Even though the NIH has had to navigate political rapids for decades, including enduring controversy over stem cell research and surveys on the sexual behavior of teens, this is a particularly fraught moment. “It is caught up in a larger debate about who gets to decide what is truthful information these days,” said Alta Charo, a professor emerita of law and bioethics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who has advised the NIH in the past.
Category: UW Experts in the News
Health experts say teens, young adults benefit from doctor advice about social media
Dr. Megan Moreno, a professor of pediatrics with UW Health Kids, said the study had a surprising impact.
“I think there was a lot of skepticism around whether a five-minute conversation with a pediatrician would have much effect,” she said. “The answer was, ‘Yes, absolutely.’ A pediatrician isn’t going to be able to go into great detail, but if our intervention got kids to talk to their parents, that is great.”
‘This is an extreme year’: Air quality alerts may become more common as climate gets warmer, drier
Volker Radeloff, professor of Forest and Wildlife Ecology at UW-Madison, says while the fires are far from home, Wisconsin isn’t immune to these dry, hot conditions.
“This is an extreme year,” Radeloff said. “I’m not saying this is what every year will be like, but I think there will be more years like [this].”
Judge dismisses lawsuit seeking to block Wisconsin tribe from barricading town roads
University of Wisconsin-Madison Professor of Law and Director of the Great Lakes Indian Law Center Richard Monette said the raft of lawsuits in the easement dispute was “very foreseeable” and it may take an act of Congress to get the various parties to the table.
“This case is giving rise to the complex nuances of the political relationship between the United States and the tribes,” Monette said. “That’s why this is a matter for the political branches, not for the courts.”
COVID rates are rising. Now, a UW-Madison scientist has found a way to recycle face masks.
It may be time to break out the face masks again.
COVID-19 cases are on the rise nationwide due to a new omicron subvariant, EG.5, nicknamed “Eris.” Though Wisconsin isn’t getting hit hard yet, hospitalizations are up 14.3% and deaths are up 10% in the last week, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control.
What to Know About Long COVID
Dr. Nasia Safdar, medical director of infection control at the University of Wisconsin spoke with CNET in 2021, when scientists were first getting a grip on long COVID, that the key to discerning the condition is to pay attention to new symptoms that develop or ones that never go away — about 30 days post-infection. This separates long COVID from the initial viral infection itself.
Getting your kids to talk about social media with their doctors improves online behavior, study finds
A new study from the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health finds that even a brief conversation about social media with their doctor can improve teens’ behavior on the platforms.
“I think there was a lot of skepticism around whether a five-minute conversation with a pediatrician would have much effect,” Dr. Megan Moreno of UW Health Kids and a professor of pediatrics at the UW School of Medicine and Public Health said. “The answer was, ‘Yes, absolutely.’ A pediatrician isn’t going to be able to go into great detail, but if our intervention got kids to talk to their parents, that is great.”
Maui wildfires deadliest in over a century
The Maui wildfires are the deadliest in more than a century. Volker Radeloff, associate professor, forest and wildlife ecology at UW-Madison, explains their cause and how climate change contributes to increased risk of wildfires.
Wisconsin GOP chairman named in latest Georgia Trump indictment
“I don’t think that means anything for him. What this is, is a lengthy statement of facts of things that occurred to try to establish “look at all these people that Trump and the Trump team talked to. Look at the extent of what they were uh trying to do,” University of Wisconsin-Madison Professor Ryan Owens said.
UW-Madison professor Dr. Steve Cho lauds new prostate cancer therapy, notes shortages of needed radioisotopes
While some radiopharmaceuticals have been utilized in thyroid cancer treatment for decades, new radiation drugs are showing promise in many other areas, according to Dr. Steve Cho, a professor and section chief of the nuclear medicine section of the Department of Radiology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s School of Medicine and Public Health.
Now is the time to transition bedtimes from summer to school schedule, doctors say
Dr. Steve Barczi, a professor of medicine at UW Health, said making a few small changes during the weeks leading up to the school year will go a long way.
“Most people project that if you can even just shift a child’s bedtime by maybe 15 minutes everyday or a couple days, until you move them back let’s say that hour that they need to be back to be able to be prepared for school, that’s a good gauge,” Barczi said.
