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Yi Fuxian, Critic of China’s Birth Policy, Returns as an Invited Guest

New York Times

BEIJING — Eight thousand miles is a long way to fly someone so he can tell you you’re wrong. That’s what awaits Chinese officials on Friday when Yi Fuxian, a scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, speaks at a panel on China’s population policies at the Boao Forum, an annual gathering of hundreds of politicians, businesspeople, opinion leaders and journalists.

Study details high cost of invasive species in lakes

Minnesota Public Radio News

A new study says invasive species in lakes cause significant economic damage. The study examined the spiny water flea invasion of a single Wisconsin lake and calculated the damage to the lake’s water quality at $140 million. While the study focused on one lake, it points to the need for more data about the economic impact of invasive species, said study author Jake Walsh, a Ph.D. student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

UW-Madison’s Keisha Lindsay works to help students see how identity plays in politics

Capital Times

“Intersectionality” may sound like an arcane academic theory, but Keisha Lindsay says the term might be closer to home than many believe. It refers to the way people’s identities — gender, race, class — intersect to shape their experiences, particularly the experience of oppression … Lindsay, an assistant professor in political science and gender and women’s studies at UW-Madison, says her students sometimes are surprised to realize the ways in which it applies to them.

Wisconsin leads the way in the art of glass

Big Ten Network

It’s hotter than molten lava, constantly moving and requires artisans to work in a careful precision with their tools, their space and each other. It’s glass, and no other university has shaped its future as an artistic medium longer than the University of Wisconsin.

Taking the online medicine

The Economist

“Never tried sharing data like this before,” said the tweet. “Feels like walking into a country for the first time. Exciting, but don’t know what to expect.”David O’Connor of the University of Wisconsin-Madison was announcing his decision on February 14th to post online data from his laboratory’s latest experiment.

Student brewers at UW-Madison selected for another round of commercial production

Wisconsin State Journal

A trio of student brewers from a food and beverage fermentation class were named winners Wednesday of the second-annual Campus Craft Brewery contest. The winning beer, an American wheat ale with white and red wheat, will now be commercially brewed and distributed throughout the state by Wisconsin Brewing Co. in Verona, sponsor of the contest, which is designed to prepare students for work in the food and beverage industry.

Madison’s Atlantis: The Lost City

Madison Magazine

The peaceful atmosphere of the UW–Madison Arboretum seems an unlikely site for a city rocked by scandal, war and nature’s cruel grip. Yet tucked within the Arboretum is Madison’s own Atlantis, its lost city.

More visibility with #TheRealUW may be mixed blessing

Badger Herald

With many students using #TheRealUW to voice their experiences with racial prejudice on campus, a discrimination expert said there are caveats that come with greater media attention.

University of Wisconsin psychology professor Markus Brauer, an expert on discrimination, said greater visibility means students’ perceptions of racial prejudice on campus will have a concrete impact on the racial climate.

Can your address predict a premature death?

CNN (via Channel3000.com)

Rural counties have higher rates of smoking, obesity, child poverty and teen births, as well as higher numbers of uninsured adults than their urban counterparts, according to the report, a collaboration between the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute. Large urban counties have lower smoking and obesity rates, fewer injury deaths and more residents who attended some college.

“What we think is going on here is that … in rural areas, there is a smaller population, fewer businesses, fewer taxes — and they’re struggling to offer as many opportunities as urban,” said lead researcher Bridget Catlin [senior scientist and director of MATCH]. “All of this has a significant impact on health.”

Global investors remain committed to real estate

IPE Real Estate

Quoted: Erwan Quintin, associate professor at Wisconsin School of Business, said liquidity was a concern, as were a shortage of opportunities. Nevertheless, conviction plays a role, he said: “People are investing in those sectors because they feel that the sector has a future that justifies investing in it.”

Is Agent Orange Still Causing Birth Defects?

Scientific American

Quoted: Vietnam claims its data are sound, but the disagreement has sustained tension for years, particularly about effects that might be passed down to subsequent generations. Although U.S. laboratory tests in animals show that genetic damage caused by dioxin can be passed on to offspring, susceptibility varies widely by species, and no studies have been done in humans. Whether animal findings reflect the human experience “would be notoriously difficult to prove,” cautions Robert Moore, a toxicology researcher at the University of Wisconsin– Madison.

