Another academic year draws to a close this month, and as it ends I have mixed emotions. I’m certainly happy for the graduates, as well as the students who’ve just completed a year of outstanding education at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. At the same time, I’m concerned about the racially charged incidents that were reported on the UW–Madison campus this past semester.
Noted: Christof Koch, the president and chief scientific officer of the Allen Institute for Brain Science in Seattle, and Giulio Tononi, a neuroscientist and psychiatrist at the University of Wisconsin, have proposed that consciousness is nearly ubiquitous in different degrees, and can be present even in nonliving arrangements of matter, to varying degrees.
Last week, the director of the National Weather Service (NWS), Louis W. Uccellini, visited his alma mater as the Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences inaugural Distinguished Alumni Award winner. Uccellini presented the story of the intellectual and professional journey that led him to the leadership of this extraordinarily important government agency … Uccellini’s visit reminded us all, we strive to do great things at Wisconsin and we usually succeed.
Members of the University of Wisconsin Band played to a packed gym on Saturday at Mauston High School.
If you don’t already, odds are that someday you’ll hold a newspaper at arm’s length to read it more clearly. This incredibly common eye condition, called presbyopia, generally affects those in their 50s and older. It occurs when eye muscles begin to age and harden, making it more difficult to focus on nearby objects.
University of Wisconsin-Madison scientists have developed a way for New Yorker magazine to use crowd-sourcing to judge captions in its weekly cartoon caption contest.
Noted: Different recovery times. Richard Davidson, a neuroscientist at the University of Wisconsin, has spent decades studying the relationship between our emotions and various brain structures and neurological systems. In his 2012 book The Emotional Life of Your Brain, Davidson notes that people vary widely with regard to the speed with which we recover from adverse experiences. (Davidson calls this quality “resilience,” but I prefer “recovery time,” as I use the former term more broadly when discussing our overall response to stress and challenges.) Davidson’s research demonstrates that people with different recovery times even show different patterns of activity in their brains.
While it wasn’t written about the Vietnam War, the song “We Gotta Get Out of This Place” by The Animals became an iconic song at the time, and now signifies the era.
The recent “retirement” of one of my favorite poets of all time, Ron Wallace, from the UW–Madison English Department reawakened a personal source of civic pride: Madison as a serious poetry city.
New University of Wisconsin-Madison research shows that the snowshoe hare’s habitat in northern Wisconsin is shrinking, in part due to shifts in climate.
Quoted: Barbara Wolfe, Ph.D., a professor of public affairs, economics, and population health services at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, who wasn’t involved with the study, said environment could play a role in health as well.
University of Wisconsin Madison history professor William Jones said such arguments have initially seen success in other states, although they have ultimately fallen short when the case has been appealed. He pointed to the most recent challenge of Indiana’s right-to-work law, which was struck down, but then eventually upheld by that state’s Supreme Court.
A nearly 400-year-old collection of William Shakespeare’s plays will be on display this fall in Madison.
Officials at the University of Wisconsin-Madison plan to award a graduate student who died last year a rare posthumous degree.
UW-Madison chancellor Rebecca Blank said Friday that the university won’t lay off tenured faculty so long as it remains a leading research school.“Top-ranked universities always take care of their tenured faculty,” Blank said in a blog post. “As long as this university is a top-ranked institution we will behave like other top-ranked universities. That means we don’t layoff tenured faculty. Period.”
The First Folio, a printed collection of William Shakespeare’s plays that dates back to 1623, is scheduled to arrive in November. Shipped under conditions of top security and high-tech climate control, the book will be on display for nearly six weeks at the Chazen Museum of Art, with UW-Madison Libraries and UW Arts Institute as co-presenters.
When he died last October at age 30, Craig Schuff, a quadriplegic, was just a few neutrons short of completing his doctorate in electrical engineering at UW-Madison. He had already earned a master’s degree in nuclear engineering, already passed a qualifying examination and prelims, and had already begun preparing to defend his thesis. He had interrupted his graduate studies in the College of Engineering once before, in 2011, when a Lake Monona diving accident damaged his spinal cord and left him motionless, but no less motivated. Now, in death, Schuff rejoins the elite: In May at UW-Madison graduation ceremonies, his parents will accept for him a posthumous doctorate in electrical engineering.
Noted: The Lehigh Valley Pennsylvania Dutch population was made up of “church people, or fancy Dutch” associated with Lutheran and Union churches, says Mark Louden, a professor at University of Wisconsin-Madison. Among them, the language is pretty much gone, diluted out as children grew up, went to college and married non-Dutch-speaking people.
University of Wisconsin-Madison sophomore Ashley Hampton is, in many ways, a lot like other students on her campus. She’s in sorority, is steadily working toward a degree in community and nonprofit leadership, and loves to travel and spend time with friends.
Quoted: Clifton Conrad, a professor of education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said the situation at Chicago State foreshadows what many small universities could experience in the coming years, as state budgets contract and less money is designated for higher education.
