Category: UW Experts in the News

Quoted: â??It seems to defy logic,â? said Dr. Perry J. Pickhardt, associate professor of radiology at the University of Wisconsin, who has consulted for some makers of software used to analyze the CT scans.

Can massively multiplayer online games (MMOGs) like World of Warcraft produce better citizens?

That’s the provocative conclusion drawn by University of Wisconsin-Madison education professor Constance Steinkuehler, who has been intensely studying MMOGs and those who play them — including herself — for several years.

On Tuesday night, she laid out the evidence in a presentation called “Learning and Virtual Worlds: The Education Benefits of Digital Technologies” at the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art Lecture Hall.

Quoted: Lynn Knutson, professor of nuclear physics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said tritium is not harmful unless ingested, and even then it eventually flushes from the body. â??I tend not to be scared of tritium in small amounts,â? he said.

Quoted: “Companies in the Midwest are certainly affected, but many are still hiring,” says Blair Sanford, director of the M.B.A. career center at the Wisconsin School of Business. “The students who want to go to banks on the East Coast are the ones we’re working harder to get conversations for.”

Quoted: “Today we live in a second golden age of evolution,” says University of Wisconsin biologist Sean Carroll, author of Remarkable Creatures: Epic Adventures in the Search for the Origin of Species, also out Thursday.

Quoted: Menzie D. Chinn, professor of Public Affairs and Economics at the University of Wisconsin, said about the Senate bill, “I don’t understand the direction of the movement toward cutting spending. Cutting the transfers to the states seems particularly ill-advised, as we have a good feeling that the propensity to spend out these funds will be high and relatively quick.”

Quoted: Gary Cook, a research scientist at the Wisconsin Centre for Education Research, part of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said that while “aligning the standards is a nice thing to say, I’ve tried to do it, and it’s really difficult.”

Noted: So-called innocence projects at Northwestern, the University of Wisconsin and the University of Cincinnati have reported that their non-DNA caseloads have risen. And for almost a year the district attorney in Dallas has been focusing on wrongful-conviction claims that lack DNA evidence.

Quoted: Blackcurrants and green tea contain substances that might fight viruses, bacteria and inflammation, says family physician David Rakel, director of integrative medicine at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Others have made similar claims for chicken soup.

Quoted: “Especially if you’re feeling anxiety and stress about your ability to pay down your debt. you just don’t know where to begin. Credit counseling can definitely help you do that, making a budget helping you write down what you’re spending, coming up with a plan,” says University of Wisconsin financial specialist Michael Collins.

Quoted: Smokers make a New Year’s resolution to quit, but despite all the advancements in treatment, the most popular way is to quit cold turkey, said Dr. Douglas Jorenby. Jorenby is a professor of medicine at UW-Madison’s School of Medicine and Public Health, home to the Center for Tobacco Research and Intervention.

Quoted: “Particularly during a downturn in economic times, we have to think about what’s important for us, what are our priorities, and make sure we continue to invest in the infrastructure of our education system,” said Jill Underwood, former dean of the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Education and facilitator of the School Finance Network.

Quoted: “It’s sort of paradoxical: They’re both supportive and pessimistic,” says Charles Franklin, a political scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who studies public opinion. Still, President Obama “has been saying this is going to be a long process, so maybe it’s not so surprising that voters would pick up the idea that there’s no quick fix.”

Quoted: The new findings show â??how Mom is helping to tune that whole system early on,â? said William J. Burlingham, an immunologist at the University of Wisconsin, who is not connected with the research. â??Itâ??s a major advance, very new and very exciting.â?

Quoted: Kris Olds, a University of Wisconsin professor, studies the impact of Olympics on cities and concludes Games have few benefits for low-income residents. In Calgary, buildings were cleared and rented to tourists. In Atlanta, the homeless were ticketed or jailed. Expo 86 saw SRO evictions and 2,000 units were lost.

Quoted: Tracy Honn, senior artist at Silver Buckle Press, a working museum of letterpress printing in the University of Wisconsin-Madison Memorial Libraries.

Quoted: Charles O. Jones, a Brookings Institution fellow and retired University of Wisconsin-Madison political scientist.

Qupted: Joel A. Pedersen, a specialist in toxic chemicals and pathogens in the soil at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Quoted: Cheese prices in December fell below the level that triggers government purchases, although they have recovered slightly in recent days, which may avert those purchases, said Robert A. Cropp, a dairy economist at the University of Wisconsin.

