The 62-mile Yahara River is fed by a 536-square-mile watershed that covers about a quarter of Dane County. It includes a mix of urban and agricultural land and is populated by more than 370,000 people, according to the Center for Limnology at UW-Madison.
Category: UW Experts in the News
Strong winds in Rock Co. cause tornado-like damage
Shane Hubbard, a research scientist at the University of Wisconsin, explained that the wind gusts were similar to tornado damage.
“Those are like EF0, EF1 tornado winds in terms of… the dynamics are different, but the wind speeds are the same,” Hubbard said.
‘Farmer’s Ozepmic’: UW researchers work to reduce certain amino acids in soybean, corn plants to create weight loss strategy
A three-year grant funded by Wisconsin Partnership Program, a grantmaking program within the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, is backing research into how the reduction of certain proteins could be actualized through gene editing of soybean and corn, Professor of Medicine and Vice Chair for Biomedical Research in the Department of Medicine Dudley Lamming said.
Treating rotator cuff injuries, and the use of AI in healthcare
New research proposes changes to how rotator cuff tendinopathy is diagnosed and addressed. Our physical therapists weigh in. Then we talk about the use of AI in healthcare with the chief information and digital health officer at UW Health.
How AI revolution is creating ‘democratic legitimacy deficient’
Ethical implications of AI have a wide-ranging scope, Annette Zimmermann — University of Wisconsin Assistant Professor of Philosophy and Affiliate Professor of Statistics — said. One of the foremost concerns being the land and resource use, especially if the sites will be on or around native lands, she said.
“Even if this didn’t happen exactly on tribal lands, there could be a kind of cascading damaging environmental effect that affects like surrounding areas,” Zimmermann said. “And so, that would obviously be hard to contain.”
Are we heading into a recession? Here’s what the data shows
Consumer beliefs affect retail sales, said Menzie Chinn, a professor in the economics department at the University of Wisconsin. He notes that policy uncertainty can shake the economy.
“If enough people and enough companies put things off because of uncertainty, you can tip the economy into recession,” Chinn told NBC News. “It doesn’t happen overnight, but it multiplies out over time.”
Does eating grass-fed beef help the planet? Research says not so simple
Randy Jackson, a professor of grassland ecology at University of Wisconsin-Madison who was not involved in the study, said he has found similar results in his own research showing that grass-fed beef has higher emissions assuming the same demand. In fact, Eshel’s team cited his work. But he worries that the study is too focused on minimizing emissions “without concern for the environmental impacts beyond GHG load to the atmosphere,” like biodiversity and soil and water quality, he wrote in an email.
Study: Long-term use of pain relief medications may lower risk of Dementia for some people
“It wasn’t that they were taking higher or lower doses, but that they were taking it, which does speak to this idea of dampening inflammation,” said Nate Chin, MD, medical director for the Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center and the Wisconsin Registry for Alzheimer’s Prevention at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Dark matter might lurk in its own shadow world
At the first dark matter conference I attended after graduate school, I took a bet with a primary proponent of the “dark matter haze” idea, Dan Hooper of the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Hooper thought we could confirm that these observations were caused by dark matter within the next five years. I took the skeptical position.
‘Endless series of contradictions’: Girls open up about complicated relationships with social media
Kate Phelps thinks the way society talks about how young girls use the internet is too simplistic. A big part of that, she says, is because culture spends a lot of time scrutinizing pre-teen girls, but we rarely talk to them about their experiences. Phelps, a University of Wisconsin-Madison women and gender studies researcher, wanted to change that.
Her new book, “Digital Girlhoods,” is based on her conversations with 26 different girls between the ages of 10 and 13 — an age group often referred to as “tweens” — about their feelings about social media.
LOUD to host Wisconsin Conference of Latino Arts and Culture
Featured artists and speakers include Armando Ibarra, a professor in the School for Workers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Suzanne Eckes on deep cuts to the US Department of Education
UW-Madison School of Education professor Suzanne Eckes discusses the Trump administration reducing U.S. Department of Education staffing by nearly half and a multi-state lawsuit filed in response.
