Despite extensive public service advertising and widespread media coverage, there almost certainly will be some people caught by surprise when TV stations switch to all digital broadcasting next February.
But while there might be some short-term confusion, no one on the front lines is predicting any kind of disaster.
Quoted: UW-Madison telecommunications professor Barry Orton
Q. We keep hearing about alternative fuels. What will be the most likely fuel to replace gasoline?
A. Today, ethanol is a fuel additive used to replace or decrease the need for fossil fuels in trucks, automobiles and other engines. Most of this ethanol comes from the sugars within corn kernels, but the search for other sources of sugar is under way.
With a year and a half remaining, American Players Theatre has raised more than 75 percent of the financial goal for its $4 million “Touchstone Campaign.”
The Touchstone Campaign focuses on collecting donations for a new, 200-seat indoor theater, expanded scene shop and additional rehearsal space. Contractors have laid foundations for the buildings, and organizers at APT hope to open them next summer.
Quoted: Andrew Taylor, director of the UW-Madison Bolz Center for Arts Administration
The sign on the front door of the Copps Food Center on Aberg Avenue says it all: “Bug spray is located in Aisle 11.”
Gardeners, walkers, runners and golfers alike are being bugged this summer by swarms of irritating insects. Besides being bitten by mosquitoes, horse flies and black flies, city residents are also contending with an onslaught of Japanese beetles devouring their plants.
Quoted: UW-Madison entomologist Phil Pellitteri
Quoted: Ken Goldstein of the University of Wisconsin Advertising Project, which tracks political ads, says Obama’s Olympic buy means he’ll reach different viewers, such as sports-loving men who might not see a political ad. “You reach people who are not watching the local news in Scranton, Pa.,” Goldstein says.
A new study by the Advertising Project at the University of Wisconsin shows that in terms of paid advertising, Mr. McCain has so far been able to nearly match Mr. Obamaâ??s volume with help from the Republican Party. But the early advertising suggests a heightened ad war this election cycle: Together, the two sides have combined to spend more than $50 million already on general-election commercials, running roughly 30 percent more spots than President Bush and Senator John Kerry had at a comparable point in 2004.
And as Mr. Obamaâ??s campaign begins to intensify its advertising drive, including a planned campaign during the Olympics in August, televisionâ??s receptivity is a welcome boost for Mr. McCain.
â??For McCain, itâ??s the cheapest and most efficient way to keep himself in the game when heâ??s up against a candidate whoâ??s essentially going to have unlimited funds,â? said Kenneth M. Goldstein, director of the Advertising Project.
Quoted: University of Wisconsin Political Science Professor Barry C. Burden.
Quoted: University of Wisconsin bioethicist R. Alta Charo.
Quoted: University of Wisconsin-Madison professor Charles Franklin.
Quoted: Mark D. Ediger, a professor of chemistry at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, has found a way to make thin films of glass with the more stable structure of a glass that has been â??agedâ? for at least 10,000 years. He hopes the films will help test Dr. Wolynesâ??s theory and point to what really happens as glass approaches its ideal state, since no one expects the third law of thermodynamics to fall away.
Q. What’s behind the claims that the new particle accelerator in Europe may create black holes that could destroy the Earth? Should we be worried?
A. When the Large Hadron Collider starts running this summer near Geneva, Switzerland, some physicists have predicted that some of its high-energy proton collisions could produce microscopic black holes.
Quoted: Phil Pellitteri.
Quoted: Phil Pellitteri, an insect expert for the University of Wisconsin-Madison, says in the last 10 to 15 years the beetle has arrived in northern Illinois and Wisconsin as well as Iowa and Minnesota.
Quoted: Yi-Fu Tuan, a cultural geographer at the University of Wisconsin, writes in his book â??Escapismâ? that culture itself is â??the totality of means by which I escape from my animal state of being.â?
Quoted: Charlie O. Trevor and Anthony J. Nyberg of the University of Wisconsin – Madison.
Quoted: University of Wisconsin-Madison political science professor Barry Burden.
Quoted: Dr. Richard Brown of the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Crunch the numbers from a recent study, and the results might surprise you: Girls are just as good at math as the boys.
UW-Madison psychology professor Janet Hyde led a study that looked at SAT results and math scores from 7 million students who were tested in accordance with the No Child Left Behind act. And the numbers showed the average scores of boys and girls were virtually the same.
“Our country has a lot of stereotypes that boys are better than girls at math, and we have current evidence that both teachers and parents think that that’s true,” said Hyde. “But the data don’t show that at all — at least with these very current samples.”
Study was lead by UW-Madison researcher, Janet Hyde, departments of psychology and women’s studies.
Wisconsin is now ranked 33rd in the nation for obesity by the Centers for Disease Control, which seems like a big improvement from the number one spot two decades ago.
