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Category: UW Experts in the News

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

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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

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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

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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

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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.

Hypogamy, the increasingly common romantic choice among brilliant women

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The Body Optimist

Historically, hypergamy—when a woman marries a man of higher social or educational status—was the norm. However, this trend is gradually reversing. In the United States, according to sociologist Christine Schwartz of the University of Wisconsin, the proportion of couples where the woman is more highly educated than her partner increased from 39% in 1980 to 62% in 2020.

Will your car hit that deer? Depends on your headlight bulbs—and the deer’s personality

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Science

“It’s a really exciting area of research,” says John Orrock, a behavioral ecologist at the University of Wisconsin–Madison who was not involved in the study. “What’s key here is that it’s not whether you’ve got a deer in the headlights—and not so much even which headlights—but which deer you have in the headlights.”

The Wisconsin Supreme Court will soon make final ruling on abortion. How did we get here?

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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

The 1849 law has been on hold since a lower court’s ruling in December 2023. The state then returned to its pre-Dobbs abortion laws, under which abortion is banned 20 weeks after “probable fertilization.”

“We’re just waiting for a final answer on that,” said Bryna Godar, a staff attorney with the State Democracy Research Initiative at the University of Wisconsin Law School. “The current state of the law has been that abortions are legal, subject to other laws we have in the state.”

Wisconsin Supreme Court suspends Dane County judge over ‘intemperate’ behavior

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Wisconsin Public Radio

Although the process for handling judicial misconduct varies by state, it is “somewhat rare” for judges to be suspended in Wisconsin and across the nation, said Bryna Godar, a staff attorney at the State Democracy Research Initiative at the University of Wisconsin Law School.

“[Nationwide] the overall judicial disciplinary process is sometimes critiqued from both sides as being overly lenient on judges or as being too harsh on judges,” Godar said. “It’s really difficult to strike this balance between accountability for judicial officers while wanting to preserve the independence of state courts and state judges.”

Dog park etiquette, Being a veterinarian

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Wisconsin Public Radio

With more American households now having pets than children, demand for veterinarians is on the rise. Citing an increase for veterinarian job listings of 124 percent over the last three years, the employment website Indeed this year named being a vet their top job of 2025. We talk with veterinarian and clinical instructor Dr. Calico Schmidt of the UW-Madison School of Veterinary Medicine about the joys and challenges of making a living caring for animals.

UW-Madison center sees promise in using psychedelics for addiction, PTSD, depression

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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

The UW–Madison Transdisciplinary Center for Research in Psychoactive Substances supports research and education into psychedelic drugs and related compounds. The idea is to learn how these psychedelic substances may help mood or behavior in ways other forms of therapy can sometimes fall short.

For the last 10 years, the center at UW-Madison has been part of a psychedelic renaissance in the science community, one that comes after decades of negative media attention stymied research and public perceptions.

We’re getting close to recreating the first step in evolution of life

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New Scientist

“RNA nucleotide triplets serve very specific informatic functions in translation in all cells,” says Zachary Adam at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, meaning they are used to convey information. “This paper is interesting because it might point to a purely chemical role – a non-informatic function – for RNA nucleotide triplets that they could have served prior to the emergence of a living cell.”

UW-Madison researcher discovers valuable chemical compound in engineered poplar trees

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Channel 3000

A UW-Madison researcher has made a surprising discovery that could transform how we source important chemical compounds used in everyday products, moving from fossil fuels to trees.

Brian Fox, a biochemistry professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, has identified parahydroxybenzoate—a chemical compound used in medicine, cosmetics, and food products that’s normally taken from oil—in biochemically engineered poplar trees.

The internet is littered with advice. What’s it doing to your brain?

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Vox

“Research has overwhelmingly found that advice is really beneficial, and that people tend to under-utilize advice, usually causing them to make lower quality decisions,” says Lyn van Swol, a professor of communication science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who studies advice and information-sharing in groups. The catch, she notes, is that most of that research looks at advice from one, two, or three other people, not dozens, hundreds, or thousands of strangers on TikTok: “It’s overwhelming — it’s like a fire hose of advice.”

Scientists have lost their jobs or grants in US cuts. Foreign universities want to hire them

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Associated Press

Brandon Coventry never thought he would consider a scientific career outside the United States. But federal funding cuts and questions over whether new grants will materialize have left him unsure. While reluctant to leave his family and friends, he’s applied to faculty positions in Canada and France.

“I’ve never wanted to necessarily leave the United States, but this is a serious contender for me,” said Coventry, who is a postdoctoral fellow studying neural implants at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

‘It does kind of make me the breadwinner’: stay-at-home mom charges husband $2,700 a week for household labor — sparking a debate on TikTok

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Moneywise

Of course, not every household follows the traditional gender roles. But data from the University of Wisconsin-Madison finds that women still spend twice as many hours doing physical housework as their male partners.