Monday’s soaking relieves some drought stress on Wisconsin crops, lawns
Rains like Monday’s downpour will help catch up on lost rain and relieve crop stress from the drought earlier this summer despite rainfall being “fairly normal” during the corn pollination period from July 15 to Aug. 4 compared to the past 30 years, said Joe Lauer, an agronomist at UW-Madison and expert in corn research.
Exclusive access offers new Facebook insights, but UW-Madison professor worries about limits
Journalism professor Mike Wagner audited the studies that granted academic researchers around the nation access to Facebook’s internal records. The studies were produced in partnership with social scientists at Meta, the company that owns Facebook.
Generative A.I. forces Wisconsin teachers to adjust lesson plans
UW Madison Sears Bascom Professor of Learning Analytics, David Williamson Shaffer, says teachers at all levels of education are having to adapt quickly to this new wave of technology.
“We know that students are going to use it whether or not teachers plan for it, which means that teachers have to plan for it. Unfortunately, when change comes this rapidly, teachers are sort of left on their own to figure it out, and I think that’s a big problem,” said Professor Shaffer.
Uncured bacon isn’t any healthier. Here’s why.
Without these compounds, meat would spoil. “Nitrite is especially important because it has inhibitory action against microorganisms and specifically against spores of Clostridium botulinum [which cause botulism], should they be present,” says Jeff J. Sindelar, a meat science professor and extension meat specialist at the University of Wisconsin at Madison.
‘Here & Now’ Highlights: Alejandra Ros Pilarz
Gov. Tony Evers called a special legislative session for Sept. 20 to address Wisconsin’s workforce shortage — included in his $1 billion spending proposal for consideration is money to shore up the child care industry, which UW-Madison social work professor Alejandra Ros Pilarz describes as a “failed market.”
Capital City Sunday: Sparks continue to fly among Wisconsin Supreme Court justices
“The regular lawmaking process in Wisconsin has basically broken down and become nonfunctional since Evers was elected in 2018 and has faced a really stalwart Republican majority,” said Barry Burden, a political science professor at UW-Madison. “Aside from signing two budgets into law, both of which were acrimonious and left both sides somewhat dissatisfied, there hasn’t been any regular lawmaking to speak of.”
Hurricane Dora Is Now A Typhoon But Did It Make The Maui Fires Worse?
University of Wisconsin meteorology professor Clark Evans posted a similar analysis on the X platform. The sheer severity of the Maui fires and the persistence of Hurricane (and Typhoon) Dora will prompt several scientific studies in the coming years.
Madison businesses launch GoFundMe campaigns to pay the bills and fund expansion
Michelle Somes-Booher, director of the Wisconsin Small Business Development Center at the UW-Madison School of Business, said that coming out of the pandemic, business owners have had to make lots of adjustments.
“We’ve had wage increases and whatnot,” she said. “And then with higher interest rates, that always causes business owners to have to do things maybe they wouldn’t have done in the past.”
Lawsuit Targets Wisconsin’s Swiss Cheese-Like Districts
“It could be that this gives the court a completely neutral basis for deciding the maps are no good,” said Kenneth R. Mayer, a University of Wisconsin-Madison political science professor.
The Clean Energy Future Is Arriving Faster Than You Think
“The world has produced nearly three billion solar panels at this point, and every one of those has been an opportunity for people to try to improve the process,” said Gregory Nemet, a solar power expert at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “And all of those incremental improvements add up to something very dramatic.”
Maui fires: Impact of climate change, drought, hurricane winds
Maui experienced a two-category increase in drought severity in just three weeks from May to June, with that rapid intensification fitting the definition of a flash drought, said Jason Otkin, an atmospheric scientist at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.Otkin co-authored an April study that shows that flash droughts are becoming more common as Earth warms by human-caused climate change. A 2016 flash drought was connected to unusual wildfires in Gatlinburg, Tennessee, he said.
Sharp actions from Wisconsin Supreme Court’s new liberal majority extend deep divide
Ryan Owens, a UW-Madison political science professor, said the liberal justices’ actions are harming the court’s reputation.
“Disregarding procedure, purging state employees without notice and making blatantly political decisions is an institution-destroying cocktail that, for the public, will taste like ipecac syrup — and have the same effect,” said Owens, who briefly ran for attorney general as a Republican.