However, Doctor Pat Remington of the UW School of Medicine says it’s somewhat deceiving. He says obesity rates in the Badger States have continued to climb, just not as quickly as they have in other states.
Quoted: Dr. Christopher Luzzio, a UW neurologist, as he pulls up images on a computer screen.
Many gardeners across southern Wisconsin are seeing their work hungrily eaten up by a booming population of Japanese beetles.
UW-Madison bug expert Phil Pellitteri says the swarms are about as bad as they can possibly get. He says the lushness of last August has resulted in some areas seeing 75 beetles counted in a square foot area.
Three years after the president of Harvard, Lawrence H. Summers, got into trouble for questioning womenâ??s â??intrinsic aptitudeâ? for science and engineering â?? and 16 years after the talking Barbie doll proclaimed that â??math class is toughâ? â?? a study paid for by the National Science Foundation has found that girls perform as well as boys on standardized math tests.
Janet Hyde, a professor at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, who led the study, said the persistent stereotypes about girls and math had taken a toll.
â??The stereotype that boys do better at math is still held widely by teachers and parents,â? Dr. Hyde said. â??And teachers and parents guide girls, giving them advice about what courses to take, what careers to pursue. I still hear anecdotes about guidance counselors steering girls away from engineering, telling them they wonâ??t be able to do the math.â?
CHICAGO (Reuters) – Despite persistent stereotypes, girls in the United States now perform just as well as boys on standardized tests in math, U.S. researchers said on Thursday,
“There just aren’t gender differences any more in math performance,” said University of Wisconsin-Madison psychology professor Janet Hyde, whose study was published in the journal Science.
The perpetuated belief that says girls are worse than boys at mathematics is unfounded, a team of researchers at University of Wisconsin at Madison and University of California at Berkeley reports today in the journal Science. This conclusion challenges the frequently cited argument that says that poorer female math performance is the reason behind the shortage of women in physics and engineering careers.
WASHINGTON (AP) â?? Sixteen years after Barbie dolls declared, “Math class is tough!” girls are proving that when it comes to math they are just as tough as boys. In the largest study of its kind, girls measured up to boys in every grade, from second through 11th. The research was released Thursday in the journal Science.
Parents and teachers persist in thinking boys are simply better at math, said Janet Hyde, the University of Wisconsin-Madison researcher who led the study. And girls who grow up believing it wind up avoiding harder math classes.
Quoted: University of Wisconsin swimming coach Eric Hansen.
Quoted: University of Wisconsin business professor Steven Malpezzi.
Quoted: Dr. James Stein, a University of Wisconsin-Madison cardiologist who had no role in the research.
The Japanese beetle is the gardener’s worst nightmare, and it is proliferating in the Madison area, according to Phil Pellitteri, an insect expert for the University of Wisconsin.
“This is a superstar as far as being a pest,” he said.
The metallic green and copper beetles have been wreaking havoc in local gardens, golf courses and swimming pools in recent years, and many say they are even worse this summer.
A popular late-night swimming spot in Lake Mendota near Memorial Union could pose a health risk due to blue-green algae, which appears to have sickened one person after an early morning swim last week, the Madison-Dane County Health Department said Tuesday.
Kirsti Sorsa, environmental technical services supervisor for the department, said the possible presence of the algae in a location frequented by nighttime swimmers “certainly could be ” a potentially serious situation.
Quoted: Phil Pellitteri, a University of Wisconsin-Madison entomologist.
Our governors are primarily interested in big businesses because it is far easier to collect taxes from them than from small and medium-size firms. The problem is that this has become the deciding factor for governors when they determine which enterprises to support in their region’s development.
This is not just theory. In his soon-to-be-published book, “Representation through Taxation,” Scott Gehlbach, a political science professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, gives a detailed analysis of this phenomenon in the Pskov region during the late 1990s. Rather than channeling resources into sectors in which the region enjoys a relative advantage, such as tourism and transportation, the Pskov governor focused on alcohol production. Gehlbach writes that this was not simply because of the steady demand for alcohol, but because it is easier to collect taxes from this sector.
Quoted: James Stein, a cardiologist at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.
Quoted: Steven C. Slater, the scientific program manager for the Great Lakes Bio-Energy Research Center at the University of Wisconsin.
Quoted: Dean A. Kowalski, a professor at the University of Wisconsin and author of the book â??The Philosophy of the X-Files.â?
Quoted: Douglas Harris, an economist at the University of Wisconsin, found that when more than half the students were low-income, only 1.1 percent of schools consistently performed at a â??highâ? level (defined as two years of scores in the top third of the U.S. Department of Educationâ??s national achievement database in two grades and in two subjects: English and math). By contrast, 24.2 percent of schools that are majority middle-class met Harrisâ??s standard.
Quoted: Stephen Malpezzi, a professor of real estate and urban land economics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Mentions projections by University of Wisconsin Extension professors Edward V. Jesse and Steve Deller.