It doesn’t stop there. Allison Daminger, an assistant professor of sociology, found in her research that in 80% of opposite-sex couples, women shoulder most of the cognitive labor — things like managing family calendars, planning meals and checking on homework.

Democratic troubles revive debate over left-wing buzzwords

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The Washington Post

Honestly, Democrats trip over themselves in an attempt to say exactly the right thing,” said Allison Prasch, who teaches rhetoric, politics and culture at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. “Republicans maybe aren’t so concerned about saying exactly the right thing, so it may appear more authentic to some voters.”

She added: “Republicans have a willingness to paint with very broad brushstrokes, where Democrats are more concerned with articulating multiple perspectives. And, because of that, they can be hampered by the words and phrases they utilize.”

The curse of Toumaï: an ancient skull, a disputed femur and a bitter feud over humanity’s origins

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The Guardian

Macchiarelli now brokered the publication of two of them on the widely read blog of John Hawks, a University of Wisconsin-Madison professor and longtime Sahelanthropus sceptic. In principle, to print images of someone else’s unpublished fossil was a clear breach of ethics. But then, Macchiarelli, Bergeret and Hawks reasoned, after Beauvilain’s article, the femur was no longer unpublished.

5 myths about food expiration dates and best-by labels

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The Washington Post

Kathy Glass, who recently retired as associate director at the Food Research Institute at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, said she respects “use-by” dates and other storage guidance (like an ideal fridge temperature) on refrigerated products, particularly those designed to be eaten cold.

“Many manufacturers have researched spoilage versus safety to determine those dates,” she said. On those keep-cold products, she said the phrase “use by” signals “they’ve done their studies to demonstrate that if you would use it by that particular date, and you kept it at a good refrigeration temperature, it should be safe.” Food should be refrigerated between 35 and 40 degrees, she said.

Environment 4 hours ago The Paris Agreement Target for Warming Still Won’t Protect Polar Ice Sheets

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Mother Jones

“Coastal communities that are adapting to and preparing for future sea-level rise are largely adapting to the amount of sea-level rise that has already occurred,” said co-author Andrea Dutton, a geoscientist and sea level expert at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. In a best-case scenario, she added, they are preparing for sea level rise at the current rate of a few millimeters per year, while the research suggests that rate will double within decades.

Analysis finds summers are heating up nationwide, including in Wisconsin

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Wisconsin Public Radio

The analysis is largely in line with the findings of Wisconsin’s Initiative on Climate Change Impacts, according to Jonathan Patz, a professor in the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies and Population Health Sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

“We’re seeing more nighttime warming than daytime warming, which is a problem for health,” Patz said. “Because if you don’t have cooling temperatures in the nighttime, it’s more dangerous, and there are more people at risk from heat waves.”

UW-Madison computer science prepares to relocate, meet ‘AI moment’

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The Cap Times

When he looks at Morgridge Hall, though, he’s filled with excitement. The newly built facility will soon house UW-Madison’s School of Computer, Data & Information Sciences, or CDIS.

Arpaci-Dusseau recently took over as director of the rapidly growing school. Enrollment nearly doubled from the 2018-19 academic year to about 6,200 students in 2024-2025. The school also houses the university’s two largest majors: computer sciences, followed by data science.

Erika Meitner reads Philip Levine with Kevin Young

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The New Yorker

Erika Meitner joins Kevin Young to read “What Work Is,” by Philip Levine, and her own poem “To Gather Together.” Meitner’s books include “Useful Junk” and “Holy Moly Carry Me,” which won the 2018 National Jewish Book Award in Poetry. She is currently a Mandel Institute Cultural Leadership Program Fellow, and she’s the director of the M.F.A. program in creative writing at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Expert: Cellcom outage highlights infrastructure issues in rural areas

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NBC 26

A University of Wisconsin–Madison professor says the recent Cellcom outage may be exposing a larger problem: insufficient investment in communication infrastructure, particularly in rural regions.

Professor Parmesh Ramanathan, who teaches electrical and computer engineering, says many networks lack backup systems to keep services running when critical lines go down.

Wisconsin speech and hearing clinic helps transgender clients find their voice

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Wisconsin Public Radio

At a time when gender-affirming care in Wisconsin is under fire, providers at a speech clinic are helping transgender clients find their voice.

“Our voice is [an] external representation of us,” Maia Braden, a speech-language pathologist at the UW Speech and Hearing Clinic told WPR’s “Wisconsin Today.” “Anytime our voice doesn’t match who we feel we are, it can be extremely distressing.”

Survey finds Wisconsin farmers value sustainable practices

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Wisconsin Public Radio

A recent survey of Wisconsin’s farmers found that 56 percent of them believe climate change is happening. Another 26 percent think it isn’t happening, and 18 percent are unsure.

