Q. How does gravity work?
A. Gravity is an attractive force between any two objects, whether they ‘re as small as subatomic particles or as large as galaxies, explained UW-Madison physics professor Akikazu Hashimoto.
The surprise came a bit late. Usually the Russian political system is upended in August, but this year we had to wait until the second week of September to discover who would replace the inevitably outgoing prime minister, Mikhail Fradkov. But a surprise it was, nonetheless.
Author: Scott Gehlbach is assistant professor of political science at the University of Wisconsinâ??Madison
Quoted: There are many warning signs signaling aging eyes need some medical care, says Dr. Amna Buttar, member of the American Geriatrics Society and faculty member at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.
Wisconsin residents flooded by recent torrential rains know firsthand that disasters have a way of exposing problems they previously didn’t know existed.
UW-Madison professor Richard Keller, who is bringing his study of disaster and catastrophe to the classroom, says disasters â?? particularly large-scale, catastrophic ones â?? can also offer revealing glimpses of larger human issues.
Quoted: String theorist Gary Shiu of the University of Wisconsin in Madison, US, says the fact that not every version of string theory is compatible with inflation is good news, because it will help narrow down which versions of the theory should be further investigated from the vast number of possibilities.
UW-Madison economist Morris Davis doesn’t want to become known as the most bearish real estate pundit out there.
But considering past housing slumps and the depth of the current crisis, Davis isn’t looking for any recovery for at least another three years.
Quoted: Co-author Diana Hess, a professor at the University of Wisconsin.
Quoted: Aaron Gilson of the Pain and Policy Studies Group at the University of Wisconsin.
Quoted: Bridges should be checked again because some may have deteriorated since then and can withstand less weight now, said Don Walker, director of the University of Wisconsin-Madison Transportation Information Center.
Wisconsin, along with Pennsylvania, is one of the leading meat processing states in the country, said Jeff Sindelar, a professor of meat science at UW-Madison, a meat specialist with UW-Extension and a member of the board of directors of the Wisconsin Association of Meat Processors.
Some schools, including the University of Michigan and the University of Wisconsin-Madison, have long done without preferred-lender lists and are emphasizing their neutrality. “If there was ever any tendency to advise people [on specific lenders], we’re making sure that’s not happening,” says Susan Fischer, director of financial aid at Wisconsin.
Quoted: Alfred McCoy, a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, argued recently that the photographs from Abu Ghraib reflected standard CIA torture techniques of ” stress positions, sensory deprivation, and sexual humiliation”.
Quoted: David E. Joranson, director of the Pain Policy Study Group at the University of Wisconsinâ??s medical school, who has worked to change drugs laws around the world.
Even as she lived in high society, she held it up to public ridicule. Once treated as a minor writer who documented the drawing rooms of the rich, the American novelist Edith Wharton (1862-1937) has, ever since the feminist literary revival that started in the 1970s, been recognized as an American master.
Quoted: UW-Madison English professor Emily Auerbach
Check your privacy settings. The world will soon be able to view your Facebook profile via search engines like Google.
Q. Why is the ocean salty?
A. The saltiness of the sea comes from dissolved minerals, especially sodium, chlorine, sulfur, calcium, magnesium, and potassium, said Galen McKinley, a UW-Madison professor of atmospheric and oceanic sciences.
Quoted: Barry Burden, a political science professor at the University of Wisconsin in Madison.
Cheeseheads have short memories, so Phil Pellitteri expected the calls.
Just as media types jump at the first trace of snow to remind people where their brake pedal is, we tend to act stunned when mosquitoes follow hard rains. A big part of Pellitteriâ??s week has been to smack us upside our forgetful heads.
â??I would give you the same interview 15 years ago,â? said Pellitteri, an entomologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Quoted: Jo Handelsman, the University of Wisconsin-Madison plant biologist who coined the term “metagenomics,” says that the bee work represents “a very nice first step and an exciting discovery.”
Quoted: Don Downs, a political science and law professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Quoted: Morris A. Davis, assistant professor of real estate and urban land economics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Fans hoping for a breakthrough in negotiations between Charter Communications and the Big Ten Network seemingly will grasp at any straw.
One favorite theory of bloggers involves the pending deal in which News Corp. is selling its 38.4 percent stake in DirecTV, regional sports networks FSN Pittsburgh, FSN Northwest and FSN Rocky Mountain, and more than $500 million in cash to Liberty Media in exchange for Liberty’s 19 percent voting interest in News Corp.
Quoted: UW-Madison telecommunications professor Barry Orton
Researchers at Pennsylvania State University, Columbia and other institutions have found a virus that they say contributes to the mysterious collapse of honeybee colonies around the United States.
Quoted: UW-Madison entomologist Phil Pellitteri
Quoted: UW-Madison entomologist Phil Pellitteri.
Quoted: Phil Pellitteri, an entomologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who has studied mosquitoes for more than 30 years, said the downpours of August have caused the mosquitoes to hatch just about anywhere there’s standing water, including highway ditches and flooded fields.
What’s the buzz?
If you haven’t stepped out of your house the past week or two, that hum you hear outside is from millions of floodwater mosquitoes that have exploded on the scene, following the record rainfalls in August.
Quoted: UW-Madison entomologist Phil Pellitteri
Madison – The Legislature’s special budget committee, if it were a game show, would be called “Let’s Not Make a Deal.”
Quoted: Charles Franklin, a University of Wisconsin-Madison political science professor.
Quoted: Brian Gould, an agricultural economist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Quoted: Susan Fischer, director of Student Financial Services at UW-Madison, tells students to resist the pitch and the freebies. “Just go buy a T-shirt if you need a T-shirt.”
Quoted: Bruce P. Barrett, an associate professor of family medicine at the University of Wisconsin who was not involved with the review.