University of Wisconsin-Madison officials have chosen 14 research projects to receive an average of about $300,000 each over the next two years as part of its UW2020: WARF Discovery Initiative.
Badgers, which have long been as synonymous with Wisconsin as cheese, will soon be burrowing into a new home at Vilas Zoo.Zoo, Dane County and UW-Madison officials announced plans Wednesday for a larger exhibit to house the zoo’s two current badgers, with a tentative goal of opening in time for the fall football season. Fundraising efforts are underway for the Wisconsin Heritage Exhibit, with $350,000 of the required $650,000 already collected.
Former UW-Madison chancellor Donna Shalala will be keynote speaker at a global summit for women at the university.
Quoted: “This primary matters a lot for both parties,” Kathy Cramer, a political science professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said in the wake of Tuesday’s election. “When you’re making a calculation whether it’s worth it to stand in line, the message you were getting this time around was yes.”
Humans have played a key role in moving species to new locations, resulting in an exponential spread of species over the last century. Many of these nonnative species never become invasive – that is, damaging – and a few may even have positive effects on ecology or human economy. However, many, such as Asian carp in North American rivers and Burmese pythons in the Florida Everglades, cause enormous ecological and economic damage.
Patrick Sims, vice provost for diversity and climate at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, decided last week that he had had enough.When he received a picture of a racial slur, scrawled on notebook paper, that had reportedly been slipped under a freshman’s dorm-room door, Mr. Sims did something unusual for a campus administrator. He recorded a video.
In spite of Tuesday’s record turnout, the wait to vote at UW-Madison polling locations remained manageable, officials there said.University officials stressed that delays for the campus locations didn’t hit the one and two hour waits seen at UW-Green Bay and Marquette University at some points Tuesday.“The city clerk’s office tells us the max wait time was about 15 minutes,” spokeswoman Meredith McGlone said.
Quoted: “I think the deepest concern that talk radio people have about Trump is not so much that he’s rude and will say politically incorrect things, but that they don’t buy that he’s a bona fide conservative,” says University of Wisconsin public affairs professor Donald Moynihan.
A UW-Madison professor has developed an exercise plan that gives seniors a chance to maintain their independence in their own homes. The program — called PALS, or Physical Activity for Life for Seniors — is being offered at sites around Wisconsin, with more sites on a waiting list.
Quoted: “Sanders needs to start winning by a couple of touchdowns for the media to start taking his narrative seriously,” says Michael Wagner, an elections specialist at the University of Wisconsin Madison.
Quoted: “Even when Scott Walker was battling the unions [in 2011] and 100,000 people were marching around the capitol, those were family-friendly events,” says Barry Burden, a political scientist at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. “There were massive policy disagreements, but not a lot of personal insults.”
Quoted: The renewed focus on bread-and-butter Democratic principles, especially within organized labor, arrived in step with Sanders’ message, the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Barry Burden, director of its Elections Research Center, told CNN.
The discovery of gravitational waves, the last piece of Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity to be proved, certainly amounts to the biggest discovery in physics since the discovery of the Higgs boson a few years ago. So, the Perpetual Notion Machine invited UW-Madison astrophysicist Peter Timbie on the show this week to explain gravitational waves and what this discovery means for future research. And not only that, it appears that gravitational waves have a sound all its own, which we heard on the show.
Barry Burden, director of the Elections Research Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, talks to Renee Montagne about which candidates students, unions, rural and urban voters support.
The Wisconsin presidential primaries on Tuesday will be won by the candidates who best harness Wisconsin’s politics of resentment.
Called the Agriculture Dean’s Residence but also the Fred House, the Lake Dormer House, Building No. 0072 and “the house formerly known as 10 Babcock Drive,” the 120-year-old Queen Anne at 620 Babcock Drive has Gothic details and no known ghosts. UW-Madison’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (CALS) is seeking to raise $2 million for interior renovations to turn its 10,000 square feet into a center for agriculture-related student organizations.
According to Barry Burden, a political science professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, it comes as little surprise that Sanders is appealing to some sections of the population.
Quoted: “I think it is incorrect to look at the data and conclude that those voters are more ignorant,” Katherine Cramer, a political science professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said in an interview. “Instead, there’s a strong correlation between having a college degree or not, and your economic situation in life.”
The powwow is organized by Wunk Sheek, a UW-Madison student group that promotes awareness of indigeneous issues and cultures. The event is free and open to all, said Emily Nelis, a Wunk Sheek leader and one of the event’s coordinators.
Quoted: “With bloodstream infections you will often get fever, shaking, chills,” said Dr. Nasia Safdar, an infectious disease specialist with University of Wisconsin Hospitals and Clinics, in a March 9 interview on Wisconsin Public Radio’s “Central Time.” “If the infection is in a particular body site like the skin, you might see redness or inflammation of the skin. If it’s a pneumonia you might get respiratory symptoms. But it’s not something I would consider to be a low-grade or subtle infection. It’s usually fairly significant, fairly apparent.”
