Alta Charo, a professor of law and bioethics, is taking a leave from the University of Wisconsin-Madison to become a senior advisor in the Office of the Commissioner at the Food & Drug Administration, which is part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Quoted: The spot is bright at ultraviolet wavelengths, which may argue against a meteoroid impact as a cause. That’s because rocky bodies, with the exception of objects very rich in water ice, should cause an impact site to darken at ultraviolet wavelengths as it fills with debris that absorbs such light, says Sanjay Limaye of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a member of the Venus Express team.
Quoted: Asked about the episode, Stephen J. A. Ward, the director at the Center for Journalism Ethics at the School of Journalism and Mass Communications at the University of Wisconsin, wrote in an e-mail message that he expects it will be a growing problem.
Quoted: Gilles Bousquet is dean of international studies and director of the International Institute at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. A native of France who has spent much of his academic career in the United States, he says that since 1968, universities have cast themselves in the role of the “educational conscience of France,” even though “this is largely a construct that doesn’t work in reality.”
Quoted: Dr. Mark Moss is an allergist with the University of Wisconsin Health Hospital and Clinics. He said Madison probably ranked high because ragweed grows especially well in Wisconsin.
Quoted: A conviction “is not going to be a deterrent,” said Shawn Peters, a University of Wisconsin teacher and an expert on law and religion.
“It’s a kind of martyrdom. It’s a badge of honor. We have individuals who really don’t care about temporal earthly punishment,” said Peters, author of “When Prayer Fails: Faith Healing, Children and the Law.”
For more than a decade Madison has basked in rankings that tout its lifestyle. It might seem inconceivable that the city could be worst for anything.
But — and this won’t be news to those who pop a daily Claritin-D — the amount of pollen in Madison’s air each spring and fall makes it among the nation’s least hospitable places for seasonal allergy sufferers.
Quoted: Mark Moss, associate professor of allergy and immunology in the School of Medicine and Public Health
Quoted: Richard Hartel, the scientist who co-wrote the book on ice cream (Ice Cream, sixth edition), is a food-engineering professor at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, who studies ice crystals. His current approach involves reexamining an age-old process: how exactly ice crystals form in a typical commercial freezer.
Quoted: “Journalism economics have always altered journalism ethics,” says Stephen J.A. Ward, author of “The Invention of Journalism Ethics: The Path to Objectivity and Beyond” and director of the Center for Journalism Ethics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Quoted: John Karl Scholz, an economics professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Quoted: Michael Gould, professor of oncology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Quoted: The treatments are not available in the United States because the scientific community hasnâ??t validated the procedures, a prerequisite for federal government approval, said Terry Devitt, director of Research Communications at UW-Madison.
Q: Are there more geese in Wisconsin than there used to be?
A: The number of Canada geese in Wisconsin is very much on the rise, increasing exponentially since standardized bird counts began in 1966, according to Stan Temple, professor of wildlife ecology at UW-Madison.
After seven years of living with chronic wasting disease in the Wisconsin deer herd, the initial fears about eating venison have calmed.
But the news last week of a death at UW Hospital due to Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease brought to mind once again the dangers of the neurological illnesses known as transmissible spongiform encephalopathies, or TSEs.
The UW-Madison patient died of classic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, a form of the brain disease not caused by eating meat from an ill animal. Still, for some people, the headlines about Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease may have renewed the fear of getting brain disease from chronic wasting disease infected deer.
When Tony Goldberg is not whacking through the brush of central Africa, one of the world’s great cauldrons of emerging human and animal disease, he is scouring another disease hot spot: the southwestern suburbs of Chicago.
n 1997, an episode of the popular Pok�mon cartoon gained worldwide attention when more than 800 Japanese children with photosensitive seizure conditions were admitted to the hospital after viewing the cartoon or the subsequent news coverage of it.
Quoted: Joe Lauer, a professor and a corn agronomist at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, said corn in central Wisconsin is showing signs of stress from the lack of rain. Rain is needed in the next two weeks for the corn to grow properly and save the crop, he said.
Quoted: Jenneman will be one of an estimated 196,000 Wisconsin workers who will benefit when the wage hike takes effect, said Laura Dresser, a labor economist with UW-Madison’s Center on Wisconsin Strategy. That includes 100,000 people who make less than $7.25 an hour and 96,000 who make more than that but are likely to gain indirectly from a positive ripple effect.