Quoted: John Hawks, an assistant professor of anthropology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
There’s a real generational divide on the issue of video games.
For those older than 35 or so, games are mostly an unfortunate waste of time or, worse, a Trojan horse introducing our kids to violent, sexist themes. For those younger than 35, they are a leading form of entertainment, a resource for creativity and innovation, and — contrary to the common stereotype — a way to socialize.
Constance Steinkuehler is an assistant professor of educational communication and technology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Quoted: Jeffrey P. Smith, a professor of film studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Quoted: Joanne Cantor, who taught communications at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Quoted: Jake Vander Zanden, an aquatic ecologist with the UW-Madison Center for Limnology.
Quoted: Tom Oâ??Guinn, a marketing professor at the University of Wisconsin and executive director of the Center for Brand and Product Management.
Quoted: University of Wisconsin Hospital emergency medicine physician Darren Bean said blowing air into someone having a heart attack induces pressure in the lungs that slows blood flow.
The University of Wisconsin hasn’t had a live badger since 1947 â?? about the time Bucky got loose and ran onto the football field during a game, says David Null, director of the school’s archives.
“The team got a delay-of-game call while they tried to round it up and take care of it,” Null says. “They’re feisty little animals. I doubt they’ll ever bring it back.”
Quoted: Don Waller, a professor of botany and environmental studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Q. Is it true that cell phone chargers continue to draw power when they ‘re not charging a battery, simply because they ‘re plugged into an outlet? And if this is true, how can it be?
A. Although he hasn ‘t measured it, UW-Madison emeritus electrical engineering professor Don Novotny guesses that a plugged-in charger still draws about one-third of the power it does while operating.
Like many Badger fans, Eric Graf is angry as the Big Ten Network launches tonight without a deal with Charter Communications.
Barring an improbable agreement to break the long and contentious stalemate, Charter subscribers won’t be able to see at least three University of Wisconsin football games and at least 10 UW basketball games scheduled to air on BTN in the next six months.
But Graf isn’t focusing his ire on the network or cable company; he blames the heads of the Big Ten universities, including UW Chancellor John Wiley.
(Professor of telecommunications Barry Orton is quoted.)
Quoted: University of Wisconsin entomologist Phil Pellitteri said.
Quoted: Robert Lemanske of the University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics.
Quoted: Dr. William Busse of the University of Wisconsin, who headed the panel.
The good news is that George W. Bush at last has found parallels between his Iraq misadventure and the Vietnam War. The bad news is that he is again writing his own revisionist history. The president is on dangerous ground — for both wars are based on a bed of lies and miscalculations.
Quoted: Kenneth R. Mayer, political science professor at the University of Wisconsin at Madison.
UW-Madison economist Andrew Reschovsky said he saw some problems with the program, such as the fact that many eligible taxpayers don ‘t participate.
The region saw floods in 1993, 1978, 1965 and the early 1950s, experts said. But this year topped all of those, with the Kickapoo River level at the community of Steuben rising nearly five feet above flood stage, two feet higher than the previous high flood of 1978, according to federal data examined by UW-Madison hydrologist Ken Potter.
Both Potter and fellow UW-Madison professor Jim Knox said that, thanks to improved methods of farming and controlling soil erosion, floods in the region have generally lessened over the past 50 years.
Quoted: Joanne Cantor, director of the Center for Communication Research at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, says typical public-service announcements about healthful eating fail because they lack the punch of enormous advertising campaigns promoting less nutritious fare.
Quoted: Dr. Norman Fost, professor of pediatrics and bioethics at the University of Wisconsin.
Quoted: Menzie Chinn, professor of public affairs and economics at the University of Wisconsin and co-author of a much-cited academic report on the topic.
If your garden survived the drought that lasted through July and the recent flooding rains, youâ??re not out of the woods yet. Japanese beetles are still on the attack.
These beetles, which shouldnâ??t be confused with ladybug look-alike Asian lady beetles, are becoming more numerous and widespread this summer than ever before, said University of Wisconsin-Madisonâ??s Phil Pellitteri. Pellitteri said Japanese beetles are invasive insects that only appeared in large numbers in Wisconsin within the past 10 years.
Quoted: Kenneth Mayer, a political scientist at the University of Wisconsin in Madison and author of “With the Stroke of a Pen: Executive Orders and Presidential Powers.”
Quoted: University of Wisconsin-Madison entomologist Phil Pellitteri
Quoted: John Coleman, a political science professor at UW-Madison.
Q. What are teeth made of?
A. Built for crunching and chewing, teeth mostly consist of hard, inorganic minerals such as calcium. But they also contain nerves, blood vessels and specialized cells that manufacture the different parts of the tooth, said Bill Gengler, a veterinary dentist and oral surgeon with the UW-Madison School of Veterinary Medicine.
No American diplomat’s career has been more thoroughly documented and debated — or celebrated and reviled — than Henry Kissinger’s. There are shelves of biographies by distinguished authors, and Kissinger himself has produced a massive three-volume memoir followed by a steady flow of books, essays, and commentaries. These two books do not provide startling new historical accounts of Kissinger, but they do offer some fresh glimpses of his motives and personality on display in high office.
Quoted: Jonathan Martin, chairman of the Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences Department at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Quoted: Dr. Jerry Halverson, a University of Wisconsin health psychiatrist and the medical director of Meriter Hospital’s adult psychiatry program, said that shock and other feelings are normal and natural when confronted with such a traumatic event.
Quoted: University of Wisconsin law professor Asifa Quraishi, at the opening of Wednesday’s session, pointed out that Islamic conservatives point to the very topic of “women’s rights” as “a Western imposition” of outside values on Muslim women, which therefore means it can be dismissed as irrelevant and anti-Islam.
