When the University of Wisconsin-Madison posted five part-time cheese tasting positions for its Center for Dairy Research, more than two hundred people applied for the jobs. Brandon Prochaska, the center’s sensory coordinator, tells us what it takes to taste cheese for scientific research.
Written by Jason Fletcher, a professor of public affairs at UW-Madison’s La Follette School of Public Affairs with appointments in Applied Economics and Population Health Sciences.
“Such warm water ‘sets the stage’ for these events,” James P. Kossin, a climate scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, wrote in an email.
“Cheap renewables have killed the economics of gas and coal power generation with carbon capture — and even more so going forward,” Gregory Nemet, a University of Wisconsin professor who studies the public policy of technological change, told The Hill.
But a recent study she wrote with Melody Harvey, an assistant professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, found no impact on eventual retirement savings. Perhaps, she said, for teenagers heading to college or just entering the work force, the idea of retiring is too distant.
To learn more about the unusual disease, Lake Effect spoke with Dr. Keith Poulsen, a veterinarian and director of the Wisconsin Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory.
Mikhail Troitskiy, professor of practice at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, told Newsweek that Lavrov’s comments “double down” on Russia’s view that it was encouraged or forced to invade Ukraine because that nation was moving closer to NATO admittance.
Anyone who has ever nodded off briefly while on the subway or watching TV has experienced a microsleep, says Chiara Cirelli, a neuroscientist at the University of Wisconsin who wasn’t involved in the study.
One of the people who have had the most influence on her, Hanford said, is University of Wisconsin-Madison psychology professor Mark Seidenberg, author of the book “Language at the Speed of Sight: How We Read, Why So Many Can’t, and What Can Be Done About It.”
Like Hanford, Seidenberg cautioned at a reading conference at Monona Terrace in Madison in February that a full range of needs must be addressed if more children are to become successful readers. He included good early childhood experiences as one of the things that matter.
Scientists have said the world needs to reach net-zero emissions by 2050 to avoid the worst effects of climate change. Energy expert Greg Nemet, a public policy professor at University of Wisconsin-Madison, said any new natural gas plants would guarantee fossil fuel emissions beyond that date, or they would need to be shut down early.
To toss any additional respiratory virus into that mess is burdensome; for that virus to be SARS-CoV-2 ups the ante all the more. “This is a more serious pathogen that is also more infectious,” Ajay Sethi, an epidemiologist at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, told me.
“We’re getting warmer and wetter, and a lot of that precipitation is happening in the winter,” said Lisa Johnson, a horticulture outreach specialist with the UW extension in Dane County. “That I think is really causing farmers more issues. If you have deeper snow cover or it’s rainier in spring, then you can’t get out into the fields.”
Professor Sumudu Atapattu is the director of the Global Legal Studies Center at UW-Madison Law School. She’ll be attending the conference and spoke to WORT News Producer Faye Parks earlier this afternoon. Professor Atapattu says that human rights and climate change are inextricably tied – and the nations of the world need to prepare.
“These are issues that have festered for a quarter of a century or more,” says Peter Carstensen, an emeritus professor at the University of Wisconsin law school who focuses on antitrust issues in agriculture. “So we’ve finally got an administration that says: ‘We get it, there are some problems here. Maybe we should do something.’”
As students face college application deadlines, we explore a new approach to admissions being adopted by the Universities of Wisconsin. Next year, most campuses plan to start proactively informing Wisconsin high schoolers who are eligible to enroll based on their academic performance. Interview with Taylor Odle, an assistant professor of Educational Policy Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Several representatives from the University of Wisconsin-Madison are observing the negotiations in Dubai. Sumudu Atapattu, director of the Global Legal Studies Center at the University of Wisconsin Law School; Jonathan Patz, director of the Global Health Institute at UW-Madison; and Nova Tebbe, a PhD student focusing on the health benefits of climate mitigation policy, will share what they learn with a virtual audience on Dec. 4.
Chief Kristen Roman has long understood the value of teamwork. Roman, originally from Illinois, was a standout athlete on the UWMadison volleyball team, recording over 1,161 kills and 1,107 digs. She graduated from the university in 1988 with degrees in both English literature and women’s studies. Now Roman serves as the university’s Chief of Campus Police, and the fieldhouse where she spent four years playing volleyball is visible from her office window.
Associate Professor Samer Alatout works in the Department of Community and Environmental Sociology and said hostages, prisoners and those killed often don’t get their stories told.
Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison say new technologies for removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere must be developed faster to meet goals to reduce global warming.
Enter the steadying voice of Charles Isbell Jr., a nationally recognized expert in computing and AI who started work this summer at the UW-Madison as its latest provost.
