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Studying poverty through a child’s eyes

Knowable Magazine

Researchers studying how poverty and adversity affect children’s development often track how negative experiences — be they poverty itself or factors such as having an incarcerated parent — affect decision-making, stress levels or aspects of brain function. But Seth Pollak, a psychologist at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, says that most of these efforts miss a crucial but long-overlooked component: children’s perceptions of their experiences.

Pollak spoke with Knowable Magazine about the importance of studying individual differences in experience.

UW-Madison will require masks indoors regardless of vaccination status

Wisconsin State Journal

The mask mandate could mark the first major change in UW-Madison’s fall plans. The university previously allowed vaccinated people to forgo a face covering, a policy that began in early June, but a concerning increase in COVID-19 cases in recent weeks that experts attribute to the delta variant of the coronavirus caused campus officials to reassess.

How Olympians Are Fighting to Put Athletes’ Mental Health First

Time

“Five years ago, mental health among elite athletes was not a very often-discussed topic,” says Dr. Claudia Reardon, professor of psychiatry at the University of Wisconsin. If there was any focus on athletes’ mental health, it centered around performance and ways to optimize results on the field. “Most of the emphasis when it came to mental health was around sports psychology and performance, and offering resources to help you perform at your highest level,” says Ross. “Occasionally in the health history [questionnaire] there might be some questions about mental health but they were sort of hidden, and weren’t prominent.”

Bill O’Reilly accuser’s appearance on ‘The View’ stopped by order

AP

That’s a potential conflict of interest, raising the question of whether Falzone’s experience with Fox would affect her independence, said Kathleen Bartzen Culver, director of the Center for Journalism Ethics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She said it would be wrong to suggest Falzone can’t write about these issues, but it’s questionable for her to write about them when it concerns Fox.

Small farms vanish every day in America’s dairyland: ‘There ain’t no future in dairy’

The Guardian

Mark Stephenson, the director of dairy policy analysis at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said the industry definitely has a lot of challenges but is nowhere near extinction.“We’ve produced record amounts of milk in the last year or two. It’s being consumed. Most of it domestically, but increasingly with exports,” said Stephenson.

Hardy Microbes Hint at Possibilities for Extraterrestrial Life

Scientific Americane

Extremophile research was pioneered by the late Thomas Brock, a microbiologist at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. He found, against all expectations, that certain hardy microbes could thrive in geothermal springs hot enough to poach an egg. The microbiologist’s curiosity led to the isolation of a molecule—from a heat-loving bacterium—that is now used in labs across the world to amplify and sequence DNA. Brock passed away in April, but his legacy lives on.

Wisconsin’s gray wolves are in serious trouble

Popular Science

The aim of the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources was to have a hunting season that “resulted in no annual increase or decrease in the state’s wolf population.” Wolf hunts are annual events where hunters congregate to hunt the animals for sport, though this practice has become controversial in many countries. However, that no change in the wolf’s population goal was not met, says Adrian Treves, an ecologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and coauthor of the new findings.

After COVID-19 Successes, Researchers Push to Develop mRNA Vaccines for Other Diseases

Scientific American

In 1990, the late physician-scientist Jon Wolff and his University of Wisconsin colleagues injected mRNA into mice, which caused cells in the mice to produce the encoded proteins. In many ways, that work served as the first step toward making a vaccine from mRNA, but there was a long way to go—and there still is, for many applications.

Self-powered biodegradable patch zaps broken bones to heal them

New Atlas

Seeking a simpler, less invasive alternative, a team led by the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Prof. Xudong Wang created a self-powered electrical patch that is surgically placed onto a bone-break site, but that is harmlessly absorbed by the body once its job is done. It’s called the fracture electrostimulation device, or FED.

We Are on Track for a Planet-Wide, Climate-Driven Landscape Makeover

Mother Jones

Scientists debate what this floral rearrangement will look like. In some places, it may take place quietly and be easily ignored. In others, though, it could be one of the changing climate’s most consequential and disruptive effects. “There’s a whole lot more of this we can expect over the next decades,” said University of Wisconsin-Madison paleoecologist Jack Williams. “When people talk about wildfires out West, about species moving upslope—to me, this is just the beginning.”

Ballots and voting equipment are moved again as review of 2020 election drags on in Arizona’s Maricopa County

The Washington Post

In addition, a new report published last week and co-authored by former Kentucky secretary of state Trey Grayson, a Republican, and University of Wisconsin Professor Barry C. Burden concluded that the Arizona procedures “deviate significantly from standard practices for election reviews and audits” and that any findings are “suspect and should not be trusted.”

Oregon’s Buckled Roads and Melted Cables Are Warning Signs

WIRED

In extreme heat, asphalt gets soft and behaves kind of like peanut butter, says Hussain Bahia, a civil and environmental engineering professor at the University of Wisconsin who heads the school’s Modified Asphalt Research Center. Put it in an oven and it will become a “slush fluid,” he says. Sustained heat on roads not built for heat can lead to potholes, pockmarks, and bumps.

