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Category: UW Experts in the News

Report Faults Priorities in Breast Cancer Research

New York Times

Quoted: ?We know things like radiation might cause breast cancer, but we don?t know much that we can say specifically causes breast cancer in terms of chemicals,? said Michael Gould, a professor of oncology at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and a co-chairman of the 23-member committee that prepared the report.

Thomas Nagel Is Praised by Creationists

New York Times

Quoted: ?I wouldn?t criticize him for not knowing a lot of details about evolutionary biology,? said Elliott Sober, a philosopher of biology at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, who was highly critical of ?Mind and Cosmos? in Boston Review. But Mr. Nagel?s arguments, he continued, are marred by flawed reasoning about probability: ?He sees the origins of life and consciousness as remarkable facts which had to have had a high probability of happening. I don?t buy that.?

Ward not expecting state funding cuts to UW

Daily Cardinal

University of Wisconsin-Madison Chancellor David Ward told the Faculty Senate Monday that university funding in the upcoming state biennial budget looks as though it will remain ?steady.?Ward said although the budget remains largely unclear until its release later this month, he is not expecting large cuts.

Panel to discuss UW office in Shanghai

Daily Cardinal

group of University of Wisconsin-Madison professors will discuss the university?s international connections in China at a panel Wednesday.UW-Madison opened the UW-Madison Shanghai Innovation Office as part of the university?s commitment to international educational opportunities such as study abroad programs and research collaboration.

Tech and Biotech: A job fair for local startups

Wisconsin State Journal

About 20 of the Madison area?s growing crop of entrepreneurs will share their experiences with UW-Madison students at the 2013 Madison Startup Fair, scheduled Tuesday, from 1 to 5 p.m. at the Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery Town Center, 330 N. Orchard St., in the lobby on the Randall Street side.

NOVA to feature UW-Madison cave man expert

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

A University of Wisconsin-Madison anthropolgy professor who is an often-quoted expert on Neandertal cave men will be featured on the public television series NOVA on Wednesday.John Hawks will talk about how researchers using modern genetics have discovered Neandertals and their society were more advanced — and possibly more like us — than the ancient human cousins are often portrayed in popular culture, according to a news release from the Madison campus.

Immigration: Mexico Stays Out of Debate

Fox News Latino

Quoted: Remittances from the family member in the U.S make up a huge amount of many Mexicans incomes and comprehensive immigration reform could ostensibly make cross-border travel for work much easier, said Petra Guerra, the associate director of the Chicano and Latino Studies program at the University of Wisconsin.

Dr. Jacqueline Gerhart: If you have prediabetes, what are the chances you get full-blown diabetes?

Wisconsin State Journal

Dear Dr. Gerhart: I was just told I have prediabetes. What are the chances I?m going to get full-blown diabetes?Dear Reader: I?m sorry to hear you have prediabetes, also known as impaired fasting glucose or impaired glucose tolerance. It is diagnosed in patients with elevated blood sugars that are not yet high enough to be considered diabetes.

Higher Ed?s Biggest Problem: What?s It For?

Chronicle of Higher Education

Quoted: ?Our students have all the information that we have as professors,? says Aaron Brower, special assistant to the president of the University of Wisconsin system (and a professor on the Madison campus). ?So there is no premium on access to information.?

Survey tries to determine what’s ‘normal’ for couples

USA Today

Quoted: “Probably at best, it tells us something about the white, probably better-educated, somewhat higher-income population in the U.S., which is a population we know a fair amount about already,” says sociologist John DeLamater of the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “What we really, really need are studies that look at these diverse groups in the U.S. That would go a long way in addressing the whole issue of ?normal.? “

Court Challenges Continue Despite Federal Court Ruling on Act 10

WUWM-FM, Milwaukee

Charles Franklin is a Political Scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.Franklin says last Friday?s appellate court ruling on Act 10 upheld all of the provisions of the law that had been struck down by a Wisconsin federal court. Franklin called the appellate court two to one decision, “strong support for the state?s position.”