If the UW-Madison were a private company, the role of provost might best be described as “chief academic officer.” It is historically the No. 2 position on campus behind the chancellor. Isbell is settling into that role across UW-Madison’s many colleges and schools, but he also brings a wealth of experience in what is one of the defining technological moments in a generation.
Someone who already has a “good credit score” likely already has several credit cards. With credit scores, sometimes it can be easy to constantly pursue perfection–a FICO score of 850. The reality is that a score of 720 or above will provide individuals with strong credit offers across the board. More cards is not always better. — Jonathon Ferguson, financial capability specialist, University of Wisconsin-Madison-Financial Education Division of Extension
To give Wisconsin veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder more options, a bipartisan group of lawmakers is working to make it easier for researchers to treat those with acute PTSD with the active ingredient in hallucinogenic mushrooms.
The bill would create a state trust fund called the “medicinal psilocybin treatment program” that would be administered by researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Foreign policy analysts previously told PolitiFact National fungibility is a legitimate concern in this case.
However, Andrew Kydd, a University of Wisconsin-Madison political science professor, added a caveat to fungibility.“This still frees up their budget constraint to spend other money on other things,” Kydd wrote in an email to us. “But by this logic anyone who buys something at Walmart is supporting the Chinese nuclear arsenal.”
“Republicans’ only real backstop to prevent undoing of their conservative legislative and judicial accomplishments over the past 15 years is their majorities in the state Legislature,” said Barry Burden, UW-Madison politics professor and director of the Elections Research Center. “Enshrining some conservative ideas in the state Constitution is a way to protect them even if Republicans lack full control over state government.”
Jennifer Gaddis, a school nutrition expert at UW-Madison who works with the Madison School District, said these participation rates raise some red flags.
As the second-largest school district in the state, in a city that prides itself on local food options, Gaddis said she thinks it’s a “failure” that administration and the community are not “demanding more.”
“We’re trying to understand how this rich data that we collected when they were younger and in middle age is influencing their memory and cognitive function now,” said Michal Engelman, a UW-Madison sociology professor who directs the study.
“There’s biological and physiological processes, but there’s also the social and economic environment,” Engelman said. “All of these things work together to shape people’s well-being through their life course.”
Studies into the benefits of protein-restricted diets have shown that lower protein consumption is associated with a decreased risk of age-related diseases and mortality and improved metabolic health. Now, exploring alternatives to calorie-restricting diets, researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have found that reducing the intake of a single amino acid in mice extended their lifespan, making them leaner, less frail, and less susceptible to cancer.
“We like to say a calorie is not just a calorie,” said Dudley Lamming, corresponding author of the study. “Different components of your diet have value and impact beyond their function as a calorie, and we’ve been digging in on one component that many people may be eating too much of.”
One challenge to vertical farms moving into office and residential buildings comes from local zoning bylaws.
That’s why, across the country, some cities, including Boston and Cleveland are amending their zoning bylaws to support urban farming. Still, these changes depend on the type of agriculture and the resources available, said Alfonso Morales, a professor at the University of Wisconsin’s Department of Planning and Landscape Architecture.
“They’re [cities] going to vary in the process by which people can start a farm, and the complexities, the number of permits, or licenses to pull,” Morales said.
Manuel Teodoro, a UW-Madison associate professor who published a book on the connection between drinking water failures and public distrust, says the system used by cities like Wausau is a broken one. In his peer-reviewed paper, Teodoro said the ability of low-income families to pay for basic water and sewer services is a subject of increasing concern. He also wrote about this issue in a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel opinion piece.
“When people pay taxes through their water bills, the government response to nonpayment is denial of a life-sustaining service,” Teodoro said. “Nobody should have their water shut off because the city wants money for a jail or to pay a city employee’s pension.”
National media outlets, including the New York Times and AP, have reported on cases of the illness in numerous states, notably Colorado, Massachusetts, Oregon, New Hampshire and Rhode Island. However, veterinarian Dr. Keith Poulsen, director of the Wisconsin Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory, said every state, including Wisconsin, has probably seen cases of the new dog respiratory illness.
“What we’re seeing is multiple different states seeing different types of respiratory disease, and there are some outbreaks that we’re not getting an answer to with our in-depth diagnostic tests,” Poulsen said.
That’s because salt, rainwater and snowmelt drain into the storm sewer system, which then discharges into Lakes Mendota and Monona, UW-Madison limnologist Hilary Dugan told the Cap Times last year.