Evictions are on pace to top pre-pandemic numbers in Dane County and Wisconsin
“What the emergency rental assistance proves is that you can stabilize housing and get better outcomes across a range of life situations,” said UW-Madison urban planning professor Kurt Paulsen. “You’re better able to focus on a job or school and deal with whatever problems life throws at you.”
Lawsuit targets Wisconsin legislative districts resembling Swiss cheese
But the challenge to noncontiguous districts could provide judges a way to decide the case without ever addressing whether partisan gerrymandering is illegal. “It could be that this gives the court a completely neutral basis for deciding the maps are no good,” said Kenneth R. Mayer, a UW-Madison political science professor.
UW Space Place director explains Perseid meteor shower
The Perseid meteors are visible around this time each year. Director of UW Space Place, James Lattis tells News 3 Now that a debris field left by comet Swift- Tuttle intersects with Earth’s orbit causing the astronomical phenomena.
What caused Maui’s apocalyptic fires? Here’s what we know
Maui experienced a two-category increase in drought severity in just three weeks from May to June, with that rapid intensification fitting the definition of a flash drought, said Jason Otkin, an atmospheric scientist at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.
Opinion | Will ‘Future You’ Thank ‘Today You’ for Getting Married?
Paul credited Jordan Ellenberg, a mathematician at the University of Wisconsin, with originating the vampire allegory in a 2013 blog post. The economist Russ Roberts, in turn, credited Paul in his 2022 book, “Wild Problems: A Guide to the Decisions That Define Us.”
Kimchi and the wonder of fermented foods
HUANG: So here’s what’s happening. The salt draws water out of the cabbage leaves, breaking down cell walls, and that releases sugars that feed the kimchi-making microbes. I called up fermentation professor Victor Ujor at the University of Wisconsin. He loves fermentation, and he loves talking about microbes.
VICTOR UJOR: So I think they are such beautiful things.
Are some candidates too old to be running for president? How age will play a role in the 2024 campaign
Barry Burden, a political science professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, argued that, even if Biden’s age has not affected his ability to do the job, “some members of the public may nonetheless believe he is not mentally sharp enough or that he lacks the necessary physical stamina.”
Ask the Experts: The Building Blocks of Building Credit
Includes Q&A with Jonathan Ferguson, financial capability specialist, University of Wisconsin-Madison-Financial Education Division of Extension.
Abandon the idea of ‘great green walls’
The notion of planting miles of trees to hold back encroaching deserts is misguided and damaging; we should promote programs that secure livelihoods and respect dryland ecologies instead
Co-authored by nature-society geographers Matthew Turner of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Diana Davis of the University of California-Davis) and Emily Yeh of the University of Colorado Boulder.
Janesville’s SHINE Technologies demonstrates nuclear fusion milestone
This achievement is a milestone, according to Gerald Kulcinski, director emeritus of fusion technology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
“It doesn’t change any physics, but what it does is that we can now say with confidence that there’s a nuclear process going on and we can tell where it’s located,” he said. “It’s confirmation of something that we’ve known for a long time, but now we actually have visible evidence of it.”
AI is starting to affect elections and Wisconsin has yet to take action
Dietram Scheufele, who studies science communication and technology policy at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said that while some of the doomsday predictions about AI are overblown, “we’re definitely entering a new world.”
The technology, he said, “gets real creepy real fast.”
Want your yard to withstand extreme weather in Wisconsin? Plant native plants
At the University of Wisconsin-Madison Arboretum’s Wisconsin Native Plant Garden — home to hundreds of species native to the region — the turf grass on the ground is brown but the native plants are green, said Susan Carpenter, the garden’s curator.
“It’s a stark reminder that they are more resilient in the face of drought than turf grass, which has very short little roots,” Carpenter said.
ChatGPT is in the classroom; teachers want kids to think on their own
UW-Madison computer sciences professor Jerry Zhu explained how AI language models work, illustrating the increasing complexity that chatbots are able to operate with. ChatGPT and others base their technology on “conditional probabilities” of what letter, word or punctuation is most likely to come after another based on its database of how language has been used.
Irish language lessons come to Madison
Ever wanted to learn the Irish language? A program at UW-Madison offers Irish classes to the campus community. And a similar program, along with a weekly conversation circle, is being offered to people outside of campus through the Isthmus Conversation Circle. WORT Reporter Heewone Lim is here today with Dr. Becky Shields, who is an instructor and an academic advisor in the Language Sciences program here at UW-Madison and leading efforts to bring Irish to Madison.
