Q. Is there any real way to make gas last longer in your car?
A. The car’s size plays a major role in fuel economy, because larger cars face more air resistance, and heavier cars use more energy accelerating.
Quoted: Botanist Ken Cameron of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, who says that other work has shown interesting chromosomal traits in vanilla.
The heavy rains, strong thunderstorms and fierce tornadoes that have attacked the Midwest in recent weeks are a sign of the future, and communities will have to adapt to more frequent occurrences of extreme weather, experts say.
It could be an expensive process.
Ken Potter, a UW-Madison engineering professor who helped review the New Orleans hurricane protection system after Hurricane Katrina, said Wisconsin engineers will have to consider how to redesign structures to prevent flooding and events such as the draining of Lake Delton after extremely heavy rains.
(Several other UW-Madison experts are also quoted in this story.)
Quoted: Environmental health professor Jonathan Patz at the University of Wisconsin.
One concern from flooding is combined sewer overflows, said environmental health professor Jonathan Patz at the University of Wisconsin. That’s when drainage systems designed to collect rainwater runoff and domestic sewage in the same pipe overflow, sending untreated human sewage and industrial waste into rivers and other waters. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Iowa has 19 of these types of overflow systems and Illinois has about 100.
Quoted: University of Wisconsin-Madison agronomist Joe Lauer says itâ??s too late to replant corn except for livestock feed and Sheboygan County ag agent Mike Ballweg says crop insurance wonâ??t be enough to cover the losses.
Quoted: Kenneth Potter, a civil and environmental engineer at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, says many scientists agree that climate change is likely to increase the occurrence and severity of storms as well as droughts, and thus increase the likelihood of flooding.
Quoted: The wet, humid weather can create a fungus that kills gypsy moth caterpillars, said University of Wisconsin-Madison entomologist Phil Pellitteri.
Quoted: “We may find ourselves with whole regions of the country where virtually every pharmacy follows these limiting, discriminatory policies and women are unable to access legal, physician-prescribed medications,” said R. Alta Charo, a University of Wisconsin lawyer and bioethicist. “We’re talking about creating a separate universe of pharmacies that puts women at a disadvantage.”
Quoted: Dr. Mark Linzer, an internist at the University of Wisconsin who has done extensive research on physician unhappiness.
Quoted: Kenneth Goldstein, a political science professor at the University of Wisconsin in Madison.
Quoted: Larry Meiller, a professor and director of undergraduate studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, has a positive opinion on the topic.
Southern Wisconsin got soaked with rain last summer, walloped with record snow this winter and now faces widespread flooding and storm damage.
Add in soaring gas prices and the lagging economy — illustrated by the recently announced closure of Janesville ‘s General Motors plant — and life here can seem bleak.
“When you start piling things like this on top of everything else, it becomes more problematic for people to cope, ” said Dr. Jerry Halverson, a UW Health psychiatrist.
A new president comes to the job with enthusiasm and optimism. The board that hired the president, as well as the faculty and staff members who anticipate the new leader’s arrival, share those sentiments. Some people hope he or she will do as well as the previous president; more often, they hope the new president will do everything that the predecessor did well and improve on what that person did not do well. An impossible assignment? No, but a difficult one.
Author: Harry L. Peterson, president emeritus of Western State College of Colorado, also served as a senior administrator at the Universities of Idaho and Wisconsin. This article is adapted from his book Leading a Small College or University: A Conversation That Never Ends, to be published this month by Atwood Publishing.
Quoted: Barry Burden, a University of Wisconsin professor of political science who had Bolger as a teaching fellow at Harvard.
Quoted: Sean Carroll, a geneticist at the University of Wisconsin.
Quoted: Barry Burden, a University of Wisconsin professor who had Bolger as a teaching fellow at Harvard, lauds his communication skills with students. Despite Bolger’s hectic schedule, he never let the stress show. People would “rarely â?¦ see a crack in that veneer,” Burden says.
Quoted: Dr. Jonathan L. Temte, associate professor in the Department of Family Medicine at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health.
Quoted: Bruce Jones, a farm management specialist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Quoted: Volker C. Radeloff, an associate professor of forest ecology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said this expansion is a particularly dangerous trend.
Quoted: Jonathan Martin, chairman of the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Atmospheric Sciences Department.
MILWAUKEE (AP) — Mosquitoes will be out in greater numbers than usual after all the wet weather in Wisconsin, but Illinois may bear the brunt of the insects from the severe storms.
University of Wisconsin-Madison entomologist Phil Pellitteri says that the flood conditions may have washed many of the mosquito eggs downstream and even out of the state.
He says just because we’ve had record rain doesn’t mean we’ll have record numbers of mosquitoes.
Quoted: UW-Madison political scientist Ken Goldstein.
Agriculture experts say crop losses due to heavy flooding in Wisconsin could reach the tens of millions of dollars.
Agriculture experts say crop losses due to heavy flooding in Wisconsin could reach the tens of millions of dollars.
Quoted: Shawn Conley, a state soybean and small-bean specialist from the University of Wisconsin-Madison
Wausau – A new study said about 26,000 black bears roam the state, at least double what the Department of Natural Resources had estimated. The study’s researchers from the University of Wisconsin-Madison said they expect the findings will increase the demand for bear hunting permits.
The result reminded University of Wisconsin-Madison sedimentary geologist Shanan Peters of a glacial lake draining, which is exactly what exposed the Dells millenniums ago. A finger of water found its way through loose soil and the soft sandstone, and then a torrent followed it.
WTMJ’s John Jagler chats with University of Wisconsin-Madison entomologist Phil Pellitteri about how the big floods we’ve seen could lessen the effect of mosquitoes this summer. (Audio.)