Quoted: UW-Madison professor of wildlife ecology Timothy Van Deelen.
Quoted: John Ralph at the University of Wisconsin in Madison thinks the work is exciting. He points out that there have been previous attempts to convert lignin into liquid fuels. “That said, the yields of monomers [in the new reaction] are striking,” he says.
Quoted: Dr. F. Javier Nieto of the University of Wisconsin’s School of Medicine and director of SHOW.
Quoted: Calvin DeWitt, professor of environmental studies at the University of Wisconsin.
Quoted: Dr. Richard Brown of the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Quoted: Susan Crowley, prevention services director of the Pace Project at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, which works to reduce high-risk drinking and targets policy issues relating to alcohol.
Quoted: Dr. Georgiana Wilton, an associate scientist at the University of Wisconsin Department of Family Medicine in Madison.
Northern Wisconsin may see some tree species fade with global warming, while southern species may be slow to fill the gap. That according to UW-Madison professor of forest ecology David Mladenoff, who says species like Blasam Fir, Spruce, and Jack Pine are likely to decline as the climate warms.
The financial impacts of invasive species in the Great Lakes region could be felt for years to come.
A study from the University of Notre Dame and University of Wyoming estimates invasive species will cost Great Lakes states $200 million a year. Dr. Phil Moy with the UW Sea Grant Institute says those numbers may be a little conservative. He says officials in Wisconsin have come up with numbers close to that just for the effects of zebra mussels on water intake pipes.
Quoted: Dr. Justin Sattin, a neurologist at UW Hospital who specializes in strokes.
Q. Which saves more gas: driving with the windows closed and the air-conditioning on, or AC off and windows open?
A. That depends on conditions.
“Today’s cars are designed to be very aerodynamic,” said Glenn Bower, a senior scientist at the Engine Research Center at UW-Madison. “They ‘cut’ through the air at moderate speeds. At lower speed, stopping and starting dominate the vehicle’s energy consumption, while at highway speed (45 to 65 mph), most of the power is lost to the air we drive through.”
Quoted: Dr. Justin Sattin, a neurologist at UW Hospital who specializes in strokes.
Quoted: Ellen Zweibel, an astrophysicist at the University of Wisconsinâ??Madison.
A gathering of more than 100 concerned citizens adamantly voiced their opposition to military action in Iran at a town hall meeting Tuesday.
Concerned that the Bush administration is actively pursuing plans to take military action in Iran, members of the Wisconsin Network for Peace and Justice, Physicians for Social Responsibility, Madison Area Peace Coalition, and several other groups put together a panel of five local experts on U.S. policy on Iran with the goal of educating the audience and organizing a proactive, vocal anti-war group.
Quoted: Joe Elder, a UW-Madison sociology professor born in Iran, and Majid Sarmadi, a UW human ecology professor.
Five weeks after Madison resident Joel Marino’s death, the man who would be charged with his murder had become so volatile, his demeanor so out of character and worrisome to friends and family, that local authorities were called to check on him.
What transpired immediately following that call on Friday, March 7, put 20-year-old Adam Peterson face to face with law enforcement and mental health professionals in a local hospital through much of the following week. His stay was prompted by a psychological evaluation that determined further attention was necessary.
Quoted: UW-Madison professor of psychiatry Ronald Diamond, medical director of the Mental Health Center of Dane County.
Quoted: Bill Wendorff, dairy professor at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and cheddar judge for the American Cheese Society.
In two years, NASA plans to begin the new space program that will send human astronauts to Mars. It won’t be easy, and technical issues aren’t the only challenges. The US Congress and President George W. Bush want NASA to begin work on the new Constellation Program now.
Yet NASA cannot expand its 18,000-member workforce, and its employees cannot devote their full attention to Constellation until the final shuttle mission is complete in 2010.
It’s a conundrum for NASA administrator Michael Griffin, and for advice he has turned to the NASA Advisory Council (NAC) and its human capital committee. Gerald Kulcinski, University of Wisconsin-Madison associate dean for research and Grainger Professor of Nuclear Engineering, is chair of the committee.
Rising temperatures and increased dehydration linked to global warming will boost kidney stone rates in the United States and around the world, new research suggests.
Kristina Penniston, a registered dietician and associate scientist in the department of urology at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health in Madison, called the new research “illuminating and provocative.”
Some people â??smellâ? better to female mosquitoes than others.
If youâ??ve hiked the Rocky Mountains with a group in early July â?? and particularly in July 2008 â?? youâ??ve probably noticed this phenomenon. The mosquitoes seem to be singling out one or two people in your group.
Susan Paskewitz, a professor of entomology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, says itâ??s no rural myth.
Quoted: Jerry Kaufman, professor emeritus of urban and regional planning at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.
Quoted: Charles Franklin, a University of Wisconsin-Madison political scientist.