Love potatoes? Grow them yourself this spring
Recently Amanda Gevens, chair of the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Department of Plant Pathology, visited “The Larry Meiller Show” to talk about our love affair with the potato and how to get a successful potato harvest in your own garden.
Trump administration cuts threaten UW-Madison ag studies, state farmers
Wisconsin farmer Andy Diercks sits on a red Memorial Union Terrace chair in the middle of a farm field, holding a potato in his left hand. “It’s amazing all the work that goes into growing this little guy,” he says to Amanda Gevens, UW-Madison chair of plant pathology, who sits across from him. “The research you’ve done over the past decades is critical to grow a good quality crop.”
Two healthcare systems merged, then closed the only birthing center for miles.
Closures are common after mergers, and a particularly sticky problem in more rural communities, which have fewer people and thus make less financial sense for profit-driven organizations, said Peter Carstensen, a professor emeritus in the UW-Madison Law School who focuses on competition policy. When competitors merge, they look for areas to reduce cost.
“It almost always means eliminating some overlapping activities,” he said.
10 hot facts about Venus
According to Sanjay Limaye, a scientist working at the University of Wisconsin–Madison Space Science and Engineering Center, “Venus has a potential to harbor conditions for iron- and sulfur-centered metabolism.”
Buzzed into Madison with the UW-Madison School of Nursing
Celebrating 100 years of excellence at University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Nursing! With a growing nursing shortage, Badger nurses are stepping up—pursuing advanced degrees to educate, advocate, and transform healthcare for the future.
Doctors see influx of requests for long-acting reversible contraception
Dr. Laura Hanks is an OB-GYN with UW Health and an assistant professor at the University of Wisconsin in the department of OB-GYN. She says they have seen an uptick in people requesting both LARC and permanent sterilization since the overturning of Roe v. Wade.
“We did a study at our hospital to looking at the increase in permanent sterilization rates, and we saw 106% increase in the year following the Dobbs decision,” Hanks says.
LGBTQ+ students navigate uncertainty amid shifts in federal policies
President Donald Trump’s second term has introduced a series of policies raising concerns for the LGBTQ+ community across the U.S., particularly hindering the welfare of University of Wisconsin students, according to Human Rights Watch.
Will cicadas swarm Wisconsin again this year? What to expect with spring pests
The cicadas will likely be most active in areas ranging from southern Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee and parts of western North Carolina, according to P.J. Liesch, director of the UW-Madison Insect Diagnostic Lab. However, people can expect to spot them as far east as Boston and as far west as southern Indiana, Liesch said.
“Based on historical records, we know there’s going to be a little bit of activity in a few counties in Indiana,” he added. “Those would be about the closest to us up in Wisconsin.”
$19? We might be at peak strawberry
“In Japan, fruits are not just food. Fruits really have a lot of symbolic meaning and cultural meaning,” said Soyeon Shim, a scholar of consumer and financial behavior who’s studied the country’s fruit market. “High-end fruits are used as a gift. And gifts are a very important practice in Japan.”
A $19 strawberry isn’t unusual there, said Shim, who’s the dean at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s School of Human Ecology. The high-quality fruit is grown in controlled greenhouses and requires a lot of hand labor, she said.
“I wouldn’t ever buy a $19 strawberry to get my daily intake for vitamin C. So it isn’t designed for everyday consumption,” Shim said.
Layoffs gut Federal Education Research Agency
“Some of these surveys allow us to know if people are being successful in college. It tells us where those students are enrolled in college and where they came from. For example, COVID impacted everyone, but it had a disproportionate impact on specific regions in the U.S. and specific social and socioeconomic groups in the U.S.,” said Taylor Odle, an assistant professor of educational policy studies at the University of Wisconsin at Madison.
“Post-COVID, states and regions have implemented a lot of interventions to help mitigate learning loss and accelerate learning for specific individuals. We’ll be able to know by comparing region to region or school to school whether or not those gaps increased or reduced in certain areas.”
WI’s ‘nonpartisan’ Supreme Court race is anything but
University of Wisconsin-Madison mass communications professor Michael Wagner said the state’s rule about justices making their own decisions about when to recuse themselves from cases makes the election outcome that much more consequential.
