The recently launched School of Computer, Data and Information Sciences will have a new home at the corner of Orchard Street and University Avenue, officials announced Friday. UW-Madison will demolish two service buildings currently located there to make way for the 300,000-square-foot, seven-story building. The estimated price tag is $225 million, all of which will be privately funded.
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Graduation Take Two: UW-Madison Class of 2020 gets grad fanfare at Camp Randall at last
Around 2,700 graduates attended the ceremony, about a third of the 8,000 students who actually graduated last year. Many wore street clothes with their black graduation caps, but the regalia of commencement was still all around. A high-profile speaker was also brought in to give the keynote: Milwaukee Bucks shooting guard Pat Connaughton. While he psyched up the crowd by bringing out the Bucks’ NBA Finals trophy, Connaughton’s speech touched on the classic graduation theme of overcoming hardship and striving to achieve one’s dreams.
Masks Protect Schoolkids from COVID despite What Antiscience Politicians Claim
For starters, laboratory experiments show that masks block the respiratory droplets and aerosols that transmit SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID. In one test, mechanical engineer David Rothamer and his team at the University of Wisconsin–Madison used a machine in a classroom to pump out particles of the same size as those that carry the virus.
Hate seeing snakes? Blame the asteroids that killed the dinosaurs, scientists say
Christoph Mans, clinical assistant professor of zoological medicine at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, said in 2016 that 50 snake species live in the United States.
Do warehouse clubs like Costco save you money in the long run?
Nancy Wong, a professor of consumer science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said she stopped shopping at Costco because she felt like she was losing money.
The climate crisis is getting worse, but the solutions have improved dramatically
Written by Gregory Nemet, a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s La Follette School of Public Affairs. He is a lead author for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 6th Assessment Report, which will be released by the United Nations in spring 2022. He is co-chair of the La Follette School’s Climate Policy Forum on Oct. 6.
As the House gears up for debate federal infrastructure spending to fight climate change, signs of a planetary-scale crisis are everywhere. Intense rainfall and floods, searing heat in normally cool locations, and relentless wildfires of enormous scale raging continuously.
Efforts To Recall U.S. Governors Rarely Succeed
Likewise, the unsuccessful bid nine years ago to remove Walker. “I don’t think Democrats gained anything in Wisconsin,” Barry Burden, a political science professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, told NPR. When they failed to unseat Walker, “I think it set back the Democrats for a while and emboldened Scott Walker and his supporters.”
Government support credited with 2020’s decline in poverty
Many Americans got a lot of new support during the economic disruption of 2020. The supplemental rate does look at those benefits, and that number “shows that we actually did a good job in keeping people out of poverty, even though the money incomes were falling,” said Tim Smeeding, who teaches public affairs and economics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Biden says climate change causing severe weather is ‘no longer subject to debate’
Stevens’ view was echoed by University of Wisconsin geographer Paul Robbins, who argued such fires are not something new.”The idea that fire is somehow new… a product solely of climate change, and part of a moral crusade for the soul of the nation, borders on the insane,” Robbins said.
‘Cyber Ninjas 2.0′ Coming to Wisconsin?: Ballots & Boundaries
Barry Burden, a University of Wisconsin professor and election administration specialist, released a report declaring the Wisconsin 2020 presidential election “a tremendous success.”
The New Science on How We Burn Calories
The still-growing database, which underpins the Science paper, includes samples from dozens of countries and cultures, from foragers in Tanzania to commuters in Manhattan. “In terms of scale and scope, this is just unprecedented,” says Rozalyn Anderson, a professor of medicine at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and an author of a commentary published with the study.
Mammoth-elephant hybrids could be created within the decade. Should they be?
The company’s advisers also include two prominent bioethicists who study genome editing: R. Alta Charo of the University of Wisconsin at Madison, and S. Matthew Liao of New York University. (Stanford University chemical engineer Joseph DeSimone, a member of Colossal’s scientific advisory board, is also a member of the National Geographic Society’s board of trustees.)
