Skip to main content

Category: UW Experts in the News

Campaign ad utilizes artificial intelligence, prompting the question: What impact will AI have on the 2026 election?

Posted on
Spectrum News

“The models that we’re seeing right now are able to create content that is incredibly persuasive, and incredibly hard to detect as AI generated. It’s impossible to predict just how corrosive this will be to political discourse in this country,” said Annette Zimmerman, a professor at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. “It’s just not feasible for ordinary citizens to do a ton of extra research on which content is actually legitimate.

Prosecutors say cyanide poisonings led to hazmat investigations

Posted on
Spectrum News

“One of the things that you can see as a symptom of cyanide poisoning is someone having difficulty breathing,” said John Berry, a chemistry professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “This happens very quickly.”

Berry said cyanide, which used to be in rat poisons because of its potency, can be combined with other substances to form gasses or salts that can dissolve in water. He also pointed out that cyanide is extremely difficult for someone outside of a research lab to get their hands on.

Fossils suggests sea levels could rise even faster in the future

Posted on
Forbes

Newly uncovered evidence from fossil corals suggests that sea levels could rise even more steeply in our warming world than previously thought.

“This is not good news for us as we head into the future,” says Andrea Dutton, a professor of geoscience at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Dutton and her PhD student Karen Vyverberg at the University of Florida led an international collaboration that included researchers from University of Sydney, University of Minnesota Twin Cities, Victoria University of Wellington and University of Massachusetts Amherst who analyzed fossilized corals discovered in the Seychelles islands.

Scientists solve the mystery of the ‘Dragon Man’: Ancient skull is first ever found from lost group of ancient humans that lived 217,000 years ago

Posted on
Daily Mail

Professor John Hawks, a paleoanthropologist from the University of Wisconsin–Madison, told MailOnline: “Harbin gives us a strong indication that some of them are large, with large skulls.

“But we have some good reasons to suspect that Denisovans lived across quite a wide geographic range, from Siberia into Indonesia, and they may have been in many different environmental settings.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if they are as variable in body size and shape as people living across the same range of geographies today.”

1 psychedelic psilocybin dose eases depression for years, study reveals

Posted on
Live Science

Very few long-term studies of psilocybin for depression have been conducted to date, said Dr. Charles Raison, a professor of human ecology and psychiatry at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who was not involved in the research.

“They are very difficult to do because people drop out,” Raison told Live Science in an email. “But also because they go on all sorts of other treatments that obfuscate the degree to which any longer lasting benefits result from the psychedelic or because the participant got therapy or restarted an antidepressant.”

Can A.I. quicken the pace of math discovery?

Posted on
The New York Times

“I think we’ll learn a lot about what the capabilities of various A.I. protocols are from how well we can get them to generate material that’s of interest,” said Jordan S. Ellenberg, a mathematician at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who is part of a team applying for an Exponentiating Mathematics grant. “We have no intuition yet about which problems are going to be hard and which problems are easy. We need to learn that.”

‘We know what to do’: Wisconsin fairs continue bird flu testing requirements for cows

Posted on
Wisconsin Public Radio

Keith Poulsen, director of the Wisconsin Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory, said the impact was disappointing last year, especially given the amount of work exhibitors put into getting an animal ready for show.

“I’m hoping that with one year of experience under their belt, they feel more comfortable to be able to submit that testing and make sure that we have robust cow classes in these shows,” said Poulsen, whose lab processes all of the avian flu samples taken in the state. “It’s part of our culture, and we missed that last year.”

Wisconsin legislators want tax cuts. How much would their plans save?

Posted on
The Cap Times

“The income tax proposals cost the state a fair amount of money, but it’s not a huge share of the state budget,” said Ross Milton, an assistant professor of public affairs at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “The flip side of that is that the impacts to any given household in Wisconsin in terms of how much money they’ll save on income taxes are pretty modest.”

Trump cuts to NOAA, NASA ‘blinding’ farmers to risks, scientists warn

Posted on
The Hill

The effect on U.S. forecasting will be “like losing your eyesight: slow and torturous,” said Jonathan Martin, a professor of atmospheric sciences at the University of Wisconsin.

Americans who have grown up amid the “unheralded revolution” of ever-more-precise weather forecasts will find themselves in a world growing blurrier — even as the weather grows ever more volatile, Martin added.

Milwaukee police might trade 2.5M mugshots for facial recognition technology

Posted on
Wisconsin Public Radio

Alan Rubel, who studies the ethics of data and surveillance and the University of Wisconsin-Madison, highlighted the fact that MPD wants a trade, rather than purchasing the tech.

“That’s going to be very useful for that company,” he said.

“We’ve collected this data as part of a public investment, in mugshots and the criminal justice system, but now all that effort is going to go to training an AI system,” he added.

