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Category: UW Experts in the News

UW researcher contributes to study linking warmer seas to stronger hurricanes

Capital Times

A University of Wisconsin-Madison researcher contributed to a new study that bolsters the theory that global warming might be contributing to stronger hurricanes in the Atlantic Ocean over the last 30 years.

The study, published Thursday in the journal Nature, was led by Florida State University geography researcher James Elsner, with UW-Madison research scientist James Kossin and FSU researcher Thomas Jagger contributing.

World’s strongest hurricanes could be getting stronger

USA Today

Quoted: James Kossin, Space Science and Engineering:

“By creating a better, more consistent historical data set, we’ve been able to weed out quality issues that introduce a lot of uncertainty. Then, by looking only at the strongest tropical cyclones, where the relationship between storms and climate is most pronounced, we are able to observe the increasing trends in storm intensity that both the theory and models say should be there.”

Curiosities: IQ tests do not measure your intelligence

Wisconsin State Journal

Q. Do IQ tests really measure how smart you are?
A. No, they do not, according to Mitchell J. Nathan, professor of learning sciences in the UW-Madison departments of educational psychology and curriculum and instruction.

Like any test, IQ tests present certain test items and exclude many others. One’s IQ test score simply measures how one did on those particular items relative to other people.

Strongest Storms Grow Stronger Yet, Study Says

New York Times

Because of these environmental factors, most storms fall far short of their maximum possible intensity. But Dr. Elsner, along with Thomas H. Jagger, a postdoctoral researcher at Florida State, and James P. Kossin, a research scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, reasoned that warmer waters increased the possible intensity and that storms that develop in ideal conditions might have become stronger.

Arts Groups Facing Financial Challenges (Chronicle of Philanthrophy)

The financial woes facing a nonprofit dance theater in Forth-Worth, Tex., is a further sign that cultural groups need to do a better job examining their economic health, writes Andrew Taylor on his blog, The Artful Manager.

Mr. Taylor, director of the arts administration program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Business, writes that arts groups must get used to the lean times.

A step toward restoring hearing

Wisconsin State Journal

A newly arrived UW researcher and colleagues at two other universities published stem-cell research results this week based on the successful growth of sound-signal-sending hair genes in the ears of lab mice, a process that could eventually be used to restore hearing to deaf people.

Global warming: Sea level rises may accelerate

Guardian (UK)

Quoted: Climate scientists are uncertain how susceptible ice sheets are to global warming, largely because they have never witnessed one disappear, so researchers led by Anders Carlson at the University of Wisconsin-Madison decided to look back to the end of the last ice age for clues.

Immigration debate grips Minn. city

USA Today

“There’s no doubt that it’s a threat to national identity,” he says, but studies suggest that immigration “has a net positive economic impact on these towns, and probably socially as well.”

Quoted: Gary Green, a professor of rural sociology at the University of Wisconsin at Madison.

Economic development all about IT, UW prof says

Capital Times

When it comes to economic development in Wisconsin, biotechnology has been grabbing all the headlines. That’s understandable in one sense because the state largely missed out on the silicon revolution of the 1980s and has been a Midwest leader in the life sciences.

Yet when it comes to actual job creation and income generation, computers still rule, says a top University of Wisconsin-Madison professor.

“Epic Systems hires more people every month than all the biotech companies in Wisconsin combined,” said Guri Sohi, past chairman of the UW-Madison computer science department.

UW prof awarded grant to advance Social Security reform

Capital Times

A University of Wisconsin-Madison professor has been awarded a $30,000 grant by the Rockefeller Foundation Innovation Award to Strengthen Social Security for Vulnerable Groups.

Pamela Herd, assistant professor of public affairs and sociology at the La Follette School of Public Affairs, will use her grant to develop a proposal to improve Social Security for older women who have raised children.

“Many women end up poor in old age, in part, due to the time and energy they devoted to raising children as opposed to participating in paid labor,” Herd said. “Most other counties reward women for this work. The U.S. does not do so.”

Democrats present a unified front

Appleton Post-Crescent

Quoted: Charles Franklin, a political scientist at University of Wisconsin-Madison, said Obama may not carry Fox Valley, but Democrats may be trying to gain a larger share of the vote than nominees Al Gore and John Kerry won in 2000 and 2004 respectively. If Wisconsin voters are closely divided, Franklin said each candidate would need every vote they can get.

Democratsâ?? quest for the â??big ideaâ??

Christian Science Monitor

Quoted: For now, the Democratsâ?? governing philosophy is â??to be announced,â? says Byron Shafer, political-science chair at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Obama is â??relatively careful to make sure you understand that heâ??s not a quote unquote New Democrat, but he also makes clear heâ??s not an old Democrat.â?