“The city has been very forward-thinking in reducing (its) salt use,” Dugan said. “It’s frustrating when you cross over from city-maintained paths to campus-maintained paths because the sudden change in practice is just so noticeable.”
Sonically, as with polka, this band’s music needs the tuba section as its foundation, said Corey Pompey, UW Marching Band director and associate director of bands at UW-Madison.
It’s just an important sound, an important voice in the band, that we just have to have“When we talk about the roots of the chords, we’re talking about basslines,” Corey said. “If we’re playing jazz, or if we’re playing some more contemporary music, for that matter, the bass is important — and rock music, too. It’s just an important sound, an important voice in the band, that we just have to have.”
Late fall is crunch time for John Achter and his team of counselors across the state public university system.
The novelty of the new school year has worn off, the realities of classes have set in and finals are looming. An increasing number of students have been seeking counseling in recent years, often during this stressful period of the semester.
A recent analysis from a UW-Madison professor finds that bottled water consumption is most prevalent among low-income women, signaling a distrust in household tap water. We speak with Manny Teodoro, an associate Professor in the LaFollette School of Public Affairs/Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies at UW-Madison.
UW-Madison sociology professor Samer Alatout, a native of Palestine, shares thoughts about nationalism, the historical relationship between Palestinians and Israelis, and building a democratic state.
Wisconsin produces almost two-thirds of the world’s cranberries. They have been harvested in Wisconsin for as long as people have lived here, said Allison Jonjak, cranberry outreach specialist at the University of Wisconsin-Extension, who grew up on a cranberry marsh herself.
“This really represents America, and it happens to be harvested right before Thanksgiving,” Jonjak said. “Cranberries are ready right now, they’re emblematic of North America, and they go really well with most meats.”
When the University of Wisconsin’s Center for Dairy Research publicized it was looking for a new crew of cheese tasters, the response was exuberant, as you might expect in a state known as the country’s cheese capital.
250 people applied for five part-time jobs available. The Center rigorously trains them to analyze cheese made and provided by graduate student researchers, pizza makers and the state’s esteemed cheese industry.
The state Geological and Natural History Survey researches and provides environmental data that helps inform institutional decisions that can affect our environment. We’ll talk with Sue Swanson, Wisconsin’s new state geologist who is also director of the Wisconsin Geological and Natural History Survey through University of Wisconsin-Madison, about who they work with and how their data is used.
Associated Bank confirmed Ernst was laid off due to restructuring but declined to comment further.
While his layoff may have felt egregious, employment law expert Alexia Kulwiec said that both in Wisconsin and across the country, with exception of Montana, employees are hired “at-will.”
“This means that an employer can terminate employment for a good reason, bad reason, or no reason at all, unless there are specific legal prohibitions or a contractual agreement,” said Kulwiec, a law professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
That’s true for all businesses, big or small, said Cliff Robb, professor of consumer science at UW-Madison.
“I do think there will be crowds,” he said. “People will be shopping, but they will be much more bargain-oriented. Consumers may be more willing to wait out deals.”
University of Wisconsin-Madison Associate Professor of Law Robert Yablon is the co-director of the State Democracy Research Initiative and filed a brief with other scholars challenging the current maps. He told WPR the contiguity argument presented by Democrats is “rooted in the original meaning and practice of the Constitution.”
“And so I suppose it’s not surprising that, over time, the political sides that have argued it one way or the other have changed depending on what they viewed as their interests at the moment,” Yablon said.
When neuroscientists talk about gratitude, they often cluster it with other social and moral emotions like appreciation and compassion. That’s no coincidence. These emotions activate similar networks in our brains, said Cortland Dahl, a scientist at the Center for Healthy Minds, part of the University of Wisconsin–Madison.
“Gratitude, I would say, is a very specific version of (appreciation), where we’re oriented to something we really appreciate that has benefited us personally — somebody else’s presence in our lives, how they’ve supported us, being the most common expression of that,” Dahl said.
Managing, monitoring and connecting community members to over 1,200 acres of woodlands, savannas, prairies and wetlands could seem unimaginable for some. For Karen Oberhauser, director of the University of Wisconsin–Madison Arboretum, upholding the area’s three pillars — conserving and restoring arboretum land, advancing research and fostering the land ethic — is an everyday reality.
Why nuclear fusion? It doesn’t produce harmful long-term radioactive waste as a byproduct like nuclear fission, explained Gerald Kulcinski, director emeritus of fusion technology at UW-Madison.
Nearly one in five US adults are diagnosed with depression at some point in their lives. As the use of antidepressants have steadily risen since their introduction in the 1980s, what have we learned about depression? Is depression truly a “chemical imbalance” of the brain? And why do antidepressants work for some people and not others? Sanjay talks to Dr. Charles Raison, a professor of psychiatry at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, about what we now believe causes depression, and most importantly, what this means for how we treat the illness – from SSRIs to psychedelics and other emerging therapies.
