Quoted: “A lot of what goes on here is really, really careful phrasing for what you say the thing is for,” said Charo, a law professor at the University of Wisconsin.
A ‘Fountain Of Youth’ Pill? Sure, If You’re A Mouse.
Kaiser Health News
Tag: featured
Trump Trade War Helps Push Farmers Into Record Number Of Bankruptcies
Huffington Post
Quoted: “The problem is that both nations have stubborn leaders,” Mark Stephenson, director of dairy policy analysis at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, said at an agricultural forum last week in Madison.
The Milky Way is warped, but astronomers still aren’t sure why
Popular Science
And while the warping of the galaxy isn’t a new revelation, Elena D’Onghia, an astronomer at the University of Wisconsin who was not involved with the study, thinks it’s interesting how the team took advantage of the Cepheids in creating the new galactic map that can characterize the warp at a rather high accuracy.
Hot but not bothered: Warm soils favor microbes with small genomes
Earth Magazine
Quoted: Microbial evolution to a more streamlined state is often suggested as a route to small genomes, says Jo Handelsman, a soil microbiologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who was not involved in the new study.
Video games in Wisconsin classrooms
WKOW-TV 27
A new video game created at UW-Madison is helping teachers in Wisconsin generate excitement in the classroom.
Artist Spotlight: Lynda Barry
ComicsVerse
Indeed, Barry’s works are staples of comics studies courses and fixtures in my own personal comic library. With flamboyantly chaotic artwork that quickly destabilizes reader’s expectations, Barry continues to revolutionize how we think about comics as a medium for self-expression. The University of Wisconsin-Madison professor uses comics as a tool for discovery.
Artificial Intelligence Finds Ancient ‘Ghosts’ in Modern DNA
Quanta Magazine
Quoted: The technique “is powerful because of its simplicity, but it leaves a lot on the table in terms of understanding evolution,” said John Hawks, a paleoanthropologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
1919: Hollywood’s Boom Year
New York Times
The First World War radically changed the landscape of moviemaking. Before 1914, Europeans had dominated the booming industry — France, Italy, Germany and even Denmark had sent films across the globe.
Mr. Bordwell is a professor emeritus of film studies at the University of Wisconsin.
‘Black girl joy’ is at the heart of this new children’s picture book
Mashable
McDaniel’s book is impressive because it uses one hand gesture to showcase a wide range of feelings and scenarios. It humanizes the black girl experience, a rare thing for children’s literature. The Cooperative Children’s Book Center, a research library at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Education, found that only 340 of the 3,700 books it received in 2017 from U.S. publishers had “significant African or African American content/characters.”
Task Force Takes On Flooding In Dane County
Wisconsin Public Radio
The new report comes from a technical work group comprised of people from the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, the city of Madison, Dane County and the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Q&A: Danielle Yancey works to recruit and retain more Native American health professionals
The Cap Times
In Wisconsin, Native Americans suffer from sharp health disparities, including higher rates of heart disease, cancer mortality and death and hospitalization from diabetes than the collective Wisconsin population.
Climate Change Could Leave Thousands of Lakes Ice-Free
The New York Times
With temperatures hitting record lows in the midwest last week, John Magnuson, an aquatic ecologist at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and a co-author on the Nature study, warned that it’s important to understand that the loss of lake ice won’t happen all at once.
Medication Denied: Wisconsin Bill Would Make Insurance Appeals Easier
Wisconsin Public Radio
Quoted: Zgierska’s an associate professor with the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Medicine and Public Health and is also on the board of the Wisconsin Society of Addiction Medicine.
Extreme Cold Could Impact Wisconsin Fruit, Alfalfa Crops
Wisconsin Public Radio
Amaya Atucha, fruit crop specialist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said grapes, apples and other fruits grown in the state aren’t used to the frigid temperatures brought by last week’s polar vortex.
Microbes hitched to insects provide a rich source of new antibiotics
Nature World News
Cameron Currie, a University of Wisconsin-Madison professor of bacteriology, has shown that some of these insect-associated microbes provide their hosts with protection against infections, suggesting that insects and their microbiomes may be a rich new source of antibiotics for use in human medicine.
Experts Predict Another Challenging Year for Dairy Farmers
AP
Milk prices paid to farmers are expected to be better this year but not by much, University of Wisconsin dairy economist Mark Stephenson said. He predicts an increase of about a $1 per hundredweight, or hundred pounds of milk.
