More than 1,000 miles from where Hurricane Milton made landfall on Wednesday night, researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison are using data from the storm to refine the way they study hurricanes.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison is continuing to grow its Wisconet system, which is a statewide network of weather and soil monitoring stations.
The university’s weather network, called Wisconet, is expected to be a game changer for farmers, climate researchers and many other industries in Wisconsin — especially those in remote areas.
The federal government’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, supported by all the congressional Democrats from Wisconsin, and none of the Republicans, has provided billions of dollars to bring faster internet to unserved and underserved areas. So big money is available for companies, communities and co-ops to make upgrades. But that comes through a “very long and convoluted pipeline,” said Barry Orton, a telecommunications professor emeritus with UW-Madison and fierce critic of Frontier.
Almonds and walnuts, in particular, have cancer-fighting powers. “Nuts increase your fiber intake, and they have vitamin E and antioxidants that may help with cancer prevention,” says Bradley Bolling, an associate professor of food science at the University of Wisconsin. Bolling found that eating 28 grams of nuts per day—about a handful of almonds or walnuts—is linked to a lower risk of getting and dying from cancer. Dried fruit without added sugars may have a similar effect, though data are limited, Bolling adds.
“It’s been scientific consensus since 1999 that indiscriminate killing is damaging,” said Adrian Treves, a professor of environmental studies and director of the Carnivore Coexistence Lab at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
“These laws, they do nothing but make it more difficult to vote,” said Kenneth Mayer, a professor of American politics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, who has conducted research on the effects of voter ID in his state. “And for every possible case of voter impersonation that you might prevent, you’re talking about thousands or tens of thousands of people who face these burdens.”
Dr. James Conway, a professor of pediatrics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and medical director of UW Health’s immunization program, said the personal convictions exemption tends to be applied loosely.
“It’s been allowed to be interpreted as, basically, if you don’t want it, you don’t have to get it,” he said.
Michael Wagner, director of the Center for Communication and Civic Renewal and professor in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said voting against the Young/Cotton amendment is not tantamount to supporting “giving stimulus checks” to nonresident immigrants.
“Stimulus checks only went to people with a Social Security number,” Wagner said in an email to PolitiFact Wisconsin. “Some noncitizens legally employed by DHS can get a Social Security number, and a small number of people in the U.S. on legal temporary working visas may also have been eligible for stimulus checks.”
“This issue, it’s economical, it’s social, it’s animal welfare, it’s emotional,” said David Drake, an urban wildlife expert and professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “There’s all sorts of different perspectives on this, and that’s what makes it so difficult.”
“It was a very surreal moment,” said Eshan Raul, now a doctoral candidate at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “We were searching specifically for water worlds because it was hypothesized that they could exist. If these are real, it really makes you wonder what else could be out there.”
Average homeowner premiums in Florida rose 57% between 2019 and 2023 according to data from Benjamin Keys of the University of Pennsylvania and Philip Mulder of the University of Wisconsin, a steeper rise than anywhere else in the nation.
Researchers say people with clinical depression could be helped by a treatment involving psilocybin, the psychoactive ingredient in magic mushrooms. Wisconsin scientists are among those conducting dozens of clinical trials worldwide on the use of the drug in treating depression. They say the evidence shows that, in combination with therapy, it shows great promise.
“It works,” said psychiatrist Charles Raison, a professor of human ecology and psychiatry at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “How far (psychedelics) get into the culture, how far they get into the clinical space? That’s a mystery.”
The amount of lightning in Hurricane Milton is “unlike any event” meteorologist Chris Vagasky has ever seen in the Atlantic Basin. Hurricane Milton’s eyewall, where the storm’s strongest winds are, exhibited more than 58,000 lightning events in just 14 hours, according to Vagasky, a meteorologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. That’s more than one lightning event every second, which he described as “astounding.”
The economic relationship between Wisconsin family farms and the rural communities that surround them is changing.
UW-Madison agricultural and applied economics professor Steve Deller said that smaller farms are struggling to generate enough income to support themselves, so families are more often turning to off-farm employment to help pay the bills.