Financial Literacy Poses Lifelong Challenges

Wisconsin Public Radio

Noted: Knowing what one should do is different from actually doing it, though. That difference is why financial security scholar J. Michael Collins, a University of Wisconsin-Extension family and consumer economics specialist, prefers the concept of “capability” over “literacy.”

Nosy fish inspires help for the eyes

Gizmag

Presbyopia is a common visual condition, in which the eye’s lens stiffens to the point that it can’t focus on close objects. Glasses, surgery and regular contact lenses do help, but they also cause a loss in contrast, sensitivity and night vision. That’s why scientists from the University of Wisconsin, Madison are developing an alternative – self-focusing contacts that are inspired by a fish.

Handful of Biologists Went Rogue and Published Directly to Internet

New York Times

Quoted: And many #ASAPbio supporters retweeted John Hawks, a paleoanthropologist from the University of Wisconsin, who found himself recently at an African university where a paper on African genomes was unavailable because it could not pay the fee for the journal where it was published, and no preprint was available. He expressed his frustration with a profanity.

MPD officers could be in mindfulness study

Channel3000.com

A possible pilot study would investigate the effects of mindfulness training on Madison police officers. MPD Chief Mike Koval says he’s working with the Center for Healthy Minds at the University of Wisconsin to plan the project to determine how mindfulness training affects a police officer’s physical and mental well-being.

UW-Madison wins Snowmobile Challenge, MacLean-Fogg Cup

The Daily Mining Gazette

Perennial frontrunner University of Wisconsin-Madison took home the MacLean-Fogg Cup Saturday as winners of the ASE Clean Snowmobile Challenge 2016 Internal Combustion-class competition. UW-Madison topped a dozen other teams in the challenge’s most competitive class.

The Promise and Peril of Cluster Hiring

Chronicle of Higher Education

Perhaps the most scrutinized cluster-hiring program has been that at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. Starting in 1998, the university has hired about 140 faculty members to fill nearly 50 clusters. Michael Bernard-Donals, vice provost for faculty and staff programs, says that early challenges, such as determining service loads or the best way to evaluate publication records, have largely been worked out. It helped, he says, that the campus rolled the program out over a five-year period, enabling leaders to iron out kinks along the way. (Subscription required.)

WATCH: Shadow Of The Moon Crosses Earth During Solar Eclipse

NPR

The Himawari geostationary satellites, operated by Japan’s meteorological agency, captured the sight of the moon’s shadow traveling across the Earth. Yasuhiko Sumida, a scientist visiting the Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, stitched them together into the video above. It was shared on the CIMSS Satellite Blog.

Recruiting from the reservation: UW boosts effort to train Native American medical students

Wisconsin State Journal

In high school near Green Bay, Justin Meyers worked at a hospital, delivering food to patients. In college, at UW-Madison, he joined Air Force ROTC. His dream of becoming a doctor won out over thoughts of being a fighter pilot. But he didn’t know any doctors like him, a Native American. At UW School of Medicine and Public Health, he talked to two Native American doctors who encouraged him to apply.

Dalai Lama brings message of peace, nonviolence to Madison

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Richard Davidson, founder of the Center for Healthy Minds and a professor of psychology and psychiatry at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said the Dalai Lama’s main message to the audience was that “we need to take responsibility now for cultivating positive qualities like kindness and compassion.”

Madison’s “little” museums offer big ideas

Wisconsin Gazette

Gone are the days when museums were dusty archives of half-forgotten lore. Wisconsin is full of bright, interactive learning environments that stress teaching important lessons over merely archiving historical minutiae, and some of the most interesting and unique examples are tightly condensed into downtown Madison.

New plan to save rare bees

WKOW TV

Noted: The Rusty Batch Bumble Bee was first discovered at the Arboretum a few years ago and researchers said it works harder than any other bee species. They said its an important part of our State’s agriculture.

“They are crucial,” said Susan Carpenter, ranger unit coordinator at the U-W Madison Arboretum. “They are important for our food system.”

Immunotherapy gives hope to cancer patients

Channel3000.com

Quoted: “These immunotherapy treatments are unquestionably game changers,” said Dr. Mark Albertini, an oncologist with the Carbone Cancer Center at UW Health.