The inside story of the new NASA missions to Venus

Popular Science

But by those same parameters, if we were observing our own solar system from afar, we might think Venus should be Earth-like too. “If you can’t understand Venus, which is our closest Earth-like neighbor, what chance do you have of believing anything some astrophysicist tells us about exoplanets?” says planetary scientist Sanjay Limaye of the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Limaye is part of a contingent of Venus researchers interested in finding out whether its cloud layer could still host microbial life. In 2020, investigators reported in the journal Nature Astronomy seeing signatures of phosphine—a chemical known thus far only to come from biological sources—in the atmosphere. Though claims about the possible discovery didn’t pan out, the news helped to spotlight the planet as an overlooked astrobiology target.

Arizona Election ‘Audit’ Should Not Be Trusted, Expert Review Finds

Business Insider

“The Cyber Ninjas boondoggle deviates so substantially from a proper audit or recount that the results simply can’t be trusted,” Barry C. Burden, director of the Elections Research Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, told Insider. “The Cyber Ninjas firm is not only unqualified to be conducting the review, but they do not actually seem interested in following protocols that could enhance public trust rather than undermining it.”

Kids’ cartoons have more LGBTQ representation than ever before – but only if you pay for it

Insider

AnneMarie McClain, a children’s media and education researcher at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, told Insider that inclusive shows are essential to kids across income differences.”Children might not have representation in their communities. They might not have representation in their schools. And so media is a source of representation that can help children know that they’re OK and that their identities are valid,” McClain said.

The environmental impact of bidets versus toilet paper

Andrea Hicks

The main thing to consider, says Andrea Hicks, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at the University of Wisconsin, is where you live and what the water situation is there. For example, in Wisconsin, where Hicks is based, there’s plenty of water to spare for butt-cleansing purposes, so if a bidet is something you’re curious about you should just go for it. But water availability simply isn’t an easy thing for every person across the country—just look at the drought plaguing the West Coast currently.

Robert Hollander, towering scholar of Dante’s ‘Divine Comedy,’ dies at 87

The Washington Post

“His more than 40 years of teaching Dante gave him many insights into the poem which he incorporates into the commentary,” Christopher Kleinhenz, a professor emeritus of Italian at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, said in an interview. “He has made Dante accessible,” Kleinhenz continued, so that “we as contemporary readers can appreciate and can see how Dante was important in the Middle Ages and how he continues to be important today.”

The Immune System’s Weirdest Weapon

The Atlantic

The few scientists who did take up the inglorious mantle, however, quickly found a wealth of lore to uncover. Anna Huttenlocher, a rheumatologist and cell biologist at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, has spent years watching the cells zoom through tissues and built structures in the lab.

How the U.S. Made Progress on Climate Change Without Ever Passing a Bill

The Atlantic

“Policy makers have been dithering about climate change since 1988, and in the background you have this steady progression of technologies,” Greg Nemet, a public-affairs professor at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, told me. Foreign industrial policy has driven that progression, he said, although American tax rebates—and California’s economic planning—have also played a part. Those policies have allowed the entire world to decarbonize and led companies to support ever more aggressive carbon cuts. That, in essence, is the green vortex.

U.S. Covid-19 Deaths Top 600,000

Wall Street Journal

“In the U.S., death from Covid is almost entirely preventable,” said Ajay Sethi, an associate professor at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, citing access to vaccines in the country. “Crossing the 600,000 milestone is a sobering reminder that the virus is still spreading and that there are still too many people unvaccinated.”

Spreading Vaccine Fears, And Cashing In

HuffPost

“People trying to reduce confidence through misinformation — that’s unfortunate and it’s something that’s sort of hard to fight,” said Ajay Sethi, an epidemiologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Medicine who teaches a class to future doctors on conspiracy theories. He urges his students to be compassionate and not condescending, since all of us are vulnerable to misinformation when it seems to confirm our prior beliefs. “It’s all innuendo, but it’s wrong, and it does spread like wildfire.”

What lurks beneath: A new answer to more intense storms

The Washington Post

As storm-water infrastructure is failing, climate change is driving more frequent and intense rainfall. A 2019 study by University of Wisconsin researchers found in the eastern half of the United States, 100-year storms — ones with a 1 percent chance of happening in any year — were occurring almost twice as often as in 1950. In 2020, there were a record 20 storm and hurricane events each causing more than $1 billion in damages, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Air purifiers can’t save us from airborne pandemics.

Slate

Scientists have only begun to study the chemical mechanisms by which the purifiers actually work indoors, says Timothy Bertram, a University of Wisconsin chemist leading a study of bipolar ionizers. Without that understanding, it’s hard to evaluate what, if anything, additive purifiers do when they’re installed inside an air vent or plugged in at the back of a classroom. So far, Bertram’s study has found no evidence of the ionizers reducing aerosols.

Memorial Day Will Likely Mark Covid-19 Pandemic Milestone – WSJ

Wall Street Journal

“Our outlook continues to improve, but there are still too many people yet to be vaccinated to feel completely safe as a whole,” said Ajay Sethi, an associate professor at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

Dr. Sethi said he wouldn’t be surprised to see an increase in cases within communities with low vaccination rates, but he didn’t expect the kind of surge the country saw last summer.