“We successfully increased knowledge of radon in this community, and more importantly, they could not have afforded the radon mitigation without our project’s support. This community had noted higher rates of cancer among their people for many generations and expressed concern that their land was poisoning them. They were correct,” said lead study author and associate professor of medicine at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Noelle LoConte in a release.
Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison are studying what needs to happen for a person to remotely operate long-haul trucks that are otherwise autonomous.
“The vehicle operates on its own until it needs you,” said lead researcher David Noyce. “And then when it needs you, it calls you and says, ‘Can you get on the joystick here, and have control of the vehicle? Because I don’t understand what to do.’”
UW Health Distinguished Psychologist Dr. Shilagh Mirgain joined WMTV Monday to talk about the issues parents are facing. One change Mirgain said needs to happen is a change in the “culture of comparison,” which she explained is the habit of comparing one’s family to others, especially on social media.
Mike Wagner is a professor and election expert at UW-Madison. He says no one person or individual will change the outcome of the November 5th election, but says it’s groups of people who could have the biggest impact. This means students, specifically out-of-state students.
Trade associations for corn, soybean, potato and vegetable growers in Wisconsin were either unavailable or didn’t respond to requests for comment. Russ Groves, chair of the Department of Entomology at UW-Madison, said detections of pesticides are unfortunately a logical outcome in areas where agriculture is more intense on the landscape.
“Those are the tools that we have relied upon so that we don’t have real significant economic losses for a producer or an industry,” Groves said.
UW-Madison political science professor Benjamin Marquez considers the significance of immigration, borders and deportation as political issues in 2024 for Democratic and Republican candidates.
“I think banning the use of pepper spray in juvenile detention facilities is really not a radical act,” said Zoe Engberg, clinical assistant professor at University of Wisconsin Law School. “In 2018 … 35 states had already done this – they already completely prohibited the use of pepper spray in juvenile facilities.”
At the beginning of September, parts of the state were experiencing highs in the mid- to upper-80s, which are between five and 15 degrees higher than normal. Near Boscobel Airport on Sept. 15, the temperature rose to 92 degrees.
“It was a very weird September,” Steve Vavrus, director of the Center for Climate Research at UW-Madison, told WPR’s “Wisconsin Today.” He added it was also among the 10 driest, with data going back to the 1890s.
Menzie Chinn, a macroeconomist at UW-Madison, said some of the government support to consumers during the pandemic — by both the Trump and Biden administrations — coupled with jammed up supply chains when the American economy reopened helped contribute to inflation.
Earlier this year, the Federal Environmental Protection Agency tightened air quality regulations across the United States.
University of Wisconsin-Madison environmental studies professor Tracey Holloway told WPR’s “Wisconsin Today” that these regulations are the tightest they’ve ever been. And that means our air is the cleanest it’s ever been.
“Our primary findings reveal structural details that allow us to better understand not only how the protein regulates assembly of viral particles, but also the coordination of proteins that enable the virus to be infectious,” study leader Elizabeth Wright of the University of Wisconsin–Madison said in a statement.
Wealthy donors have turned us into a DIY Society, where people are supposed to take care of themselves rather than be helped by government.
“If the Fifth Circuit accepts the argument that the RNC is making, this would have very broad implications, and could conceivably make it up to the Supreme Court,” said Daniel Tokaji, dean of the University of Wisconsin Law School.
Health care providers in Wisconsin require parental consent before gender-affirming care can proceed for children under the age of 18, and gender-affirming surgery for minors, especially genital surgery, is rare, according to Stephanie Budge, an associate professor in counseling psychology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
The appearance is damaging enough, said Kathleen Bartzen Culver, a media ethics expert and director of the journalism school at the University of Wisconsin in Madison.
“You’ve given the source a really strong incentive to give you not just information but whatever kind of information you want,” she said. “There is a very good reason we don’t pay sources for information. The reason is the source would feel they have to please us in some way.”