Covid-19 cases on the rise in Wisconsin as summer winds down
Dr. Jeff Pothof, chief quality officer and emergency medicine physician at UW Health, says a new COVID booster is good news. Dr. Pothof encourages people to get the new booster in September or October when they get their flu shot.
“Our immune systems get a little bit lazy and they don’t work as well against COVID. So having this booster is going to be helpful. It’s actually against the strain that’s pretty common out there right now,” Dr. Pothof.
Preparing your teen for college and life in a dorm: Avoid over-packing
“Sometimes we don’t know what to do with emotions,” so parents channel them into packing and shopping to feel productive, said Beth Miller, a coordinator for residence life at University of Wisconsin-Madison who has been involved in campus life for the past 17 years. “But sometimes parents are purchasing things based on emotion and not necessarily based on need.”
What Kai Cenat’s chaotic giveaway in Union Park reveals about influencer culture
NPR spoke with Megan Moreno, an adolescent medicine physician and researcher at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, about the unique impact that content creators can have on young people, and how it can lead to events like Cenat’s meetup. Here’s what she told us: On the unique nature of internet celebrity with fans:For some followers, the connection to that content creator can feel so strong and so personal that they’ll start to develop what is sometimes called a parasocial relationship.
Joking around with kids isn’t just fun, it’s vital
So calibrate your comedy accordingly. You’ll know if your approach is on the right track because laughs never lie. “Interactions with your child that are filled with mirth should be unscripted and spontaneous,” says Dipesh Navsaria, associate professor of pediatrics and human development and family studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a spokesperson for the American Academy of Pediatrics. “They should involve a back-and-forth where parent and child are ‘riffing off’ each other.”
UW Professor of history discusses 78th anniversary of Hiroshima atomic bombing
Retired U.S. Army Reserve Colonel and Ambrose-Hesseltine Associate Professor of U.S. Military History Dr. John Hall discusses the monumental decision.
The new liberal majority on the Wisconsin Supreme Court is off to a tense start
“The court has been a contentious place, by some measures, for a decade,” said Michael Wagner, a political scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “But I do think it’s in the court’s interest to demonstrate how the decisions they make are rooted in the law and not rooted in politics. “It’s a difficult thing to do,” he added.
The NIH halts a research project. Is it self-censorship?
Even though the NIH has had to navigate political rapids for decades, including enduring controversy over stem cell research and surveys on the sexual behavior of teens, this is a particularly fraught moment. “It is caught up in a larger debate about who gets to decide what is truthful information these days,” said Alta Charo, a professor emerita of law and bioethics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who has advised the NIH in the past.
Naked Florida man found next to body in Maryland. Was it murder?
“The jury is trying to try to figure out what the defendant was thinking in the moment, and that can be really hard to know,” said Cecelia Klingele, a University of Wisconsin law professor and expert on self-defense laws.
Addiction-treating drug still seldom prescribed in ERs, study finds
“Buprenorphine is a first-line treatment for opioid use disorder, and offering it to anyone seen in the emergency department after an opioid overdose should be standard of care,” said Dr. Elizabeth Salisbury-Afshar, a UW Health addiction medicine physician and University of Wisconsin-Madison associate professor of family medicine and community health, who called the study results “promising.”
Where did all the mosquitoes go?
“Mosquitoes emerge from standing water – like what’s in our gutters and puddles or in more forested areas – but we haven’t had a lot of that,” said Lyric Bartholomay, a public health entomologist and professor of pathobiological sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “So without much rain, there just haven’t been good habitats for mosquitoes to grow.”
July Was Likely Earth’s Hottest Month on Record
“The reason that setting new temperature records is a big deal is that we are now being challenged to find ways to survive through temperatures hotter than any of us have ever experienced before,” University of Wisconsin–Madison climate scientist Andrea Dutton tells Seth Borenstein of the Associated Press. “Soaring temperatures place ever-increasing strains not just on power grids and infrastructure, but on human bodies that are not equipped to survive some of the extreme heat we are already experiencing.”