How Nixon Re-Shaped The Presidency

NPR

Today would be the 100th birthday of President Richard Nixon. From civil rights to Watergate, Nixon?s term shaped the office of the presidency. Stanley Kutler, professor emeritus in history at the University of Wisconsin and author of Abuse of Power: The New Nixon Tapes, talks about the legacy of the 37th president.

Historians Look Back, and Inward, at Annual Meeting

New York Times

Noted: For William Cronon, a historian at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, and the outgoing president of the history association, the problem is insufficient attention to basic storytelling. Historians, he said, tend to default to a dry omniscient voice that hasn?t changed since the 19th-century, despite the fact that historians no longer believe in that kind of omniscience.

2013: The Year of Patient Engagement Innovations

Healthcare Informatics

Noted: Patricia Flatley Brennan, a professor of nursing and engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, heads up Project HealthDesign, a national research effort to explore ways to capture and integrate patient-recorded observations into clinical care. For that 2012 story, she noted that there hadn?t been much demand from the provider side yet. ?There is this delightful tension between what technology enables and social change,? she told me. ?The jury is still out on this.?

5 things on the line for Walker in 2013

Green Bay Press Gazette

Quoted: Donna Friedsam, director of health policy programs for the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute, said state Medicaid and insurance officials will have to decide whether to work hand-in-hand with those running the exchanges to give information to Wisconsin residents and help navigate the system.

Scant Proof Is Found to Back Up Claims by Energy Drinks

New York Times

Noted: A scientist at the University of Wisconsin became puzzled as he researched an ingredient used in energy drinks like Red Bull, 5-Hour Energy and Monster Energy. The researcher, Dr. Craig A. Goodman, could not find any trials in humans of the additive, a substance with the tongue-twisting name of glucuronolactone that is related to glucose, a sugar. But Dr. Goodman, who had studied other energy drink ingredients, eventually found two 40-year-old studies from Japan that had examined it.

Groups re-evaluate ties to Suzy Favor Hamilton after shocking admission

Madison.com

Noted: The UW-Madison School of Education has worked with Favor Hamilton for “several years” in a one-week summer camp to encourage middle school-age students to pursue college, Associate Dean Dawn Crim said. Favor Hamilton had been scheduled to lead the “Movin? Minds” camp in July. Her name was on the camp?s website Thursday, but by Friday it had been removed.

Sinking with old economy: Wisconsin lags in developing 21st-century companies

Capital Times

Wisconsin, we?ve still got a problem. Despite private businesses receiving hundreds of millions of dollars in grants, tax credits and other incentives since the 2007 recession, the state?s economy continues to sputter…The Center on Wisconsin Strategy in its latest “Wisconsin Job Watch” says the state remains down 161,000 jobs since the 2007 recession as well as lacking another 86,500 jobs needed to keep up with population growth since then….”It’s not just that we’re giving out so much money to business, it’s that our job creation remains so much worse than the rest of the nation,” says Laura Dresser, associate director of COWS, a liberal UW-Madison economic think tank.

Cellular Dynamics reaches deal to license stem cell patents

Wisconsin State Journal

Cellular Dynamics International (CDI), Madison, has agreed to license stem cell patents from GE Healthcare Life Sciences. Terms of the arrangement were not disclosed. GE Healthcare has had a long-term agreement, recently expanded, to license the stem cell technology developed by Geron Corp., a biopharmaceutical company in Menlo Park, Calif.

New manager of Farm Technology Days named

Wisconsin State Journal

A UW-Extension manager with a wealth of experience working with county government was named Monday as the next general manager of Wisconsin Farm Technology Days Inc. Matt Glewen, 56, who has worked for the UW-Extension for the past 32 years, said he is excited to lead an organization that must decide soon whether to continue to hold its show at a different county each year or create a permanent location.

Ask the Weather Guys: How long has Milwaukee gone without snow?

Wisconsin State Journal

A: By Sunday, Dec. 9, Milwaukee had gone 280 consecutive days without measurable snowfall (defined as 0.1 inches or more of snow). That set the all-time record long streak for no snow in Milwaukee?s weather history. By the time you read this article, the streak will have continued into its 288th day ? an amazing way to approach the end of a truly unusual, and in many ways, unsettling year of weather in our state.