Karen Holden, a professor emerita at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the La Follette School of Public Affairs and Department of Consumer Science, researches Social Security and the economic status of the elderly. She maintains that the system overall benefits from receiving payroll tax payments from migrants without legal status who cannot collect benefits.
Christian Che-Castaldo, Heather Joan Lynch, Mathew Schwaller, for their use of satellite imagery to discover 1.5 million previously undocumented Adélie penguins in the Antarctic. Che-Castaldo is a quantitative ecologist affiliated with the U.S. Geological Survey, Wisconsin Cooperative Wildlife Research Unit, and the Department of Forest and Wildlife Ecology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Yi Fuxian, a Chinese demographer and senior scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, told DW that in the coming years, China may face greater challenges as an aging society than most developed countries.
“China has kept the retirement age unchanged until now, and the recent delay is still insufficient,” Yi said, emphasizing that if this policy had been implemented 20 years earlier, “the current issues might have been avoided.”
The Princeton Gerrymandering Project described the Wisconsin district lines as “some of the most extreme partisan gerrymanders in the United States.”
How extreme? In 2012, while 48.6% of voters backed Republican candidates for the Wisconsin Assembly, Republicans “won” 60 of 99 seats. There was “no question — none — that the recent redistricting effort distorted the vote,” explained University of Wisconsin-Madison political science professor Kenneth Mayer.
The researchers, from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, estimated the net value of wind and solar based on a combination of off-reservation leases paid to landowners and taxes received by local governments. They predict that tribes and their members could earn about the same either by leasing the right to wind and sun to an outside developer or by developing themselves.
“The lives of people in many countries like Venezuela and Nicaragua, their lives have become almost intolerable,” said Benjamin Marquez, a political science professor at UW-Madison, with a focus on immigration and Latino populations.
“The native-born population has always reacted very negatively to large numbers of immigrants coming to the United States,” he added.
University of Wisconsin Law School Immigration Justice Clinic Director Erin Barbato discusses detention of immigrants amid more restrictions on people coming to the United States seeking protection.
Over time, hazards like these lights and windows are taking a toll. A nearly 50-year study of birds in North America found that populations have shrunk across species, by billions. Avian ecologist Anna Pidgeon has seen this in action. She’s been studying birds at the University of Wisconsin-Madison for over two decades.
Black student enrollment at the state’s flagship university has never surpassed 3 percent of the student body, according to data from the Universities of Wisconsin. In 2023, 1,327 students out of 50,335 identified as Black, about 2.6 percent.
This year, the percentage of underrepresented students of color in the freshman class dropped by 3.7 percentage points from last year to 14.3 percent, according to UW-Madison data.
Crane hunting also brings political views and public sentiment into play, Spreitzer said. A 2023 study by the University of Wisconsin Survey Center found fewer than one in five Wisconsinites supports a sandhill crane hunting season in the state. The work was funded by the International Crane Foundation in Baraboo and the UW-Madison Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies.
Dove’s Beauty Bar is an easy-to-use cleanser that’s also budget friendly, says Dr. Apple Bodemer, a board-certified dermatologist and associate professor of dermatology at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health. The hypoallergenic formula is safe to use as both a facial cleanser and body soap, and it contains mild and moisturizing ingredients like glycerin that can help maintain the skin’s natural moisture barrier, according to the brand.
It’s not unheard of that a state like Wisconsin has received so much attention from candidates and politicians acting as surrogates for the Republican and Democratic campaigns. In fact, according to University of Wisconsin-Madison Political Science Professor Barry Burden, we’re likely to see even more visits from people passing through the state before we reach November 5.
“It is risky for the Republicans to write off Dane County entirely,” said Barry Burden, a professor of political science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “There are simply too many votes here.”
Cheese makers’ key tool in adjusting the number of these bonds is acidity, says John Lucey, a food scientist at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and director of the Wisconsin Center for Dairy Research. In cheese made at a relatively neutral pH, there are enough calcium bonds that casein molecules are stiffly bound to each other.