Walmart (WMT) Denies Litecoin ($LITE) Pact After Fake Press Release
“If you’re putting out a press release that can move markets, you have tremendous potential for harm,” said Kathleen Culver, head of the Center for Journalism Ethics at the University of Wisconsin. “If you were someone who saw this, made some buys and then everything dropped back to Earth again, you could be out a lot of money.”
Column: Lawsuits demanding ivermectin raise fears of judges ordering doctors to commit malpractice
In one sense, says University of Wisconsin bioethicist R. Alta Charo, judges’ orders at least insulate hospitals and doctors from the consequences of what might be considered malpractice — the prescribing of a drug without established evidence of safety or efficacy for the purpose.
Preserving the Selfless Heroism of the Passengers of United Flight 93
The attacks of 9/11 were called “the ultimate teachable moment,” but educators have never reached a consensus on “precisely what students should learn,” the scholars Diana Hess and Jeremy Stoddard, of the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s School of Education, have noted. Middle- and high-school textbooks and videos have tended to prioritize what Hess and Stoddard call “lower-order thinking,” which demands little more than rote memorization. Most of the curricula that Hess and Stoddard examined did not challenge “students to critically examine the roots of the attacks.” Some textbooks from the mid-two-thousands failed to provide even the number of people killed, or that Al Qaeda was responsible.
Two UW-Madison researchers have spent 20 years studying how 9/11 is taught in schools. Here’s what they learned.
As the World Trade Center towers collapsed, Diana Hess wondered if she should cancel class.
It was Sept. 11, 2001.
Hess, then an assistant professor in the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s School of Education, started hearing whispers that the entire campus would shut down. She had been preparing for an evening class for social studies student teachers, who were working in area middle schools and high schools.
But now, the world was changing before her eyes — and so was the social studies curriculum.
Time, misinfo complicate teaching 9/11 to kids born after it
“I think that the way it’s been taught has largely been memorializing the events versus really digging into the context of 9/11 and the ongoing sort of results of 9/11,” says Jeremy Stoddard, a University of Wisconsin-Madison professor who has researched that subject.
Vast Expansion in Aid Kept Food Insecurity From Growing Last Year
Before the pandemic, Judith Bartfeld, a researcher at the University of Wisconsin, found that school meals account for as much as 7 percent of economic resources among low-income households. That financial contribution approached the impact of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, the main federal antihunger program, which provided more than 10 percent of household resources but is larger and more visible.
These Jennifer Aniston Fans Weren’t Born When ‘Friends’ Aired
Among her young followers, Ms. Aniston’s apparent fallibility may well be a trump card, said Jonathan Gray, a professor of media and cultural studies at the University of Wisconsin.
Teaching 9/11 to those who weren’t alive to experience it
Sept. 11 is an important topic in classrooms across America leading up to the 20th anniversary of the attacks.Over time, teachers’ classrooms have become filled with students who were not alive in 2001. In fact, more than a quarter of Americans were not yet born when the attacks happened.Recent Stories from abcactionnews.com”We have students now who have no lived memory of it, and from what teachers reported, very little information about it and in some cases, sort of misinformation or misunderstandings of it,” said University of Wisconsin-Madison Professor Jeremy Stoddard.
What schools teach about 9/11 and the war on terror
The phrase “Never Forget” is often associated with the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. But what does this phrase mean for U.S. students who are too young to remember? What are they being asked to never forget?
As education researchers in curriculum and instruction, we have studied since 2002 how the events of 9/11 and the global war on terror are integrated into secondary level U.S. classrooms and curricula. What we have found is a relatively consistent narrative that focuses on 9/11 as an unprecedented and shocking attack, the heroism of the firefighters and other first responders and a global community that stood behind the U.S. in its pursuit of terrorists.
-Jeremy Stoddard and Diana Hess
China chases ‘rejuvenation’ with control of tycoons, society
Party members who worry reforms might weaken political control appear to have decided China’s rise is permanent and liberalization is no longer needed, said Edward Friedman, a political scientist at the University of Wisconsin.
A Generation of American Men Give Up on College: ‘I Just Feel Lost’
Young men get little help, in part, because schools are focused on encouraging historically underrepresented students. Jerlando Jackson, department chair, Education Leadership and Policy Analysis, at the University of Wisconsin’s School of Education, said few campuses have been willing to spend limited funds on male underachievement that would also benefit white men, risking criticism for assisting those who have historically held the biggest educational advantages.