Quoted: The raw infusion of cash for infrastructure, challenge grants, and online classes, if averaged out equally over the next decade, represents a 60 percent increase in direct federal spending on community colleges. Sara Goldrick-Rab, a University of Wisconsin education and sociology researcher, said this was stunning since two months ago she co-authored a Brookings blueprint on transforming community colleges that called for a doubling of direct federal spending, from $2 billion a year to $4 billion a year.
Quoted: Jerlando Jackson, an associate professor of higher and postsecondary education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said he found the entire incident very troubling â?? and even thought the story wasnâ??t true when he first heard about it. Gatesâ?? arrest highlights, however, the struggles even the most esteemed black professors can have overcoming the perception of black males as criminals, Jackson said. The work of a scholar and teacher is one that requires legitimacy, something black men struggle to attain because others may impose stereotypes upon them, he said.
Noted: “Darwin was fascinated by carnivorous plants in general and the Venus flytrap in particular, I think, partly because they go against type,” says Don Waller, a botanist at the University of Wisconsin, in Madison, US.
“In his time and ours, most of us feel that plants are passive, harmless, and can’t move. But the Venus flytrap acts like an animal, it moves fast and eats fresh meat.”
A DNA analysis by Ken Cameron of the University of Wisconsin confirmed that the Venus flytrap and waterwheel are indeed related, and the closest relative of both turns out to be a species called Drosera regia.
Quoted: Walker’s fundraising lead this reporting period isn’t large enough to worry Doyle, especially given that his campaign hasn’t been out in full force, University of Wisconsin-Madison political science professor Charles Franklin said.
A report released in May and co-authored by UW-Madison professors Sara Goldrick-Rab and Douglas Harris argued that community colleges are in need of significant government investment if the United States is to help more of its people get a formal education and better compete with others from around the globe for the best jobs.
“Over the last two centuries, the United States created an advantage over other countries by helping our citizens attain formal education, generating an able workforce and technological advancement,” states the report, which was also co-written by Christopher Mazzeo of the Consortium on Chicago School Research and Gregory Kienzl of the Institute for Higher Education Policy.
Quoted: Assistant professor of education policy studies and sociology Sara Goldrick-Rab and Noel Radomski, director of the Wisconsin Center for the Advancement of Postsecondary Education
Quoted: “It’s an extremely important component of the state’s economy,” said Steven Deller, an economics professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Quoted: Dr. Ronald Diamond, medical director of the Mental Health Center of Dane County and a tenured professor of psychiatry at the UW-Madison, has been in practice for 37 years, 23 of them at the Mental Health Center. He teaches psychopharmacology to social workers, counselors, nurses, clients and families of individuals with mental illness.
Q: Why do cats hate water?
A: Because we teach them to hate it.
There are plenty of cats that love water, according to Sandi Sawchuk, a clinical instructor at the School of Veterinary Medicine at UW-Madison.
Quoted: â??The things that make people apprehensive are not in the FBI Uniform Crime Reports,â? said Michael Scott, who directs the UW-Madison-based Center for Problem-Oriented Policing. â??The things that scare people are kids hanging out, small things stolen from the front yard, loud noise … things that affect our sense of safety and security.â?
A UW-Madison professor of History says there’s much more going on in Mexico that doesn’t get reported on the American side of the border.
“I don’t think that it’s the whole story about what’s going on in Mexico, and I’m often quote perturbed by the fact that there is so much focus on that exclusively in the U.S. media,” says professor Florencia Mallon.
Quoted: Richard Davidson, who heads the Laboratory for Affective Neuroscience at the University of Wisconsin, has found one distinct brain profile for happiness. As Davidsonâ??s laboratory has reported, when we are in distress, the brain shows high activation levels in the right prefrontal area and the amygdala. But when we are in an upbeat mood, the right side quiets and the left prefrontal area stirs. When showing this brain pattern, people report feeling, as Davidson put it to me, â??positively engaged, goal-directed, enthusiastic, and energetic.â?
Seven out of 10 couples say that money causes tension in their relationship, studies show.