CRISPR And Human Embryo Experiments Underway In The U.S. : Shots
NPR
“This is valid research, and I think it’s important research,” says R. Alta Charo, a bioethicist at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. “It has value not only for the possible use in the future for some number of conditions that would involve a live birth, but it has value for basic understanding of embryology, basic understanding of development,” Charo says.
When Super Bowl fans eat a billion chicken wings, the world eats the leftovers
Global News Canada
U.S. and Canadian farmers will often export chicken wings with the flappers still attached to Asian markets such as Hong Kong, Thailand and Cambodia. Those markets have more of an appetite for the wingtips, according to Ronald Kean, an expert in poultry production at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
‘When Death Becomes Life’ Review: Doctors and Donors
Wall Street Journal
Dr. Mezrich’s book braids unflinching medical history with frank clinical memoir. A transplant surgeon at the University of Wisconsin, he got his first inkling of his future vocation when he volunteered in medical school for the New York Firefighters Skin Bank, “an ‘elite’ group that would head out in the middle of the night to skin dead people.” The scare quotes around “elite” and the brazen verb “to skin” are typical of Dr. Mezrich’s rueful candor.
Early-Voting Laws Probably Don’t Boost Turnout
FiveThirtyEight
Meanwhile, a more recent study by political scientists at the University of Wisconsin, Madison discovered that, when not accompanied by other reforms, early voting actually leads to lower turnout — perhaps because the social and campaign-driven pressure to vote is not as focused as it is when voting must all occur on a single day.
Thinking like a doula: “Birth coaches” negotiate the roles of everyone in the birthing suite
Isthmus
Amy Gilliland believes that a positive birth experience has a lasting effect on the lives of both mother and baby. Gilliland should know: As a research fellow in the U.W.-Madison’s School of Human Ecology, she studies and teaches about the psychological needs of people during the birth experience.
How working from home helps the environment
AccuWeather
Quoted: “Anything that reduces vehicle miles helps improve air quality and reduce emissions of the greenhouse gases that cause global warming,” said Jack Williams, a professor who researches global climate change in the Department of Geography at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Pundits who decry ‘tribalism’ know nothing about real tribes
The Washington Post
Although “ethnic labels .?.?. have pre-colonial origins, they became comprehensive and rigidly ranked categories only in the colonial period; they were heavily influenced by imperial codifications and further transformed by politicized actions in the last half [of the 20th] century,” writes Merwin Crawford Young, a professor emeritus of political science at the University of Wisconsin at Madison.
Awake on the Table
The New York Times
“There’s plenty of evidence” that even without an explicit memory of surgery, humans can form implicit or subconscious memories under anesthesia, said Dr. Aeyal Raz, an anesthesiologist at the University of Wisconsin.
New blood thinners better than warfarin for atrial fibrillation
Reuters
“Stroke due to atrial fibrillation tends to be quite severe,” said Dr. Craig January of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, who helped draft the new guidelines published in Circulation.
How a high-flying balloon could search for life on hellishly hot Venus
NBC News
Conditions are more hospitable 30 miles above the surface. In fact, temperatures in this region of the atmosphere are much like those on Earth — “similar conditions to Miami, Florida in summertime,” said Kevin Baines, a planetary scientist at the JPL and the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
AP Exclusive: US Nobelist Was Told of Gene-Edited Babies
AP
Quoted: It’s not clear how someone would have raised concerns about He’s project, said University of Wisconsin bioethicist Alta Charo, who was one of the leaders of the Hong Kong gene-editing conference where He gave details of the experiment.
Howard Schultz’s presidential ambitions draw backlash
Financial Times
Quoted: Barry Burden, a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who has studied third-party runs, agreed. However, he said Mr Schultz would face other obstacles to a winning candidacy.
Mystery outbreak of human viruses is killing chimpanzees in Uganda forest
The Star Kenya
’These are very common human viruses that circulate worldwide and cause ’the sniffles’ in kids,’ Tony Goldberg, a University of Wisconsin–Madison professor, said.
Lakes ‘skating on thin ice’ as warming limits freeze
BBC News
“The deeper the lake is, the more heat storage it has and it takes more cold weather to get the lake down to a temp where it could freeze,” said Prof John Magnuson, a co-author from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
You can’t control what you can’t find: Detecting invasive species while they’re still scarce
The Conversation
Jake Walsh, University of Wisconsin-Madison: Most of the 10,000 ships lost to the bottom of the Great Lakes in wrecks over the past 400 years are still lost – hidden somewhere in 6 quadrillion gallons of water. Finding anything in a lake is a lesson in humility, so life as a freshwater biologist is always humbling. If we can’t account for huge steel freighters, imagine the challenge of finding a single tiny organism.