The Nation’s First Regenerative Dairy Works with Nature to Heal the Soil—at Scale
Despite that drop in production, grazing is overall a lower-cost approach to producing milk that can increase a dairy’s profitability, said Randy Jackson, a professor of grassland ecology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Wolf Populations Drop as More States Allow Hunting
“The state was trying to maintain a tolerable level of mortality” through the February hunt, says Adrian Treves, a carnivore ecologist at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and an author of the study. “They didn’t.”
UW-Madison reports 90% of campus fully vaccinated even without vaccine mandate
UW-Madison reported on Thursday that nine out of every 10 members of the campus community are fully vaccinated — even without mandating students and employees to get the shot. “I’m proud of our students and employees for taking this important step to protect themselves and others,” Chancellor Rebecca Blank said in an announcement. “And I’m grateful to our staff, who worked tirelessly to achieve these results.”
UW chemist has used showmanship to excite people about basic science for more than a half-century
Bassam Shakhashiri stood before a packed theater, all eyes riveted on the bright red handkerchief in his hand.
“The blue is there. It’s hiding,” Shakhashiri said, having playfully promised his audience that he could change the cloth’s color. “I’m going to sho
Largest study of masks yet details their importance in fighting Covid-19
Ajay Sethi, an epidemiologist and associate professor of population health sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, who was not involved with the study, called the research “thoughtfully put together” and “impressive on many different levels.”
Coronavirus vaccines work. But this statistical illusion makes people think they don’t.
Is the vaccine wearing off? It’s an exhausting thought for those of us who believed the battle against covid-19 would be won once enough needles plunged into enough arms. But outbreaks of the delta variant have blossomed even in places with high levels of vaccination, including Israel, Britain and my own home of Madison, Wis. Recent reports from Israel that nearly 60 percent of people hospitalized with severe covid-19 were fully vaccinated raised particular alarms about the limits of the protection that vaccines provide.
–Jordan Ellenberg, a math professor at the University of Wisconsin, is the author of “Shape: The Hidden Geometry of Information, Biology, Strategy, Democracy, and Everything Else.”
Fact check: FDA Pfizer vaccine approval doesn’t mean ‘nothing’
“The FDA rarely approves a food,” R. Alta Charo, a professor emerita of law and bioethics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, told USA TODAY. “Foods go on the market without any prior screening by the FDA if they are generally recognized as safe.”
Climate change comes for a favorite summer pastime: fishing
In Wisconsin, brook trout are expected to disappear by 2050 from nearly 70 percent of the 10,000 miles of rivers and streams where they now swim, John Lyons, curator of fishes at the University of Wisconsin Zoology Museum, and colleagues reported in 2019. “You could argue this is a best-case scenario,” Lyons said.
Save the Planet, Eat a Bug
The practice of ethical entomophagy started haphazardly. In 1974, Gene DeFoliart, who was the chair of entomology at the University of Wisconsin, was asked by a colleague to recommend someone who could talk about edible insects as part of a symposium on unconventional protein sources
Headed away to school? Here’s what students with health issues need to know about insurance
Many schools require students to have health insurance and offer university-sponsored plans, said Jake Baggott, a past president of the American College Health Association and an associate vice chancellor of student affairs at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He said that while some university health programs are equipped to deal with more complex medical issues or diagnostics, others are not. Students need to be clear on the details, such as whether their policy covers off-campus care.
Why Is Pluto Not a Planet?
The New Horizons flyby found evidence that Pluto—little Pluto!—might even have an ocean beneath its surface. “The name doesn’t matter,” Sanjay Limaye, a planetary scientist at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, told me. “It doesn’t matter what we call it, as long as we can explore it and learn from it.” Regardless of what we decide here on Earth, Pluto will still be there, doing its thing, blissfully unaware that some aliens a few rocks down are mesmerized by its existence.
UW-Madison to send $28.6 million in federal pandemic aid to students this year
Automatic payments hit students’ bank accounts this week, university officials said.