“It’s in a presidential swing state, it’s on a swing court,” said Wagner, “and the cases that are going to come before the court are going to be cases where the donors in the election, most notably Elon Musk, have a clear interest and a clear path they want the winning judge to take.”
Trees in art, as well as life, often follow simple mathematical rules, study finds
The math concept hidden in this tree art — geometric shapes known as fractals — is apparent in branching patterns in nature and may be key to humans’ ability to recognize such artwork as trees, according to Mitchell Newberry, a mathematical biologist at the University of New Mexico, and his colleague Jingyi Gao, a doctoral student at the University of Wisconsin.
UW students get ‘scoop’ on what jobs are really like
The University of Wisconsin Havens Wright Center for Justice, in collaboration with the High Road Strategy Center and the South Central Federation of Labor will present Labor Spring 2025, “Get the Scoop: What jobs are really like,” March 14 at the Old Madison Room in Memorial Union from 1-3 p.m.
Carla Vigue on Native students and ‘Relatives’ at UW-Madison
University of Wisconsin-Madison Tribal Relations Director Carla Vigue describes how a group called “Relatives” offers different types of support to Indigenous students on campus and to student groups.
Study at UW-Madison brings possible placenta treatment closer to clinical trials
Researchers from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the University of Florida have discovered a treatment for placentas deficient in the growth hormone IGF-1 that may soon be going toward human clinical trials.
Experts break down Wisconsin Supreme Court race ahead of April 1 election
The State Democracy Research Initiative and the University of Wisconsin-Madison Election Research Center hosted an expert panel on Friday to explore funding, impact and the legal context of the upcoming Wisconsin Supreme Court race.
Here’s what to know about the voter ID referendum in Wisconsin’s April election
“There’s still a little uncertainty about that, and so to be voting on it (in April) could be additionally confusing to voters,” University of Wisconsin-Madison political science professor Barry Burden said.
Deaths of 2 prisoners at Taycheedah occurred during uptick in flu cases
Prisons, hospitals, nursing homes and other “congregate facilities” can accelerate the spread of respiratory illnesses due to overcrowding, said Ajay Sethi, associate professor of population health sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
“People aren’t always able to control how much space they can have around others, and so that that is one of the ingredients for the spread of a respiratory virus,” Sethi said.
Texas court blocks execution of David Wood two days before scheduled killing
Greg Wiercioch, Wood’s longtime lawyer and a University of Wisconsin law professor, said 150 pieces of evidence remained untested, telling the Guardian in an interview on Monday: “It’s incomprehensible why the state is opposing additional testing … They shut it down I think because they’re afraid of what they’ll find out. We have DNA testing, the most powerful crime-fighting tool ever developed, and we’re not using it.”
Drawing on Dutch masters, NY exhibit explores Christians painting themselves into Purim parable
“It’s tempting to take these great figures of history, these creative and brilliant individuals, and see in them what we want to see,” said Steven Nadler, author of “Rembrandt’s Jews” and a professor of philosophy at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “With Rembrandt, it’s not just tempting, it’s also comforting, to see him as a friend of the Jews at a particular historical period when Jews did not have a lot of friends in many places.”
Hedge funds paying up to $1 million for weather modelers
“When it comes to predicting outcomes that could harm people, you have a moral obligation to share that information,” University of Wisconsin-Madison professor Andrea Lopez Lang said.
Lang — who formerly did consulting work for hedge funds and commodities traders — said she was recruited for at least one high-paying job since leaving the private sector, where she translated weather forecasts into actionable guidance ahead of cold weather outbreaks and other weather phenomena.
Trump’s steel and aluminum tariffs take effect today—here’s how they could impact prices
The manufacturing sector lost about 75,000 jobs as a direct result of the metals tariffs, according to a 2020 study by University of California, Davis economics professor Kadee Russ and University of Wisconsin-Madison assistant professor Lydia Cox for Econofact.
Fragments of a face more than a million years old found in Spanish cave
John Hawks, chairman of the department of anthropology at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, who was not involved in the study, called it a “really cool paper.” He added, “It’s always great to see a new fossil, of course, but in this case the fossil helps add something to our knowledge of how some of the first human relatives in Europe were connected to other places.”