Free Press reader Susan from Farmington e-mailed, “My husband lost his job this year, so money is a stressful topic in our marriage right now. We argue a lot about the bills, our debt and not saving enough.”
Although money is not the leading source of conflict for married couples (children and household chores are), financial disagreements can be the most distressing, according to a new study by Dr. Lauren Papp at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Papp found that “money-related conflicts are more intense, last longer, are more likely to persist unresolved, and have greater implications to the relationship than other conflict topics.”
Quoted: Daniel Hausman, a philosophy professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, whose research interests include the allocation of health care resources.
Quoted: Dr. Kurt Sladky, a special species veterinarian at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said golfers found a 114-pound African Spurred Tortoise.
Quoted: “It looks liek an African Spurred Tortoise or sulcata tortoise which is an North African species commonly kept as pets and this just happens to be a large specimen,” said Dr. Kurt Sladky from UW School of Veterinary Medicine.
Dr. Sladky says an African Spurred Tortoise is the third largest tortoise specimen in the world, but the largest of turtles kept as pets. The doctor estimates this one could be about 20 years old.
A new study finds that the way swine flu multiplies in the respiratory system is more severe than seasonal flu. Tests in monkeys, mice and ferrets show that the swine flu thrives all over the respiratory system, including the lungs, instead of staying in the head like seasonal flu. The findings were released Monday by the journal Nature. The study’s researcher, Yoshishiro Kawaoka of the University of Wisconsin, told the Associated Press that he is more concerned about swine flu because of these results.
Quoted: As the economy struggles, more and more departments will probably find it attractive to accept course-specific support from outside donors. That prospect troubles Michael W. Apple, a professor of curriculum and instruction at the University of Wisconsin at Madison.
Quoted: This phenomenon isnâ??t unusual, said Chinese media expert Pan Zhangdong, a professor at the University of Wisconsin at Madison and visiting professor at Fudan University in Shanghai.
â??When they go abroad, [their] emotional center is in China,â? Pan said.
Quoted: Hearings for President Obama’s Supreme Court nominee begin Monday. If confirmed, Judge Sonia Sotomayor will become the first Latina â?? and only the third woman â?? appointed to the Supreme Court.
Distinguished law professors Lani Guinier, Charles Ogletree and UW-Madison’s Linda Greene tells what to expect from this week’s hearings, and how a Sotomayor appointment could shift the ideological profile of the High Court.
Eat less, live longer? It seems to work for monkeys: A 20-year study found cutting calories by almost a third slowed their aging and fended off death. This is not about a quick diet to shed a few pounds. Scientists have long known they could increase the lifespan of mice and more primitive creatures â?? worms, flies â?? with deep, long-term cuts from normal consumption.
“All these pieces put together provide rather convincing evidence in our view that caloric restriction can slow the aging process in a primate species,” said lead researcher Dr. Richard Weindruch, a University of Wisconsin-Madison professor heading the NIA-funded study.
Quoted: It’s never too early to start thinking about security issues, said neural engineer Justin Williams of the University of Wisconsin, who was not involved in the research. But he stressed that the kinds of devices available today are not susceptible to attack, and that fear of future risks shouldn’t impede progress in the field. “These kinds of security issues have to proceed in lockstep with the technology,” Williams said.
Quoted: Inertial electrostatic confinement hasn’t gotten a lot of media play or federal research dollars, said Gerald L. Kulcinski, nuclear engineering professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and director of its Fusion Technology Institute.
Q: Does a dark-colored car heat up more in the sun than a light-colored car?
A: The external color does not significantly affect how much the inside of a car heats up in the sun, says Sanford Klein, director of the UW-Madison Solar Energy Laboratory and professor of mechanical engineering.
Quoted: Ann Althouse, a professor of law at the University of Wisconsin.
Quoted: James Stein, an artery imaging expert at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. In other words, HALTS has gone from a study where a muted result seemed likely to one where a clear and definitive outcome seems assured.
Quoted: Mason Carpenter, a professor at the Wisconsin School of Business and author of “Managing Effectively Through Tough Times,” said too many CEOs, execs and managers panic when times get tough.