Hurricanes Get Names. What About Heat Waves?
Another issue is that the people who are most at risk, such as homeless people, older people living alone or people living in poverty, are often the ones who are the hardest to reach, said Richard C. Keller, a professor at the University of Wisconsin who focuses on the global history of the environment. For them, naming a heat wave may have limited, if any, impact, but it could raise overall awareness within a community, and prompt people to check in those who are more vulnerable.
U.S. Tennis Association Adds Quiet Rooms, More Mental Health Resources Ahead of U.S. Open
Dr. Claudia Reardon, a professor at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine’s psychiatry department, is working with USTA on the initiative. She also provided a comment in the statement, saying, “We are working to create an environment that supports overall mental well-being.”
A native plant designer?s memoir reflects on a life in the field
The topography of the Midwest was always in his DNA — he grew up a farm boy in southwestern Iowa — but it wasn’t until he arrived at the University of Wisconsin at Madison as a graduate student that he began to see what was lost and how to revive it in some measure.
How Warming Is Affecting Northern Storms Like Henri
That’s probably because of complicating factors in the Atlantic Ocean basin, according to James Kossin, a senior scientist with the analytics firm the Climate Service and a researcher at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, who has studied the poleward migration of hurricanes.
Q&A: did the climate crisis fuel Henri and the Tennessee flooding?
The Atlantic has been several degrees warmer than normal over the past week, feeding the intensity of Henri as it barreled towards Rhode Island. Ocean temperatures “are very anomalous right now”, said James Kossin, a hurricane expert at the University of Wisconsin. “There’s a likely human fingerprint on that.”
Evidence mounts that people with breakthrough infections can spread Delta easily
“We’re the first to demonstrate, as far as I’m aware, that infectious virus can be cultured from the fully vaccinated infections,” says Kasen Riemersma, a virologist at University of Wisconsin who is one of the authors of the study.
As California burns, some ecologists say it’s time to rethink forest management
Yet despite a universal desire to avoid more destruction, experts aren’t always in agreement about what should be done before a blaze ignites. Forest management has long been touted as essential to fighting wildfires, with one new set of studies led by the University of Wisconsin and the U.S. Forest Service concluding that there is strong scientific evidence to support the effectiveness of thinning dense forests and reducing fuels through prescribed burns.
‘You are not a horse’: FDA tells Americans stop taking dewormer for Covid
“It is a far cry from an in-vitro lab replication to helping humans,” Dr Nasia Safdar, medical director of infection prevention at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Hospital, told the Associated Press.
Arizona ‘bracing for impact’ of Trump-driven election report
Other election experts have previously torn into the Arizona review as unprofessionally run, including a report from former Kentucky Secretary of State Trey Grayson, a Republican, and Barry Burden, the director of the Elections Research Center at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.
“The Cyber Ninjas review suffers from a variety of maladies: uncompetitive contracting, a lack of impartiality and partisan balance, a faulty ballot review process, inconsistency in procedures, an unacceptably high level of error built into the process, and insufficient security,” Grayson and Burden wrote in their June report. “Because it lacks the essential elements of a bona fide post-election analysis, the review currently underway in Maricopa County will not produce findings that should be trusted.”
The Daddy Longlegs Genome Was Sequenced, And Researchers Made A Daddy Shortlegs
“If you watch a daddy longlegs move, it will effectively walk on just three pairs of its legs,” said Guilherme Gainett, a graduate student at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. The remaining pair of legs, he adds, wave around in the air, probing the arachnid’s surroundings.
Fight to Vote: Election data reveals the 2020 election was a remarkable success
“It is basically an indicator of the success of the election,” said Barry Burden, the director of the elections research center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “Election administrators managed to pull it off and support a record number of voters.”
Tommy Thompson explains why he got vaccinated – and why you should, too
When I had an opportunity to become vaccinated against COVID-19 last spring, I didn’t hesitate. The vaccine clearly was the best way for me to protect myself and the people I care about from death or hospitalization due to COVID. I was also eager to do my part to help our society beat back this insidious disease.