Is anyone coming out on top of Donald Trump’s tariff wars? Economists weigh in
While these duties may “relieve” struggling U.S. industries, it comes with a cost, Lydia Cox, an assistant economics professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and international trade expert, wrote in a 2022 paper. Tariffs create higher input costs for other industries, making them “vulnerable” to foreign competition, Cox wrote. These spillover effects hurt other sectors of the economy, ultimately costing jobs.
NIH cuts off more research funding, including for vaccine hesitancy. mRNA may be next
“It appears that there are forces intent on destroying our existing vaccine enterprise,” says Dr. Jonathan Temte, a professor of family medicine at the University of Wisconsin who studies vaccine hesitancy. “Defunding research on vaccine hesitancy is the latest example of this effort.”
Federal research instability risks postdoc careers, American leadership
Trey Wenger, a postdoc at the University of Wisconsin, is funded by the NSF and found himself financially stretched when the agency suddenly halted postdoc stipends, only to be restored by a court order. “I missed a paycheck when rent was due, and remain concerned that my paycheck could be turned off at any time,” wrote Wenger, whose work in astronomy helps us better understand how galaxies form and evolve.
Strict pet adoption rules frustrate and defeat some animal lovers
“What we want is animal sheltering organizations to maximize their life-saving potential, and also to help the community help them with their mission,” said Dr. Sandra Newbury, director of the University of Wisconsin Shelter Medicine Program.
Why the Trump administration is wrong about an energy crisis in the US
There isn’t even the slightest hint of a domestic energy crisis, especially when compared to actual crises that occurred in 1973, 1979 and 2022, Gregory Nemet, professor of public affairs at the University of Wisconsin’s Energy Institute, told ABC News.
“Prices for gasoline are mid-range over the last, say, 20 years,” Nemet said. “There’s plenty of supply. We’re not having electricity outages. We’re not having lines of gas stations.”
Trump order on student loan forgiveness sparks confusion
“This order is fairly vague and attempts to touch on multiple areas that an administration could potentially oppose,” said Taylor Odle, a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who studies federal education policy.
UW-Madison professor breaks down expected impact of trade war with Canada in Wisconsin
UW-Madison Political Science and Public Policy Professor Jon Pevehouse explained that trade between the U.S. and Canada is an important aspect of the economy. ”Canada and the us have a deep and long trading relationship kind of deep dependence between the two countries,” said Pevehouse.
Here & Now’ Highlights: Mariel Barnes
UW-Madison professor Mariel Barnes conducted research into how and why the “manosphere” took political hold, and described her findings and its impacts on politics.
Zoe Engberg on impacts of attack ads in elections for judges
University of Wisconsin Law School professor Zoe Engberg explains why campaigns for state Supreme Court release attack ads that focus primarily on crime and sentencing decisions of their opponents.
Cuts to Medicaid would affect wide range of Wisconsin residents, researcher says
Donna Friedsam is a researcher emerita who has been studying health care policy and reform for decades at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Friedsam told WPR’s “Wisconsin Today” that changes at the federal level could have significant ripple effects at home.
“Many people who are on Medicare, who are low-income, also duly rely on Medicaid to cover things that Medicare does not cover,” Friedsam said. “So, Medicaid is actually quite a wide-ranging program and reaches over a million Wisconsin residents who rely on it.”
UW-Madison researcher loses Fulbright award for climate change project
Four days before Rick Lindroth planned to leave Madison and fly to Argentina, he received an email saying his Fulbright award had been rescinded.
“That was a head spinner,” said Lindroth, a professor emeritus in the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s entomology department.
Tariffs are ‘lose-lose’ for U.S. jobs and industry, economist says: ‘There are no winners here’
While tariffs’ protection may “relieve” struggling U.S. industries, it comes with a cost, Lydia Cox, an assistant economics professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and international trade expert, wrote in a 2022 paper.
Tariffs create higher input costs for other industries, making them “vulnerable” to foreign competition, Cox wrote.
COVID-19’s fifth anniversary: 5 areas where life changed in U.S.