Quoted: “There are five metatarsal bones (each related to a toe) and while 1 through 4 most often heal without issue, there is a 30-50 percent non-healing rate for 5th metatarsal fractures,” Dr. Ben Wedro, a clinical professor of medicine at the University of Wisconsin and a consulting onsite physician at the Summer and Winter Olympic Games, said when discussing Yao’s injury.
Quoted: UW-Madison entomologist Phil Pellitteri said the earwig, a distant relative to the cockroach, is at the top of almost everyoneâ??s most-hated insects list, just behind the Japanese lady beetle.
Governor Jim Doyle’s not saying if he’ll run for reelection next year…but if he does, he could face a stiff GOP challenge. That from UW-Madison political scientist Charles Franklin.
Wisconsinites are not feeling good about the economy.
Most of the nearly 600 Wisconsin residents surveyed in a recent UW Badger Poll are not happy about the way things are going in the U-S. Overall, 73% are dissatisfied with the state of our country – only 24% are satisfied. Political Science Professor Katherine Cramer Walsh says people feel a little bit better about Wisconsin’s economy than they do about the nation as a whole.
Quoted: Beetles help by breaking down fallen trees, as well. â??They digest the wood and are valuable in terms of nutrient recycling,â? said Dr. Ken Raffa, an entomologist at the University of Wisconsin who studies the beetles. â??And they introduce micro-organisms that further break down the wood.â?
Hundreds of embryonic stem cell lines, whose use in the United States had effectively been curtailed by the Bush administration, can be used to study disorders and develop cures if researchers can show the cells were derived using ethical procedures, according to new rules issued by the federal government yesterday.
Quoted: “I think it is a huge step forward,” said R. Alta Charo, an ethicist at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. “They are making it absolutely possible to move this field forward and fund the research in a responsible way.”
Quoted: “From an engineering aspect, there is no justification – unless the winning company said I’m going to (have the contractor) put two more inches of asphalt on,” said Dr. Awad Hanna, chair of Construction Engineering and Management at the University of Wisconsin.
Quoted: Jeremi Suri, E. Gordon Fox Professor of History at UW Madison, says we now know that McNamara had deep misgivings about the conflict. “I would say historians have very mixed view of Robert McNamara.”
Quoted: â??There’s no mosquito that is infamous for the ones that are causing worse reactions. It could be as I said the ones that are messing with people are ones that haven’t seen in awhile,” says Phil Pelletteri, an entomologist at UW-Madison.
Quoted: “The better you make the automation, the more difficult it is to guard against these catastrophic failures in the future, because the automation becomes more and more powerful, and you rely on it more and more,” said John D. Lee, a professor of industrial and systems engineering at the University of Wisconsin at Madison.
Quoted: Charles Franklin, a University of Wisconsin-Madison political science professor, said governors across the country, including Doyle, are seeing their popularity levels fall as they face difficult budgets during the country’s steep recession.
Quoted: Charles H. Franklin, a political scientist at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, said the stimulus could yet haunt swing district Democrats if unemployment continues to rise well into next year.
Quoted: In a recent paper, Mr. Danziger and Maria Cancian, professor of public affairs and social work at the University of Wisconsin, argued that because of changes in the economy, in the population and in social policy, economic growth per se did less to reduce poverty than it used to. Specific efforts to raise low-end wages, support working parents with child care and tax credits and raise education levels will be vital to reducing poverty, they said.
Q. Does bread stay fresher longer if kept on the counter or in the refrigerator?
A. On the counter, says Brian Burke, a food manager with University Housing at UW-Madison. “We have been operating for a number of years on the principle that bread should be held at room temperature or frozen. Refrigeration will tend to dry it out, and that will happen before the bread would spoil on the counter.”
Quoted: Thomas “Rock” Mackie, an investor in the company who is also co-founder of TomoTherapy Inc. and a professor in the medical physics department at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Quoted: “One of the keys to a home that elicits a lot of happiness and positive emotion is that it changes to some extent,” says the University of Wisconsin’s Richard J. Davidson, PhD.
Even an environment that makes our spirits soar — an incredible view, for example — tends, over time, to grow stale. We get used to it. Davidson isn’t suggesting turning your place upside down, but if you get the bug to move things around a bit or play with the lighting, you might find your own interior gets a lift toward the sunnier.