Albertini said the courage patients like Daly showed in participating in the early trials of immunotherapy played a key role in the success now being seen.

“Those patients were both incredible and those patients were vital in getting where we are today,” Albertini said.

On Campus: Tommy Thompson among recipients of honorary UW-Madison degrees

Wisconsin State Journal

Praised by UW-Madison officials as a “dedicated promoter of the Wisconsin Idea,” former Gov. Tommy Thompson will be one of three recipients of honorary degrees from the campus this spring.Photojournalist Lynsey Addario and biochemist William J. Rutter will also receive honorary degrees during a commencement ceremony at the Kohl Center in May, officials announced last week.

‘Here And Now’: Matthew Desmond Explores Milwaukee’s Eviction Epidemic

Wisconsin Public Radio

Evictions not only put poor families out on the streets, but simultaneously set off a cascade of consequences for both the people and neighborhoods affected. In his new book, “Evicted: Poverty And Profit In The American City,” University of Wisconsin-Madison graduate and Harvard University sociology professor Matthew Desmond examines how this process plays out for families and landlords in Milwaukee’s lowest-income neighborhoods.

How To Keep Money From Messing Up Your Marriage

National Public Radio

Noted: “We know that these discussions or conflicts concerning money are difficult for couples to handle,” says Lauren Papp, a psychologist and professor at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.Papp conducted a study of 100 married couples who kept diary entries about their arguments. During the 15-day period of the study, the spouses reported squabbling more often about issues other than money — for example, the kids or household chores.

Nine common shopping myths, busted

Christian Science Monitor

Noted: Let’s get philosophical for a minute: Is the best price always the best deal? A recent study from the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Wisconsin School of Business suggests that shoppers consider a retailer’s reputation as well as its prices. Savvy shoppers will think twice before buying from a less reputable merchant.

One paycheck away from poverty

The Hill

Noted: Author Michael Collins is a professor of Public Affairs and faculty director of the Center for Financial Security, University of Wisconsin—Madison and editor of the book A Fragile Balance: Emergency Savings and Liquid Resources for Low-Income Consumers, Palgrave Macmillan.

Madison Reads Leopold at UW Arboretum

Wisconsin State Journal

“There are some who can live without wild things, and some who cannot. These essays are the delights and dilemmas of one who cannot.” With those words from conservationist and author Aldo Leopold, the start of the Foreword to “A Sand County Almanac,” naturalist Kathy Miner will kick off the annual Madison Reads Leopold event Saturday at the UW-Madison Arboretum.

Mild winter brings early allergy season

NBC15

Doctors say a mild winter mixed with an early thaw means mold allergies are back earlier this season.

“When the snow starts to melt once the ground shows up that’s when we have outdoor mold,” Adult Allergist at UW Health, Dr. Tom Puchner, says. (Puchner is clinical assistant professor of allergy and immunology.)

Even though there is snow on the ground and below freezing temperatures, Dr. Puchner says current conditions can still affect those who suffer from mold allergies.

President Obama visiting Milwaukee Thursday

WKOW TV

Noted: One of the president’s guests will be Donna Friedsam of the UW Population Health Institute.

She believes Milwaukee’s victory among 20 cities to increase health enrollment will have significant future benefits.

“It saves our employers money. It saves our communities money and it improves our quality of life overall. So, it is very important that we have people get enrolled in the coverage, so they they can get the care they need.”

Friedsam adds Milwaukee’s health coverage victory is a result of a coordinated effort throughout the city by a wide range of organizations.

Field stations in a box

Isthmus

Never mind Punxsutawney Phil. The thirteen-lined ground squirrels that hibernate in plastic drawers in the UW-Madison Biotron take their cues from Hannah Carey.

UW-Madison joins Common Application for 2017 freshman class

Wisconsin State Journal

Next fall’s class of high school seniors will have a new way to apply to UW-Madison, now that the campus has joined more than 600 other colleges and universities on the nationwide Common Application. Students will still be able to apply to UW-Madison through the University of Wisconsin System’s application process, as they have in years past, said Steve Hahn, vice provost for the Division of Enrollment Management.