As the Journal Sentinel reported, quoting Sedona Chinn, an assistant professor and researcher in the Department of Life Sciences Communication at University of Wisconsin-Madison, folks who were frustrated started doing their own research, but it also “led to more misinformation and more anti-expert bias, making it all the much harder for solid science to break through.”
Fennimore farmers work to reduce dairy intolerance through products
Researchers explain that some people have a reduced ability to chop up and absorb lactose. UW Madison’s Center for Dairy Research is hoping to continue to learn more about the future of dairy digestion.
“There is weak evidence at the moment that this change in the moving from what is typically A1 to A2, that there’s a difference in potential difference in how the body digestive,” Dr. John Lucey, the center’s director said.
Wisconsin farmers protect potatoes with weather forecasting tool, help from UW researchers
Farmers may prevent blight by spraying their fields with fungicides, but if overdone, this practice has its drawbacks, University of Wisconsin professor of plant pathology Andrew Bent said. To prevent blight and overspraying, professor and Department of Plant Pathology Chair Amanda Gevens uses a tool called Blitecast to communicate to farmers the appropriate time to spray fungicides.
How UW-Madison’s aid for Native students addresses history
The Tribal Education Promise at UW-Madison, which provides financial aid to Indigenous students from Wisconsin’s Native nations, is intended to help address a history of coercion through treaties.
‘A mind blowing turnaround’: Political science professors teaching current events share difficulty over teaching rapidly evolving events
Yoshiko Herrera’s class uses the war as a backdrop for students to learn more about international relations and comparative politics. Current events used to be briefly covered in class, but lately they have occupied much more class time.
Don’t overdo it, but light exercise can help with minor illness
“If you have a mild to moderate illness, you can continue to exercise, but you should do less than you normally do,” said family physician Dr. Bruce Barrett, a professor and vice chair for research in the department of family medicine and community health at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “If you normally run 10 miles per week, maybe run 5 if you have a mild cold. Just tamp it down.”
How to fix an overactive bladder
Many fruits and vegetables, for example, are a key part of a healthy diet. They’re also high in fiber, which helps prevent constipation, says Chris Manakas, MD, a urologist at UW Health and an assistant professor of urology at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health.
Tariff wars are often short. Their legacies aren’t.
Economists fear that Trump’s approach could unleash forces that have unintended consequences extending far beyond his time in office.
“This is the biggest change to tariff policy that we’ve seen in recent history,” said Lydia Cox, an economics professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
How to protect your pets from bird flu
As of March 6, more than 100 domestic cats have been infected since 2022. Wild cats like lynx and captive tigers have also fallen ill. Considering the tens of millions of pet and stray cats in the U.S., confirmed cases remain exceedingly rare. “Just like in humans, the risk of pets contracting H5N1 is relatively low” outside of farm settings, says Peter Halfmann, a virologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, School of Veterinary Medicine.
Changing US law keeps victims’ families – and people on death row – waiting decades for closure
The lead attorney, Greg Wiercioch, a professor at the University of Wisconsin Law School, told her that during his 16 years on the case, he’d come to believe Wood hadn’t killed her daughter or anyone else. He pointed out that DNA testing of a bloodstain on one of the other victim’s clothes had matched a different, unknown male, who could have also killed Fulton’s daughter.
Democrats are focusing on Musk as a key villain in the new Trump era
“Musk is as much a figure in the campaigns as much as the candidate at this point,” said Barry Burden, a political science professor at the University of Wisconsin at Madison.
Is ‘Severance’ making your dog freak out?
Freya Mowat, a veterinary ophthalmologist and professor at the University of Wisconsin at Madison’s school of veterinary medicine, has done research on visual perception for dogs. She said a show displayed on older televisions would appear like “old movie screens” to dogs with individual flickers and a low refresh rate. Modern televisions, though, offer more flow and smooth projection.
UW-Madison young scientists’ careers in upheaval as Trump slows research funding
Randy Kimple, a professor of human oncology at UW-Madison, has two Ph.D. students in his lab supported by grants, called “supplements,” meant to promote diversity among researchers. The supplements fund not only students of color, but also first-generation college students and those from rural areas or low-income neighborhoods.
Kimple expects to lose that funding — roughly $150,000 — in the summer, given the Trump administration’s campaign against diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.