Capitol City Band will celebrate Juneteenth as it opens 57th season on Thursday

Posted on
Madison 365

Since 1981, Jim Latimer, a University of Wisconsin-Madison emeritus music professor, has been leading the Capitol City Band and conducting hundreds and hundreds of concerts. Ronald Reagan had just become president when Latimer first started conducting the band. “Is that right?” Latimer laughs. “I hadn’t thought of it in that context. But it has been a labor of love over these many years and I am so happy and proud to be involved with it.”

When crime fiction great Elmore Leonard came to Madison

Posted on
Madison Magazine

Leonard first came in 1990, as keynote speaker for the first University of Wisconsin–Madison Writers’ Institute. Leonard was famous by then, having landed on the cover of Newsweek around the 1985 publication of his novel “Glitz.” 

The institute was produced by the UW–Madison Division of Continuing Studies. They had no budget for speakers. But “Get Shorty” had just been published, and Leonard was headed from his Detroit-area home to the west coast to promote it. 

“I’ll put you on my book tour,” Leonard told UW writing instructor Christine DeSmet. They need only pay expenses. “He was so kind,” DeSmet told me, years later. 

Want to get divorced in China? Good luck getting an appointment

Posted on
South China Morning Post

China’s divorce rate for 2024 has yet to be announced by the country’s National Bureau of Statistics, but Yi Fuxian, a Chinese demographer and senior scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, in the United States, expects it to hit 2.6 per 1,000 people, against a low of 2.0 during the Covid-19 pandemic. This compares with the most recent rates of 1.5 in Japan and 1.8 in South Korea.

Why is everybody ‘crashing out’?

Posted on
The New York Times

Kelly Elizabeth Wright, an assistant professor of language sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and the lead editor of Among the New Words, said that it can be difficult to pinpoint when a phrase is created, and whether or not the language comes from African American Language or if it is just used within Black communities.

“I don’t think that it’s inaccurate to say that Black Twitter and other online spaces were using these terms maybe first or more visibly than when it was floating around in high school classrooms all across the country this year,” Dr. Wright said. “I also don’t think it’s inaccurate to say that young people online are using this term. I think both things can be true at the same time.”

Fossil corals reveal that sea-level rise occurs in rapid bursts

Posted on
Earth.com

Researchers from the University of Wisconsin–Madison and the University of Florida led the project, working with colleagues at the University of Sydney, the University of Minnesota Twin Cities, Victoria University of Wellington, and the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

“This is not good news for us as we head into the future,” said Andrea Dutton, a professor of geoscience at Wisconsin.

Are plastic cutting boards useful kitchen tools or a breeding ground for microplastics? Here’s what to know

Posted on
NBC News

It’s important to note, however, that the study’s findings are limited — researchers conducted testing on mice and only tracked health effects for about three days after exposure. Plus, microplastics are difficult to quantify — if another team of researchers did the same study, their findings may vary, says Hoaran Wei, an assistant professor in the department of civil and environmental engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

UW-Madison to add Korean major amid popularity of K-pop and K-dramas

Posted on
The Cap Times

When Ava You applied to attend the University of Wisconsin-Madison, she looked to see if she could major in Korean.

“Honestly, I was a little disappointed considering they had a Chinese and a Japanese major already, but not Korean,” said You, an incoming sophomore at the flagship campus.

That will soon change when UW-Madison introduces a bachelor’s degree in Korean Language and Culture this fall. The Board of Regents, which oversees UW-Madison and the state’s 12 public universities, granted final approval this month. UW-Madison will be the first school in the Universities of Wisconsin to offer an undergraduate program in Korean.

Wisconsin man’s case raised the competency standard for execution. He died at 67 on death row.

Posted on
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Panetti died from acute hypoxic respiratory failure on Texas’ death row the morning of May 26, the macabre space he called home for more than 30 years. There, he was known as The Preacher, according to his longtime lawyer, Greg Wiercioch, now a clinical professor at the University of Wisconsin Law School. Panetti was 67 years old. He had four children.

Wisconsin military historian says situation in Los Angeles could ‘absolutely’ happen here

Posted on
Wisconsin Public Radio

“[The president] has made clear that his definition of what constitutes unlawful combinations, in terms of protests, is relatively low,” said John Hall, a military historian at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a retired U.S. Army Reserve colonel. “So where protests emerge, he has threatened he will take similar measures to respond to those protests.”

“Moreover, he seems to be suggesting that states and municipalities that, in his judgment, are interfering with ICE’s mass deportation efforts right now are themselves obstructing the laws of the United States,” Hall continued.