Family of Anthony Huber, killed by Kyle Rittenhouse, files suit against city of Kenosha
Steven Howard Wright, a law professor at the University of Wisconsin in Madison and co-director of the Wisconsin Innocence Project, said the challenge for plaintiffs will be to prove an active conspiracy between the city, law enforcement and White militia members. “They are swinging for the entire community, which will make it a lot harder to sell,” he said. Because there is not a specific “smoking gun” to prove the conspiracy, he said he expects plaintiffs’ attorneys to ask the court “for the widest degree of discovery” to show that both departments had significant race problems long before the Blake incident.
How to Get Smarter: Start With the Brain Itself
“If we can make these things less and less invasive while making sure we are engaging the nerves, we can start to move beyond just doing this for people who have injury or ailments,” says Justin Williams, a Darpa-funded neuro-engineer at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who is studying how nerve stimulation can impact learning.
Chris Cuomo’s ethical troubles at CNN highlight rise of ‘info-tainment’
“I am shocked it’s gotten this far without him even receiving a suspension,” said Kathleen Bartzen Culver, director of the Center for Journalism Ethics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Journalism and Mass Communication.
It’s been a brutally hot summer. Experts say this is just a glimpse of the future.
“Climate scientists were predicting exactly these kinds of things, that there would be an enhanced threat of these types of extreme events brought on by increased warming,” said Jonathan Martin, a professor of atmospheric science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “It’s very distressing. These are not encouraging signs for our immediate future.
Live Murder Hornet sighted in the US for the first time in 2021
James Crall, assistant professor of entymology at the University of Wisconsin, told the Harvard Gazette last year: “If they do become established, then the honeybees will experience strong evolutionary pressures over the next years as they adapt to this new ecological interaction.”
Metabolism in adulthood does not slow as commonly believed, study finds
In a commentary published with the new study, Timothy Rhoads and Rozalyn Anderson, who work in geriatrics at the University of Wisconsin, said the findings also may have implications for the study of age-related diseases.
Moderna COVID-19 vaccine study for children under 12 starting at UW Health
Aclinical trial of Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine in children under 12 will start enrolling participants at UW Health Friday, as researchers and regulators move closer to potentially authorizing shots for the only age group not yet eligible in the United States.
Bill Gates Pledges $1.5 Billion for Infrastructure Bill’s New Climate Projects
Gregory Nemet, a University of Wisconsin professor who has written a book about recent innovation in solar power, said the policy shift will put pressure on government officials who will have to sort through complex market dynamics while managing demands from companies seeking profits and lawmakers pushing for home-state handouts.
Does mask wearing harm children’s development? Experts weigh in
“There are sensitive periods in early childhood development in which language development and emotional development are really rapidly developing for the first few years of life,” said Ashley Ruba, a postdoctoral researcher in the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Child Emotion Lab.
UW School of Medicine to begin enrolling children ages 6 months to 11 years for Moderna COVID-19 vaccine trial
Vaccinating children as young as 6 months of age against COVID-19 may become the new front in the global pandemic fight, if the vaccines prove to be safe and effective.
One such trial by the American pharmaceutical company Moderna will begin enrolling children 6 months through 11 years old on Friday at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health. UW will be one of 75 to 100 sites in the U.S. and Canada for the trial, which has been named the KidCOVE study.
Fact check: 8 million ‘excess’ Biden votes weren’t counted in 2020
“Keshel is promoting a bizarre and unfounded conspiracy about the 2020 election,” Barry Burden, director of the Elections Research Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said in an email.
Wisconsin to set fall wolf limit after runaway spring hunt
The DNR’s most recent estimate of wolves in Wisconsin, during the winter of 2019-20, put the population at about 1,000. The department’s goal is 350 wolves statewide. But conservationists maintain the February hunt was devastating to the state’s wolf population since it was held during the animal’s mating season. A University of Wisconsin study released last month also estimated another 100 wolves were killed by poachers after the animals lost their endangered species protection.
Delta Forces Hospitals Across U.S. to Ration Scarce ICU Beds
Truly stopping transmission would require about 90% vaccination, impossible to achieve, because children under 12 aren’t eligible for a shot, said Ajay Sethi, an associate professor of population health sciences at the University of Wisconsin.