Without scientific study, the state would return to the practice of stocking lakes with fish based on politics, said John Magnuson, professor emeritus of zoology and director emeritus, UW-Madison Center for Limnology.
Category: UW Experts in the News
Memo: Eliminating DNR positions could take more jobs with it
Quoted: “There’s a multiplier effect to this decision,” Steve Born, a retired University of Wisconsin-Madison urban planner who worked with the DNR, said during a River Alliance news conference Thursday to protest the cuts. “Over time, the loss of their knowledge base … will start to erode the quality of decisions we make.”
What does it mean to be Asian American in Michigan?
So what does it mean to be an Asian-American in Michigan, and how did immigrants from so many different Asian countries come to Michigan? These are some of the questions explored in the new book Asian Americans in Michigan: Voices from the Midwest.
Teacher certification changes stir controversy in state budget
Noted: The University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Education graduates approximately 200 teachers each year. Hanley-Maxwell said this change discounts all that goes into teaching.
Avian flu cases peak in Wisconsin
When the avian flu first surfaced in Wisconsin in April 2015, the Wisconsin Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory was testing 100 or more samples a day. On Wednesday, less than 50 samples were being tested.
New hominid species may have been neighbor to famed ‘Lucy’
Quoted: With several Australopithecus species living in eastern and central Africa in the same general period, “we’re looking at hominins who are potential candidates as human ancestors,” says Henry Bunn, a paleoanthropologist at the University of Wisconsin at Madison.
Climate of change: The Catholic church and its dance with science
Noted: Galileo was put under house arrest for the rest of his life after he continued to publish work showing the Earth orbiting the sun, despite warnings from the pope and the Inquisition. But it was more than a theological issue, said Heilbron and University of Wisconsin science historian Ron Numbers.
Scott Walker’s latest county judicial appointment bolsters his conservative credentials
Noted: Howard Schweber, UW professor of political science and legal studies, offers expert insight.
Charter to buy Time Warner Cable, would dominate Wisconsin market
Quoted: Now, once again, it looks like Charter will gain control of Time Warner Cable and much of Wisconsins market, said Barry Orton, a telecommunications professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
New species of early human was Lucy’s neighbour in Africa
Quoted: “If Haile-Selassie is right, I think it’s only reasonable to conclude that some unknown number of Australopithecus afarensis skeletal remains actually belong to this new species instead,” says John Hawks at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “This means that everything that has been written about variation, function and the anatomy of Australopithecus afarensis from fragmentary remains must now be in doubt.”
9 steps for solving income inequality — and why we need to be talking about them
Tim Smeeding, a professor of public affairs and economics at Institute for Research on Poverty at the University of Wisconsin – Madison, has a few ideas on how to solve income inequality in the US.
Wisconsin bill would approve blaze pink wear for hunting
Noted: And pink has advantages over orange, according to research by University of Wisconsin-Madison color scientist Majid Sarmadi, the caucus said.
UW Political Scientist All Eyes Will Be On Wisconsin
Former Democratic U.S. Senator Russ Feingold wants his seat in Washington back, and he’s announced he’ll challenge the man who unseated him five years ago, Republican Ron Johnson. The election isn’t until November of 2016, but UW-Madison political science professor Barry Burden says the race already has a very high profile.
Cable merger could mean hundreds of layoffs
Quoted: “This would combine the two major cable companies that serve the state into one,” said Barry Orton, a telecommunications professor at UW-Madison.
Rising doubts are cast on shaken-baby diagnoses
Noted: But Keith Findley, assistant law professor at the University of Wisconsin and the codirector of the Wisconsin Innocence Project, said the consensus around shaken baby diagnoses has crumbled.
For Scott Walker, one more budget fight looms on path to White House
Quoted: “If history had stopped in 2010-2011, and you were writing about Walker’s legacy, you’d say he did reduce the structural deficit. But history didn’t stop in 2011,” said Andy Reschovsky, professor emeritus of public affairs and applied economics at the University of Wisconsin.
Why Too Many Health Insurance Choices Are Costing You Money
Quoted: So how can you be a better health care consumer? Justin Sydnor, one of the researchers and an economist at the University of Wisconsin business school, suggests the dreaded school math-class crucible: the story problem. First consider how much you expect to spend on health care. Then calculate whether your total payments would be higher with a low-deductible plan or a high-deductible plan. Asking people to compare premiums with out-of-pocket expenses helped set his research subjects on the right course.