I found power, confidence and calm at a poker table full of men

Posted on
HuffPost

Poker puts into focus the same gender dynamics that can create anxiety for women in a patriarchal society, says Jessica Calarco, a sociologist, professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and author of ”Holding It Together: How Women Became America’s Safety Net.” “You’re expected to read the room, stay composed, and manage risk — much like women do every day in a world that asks them to carry everything without appearing to struggle,” she tells me.

UW-Madison lake researchers face uncertainty over potential cuts to the National Science Foundation

Posted on
Channel 3000

UW-Madison researchers, who study Wisconsin’s lakes, are grappling with uncertainty as cuts to the National Science Foundation (NSF) could threaten decades of freshwater research.

Professors Emily Stanley and Hilary Dugan from the UW-Madison Lab for Limnology have dedicated their careers to studying freshwater systems, with Lake Mendota serving as a key research site.

Many falls are preventable. These tips can help.

Posted on
The New York Times

Many falls can be prevented, said Dr. Gerald Pankratz, a geriatrician at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. That makes him “optimistic about this issue,” he said.

In his practice, Dr. Pankratz said, it is not unusual for people assessed as having a 50 percent chance of falling over the next year to cut their risk in half by taking action to avoid slips and trips.

Wisconsin state lawmakers, industry experts share concerns about proposed limits to AI regulation

Posted on
Wisconsin Public Radio

University of Wisconsin-Madison professor Annette Zimmermann is a political philosopher of AI and co-lead of the school’s Uncertainty and AI research group.

“Much like many other experts working in this area, I’ve been deeply concerned about imposing such a heavy handed blanket ban on any sort of state-based efforts to effectively regulate this space,” Zimmermann said. “Right now, unfortunately, we’re in a regulatory landscape where we are heavily relying on individual states to think very hard about how to protect ordinary citizens and consumers from these kinds of harmful outputs.”

Clinical psychologist explains how ADHD drugs work, addresses unscientific harm concerns

Posted on
Wisconsin Public Radio

James Li is the A. A. Alexander Associate Professor of Psychology and an investigator at the Waisman Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He told WPR’s “Wisconsin Today” that Kennedy’s statements on the harms of medications like Adderall aren’t based in science.

“The evidence is quite clear that the medications that are currently FDA-approved and prescribed to treat ADHD in particular are fairly well tolerated. They don’t lead to early mortality … and they are generally very beneficial when used properly under doctor’s orders,” Li said.

Pressure mounts on UW animal research

Posted on
Isthmus

Dr. Eric Sandgren, a professor emeritus at the UW-Madison who headed the university’s animal research operations for a decade, ending in 2016, calls these directives “nothing new.” Researchers, he says, have for some time been moving away from the use of animals as other models have become viable. “This just formalizes something that’s happening already.”

Don’t rinse raw chicken: nine food safety tips from microbiologists

Posted on
The Guardian

Dr Jae-Hyuk Yu, a professor of bacteriology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, recommends using a bleach solution (one tablespoon of bleach per gallon of water), an Environmental Protection Agency-registered kitchen disinfectant, or an alcohol-based spray for sanitizing hard surfaces, especially after preparing raw meat. And when handling cleaning chemicals, use gloves and ventilate well. He recommends cleaning fridge shelves monthly and ensuring your fridge is consistently under 40F (4C) to prevent bacteria from lurking around.

What to know about Fusarium graminearum, the biological pathogen allegedly smuggled into the US

Posted on
ABC News

Breakouts of Fusarium graminearum infections already naturally occur in dozens of U.S. states — basically any state that produces wheat and barley — and has been established in the U.S. for at least 125 years, Caitlyn Allen, a professor emeritus of plant pathology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, told ABC News. In addition, the U.S. Department of Agriculture keeps a list of potential agroterrorism agents, and Fusarium graminearum is not on that list, Allen said.

“We’re not talking about something that just got imported from China,” Allen said. “People should not be freaking out.”

Tick tock: Timing out a busy tick season in Wisconsin

Posted on
Spectrum News

“Ticks have been active for quite a while now,” said P.J. Liesch, the director of the University of Wisconsin-Madison Insect Diagnostic Lab. “It’s something that can often catch folks off-guard. We might not be thinking about ticks in those winter months — January, February, March — but once temperatures get above freezing consistently and we maybe hit 40-degrees with no snow on the ground, ticks can be active.”

A hidden gem on campus: Inside UW-Madison’s Zoological Museum

Posted on
The Daily Cardinal

All that most students see of the University of Wisconsin Zoological Museum (UWZM), located in the Noland Zoology Building, is the fourth floor staircase’s sign prohibiting entrance from all other than museum staff.

Behind the locked doors, however, the museum’s extensive collections of animal skins and skeletons serve as a powerful resource for research and learning.