Quoted: Take, for example, smoking. “Think about 100 people who got up on New Year’s Day and quit smoking,” said Dr. Douglas Jorenby, professor of medicine at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health in Madison.

Quoted: “Drunken driving is out there as a policy issue and it is getting a lot of legislative attention,” said Tara Jenswold-Schipper, assistant director of the Resource Center for Impaired Driving at the University of Wisconsin Law School.

Quoted: Political science professor David Canon of the University of Wisconsin said, ”It does appear to be a high-risk move on their part to remain unified against this, especially if the economy does turn around by 2010 and the next election. I think they’re banking on being able to ride some of the concern people have about the large budget deficit.”

Quoted: That might be as precise as the systems ever get, said Deborah Mitchell, a professor of consumer psychology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Even the human brain can’t always determine gender, age or ethnicity.

Still, “even if it gets to 70 percent accuracy, that’s still giving you a wealth of information,” said Mitchell, who teaches in the Wisconsin School of Business.

Quoted: The result puts to rest questions about long-term health consequences for people who give a kidney to a family member, friend or stranger, said Dr.Bryan Becker, president of the National Kidney Foundation and a surgeon at the University of Wisconsin, who was not involved in the research. Now, transplant surgeons “can give them confidence that their own health will not be compromised.”

Noted: A preoccupation with Nike, Coke, or Gucci may not just mean you’re materialistic – it could also mean the Grim Reaper’s been preying on your mind.

In one study, researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and University of Virginia surveyed subjects on their levels of brand connection and death anxiety. In a second study, some of the subjects were told to consider their death in detail, heightening their death anxiety. In both studies, subjects were asked to rate their level of connection to such products as microwaves, jeans, MP3 players and sunglasses.

Quoted: It’s not just the demoralized, unproductive employees who leave, says study author Charlie Trevor, professor of management at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Once the axe begins to fall, star employees, who he says will do well even in a downturn, also jet in search of greener pastures.

Quoted: Zircons from Earth tell the story of a fast-cooling planet that developed a solid crust within 200 million years of formation from the solar nebula, says John Valley at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, whose group dated the oldest terrestrial samples. “It’s reasonable that there would be something older from the moon than on Earth,” he says, because the smaller moon cooled more quickly after the colossal impact.

Noted: At the University of Wisconsin, Madison, Dr. John Fleming, a neurologist, is testing whether the pig whipworm can temper the effects of multiple sclerosis.

Noted: Another big crowd pleaser was the announcement that K. T. Horning, director of the University of Wisconsin-Madisonâ??s Cooperative Childrenâ??s Book Center (CCBC), will deliver the May Hill Arbuthnot Honor Lecture at a winning host site. The honor recognizes someone who has made a significant contribution to the field of children’s literature.

Noted: Ron Kraemer, CIO and vice provost for IT at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said innovation can get lost in the recession shuffle. While it’s important in the short-run to emphasize the provision of services for things that are part of an organization’s core mission, Kraemer warned not to neglect the long view. CIOs also need to ask, â??How do we innovate to remain relevant in the long run?â? he said.

Quoted: Academic David Streckfuss from the University of Wisconsin at Madison, in the US, who has studied the lese majeste law, believes there is no evidence to suggest the existence of an organised Republican movement.

Quoted: “I wrote a whole chapter in my book from those late-night memos,” said University of Wisconsin Professor Stanley Kutler, author of “The Wars of Watergate.”

Q: What happens when you throw boiling water into the air on a very cold day?

A: This is a great experiment to try at home, but just be careful not to burn yourself! For this to work, you need to have very cold and dry air.

Though some people blame inadequate thinning of older trees by state forest managers, the study makes a “convincing case” that drought and pests are responsible, says entomologist Kenneth Raffa of the University of Wisconsin in Madison.

University of Wisconsin Associate Professor of History Ned Blackhawk has been named as one of 10 emerging scholars nationally by “Diverse” magazine.

Blackhawk, on the UW History staff since 1999, is an expert on the history of Native American people and the complex and often tragic conflicts between natives and European settlers in the American West.

Quoted: Dr. Nasia Safdar, an infectious disease expert at University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics, said people normally don’t think of peanut butter when they think of salmonella, but its ingredients make it very susceptible.