Cheese makers’ key tool in adjusting the number of these bonds is acidity, says John Lucey, a food scientist at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and director of the Wisconsin Center for Dairy Research.
UW-Madison journalism professor Michael Wagner explains how generative artificial intelligence tools by political campaigns raise questions of honesty and transparency that are difficult to answer.
Both advancements in science and the rejection of science have been a factor in U.S. politics. UW-Madison emeritus professor of chemistry Bassam Shakhashiri returns to talk about the connection between scientific understanding, reasoning and responsible citizenship.
Interview with Howard Veregin on “Wisconsin Today.” Veregin iss Wisconsin’s state cartographer, based at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and he’s mapping Wisconsin, real and imaginary.
There is such a thing as an endemic fungus, a place a fungus grows and where it doesn’t. So, moving it should be done thoughtfully,” said Anne Pringle, a professor of botany at University of Wisconsin-Madison. “In practice, we’re only about conserving plants and animals. We don’t have that sense of the biodiversity of fungi. But we’re starting to have that conversation.”
Terri L. Young, co-chair of the NASEM committee that produced the report and chair of the department of ophthalmology and visual sciences at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, talked with Scientific American about the implications of the myopia epidemic for people with myopia and policymakers.
UW Extension Educator Kevin Schoessow is back to talk about the Spooner Agriculture Research Station. And the food they have donated to local organizations. We also talk about the work being done at the Savannah Institute to integrate trees and shrubs with crops and livestock on farms.
Chuck Nicholson, ag economist and professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said the strong survey response could signal a change for the industry, even if the state is likely to continue seeing farms exit the dairy industry.
Written by Alvin Thomas, an Associate Professor of Human Development & Family Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a consulting editor at the Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology.
Pumpkin on its own is not toxic to dogs. In fact, a little pumpkin can do some good in some cases because it’s high in fiber. “If people are worried that their dog’s stool is a little firm or hard, or that they’re constipated, we’ll use it because of its nice, high fiber content to help soften stool,” Calico Schmidt, a veterinarian and clinical instructor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Veterinary Medicine, tells Inverse. “So it can be nice and beneficial, and many dogs like it, which is a plus, too.”
“Bulbs are going to need a 12- to 16-week chilling period. When you put them in the ground that temperature should go down slowly, so they have the first 3 to 5 weeks developing their roots at 45 to 50 degrees, and then the next 3 weeks at 38 to 42 degrees,” said Lisa Johnson, horticulture educator for University of Wisconsin-Madison Division of Extension.
“It’s really pushing back against this idea that you need to constantly be buying things to have a happy and fulfilling life,” Megan Doherty Bea, assistant professor of consumer science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, shared with CNN.
Red light therapy applies specific wavelengths of light (usually around 630 nanometers) onto your skin. This wavelength can penetrate 2 to 3 millimeters below the skin, and cause positive reactions in the cells just under your skin, says Dr. Apple Bodemer, a board-certified dermatologist and associate professor at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health.
During an interview with WPR, UW-Madison Professor of Sociology Emerita Myra Marx Ferree said when Roe fell, “it was like this bucket of cold water poured on the public consciousness” and Americans began seeing the abortion issue as far deeper than simply having a choice.
“It’s fundamental, it’s freedom, it’s rights. It’s respect for you as a human being. It’s justice,” said Marx Ferree. “Freedom is not about buying coats or shoes or taking a vacation or not taking a vacation. Freedom is about determining the course of your life.”
Dr. Jim Gern, pediatrics professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and one of the study’s authors, said the findings could influence the current public health approach to preventing asthma.
“If you declared an intent to become a citizen, that was sufficient for you to vote,” explained Bree Grossi Wilde, executive director of the State Democracy Research Initiative at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, which has researched referendum questions this year.
Barry Burden, a political scientist at the University of Wisconsin at Madison and director of its Elections Research Center, said Cavanaugh’s title could bring legitimacy to the notion that election officials are conspiring to falsify election outcomes. And the claim comes just as many voters are beginning to pay attention to the coming election, Burden said.