Quoted: University of Wisconsin-Madison geography professor Jim Knox
Quoted: Norman Fost, a pediatrics professor at the University of Wisconsin in Madison.
Medical researchers are homing in on a wonder drug that may significantly reduce the risk of heart disease, cancer, diabetes and many other diseases — sunshine.
A study released today found that men who are deficient in the so-called sunshine vitamin — vitamin D — have more than double the normal risk of suffering a heart attack.
“We don’t have a cause and effect relationship here yet” proving that higher doses of vitamin D prevent such diseases, said biochemist Hector DeLuca of the University of Wisconsin, who was the first to demonstrate how the vitamin interacts with the endocrine system, which manages the body’s hormonal balance.
Quoted: Morris Davis, a real estate professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Quoted: Edward Churchwell, an astronomer at the University of Wisconsin at Madison who is the principal investigator for the GLIMPSE team.
Medical research in children, an issue causing U.S. regulators to balance safety concerns against the need for more trials, is getting scrutiny that may lead to changes in federal guidelines.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is reviewing how to do pediatric studies on drugs for disorders such as asthma, on potential AIDS vaccines and for the medical use of stem cells, said Norman Fost, a pediatrics professor at the University of Wisconsin who’s chairing the panel. A two-day meeting on the questions starts today in Gaithersburg, Maryland.
Madison – The Federal Reserve Board is done cutting interest rates for at least a while, but don’t look for higher rates before fall, the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis said Friday.
Speaking at a conference on housing at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, James Bullard said the Fed’s aggressive rate-cutting since last August has stabilized the economy, and inflation is now becoming a larger concern.
Quoted: Dr. Ron Diamond, a University of Wisconsin-Madison psychiatrist.
Quoted: Barry Burden, a University of Wisconsin-Madison political science professor.
Speaking Friday at the 2008 Wisconsin Housing Conference at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Morris Davis, an assistant professor of real estate and urban land economics at UW-Madison, said Wisconsin has a higher income-to-housing-cost ratio than other areas of the country.
The Democratic Party hopes to unite following a long primary election campaign, and both Presidential candidates seek to unify the entire country … but how?
What about sort of a “co-presidency” with a Democrat and a Republican for President and Vice President, or vise versa? John Coleman, professor and chair of political science at UW-Madison, says that’s not very likely. Besides, V.P. is clearly a secondary position.
Q. Is pollution causing the hole in the ozone layer?
â?? Submitted by Annelise Smithmier-Bohn, sixth grade, Jefferson Middle School
A. Ozone, a molecule containing three oxygen atoms, is a pollutant in the lower atmosphere. But at higher altitudes, ozone blocks deadly ultraviolet (UV) radiation from the sun.
Quoted: Charles Franklin, a political scientist at the University of Wisconsin at Madison.
Quoted: Dr. Michael Stier, a forensic pathologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Quoted: Charles Franklin, a political science professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said many superdelegates had been concerned about backing someone who failed to get the nomination.
Quoted: Jane Waldbaum, University of Wisconsin professor emerita and past president of the Archaeological Institute of America.
Quoted: Rodney Stevenson, a business professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Quoted: Byron Shafer, the foremost expert on changes since the 1960s in the Democratic nominating process.
Quoted: Shawn F. Peters, a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and author ofWhen Prayer Fails: Faith Healing, Children, and the Law.
Quoted: Daryl Buss is Dean of the College of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Wisconsin-Madison; he says facilities comparable to NBAF have been built in populous areas around the globe. Places like Winnipeg, Canada and Melbourne, Australia. In fact, our own Centers for Disease Control (CDC) in Atlanta, Georgia is a prime example of how the security system does work
Quoted: Charles Franklin, a political expert at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Quoted: Gary Green, professor of rural sociology and director of the Center for Community and Economic Development at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Raise your wine glasses, again, to resveratrol. The compound present in red wine, red grapes, and pomegranates that makes obese mice live longer also packs a heart-healthy punch — even in low doses.
Quoted: Tomas Prolla, UW-Madison professor of genetics and senior author of the report.
Quoted: Gary Green, director of the Center for Community and Economic Development at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Quoted: Ken Goldstein, an expert in campaign advertising at the University of Wisconsin.
As manager of Madison’s longest-operating Chevrolet dealer, Tom Thorstad has toured the General Motors plant in Janesville many times and remembers well the friendly faces of those working on the assembly line.
“It’s hard work standing there all day, but they took a lot of pride in what they did,” he said. “I was always impressed how they took the time to look up and wave at you.”
So Thorstad was obviously saddened Tuesday when he got the news that General Motors was closing four truck and SUV plants, including its iconic manufacturing facility in Janesville, which first which opened in 1919. Some 2,600 workers there are expected to lose their jobs over the next two years as the plant is shuttered.
Quoted: Laura Dresser, a researcher with the UW-Madison Center on Wisconsin Strategy
Amna Buttar was in Madison the other morning and a remarkable thing happened — nothing.
Buttar took her daughter to the dentist and then met a friend to chat. She spoke with passion about her new life — she ‘s now a successful politician in her native Pakistan — but for the first time in recent memory there was no global controversy, no assault or assassination to discuss. It has been a frenzied few years for Buttar, and she welcomes the relative calm.
Quoted: Ken Goldstein, a University of Wisconsin political scientist, whose Wisconsin Advertising Project analyzes candidates’ ad spending.
Quoted: Rodney Stevenson, a business professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Quoted: UW-Madison professor and historian Patty Loew, a member of the Bad River band of Lake Superior Chippewa, an Ojibwe tribe.
Quoted: Mike Rothschild, a University of Wisconsin-Madison emeritus business professor who pioneered the designated-driver program Road Crew.