“You could potentially imagine that there’ll be therapies on the horizon,” Zachary Goldberger, a cardiologist at the University of Wisconsin–Madison School of Medicine and Public Health who did not participate in the research, tells the publication.
Randy Jackson, an agronomy professor at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, cites efforts like Ellis’ and argues the U.S. needs more cattle grazing, not less: “Well-managed grazing on perennial grasslands is our best and maybe our only hope of helping to mitigate climate change.”
Psychiatrist Charles Raison, a professor of human ecology and psychiatry at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said he has struggled with depression. Raison, who is also the director of the Vail Health Behavioral Health Innovation Center and a former mental health expert for CNN Health, described the state of mental health in the Unites States in one word: “bad.”
“This is something influenza absolutely loves,” said Dr. Jonathan Temte, an associate dean at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health.
The situation raises a series of questions in addition to ethical concerns and legal concerns about misuse of public office, said John P. Gross, a clinical associate professor of law at the University of Wisconsin Law School.
“It’s particularly suspect when it sounds like this particular private citizen may have engaged in prior business transactions with the city attorney and has ongoing business transactions, essentially, with the city attorney, because they’re storing their cars for them and they’re not paying rent,” he said.
Wisconsin also had among the lowest vaccination rates for other required vaccines, which protect against such diseases as chickenpox, polio and whooping cough.
“It’s very concerning,” said Dr. James Conway, a professor of pediatrics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and medical director of UW Health’s immunization program. “This is mostly a call to action that we need to do better.”
Beth Fields, an occupational therapist and assistant professor of kinesiology at UW-Madison who researches caregiving, said studies have found that instructing caregivers about discharge planning can reduce hospital readmissions.
Ross Milton, an assistant professor of public affairs at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, noted that the state has something that the city or county of Milwaukee currently lacks: a budget surplus. Original funding plans called for local governments to contribute over $300 million to the project, leading to fears that the county and city governments would need to cut services to make the needed payments.
“I think the opportunity cost is different for local governments than it is for the state,” Milton said. “And that does mean that who’s paying for it does somewhat affect how we should think about it.”
Beth Fields, an occupational therapist and geriatric health and caregiving researcher at the University of Wisconsin, described her own experience with the challenges caregivers face.
After a back injury, her brother spent three weeks in intensive care before being sent home. Her family received “little information on how to support him when he got back home,” she said, and medical complications sent him back to the hospital.
“We must take a critical look at the support we are providing to the caregivers who are the backbone of our long-term care health care system,” Fields said.
From mix tapes and CDs to music apps like Apple and Spotify, people have been making playlists for decades. Jeremy Morris, an assistant professor of media and cultural studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, gives pointers for making a playlist for any occasion, and listeners weigh in with their own philosophies of what makes a great mix.
A University of Wisconsin-Madison veterinarian describes the signs a bull gives when it’s about to charge at someone.
“So they’re going to turn sideways to you if they’re feeling threatened or aggressive, and then they’ll lower their head toward people or other animals, again, as a way of showing aggression, aggressiveness towards those individuals,” Ryan Breuer said.
Prof. Tiffany Green, a health care economist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who has researched the impact of birth- cost recovery programs, said a study she conducted pointed to better child support payments when birth-cost recovery (BCR) stopped.
“With the caveat that our results of preliminary, we found that BCR cessation was linked to increased probability of paying support to birthing parents (i.e., mothers and other individuals who gave birth), and that the amount of that support increased,” Green told the Wisconsin Examiner Monday. That pattern appeared “particularly pronounced among the fathers of Black children,” although not among fathers of white children. Future research will explore possible explanations for those differences, she added.
For the past few weeks, University of Wisconsin at Madison political science professor Barry Burden had been depicting the size of the GOP primary field by plotting the time until the Iowa caucuses against the number of candidates still in the race. The resulting effect is a sort of a bell curve, with the field already well into the downslope.
“It’s neither acting as a material boost or drag on the U.S. economy,” he said.And that’s not necessarily a bad thing, said Menzie Chinn, an economics professor at the University of Wisconsin.
Eric Booth, hydroecologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said he remembers learning about the historic project in college classes.
“It’s the story of how we can change land use and land management for the better, to stem erosion and improve flooding outcomes,” he said. “Certainly in Wisconsin, it’s even more of a story that is told. But nationwide, people in soil conservation and water science know about the Coon Creek watershed.”
