne illness. Health experts recommend getting a refrigerator thermometer and making sure the temperature is 40 degrees or lower. “The colder the temperature, the longer the food will last safely,” wrote Kathleen Glass, associate director of the Food Research Institute at University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Defense attorneys fleeing courtroom of Dane County judge accused of bias, disrespect
UW-Madison clinical associate law professor John P. Gross, a former criminal defense attorney, said that typically when a criminal court judge sees a lot of requests from defense attorneys to move cases out of a courtroom, it’s because the judge has developed a reputation for being “particularly harsh when it comes to sentencing.”
Other reasons could include that an attorney has disagreed with some of the judge’s past rulings, that a client has said something seen as inflammatory that upsets the judge, or that the judge has a poor judicial temperament, he said.
Madison police say residents should take caution around coyotes
The University of Wisconsin Canid Project, which studies coyotes and red foxes in the area, has also fielded calls about the coyote. In a post on the Project’s Facebook page Thursday, officials said they believe there are two coyotes roaming the West Side: The one with the leg injury and another with an unknown illness. Recent reports with the Project suggest that the animal with the leg injury might be moving better.
Inside the Quest to Make Fusion Energy a Reality
Realta Fusion is building a reactor that the company’s co-founder, Cary Forest, calls “Tootsie Roll shaped”: a cylinder with magnets at both ends.
When is the right time to start a new habit—and actually keep it?
“Research shows that couples who go on a diet together are more likely to lose weight and keep it off than those who do so alone,” says Christine Whelan, a clinical professor and consumer scientist at the School of Human Ecology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. One reason for this is that both partners ensure the other is sticking to their goals.
Pro-Palestine Wisconsin residents voted third-party, abstained from voting in protest of Israel policy
Political science professor and director of the Elections Research Center Barry Burden told the Cardinal Harris may have fallen short of Biden’s performance due to discontent among young progressive voters regarding the Biden-Harris administration’s Middle East policies.
Outdoor writers talk deer hunting, ecologist explains phenology
Phenology is the study of the seasonal events in nature. And thanks to the famed naturalist Aldo Leopold, Wisconsin has a calendar that keeps track of bird migrations, mammal predation and the blooming of flowers. Ecologist Stan Temple joins us.
Opinion: Wisconsin legislators lay out priorities. Here’s what to know from leaders of both parties.
Written by Susan Webb Yackee, a professor of public affairs and director of the La Follette School of Public Affairs at UW-Madison.
Teenager infected with H5N1 bird flu in critical condition
Nuzzo also pointed to a recent study published in Nature, led by Yoshihiro Kawaoka, an H5N1 expert at the University of Wisconsin, in Madison, that showed the virus that infected the first reported dairy worker in Texas had acquired mutations that made it more severe in animals as well as allowing it to move more efficiently between them — via airborne respiration.
No, ‘ballot dump’ didn’t steal Wisconsin Senate race | Fact check
“The late-night addition of ballots in the city of Milwaukee is a regular and expected part of the vote counting process in Wisconsin,” Barry Burden, a political science professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, told USA TODAY.
Researcher tests virus-based cancer treatment on her own breast cancer
“From my perspective, self experimentation is not fundamentally unethical,” said Alta Charo, a professor emerita of law and bioethics at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. “It may be unwise. It may indeed be tainted by an unrealistic set of expectations. … But I don’t see it as fundamentally unethical.”
Remedies for schools struggling to find special education teachers
This is when schools are more likely to see departures from special education teachers, said Kimber Wilkinson, a special education professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. New teachers often tell her about their concerns with morale and heavy workloads once they land a role at a school.