Quoted: “In the Republican race, treatment of women has become a more salient issue this week,” University of Wisconsin-Madison political science professor Barry Burden told ABC News.
Quoted: “I would expect Cruz to win the primary unless something dramatic happens the next few days,” said Barry Burden, a political science professor at University of Wisconsin. “He’s got the wind at his back and a lot of the establishment behind him.’’
Tony Granato, Don Granato and Mark Osiecki all enjoyed jobs that were stable and fulfilling.
Quoted: Still, Barry Burden, a political-science professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said the state has too few African-American voters to put Mrs. Clinton over the top.
Quoted: “He sensed that the abortion comment was one step too far,” said Barry Burden, director of the Elections Research Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “He was going to offend both the moderate and the conservatives on social issues. And if you got both of those wings in turmoil, it’s going to be tough to do well.”
Chill the champagne, IceCube will stay frozen for another five years.
Quoted: “What we have now is this incredible body of anthropological studies that also happens to be extremely entertaining and very funny,” says Jim Healy, who runs the University of Wisconsin’s Cinematique program, dedicated to connoisseurs of obscure movies. “If you want to see how a certain demographic looked and behaved in 1986, watch Heavy Metal Parking Lot.”
A new study of a tiny organism that has infiltrated nearly two dozen Wisconsin lakes is the latest example of the expensive fight Great Lakes states are facing with the spread of aquatic invasive species.
Instead of gathering dust in a storage unit, boxes of articles and photos by a late Wisconsin State Journal reporter that detail one of the biggest transition periods for agriculture in Wisconsin are becoming resources for students at UW-Madison.
Noted: An even bigger fix is in order, according to Bill Tracy, an agronomist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “This is where the Secretary of the Future would come in,” he said.Tracy said we need to think critically about having corn and soybeans as the nation’s biggest crops. There’s not only the problem of nitrate pollution from fertilizing corn to worry about, but there’s also soil erosion.
EDEN PRAIRIE, Minn. – As National Distracted Driving Awareness Month begins in April, a Twin Cities father released a book detailing his research on how to fix the epidemic.
A recent study conducted by researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison found that the economic and ecological impact of invasive species in the state’s inland lakes has been greatly underestimated.
The furor from the Planned Parenthood sting videos is driving a tide of bills, which range from outright bans on research using aborted tissue to prohibitions on donating the tissue. Story quotes UW-Madison’s Alta Charo and Robert Golden.
Noted: The current study and previous research suggest that we can no longer think of our ancestors as interbreeding with other hominins only once, said John Hawks, professor of anthropology at University of Wisconsin-Madison. “It is happening repeatedly, wherever modern humans are coming into contact with these archaic people,” said Hawks, who was not involved in the current study.
Kathy Cramer didn’t set out to be the bard of bifurcation in Wisconsin. She just wanted to listen to people talk. “I always wanted to study Wisconsin,” says Cramer, 45, a Grafton native and director of the Morgridge Center for Public Service at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.
Facing a room full of students the day after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, professor James Baughman distilled decades of studying the history of mass communications into one assignment: Write about it, he told the class. Like Ernie Pyle writing about the Allied invasion of Normandy during World War II. Or CBS News radio correspondent Edward Murrow reporting from London as the Nazis’ bombs fell. Baughman “just came in and scrapped everything and said this is what you’re doing,” recalled Jason Stein, a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reporter who took one of Baughman’s classes as a graduate student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
In a conference room overlooking Lake Mendota, pictures of tumors and lists of gene names flash on a screen. Doctors discuss treatments, not based on where in the body a patient’s cancer started but on genetic mutations in their tumors. The doctors are working as a “molecular tumor board,” a new service by UW Carbone Cancer Center in Madison to help doctors and patients at UW Health and around Wisconsin benefit from a hot topic in cancer: precision medicine.
Both candidates have “a real shot” at winning Wisconsin, Barry Burden, a University of Wisconsin-Madison political science professor, told Newsweek. Clinton and Sanders have been effectively tied in polling since the beginning of the year, and there’s not much indication that voters are indecisive about their candidate. Midwestern states have proven to be the battleground between the two candidates—they effectively tied in Iowa, she won by a hair in Illinois, he won Michigan and she took Ohio. “Wisconsin is at the intersection of all these states,” Burden says. “That sets up a real showdown.”
Noted: “There are now a plethora of data showing that when individuals engage in generous and altruistic behavior, they actually activate circuits in the brain that are key to fostering well-being,” Richard Davidson, founder of the Center for Healthy Minds at the University of Wisconsin and author of The Emotional Life of Your Brain, has explained.
Noted: Mark Sidel, professor of law and public affairs at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and author of More Secure, Less Free? Antiterrorism Policy and Civil Liberties after September 11, doesn’t think much of Cruz’s suggestion, either.