A UW-Madison researcher studied social media’s impact on teens. The Trump administration cut the grant.

Posted on
The Daily Cardinal

The University of Wisconsin-Madison lost at least $12 million in federal research grants since the start of the Trump administration, forcing faculty and researchers to shut down projects, lay off staff and scale back scientific progress.

Dr. Ellen Selkie, an assistant professor at UW-Madison and principal investigator on a now-defunded National Institute of Health-funded study, said her team enrolled more than 325 adolescents from across Wisconsin and collected comprehensive data to explore a question they believed to be at the center of national concern: How does social media affect youth mental health?

Rising housing costs are forcing some Wisconsinites to delay medical care, new report says

Posted on
Wisconsin Public Radio

Rising housing costs have been forcing some Wisconsinites to delay medical care, which can lead to negative health outcomes for residents and communities.

That’s according to a new report from the University of Wisconsin-Extension as part of a project examining livability in rural communities led by Tessa Conroy, associate professor of agricultural and applied economics at UW-Madison.

Envoys from UW-Madison CALS engage with dairy, crop industries in Thailand

Posted on
Wisconsin State Farmer

When a Thai princess was looking to reinvigorate her country’s dairy industry, she quickly turned to the University of Wisconsin-Madison for help. The UW-College of Agricultural and Life Sciences answered her invitation with experts from the departments of animal and dairy sciences, and biological systems engineering. They, with financial support from Thailand, recently put their boots on the ground to start an exchange of ideas that will benefit both nations.

How your pets alter your immune system

Posted on
BBC

According to Nasia Safdar, an infectious disease professor at the University of Wisconsin in the US, this concept has attracted interest from the pet food industry. The idea would be to develop products marketed as promoting the growth of beneficial bacteria in cats and dogs, which might then be transferred to their owners, she says.

“That angle has been an attractive one for people to fund, because for most of us, it’s the human condition that we’re interested in,” says Safdar. “So what role can the animal play in that?” she asks.

UW Health expert shares friendly family summer activities

Posted on
WMTV - Channel 15

While many kids will reach for screens, Dr. Shilagh Mirgain, a distinguished psychologist with UW Health, said this doesn’t have to be the default.

She suggests going to the library with your kids and having them check out books.

She also recommended parents take their kids to a local or state park, even going as far as planning a picnic. “Think about bringing your food outside to eat. Kids outside thrive,” she said.

Dane County health officials monitoring federal COVID vaccine limits

Posted on
The Cap Times

Dr. Dominique Brossard, chair of the Department of Life Sciences Communication at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said social scientists are worried the federal policy changes could instill more distrust in science more broadly.

“My concern is that if you start with (existing distrust in science) and giving doubt about these specific vaccines … does that instill a doubt about all the vaccines? So, is it opening the door or building that hesitancy?” Brossard said. “The whole context is definitely breeding ground for doubt and that we need to closely watch.”

Wisconsin celebrates Dairy Month as state trade exports reached $8.2 billion last year

Posted on
Spectrum News

Chuck Nicholson is an associate professor of agriculture and economics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He said 20% of the milk produced ends up outside the U.S.

Nicholson said he doesn’t expect the dairy export market with China to be significantly impacted for the time being and that’s a good thing for Wisconsin.

“Cheese is definitely important as an export product, and it’s obviously quite important in Wisconsin. The other part about that is that with cheese typically comes whey, and we’re also a major exporter — from the State of Wisconsin — of whey products, and China is also a major market for our whey products as well,” Nicholson said.

Please, Democrats, just try to be normal

Posted on
The Washington Post

And Allison Prasch, an instructor at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, is quoted as saying that “Democrats trip over themselves in an attempt to say exactly the right thing.”

Nonsense. Some Democrats trip all over themselves trying to obscure the meaning of what they say. Take referring to felons as part of “justice-involved populations.” Likewise, the term “undocumented person” implies that the problem is one of paperwork. It simply omits the fact that the person resides in the United States illegally.

Abortion bans harm care for pregnancy problems, UW-Madison study says

Posted on
The Cap Times

The University of Wisconsin-Madison Collaborative for Reproductive Equity released a study this spring showing that during the 13-month period in which abortion was largely unavailable in Wisconsin, OB-GYNs struggled to provide care for pregnant patients and treat pregnancy complications because of unclear legal guidelines.

A fungal disease ravaged North American bats. Now, researchers found a second species that suggests it could happen again

Posted on
Smithsonian Magazine

“Cave ecosystems are so fragile that if you start pulling on this thread, what else are you going to unravel that may create bigger problems in the cave system?” said University of Wisconsin–Madison wildlife specialist David Drake to the Badger Herald’s Kiran Mistry in December.