Report: Lots Of Access To Pre-K, But Quality Sometimes Lacking
Wisconsin Public Radio
Quoted: “Particularly in large urban areas they can’t afford to have a class that low,” said Graue, director of University of Wisconsin-Madison Center for Research in Early Childhood Education.
How to Stop Rogue Gene-Editing of Human Embryos?
New York Times
Quoted: In a recent New England Journal of Medicine article, R. Alta Charo, a bioethicist at University of Wisconsin-Madison, recommended a “comprehensive ecosystem of public and private entities that can restrain the rogues among us.”
Evers Walks Back Comments As Legislature’s Attorney Says He Can’t Stop ACA Lawsuit
Wisconsin Public Radio
Quoted: Howard Schweber, University of Wisconsin-Madison political science professor, said it could be up to the judicial system to decide the dispute.
How low-income parents are working to to help their children with autism
The Independent
That means the needs of an untold number of children aren’t being met. It also has serious ramifications for research, because it can skew estimates of autism, says Maureen Durkin, an epidemiologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison: “It means that the prevalence of autism is probably even higher than we’re measuring.”
Where Sloths Find These Branches, Their Family Trees Expand
The New York Times
For almost ten years, Jonathan Pauli and M. Zachariah Peery, professors at the University of Wisconsin, and their colleagues have been tracking a group of sloths in Costa Rica. The animals are equipped with radio collars that transmit their location five or six times a month, so the team knows where each sloth’s usual territory is.
Alcohol-related disease overtakes hepatitis C as top reason for liver transplant
NBC News
There is nothing magical about six months, according to Dr. Michael Lucey, medical director of the University of Wisconsin liver transplant program. He said it shows a poor understanding of alcohol abuse as a “very complex behavioral disorder.”
Scientists are learning how to farm on Mars through trail and error
Astronomy Magazine
Quoted: “Watering plants in space is really hard because water moves differently because there’s no gravity. If you get the water onto soil particles, it’ll just creep over the surface,” said Simon Gilroy, a botanist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who researches the effects of gravity on plant growth. He was not involved with the new study.
Warning as researchers find common cold and other human viruses are killing wild chimps in Uganda
Daily Mail Online
’These are very common human viruses that circulate worldwide and cause ’the sniffles’ in kids,’ Tony Goldberg, a University of Wisconsin–Madison professor, said.
Losing the Humanity of Transplants
Wall Street Journal
Surgeons like me, who work in the field of organ transplant, have been repeating a cliché for decades about the idea of using other animals’ organs to replace failing ones in humans: “It’s the future, and it always will be.” By: Joshua Mezrich
China seems to confirm scientist’s gene-edited babies claim
AP
Quoted: The statement shows that “scientific leadership is taking this situation seriously,” said Alta Charo, a University of Wisconsin bioethicist and one of the leaders of the Hong Kong conference.
The Cotton Plant That Sprouted on the Far Side of the Moon Has Died
Smithsonian
Quoted: He adds that though the project was cut short, he still considers it a success. And other scientists agree, including Simon Gilroy, a professor of botany at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who was not involved in the study.
Government shutdown frays America’s safety net
ABC News
Quoted: “A safety net that has a frayed bottom to it makes people much less, feel more financially fragile and financially vulnerable than they already are,” J. Michael Collins, a professor at the University of Wisconsin- Madison, told ABC News.
Is It Ethical for Alcoholics to Get Liver Transplants?
The Atlantic
Before he found out he needed a new liver, Herbert Heneman was not your typical corner-of-the-dive-bar alcoholic. Heneman, the Dickson-Bascom professor emeritus of management and human resources at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, grew up in St. Paul, Minnesota. He had a happy childhood and a very supportive family. He describes his parents as somewhat heavy drinkers, particularly his father, but he remembers no health issues, legal problems, or family crises related to alcohol.
This post is adapted from Mezrich’s new book,When Death Becomes Life: Notes From a Transplant Surgeon.
Protecting monarch butterflies’ winter home could mean moving hundreds of trees
Nature
Quoted: Rising temperatures and habitat destruction at the butterflies’ breeding sites in the United States and Canada are the major drivers of monarch declines, says Karen Oberhauser, a conservation biologist at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.