Lawmakers to pitch making blaze pink the next hunting garb
Noted: Moulton wrote in his column that the sportsmens caucus met with Majid Sarmadi, a textiles expert at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He said Sarmadi conducted experiments on blaze pink and blaze orange visibility and concluded that blaze pink clothing is equally visible or more visible to the human eye than blaze orange.
GOP lawmakers to fast track abortion ban after 20 weeks
Quoted: Doug Laube, a University of Wisconsin-Madison physician and past president of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, said the women involved in these situations want to be pregnant but find out midway through their pregnancies that there are serious problems.
A Flattering Biographical Video as the Last Exhibit for the Defense
Noted: Given that a defendant has a right to speak at sentencing, a video is on solid legal ground, said Walter Dickey, emeritus professor of law at the University of Wisconsin Law School, “though the judge can obviously limit what’s offered.” Professor Dickey said that because, at both the state and federal levels, the lengths of sentences are increasingly up to judges rather than mandated by statute, it followed that videos that “speak to the discretionary part” of sentencing were having a bigger role.
Raising Boys in a “Girl Power” World
Quoted: Karl Rosengren, a professor of Psychology and Human Development Family Studies at UW Madison said even though we are making strides in equality between men and women, we’re still facing some obstacles.
“I think things have changed for girls where they haven’t changed for boys.” said Dr. Rosengren. “It’s okay for girls to cross those typical gender boundaries.”
Bug season starts off strong
While experts say they’ve already heard of an uptick in, well, ticks, it’s too early to say just how bad bug season will be here. “But this year the ticks seem to have rebounded, and they seem to be out in force,” PJ Liesch of the UW Insect Diagnostic Lab said.
UW-Madison Economists Debate Condition Of Wisconsin’s Economy
As the state budget process runs on and legislators debate substantial cuts, a pair of University of Wisconsin-Madison economists are debating the current health of Wisconsin’s economy.
GOP Guvs With ’16 Ambitions Hamstrung By Budget Crises Of Own Making
Quoted: According to University of Wisconsin-Madison political science professor Barry Burden, Walker is focusing his cuts on places that appeal to small government advocates, such as deep cuts to public broadcasting and the entirety of the state park budget, but won’t do much to balance ledgers.
Does Divestment Work?
“There was a real tension within the business ethics of what you do when you’re investing in a country whose laws are unethical,” said University of Wisconsin-Madison sociology professor Gay Seidman, an apartheid activist at Harvard at the time. “Most of the people working in the divestment movement through the 1970s and 1980s weren’t doing it to simply to get the institution to divest,” Seidman said. “It wasn’t about the institution; it was about a broader issue. We wanted people to think about apartheid.”
What dog owners need to know about H3N2 canine flu
Noted: It’s estimated that there are several thousand dogs who have been affected by the virus, but not more than 10,000 at this point, Keith Poulsen, a professor of veterinary medicine at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, told USA TODAY Network in an email.
Is Facebook Killing The High School Reunion?
Noted: Add high school reunions to the list of cultural familiarities forever altered by our hyper-connected lifestyle, says Catalina Toma, an expert on the psychological effects of technology who teaches at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Can economists explain the falling marriage rate?
Quotes Randall Wright from the School of Business: “Our idea is that if people live in a country or a decade with high inflation/taxation they will be less disposed to use markets and bring more economic activity in house — which for us means setting up a house and that translates into marriage (as well as roommates, living with parents, etc.).”
Stem cell ‘Wild West’ takes root amid lack of U.S. regulation
But Alta Charo, a professor of law and bioethics at University of Wisconsin, says the FDA’s draft guidelines make clear that processed fat stem cells meet the same definition as prescription drugs. “You cannot sell that in the United States without it having been approved,” says Charo, who spent two years at the FDA as a policy adviser.
Chief Mike Koval, UW Researcher Simon Haeder on Capitol City Sunday
UW-Madison political science researcher Simon Haeder also joined host Greg Neumann to discuss a recent study he and colleagues conducted on the choice and quality of hospital care for people enrolled in state health insurance exchanges under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.
B.B. King’s music influence extends to legendary Madison jazz musician
Quoted: Richard Davis, professor of bass; Craig Werner, professor of African-American studies.
Job prospects good for college grads
The job prospects for those students are looking good. Employers have increased hiring of new grads by 9.6 percent this year, according to the National Association for Colleges and Employers. “We’ve been seeing an increase in employers for the past couple of years,” says Steve Schroeder, assistant dean for UW’s BBA program. “We’re not quite where we were pre-2008, but we’re close.”