Journalism Is a Public Good and Should Be Publicly Funded
Other journalism models—including nonprofits such as MinnPost, collaborative efforts such Broke in Philly and citizen journalism—have had some success in fulfilling what Lewis Friedland of the University of Wisconsin–Madison called “critical community information needs” in a chapter of the 2016 book The Communication Crisis in America, and How to Fix It. Friedland classified those needs as falling in eight areas: emergencies and risks, health and welfare, education, transportation, economic opportunities, the environment, civic information and political information.
Tech companies like Epic Systems increasingly want workers back in the office
Don Olszewski, director of the Weinert Center for Entrepreneurship at UW-Madison, said many important features of the workplace are difficult to replicate on Zoom. But Olszewski said some of the advantages of in-person work can be achieved with a hybrid schedule, especially if commuting is an issue.
“It’s hard to really engage new employees in the company and feel virtually,” Olszewski said. “The mentoring that goes along with that, a lot of that tends to be informal, running into people at the water cooler.”
Birders flocking to Green Bay to see ‘mega-rarity’ roseate spoonbill
David Drake, a wildlife specialist and forest and wildlife ecology professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison compared juvenile birds to 16-year-old drivers.
“They know how to drive but, they don’t know where they’re going or how everything works,” Drake said. “We refer to that as an accidental. I’m assuming that’s likely what happened.”
Climate change is hitting close to home for nearly 2 out of 3 Americans, poll finds
“It’s really hard to bring people on different ends of the political spectrum together on this issue,” said Nan Li, an assistant professor in the Department of Life Sciences Communication at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
There’s a gap between what you pay for dairy and what farmers get for their milk
Dairy farmer Sarah Lloyd says consolidation in the industry has allowed processors, distributors, and retailers to keep consumer prices high even as farmers are paid less. “There’s been reduced competition in the marketplace,” said Lloyd, who’s worked as a food systems scientist for the University of Wisconsin-Madison Center for Integrated Agricultural Systems.
“Farmers don’t have the power to push back…and consumers are also getting a raw deal,” she said.
15 best deodorants and antiperspirants of 2023, according to experts
Ingredients: Mostly, conventional deodorants will have lab-derived antimicrobial ingredients like alcohols and triclosan. If you want mostly natural ingredients, look for deodorants with essential oils for fragrance and natural moisture absorbers like baking soda, arrowroot, charcoal and cornstarch. Some deodorants also have ingredients like baking soda, vinegar, citric acid and lemon juice that kill off some of the odor-causing bacteria and keep their numbers down, according to Dr. Apple Bodemer, a board-certified dermatologist and associate professor at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health.
A Political Battle Within Political Science: Which Side Is the APSA On?
APSA president Lisa Martin, a University of Wisconsin professor, acknowledged that “many people will be very unhappy with this decision. They won’t come to the annual meeting or even renew their membership.”
Wisconsin fake elector plan at center of most recent Trump indictment
This round of charges against Trump are unprecedented, according to Mike Wagner, a political science expert who teaches at UW-Madison. “We are in uncharted territory,” he said. “This is beyond even what Hollywood tends to imagine in thrillers about presidential elections. This is something that we have not faced as a nation.”
Understanding Facebook’s impact on politics
A series of Meta-supported are finding Facebook’s algorithms alone weren’t responsible for harmful polarization in the 2020 presidential election cycle. But an independent audit found Meta maintained strong control over what data to provide researchers for study. We talk with Mike Wagner, a professor in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at UW-Madison, about research into the power of social media algorithms and what makes an independent study.
Were fired Waukesha teacher Melissa Tempel’s First Amendment rights violated? Experts weigh in
Quoted: Whether public employees’ speech is constitutionally protected depends on the context they are acting in, said Robert Dreschel, University of Wisconsin-Madison professor emeritus of journalism and mass communication.
“It doesn’t take long before things get complicated and difficult to sort out,” Dreschel said. “It’s certainly quite a clash of interests.”
How are price caps affecting insulin costs?
We talk with the UW-Madison assistant professor Rebecca Myerson behind the study about the effects of price caps on insulin costs.
Climate change could collapse a key Atlantic Ocean current. How that could affect Wisconsin
Feng He, a senior scientist with the Center for Climatic Research within the Nelson Institute of Environmental Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said Wisconsin would see some pretty abrupt changes under a collapsed current, likely mirroring the major warming episode between 48,000 and 68,000 years ago.