Michael Bell, the University of Wisconsin-Madison professor who helped conduct the study, said attitudes and behaviors don’t always match up. Bell found encouragement in how the farmers are acting, not their beliefs. The same survey asked farmers if they are practicing any of 15 different sustainable agricultural practices.

Wisconsin commemorates 50th anniversary of Hmong resettlement

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Wisconsin Public Radio

Mai See Thao, a professor of anthropology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, told WPR’s “Wisconsin Today” that these resolutions are “long overdue.”

“Recognizing Hmong-Lao veterans is really important because they have never received the kinds of recognition that they’ve needed, given the fact that they supported the U.S. as proxy soldiers,” she said.

Wisconsin is at the center of emerging scientific field with answers to ‘nature vs. nurture’

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Wisconsin Public Radio

With the study of social genomics — or sociogenomics — scientists argue that genes and environment truly coexist and influence another throughout a person’s lifetime.

University of Wisconsin-Madison associate professor Silvia Helena Barcellos said social genomics really just got started roughly 10 years ago, around the same time that scientists decoded the human DNA sequence and began to better understand it.

Elissa’s journey: A young mom’s relentless battle for life after colorectal cancer hit

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USA Today

As Elissa and Russell said their vows, Xu and Cain were working to build HistoSonics, the company they’d formed in 2009 with Tim Hall, a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and J. Brian Fowlkes, a professor of radiology and biomedical engineering at U-M.

Their company created the Edison System, a device with a robotic arm that delivers precision histotripsy treatments using a specialized, high-powered ultrasound transducer through a tub of water.

When should your child stop using a pacifier?

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CNN

“Ideally, if it’s not a huge challenge, trying to see (the) use of thumb sucking or pacifier use stop by 18 months is a good thing, but I wouldn’t get too worked up about it if it was still happening at age two, maybe even three,” said Dr. Dipesh Navsaria, a professor at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health who is also a pediatrician and chair of the American Academy of Pediatrics Council on Early Childhood.

Conservation gardening, and the search for exoplanets

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Wisconsin Public Radio

Astronomers have identified hundreds of exoplanets – planets orbiting stars other than our own – but very few exist in habitable zones that could support life. We talk to Thomas Beatty, an exoplanet researcher and collaborator with The Wisconsin Center for Origins Research, and Jim Lattis, director of the UW Space Place, both at UW-Madison.

As Cassie shares graphic abuse details in Diddy trial, are we all asking the wrong question?

Posted on
USA Today

In a 2024 study conducted by Chloe Grace Hart, an assistant professor of sociology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, she found that Americans were less likely to say they believed a Black woman describing a sexual harassment experience compared to a white women describing the same thing.

“That suggests that when it comes to sexual violence, Black women survivors face a particularly steep uphill battle to be believed,” Hart previously told USA TODAY.

A trove of Ice Age fossils buried in a Wyoming cave is rewriting our understanding of prehistoric animals

Posted on
Smithsonian Magazine

“The sediment deposition gets really complex,” David M. Lovelace, a geoscientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, who led a comprehensive study of the cave’s stratigraphy, explains. “Sediment that’s washing in can leave little pockets of deposition in one area. Then the inlet or the stream will shift slightly, so it deposits in another area.” Sometimes a fresh stream cuts through older sediment to drop in new surface material. “It literally forms almost a new cave through the old sediment, so you can deposit younger material under older, previously existing material. The complexities become outstanding.”

A ‘tofu-dreg’ edifice: Most of China’s official economic data is probably fake

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The Hill

Dr. Yi Fuxian of the University of Wisconsin, an expert in China’s demographics and prominent critic of that country’s one-child policy, has been digging into the details of China’s population claims — and what he has found is not good.

For starters, Yi believes that China’s population is overestimated by at least 130 million — more than one-third of the U.S. population. In a recent monograph, Yi details the many discrepancies buried within China’s current and past census data.

Federal cuts threaten Wisconsin farm safety center for children, rural communities

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Wisconsin Public Radio

“Without the continued research that’s made possible with federal funding, it would set us back,” said John Shutske, an agricultural safety and health specialist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “We’ve seen over the last several decades a pretty dramatic decrease overall in our farm fatality rate. And while I think [the number of deaths] would probably plateau, I don’t think we would be able to continue to make the kind of progress that we’ve had.”

Wisconsin education program helps older adults manage prescriptions

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Wisconsin Public Radio

Almost 15 years ago, professor Betty Chewning of the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Pharmacy was struck by an idea. Instead of focusing only on helping students learn how to speak with patients, what if she could help teach patients, as well?

Her idea became Med Wise Rx, an education program aimed at teaching older Wisconsinites to better communicate with pharmacists and safely manage multiple prescriptions.