Feingold Will Face Different Political Landscape In 2016 Than He Did In 2010
Quoted: Both candidates are likely to spend heavily, said University of Wisconsin-Madison political science and journalism professor Michael Wagner. “This is a race that is likely to break Wisconsin U.S. Senate records in terms of fundraising — both in terms of candidates and in terms of super PACs that will fund a lot of television advertising,” said Wagner.
Winston couple’s daughter killed in Taliban attack
Paula Kantor dedicated — and ultimately gave — her life to the pursuit of better lives for some of the world’s poorest and most marginalized people.
Before leaving the university, she recently had taught at several departments at UW-Madison.
Animal Sex: How Sloths Do It
Quoted: “A sloth just isn’t a sloth,” said Jonathan Pauli, a wildlife ecologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, who has studied sloths. “Two-toed sloths and three-toed sloths are quite different from each other.”
World’s central bankers braced for big divergence
Quoted: Collaborating to manage exchange rates — another possibility — would also be problematic. As Charles Engel, an economist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, notes, there is no agreed model upon which to determine the relative value of currencies. Add to that the immense political pressure that policy makers would face upon entering such negotiations.
B.B. King’s music influence extends to legendary Madison jazz musician
Quoted: “I think B.B. King has influenced every musician who heard him,” says Craig Werner, a professor of African American studies at UW Madison.
Verona man donates kidney, contributes to longest kidney chain ever
It all started at UW Health. One Verona man offered to donate his kidney to his sister-in-law. Unfortunately he wasn’t a match but he still was able to donate to someone else, someone he didn’t even know- helping set off a kidney donation chain. Quoted: Karen Miller, senior transplant coordinator for UW Health.
Governors, eyeing 2016, face troubles at home
Quoted: “It has been kind of a perfect storm,” said Marcia Van Wagner, an analyst with Moody’s, which in February revised the state’s outlook to “negative.”
Big Money Expected in Johnson-Feingold Race
Quoted: “That fits right in line with political science research that suggests when the incumbent is spending a lot of money it means they’re in trouble, which Feingold was in 2010,” said Mike Wagner, a professor of journalism and mass communications at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He has followed the two candidates for years.
Could Warming Make Hurricane Season Longer?
Quoted: One of the first people to examine the question was atmospheric scientist Jim Kossin, of the University of Wisconsin and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Scientists Urge Action On Phosphorus As State Moves To Delay Compliance With New Limits
Noted: Chris Kucharik is an agronomy professor in the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies at University of Wisconsin-Madison. Kucharik said any slowdown in phosphorus reductions puts the state behind where it should be. “I mean phosphorus, nitrogen — these are known pollutants,” said Kucharik. “We really need to start making some headway on these problems. They’re not going to go away. And I think if we would have known what we know today 50 years ago, we would have been able to get on a better path.”
Laura Good of the UW-Madison Soil Science Department said a recent study in Dane, Green and Iowa counties — all in the Pecatonica River watershed — showed farmers can make significant reductions in phosphorus runoff.
What a civil suit would mean for Tony Robinson’s family
Quoted: UW legal expert Steven Wright joined the Wake Up Wisconsin anchors Wednesday morning to talk about what a civil suit would mean for Robinson’s family. “I think one of the motivations perhaps for the family, is they will get to conduct their own investigation,” Wright said. “They won’t necessarily have to rely upon the findings of the state.”
A lively look at Forest Hill Cemetery
“Forest Hill Cemetery: A Guide” — the web address is foresthill.williamcronon.net — is a remarkably lively and varied look at the Speedway Road cemetery. It focuses almost not at all on who is buried at Forest Hill — a two volume biographical guide published by Historic Madison has that handled — and instead looks at aspects of a cemetery that are, if not ignored, at least often taken for granted.
1st lawsuit filed over retracted Rolling Stone rape piece
Quoted: Robert Drechsel of the University of Wisconsin School of Journalism and Mass Communication agreed that Eramo, as a public official or figure, would have to prove Rolling Stone knew what it published was false and went forward with the story anyway.”It’s really a state of mind kind of thing and that’s really not easy to prove,” said Drechsel, dean of the school’s Center for Journalism Ethics.
Video by UW Law School students focuses on officer-involved deaths
“We saw around the country that there was a lot of confusion, frustration, sometimes anger when decisions like this come and I think a large part of it was the fact the public wasn’t aware of the law, how it was applied and how the investigations were conducted,” said Stan Davis, an adjunct professor at the University of Wisconsin Law School. Davis worked with six Latino or black law school students to create a 14-minute video explaining the law in a way the general public can understand.