R. Kelly and the silencing of black women in history
Raw Story
Quoted: “It is incredibly courageous for the survivors to come forward, given the gross misogyny and disregard for black women and girls in the country and worldwide,” insists Bianca J. Baldridge, an Assistant Professor in Educational Policy Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and author of the forthcoming book entitled Reclaiming Community: Race and the Uncertain Future of Youth Work.
Farms, More Productive Than Ever, Are Poisoning Drinking Water in Rural America
Wall Street Journal
Some contamination comes from septic systems, he says. In parts of Kewaunee County, more than one-fifth of private wells surpassed the federal nitrate limit, according to data aggregated by the University of Wisconsin.
What it means to be a peace corps volunteer
WPR
For the second consecutive year UW-Madison tops the list of universities for sending the most Peace Corps volunteers abroad. We find out more about the program and the opportunities they offer. We’ll also talk with a former lawmaker before he departs for Senegal next month about his decision to volunteer at the age of 65. Featured: Kate Schacter.
As Cheese Surplus Hits All-Time High, Dairy Industry Is ‘Cautiously Optimistic’
Wisconsin Public Radio
Quoted: Brian Gould, a University of Wisconsin-Madison professor of agribusiness, expects this degree of excess to be a temporary situation.”The industry … is not alarmed to a large degree, I mean there is some concern of course if these stick around, but I haven’t seen a tremendous drop off in those cheese prices over the last six, seven months,” he said.
Blame a wobbly polar vortex for why you’re so damn cold
Mashable
Quoted: “We’re gonna freeze,” John Martin, an atmospheric scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said in an interview.
How Lichens Explain (And Re-explain) the World
The Atlantic
Tripp agrees that “we, as a community of lichen biologists, need to revisit the role of all symbionts in the lichen microcosm.” No matter how one describes Tremella and other lichen-associated fungi, it’s clear that they do affect the form and function of the lichen as a whole. How they do so is “the great unsolved problem” of lichenology, says Anne Pringle from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Lunar eclipse 2019: how to watch this “supermoon” turn blood-red
Vox
Noted: A supermoon is when these two cycles match up and we have a full moon that’s near its perigee. The result is that the full “super” moon appears slightly larger and slightly brighter in the sky. This occurs about one in every 14 full moons, Jim Lattis, an astronomer at the University of Wisconsin Madison, notes.
Wildfires Spark Population Booms in Fungi and Bacteria
Scientific American
“We’re beginning to parse out the ecological drivers of response to fire,” says study co-author Thea Whitman, a soil ecologist at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.
Earth’s Tilt Could Accelerate Antarctica Ice Loss
Advocator
“Really critical is the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere,” said Stephen Meyers from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and the co-author of the new study. He added that extreme carbon dioxide and high-angled Earth’s tilt would be devastating for Antarctica.
Potatoes Have A Form Of ‘Depression’, But Scientists Have An Idea To Cure Them
Gizmodo
A team of scientists meeting in 2016 at the University of Wisconsin-Madison proposed a new idea — reinventing the potato as a diploid crop, one with two, rather than four, sets of chromosomes.
How to help low-income children with autism
Spectrum News
Quoted:That means the needs of an untold number of children aren’t being met. It also has serious ramifications for research, because it can skew estimates of autism, says Maureen Durkin, an epidemiologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison: “It means that the prevalence of autism is probably even higher than we’re measuring.”
Lunar eclipse 2019: how to watch this “supermoon” turn blood-red
Vox
Quoted: A supermoon is when these two cycles match up and we have a full moon that’s near its perigee. The result is that the full “super” moon appears slightly larger and slightly brighter in the sky. This occurs about one in every 14 full moons, Jim Lattis, an astronomer at the University of Wisconsin Madison, notes.
Earth’s Tilt May Exacerbate a Melting Antarctic
Live Science
“Really critical is the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere,” said study co-author Stephen Meyers, a paleoclimatologist at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.
Severe wildfires spark population boom in fungi and bacteria
Nature
“We’re beginning to parse out the ecological drivers of response to fire,” says study co-author Thea Whitman, a soil ecologist at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.
A Surgeon Reflects On Death, Life And The ‘Incredible Gift’ Of Organ Transplant
National Public Radio
Noted: Mezrich is an associate professor in the division of multiorgan transplantation at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health in Madison. He reflects on his experiences as a transplant surgeon and shares stories from the operating room in his book, When Death Becomes Life.