Husband of occupational therapy patient set to graduate from UW’s OT program
“When I met Ted and Tabea it was an obvious positive match,” said Debbie Bebeau, a clinical instructor in the program. Bebeau immediately recognized Ted’s commitment to help Tabea and his willingness to learn the skills necessary to provide her therapy at home.
UW Legal expert hopes DA’s decision answers ‘big question’
“I think we’ll also hear if Mr. Robinson was on mushrooms at the time,” [instructor] Steven Howard Wright told 27 News. “I suspect there will be some sort of toxicology report that may be able to tell us whether it contributed to some erratic behavior.”
A Rainforest-Protection Policy That Really Works
Quoted: “After the last 15 years of being completely focused on studying tropical deforestation,” says geographer Holly Gibbs, an associate professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, “these are the first policies I’ve seen lead to significant and rapid change.”
Rethinking sales incentive management
Sales is often associated with competition, which, in a sense, negates the idea of cooperation. But recent research from the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Business suggests that incentives offered to teams might be more effective than those offered to individuals, when members of those groups have established a social connection.
Noah Lim and Hua Chen, both marketing professors at the school, were unsatisfied with existing research on incentives. Much of it suggested that groups enable freeloaders to thrive.
Family defies odds to have children
Quoted: “We get multiple eggs from a woman, we fertilize all those eggs and create many embryos, then what we do is grow them in a lab and select the very best ones for transfers,” says Dr. Jeff Jones, lab director at UW Health Generations and associate professor of obstetrics.
UW study reveals what Facebook can predict about the future
A study out of the University of Wisconsin and the University of Washington demonstrates that your Facebook profile might reveal more about you than you think. Quoted: Jon D’Angelo, lecturer (doctoral student) in communication arts.
Sheriff’s actions ‘highly inappropriate’, expert says
Quoted: Can a sheriff legally refuse to enforce a law? The answer is not as clear as it might seem, said Howard Schweber, professor of political science and legal studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Laws allow police to use discretion in deciding whether to charge a person in a specific case, but Schweber said that’s different from choosing not to cite anyone, ever, with a particular violation.
Taj Mahal to undergo mud pack therapy
Noted: Last year, a joint study conducted by the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kanpur, ASI and US-based Georgia Institute of Technology (Atlanta) and University of Wisconsin (Madison) stated that mud pack therapy on Taj had to become an annual feature in order to keep the Taj in pristine condition.
UW engineering students build mobility cart for disabled goat
When a group of freshmen at University of Wisconsin-Madison signed up for an introduction to engineering design class they expected to get a grade, but they got more than that. They got an understanding of life. Quoted: David Bohnhoff, professor of biological systems engineering.
Is Facebook to blame for making us more polarized? No, we are.
Quoted: “Selectivity has always existed. But now we’re living in different world,” says Dietram Scheufele, who specializes in science communication at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. Facebook “is enabling levels of selectivity that have never been possible before.”
The Rev. Jesse Jackson: Dover cop used ‘excessive force’
Quoted: “It is the kind of thing that usually most people don’t see so it is easy to think it doesn’t happen in your community, but it is a pattern that is happening everywhere across the country,” said William Powell Jones, a professor at University of Wisconsin-Madison and expert on the civil rights movement. “We are in a moment where there is a lot of heightened attention to it.”
The History — and Health Implications — of Student Hunger Strikes
Quoted: Still, in medical circles, doctors often refer to what’s known as the 72/72 rule: You can’t survive more than 72 hours without water or more than 72 days without food, said Sarah Van Orman, executive director of University Health Services for the University of Wisconsin at Madison. “We start to become really concerned about the physiological effects after 20 to 30 days,” she added.
Working, but still poor
Noted: Many of these folks are employed in fast food and retail, but they are also home health care workers, pre-school teachers and waitresses, said Sarah Halpern-Meekin, an assistant professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, who co-wrote “It’s Not Like I’m Poor,” a new book on struggling working families. Since their hours often fluctuate, many of these low-wage workers also are subject to great shifts in income each week.
Los Angeles is Next in Battle Over All-Girls Science, Tech Schools
Noted: “Frankly, people on both sides of the issue have been cherry-picking findings,” Janet Hyde, a professor of psychology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who has studied gender disparities in education, told NBC News.