“Right out of the gate, we have the potential for stronger storms, and we also have the potential for storms that strengthen very, very quickly,” James Kossin, an adjunct professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and consultant for the climate risk nonprofit First Street Foundation, told The Hill.
Tag: featured
Some Surprising Places Are at Risk of Devastating Urban Wildfires like Maui’s
That combination is ominous for extreme fire, says Jason Otkin, an atmospheric scientist at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Because flash droughts occur abruptly in places where they are least expected, they pose unique challenges. “People have little to no time to prepare for their adverse effects,” Otkin says.
He Needed a Liver Transplant. But Did the Risks Outweigh the Reward?
Dr. Michael Lucey, professor of gastroenterology and hepatology at the University of Wisconsin’s medical school, said those resources are an “integral part” of performing more comprehensive psychosocial evaluations.
Biden administration targets 10 drugs for Medicare cost negotiations
Americans on private insurance as well. But the greatest beneficiaries may be the poorest seniors: Studying Medicare claims data, researchers at the University of Wisconsin’s School of Medicine and Public Health and the University of Southern California’s Schaeffer Center for Health Policy & Economics projected that patients had filled 50,000 more insulin prescriptions for $35 each month between January and April — and about 20,000 of them might never have been filled without the law. Rebecca Myerson, a professor who helped write the study, said the data suggest the IRA is providing some financial relief to patients who would have “otherwise gone without” insulin.
Uncured bacon isn’t any healthier. Here’s why.
Without these compounds, meat would spoil. “Nitrite is especially important because it has inhibitory action against microorganisms and specifically against spores of Clostridium botulinum [which cause botulism], should they be present,” says Jeff J. Sindelar, a meat science professor and extension meat specialist at the University of Wisconsin at Madison.
Lawsuit Targets Wisconsin’s Swiss Cheese-Like Districts
“It could be that this gives the court a completely neutral basis for deciding the maps are no good,” said Kenneth R. Mayer, a University of Wisconsin-Madison political science professor.
The Clean Energy Future Is Arriving Faster Than You Think
“The world has produced nearly three billion solar panels at this point, and every one of those has been an opportunity for people to try to improve the process,” said Gregory Nemet, a solar power expert at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “And all of those incremental improvements add up to something very dramatic.”
Maui fires: Impact of climate change, drought, hurricane winds
Maui experienced a two-category increase in drought severity in just three weeks from May to June, with that rapid intensification fitting the definition of a flash drought, said Jason Otkin, an atmospheric scientist at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.Otkin co-authored an April study that shows that flash droughts are becoming more common as Earth warms by human-caused climate change. A 2016 flash drought was connected to unusual wildfires in Gatlinburg, Tennessee, he said.
Kimchi and the wonder of fermented foods
HUANG: So here’s what’s happening. The salt draws water out of the cabbage leaves, breaking down cell walls, and that releases sugars that feed the kimchi-making microbes. I called up fermentation professor Victor Ujor at the University of Wisconsin. He loves fermentation, and he loves talking about microbes.
VICTOR UJOR: So I think they are such beautiful things.
Are some candidates too old to be running for president? How age will play a role in the 2024 campaign
Barry Burden, a political science professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, argued that, even if Biden’s age has not affected his ability to do the job, “some members of the public may nonetheless believe he is not mentally sharp enough or that he lacks the necessary physical stamina.”
What Kai Cenat’s chaotic giveaway in Union Park reveals about influencer culture
NPR spoke with Megan Moreno, an adolescent medicine physician and researcher at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, about the unique impact that content creators can have on young people, and how it can lead to events like Cenat’s meetup. Here’s what she told us: On the unique nature of internet celebrity with fans:For some followers, the connection to that content creator can feel so strong and so personal that they’ll start to develop what is sometimes called a parasocial relationship.
Joking around with kids isn’t just fun, it’s vital
So calibrate your comedy accordingly. You’ll know if your approach is on the right track because laughs never lie. “Interactions with your child that are filled with mirth should be unscripted and spontaneous,” says Dipesh Navsaria, associate professor of pediatrics and human development and family studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a spokesperson for the American Academy of Pediatrics. “They should involve a back-and-forth where parent and child are ‘riffing off’ each other.”
The new liberal majority on the Wisconsin Supreme Court is off to a tense start
“The court has been a contentious place, by some measures, for a decade,” said Michael Wagner, a political scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “But I do think it’s in the court’s interest to demonstrate how the decisions they make are rooted in the law and not rooted in politics. “It’s a difficult thing to do,” he added.
The NIH halts a research project. Is it self-censorship?
Even though the NIH has had to navigate political rapids for decades, including enduring controversy over stem cell research and surveys on the sexual behavior of teens, this is a particularly fraught moment. “It is caught up in a larger debate about who gets to decide what is truthful information these days,” said Alta Charo, a professor emerita of law and bioethics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who has advised the NIH in the past.
Naked Florida man found next to body in Maryland. Was it murder?
“The jury is trying to try to figure out what the defendant was thinking in the moment, and that can be really hard to know,” said Cecelia Klingele, a University of Wisconsin law professor and expert on self-defense laws.
July Was Likely Earth’s Hottest Month on Record
“The reason that setting new temperature records is a big deal is that we are now being challenged to find ways to survive through temperatures hotter than any of us have ever experienced before,” University of Wisconsin–Madison climate scientist Andrea Dutton tells Seth Borenstein of the Associated Press. “Soaring temperatures place ever-increasing strains not just on power grids and infrastructure, but on human bodies that are not equipped to survive some of the extreme heat we are already experiencing.”
Journalism Is a Public Good and Should Be Publicly Funded
Other journalism models—including nonprofits such as MinnPost, collaborative efforts such Broke in Philly and citizen journalism—have had some success in fulfilling what Lewis Friedland of the University of Wisconsin–Madison called “critical community information needs” in a chapter of the 2016 book The Communication Crisis in America, and How to Fix It. Friedland classified those needs as falling in eight areas: emergencies and risks, health and welfare, education, transportation, economic opportunities, the environment, civic information and political information.
Climate change is hitting close to home for nearly 2 out of 3 Americans, poll finds
“It’s really hard to bring people on different ends of the political spectrum together on this issue,” said Nan Li, an assistant professor in the Department of Life Sciences Communication at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Bots Are Grabbing Students’ Personal Data When They Complete Assignments
“We behave differently if we know we’re being watched. We get timid, we get shy, we spend a lot of our cognition on what people are going to think. … That’s not what we want” in higher ed, said Dorothea Salo, a teaching faculty member at University of Wisconsin at Madison’s Information School. This is especially the case in today’s political climate, where exploring topics like gender identity and abortion can put people in danger.
Phoenix Heatwave Poised to Break Record for American Cities
Another aspect of heat waves that disproportionately affects certain communities is the urban heat island effect, where cities are warming because of buildings and lack of trees and greenspace, said Dr. Jonathan Patz, a professor of health and the environment at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Environmental markets should guide federal land use
Allowing markets to operate on federal land would put different American values on more equal footing, thereby reducing conflict. This might harm some political and special interests in the short run, but the change will be a win-win for free markets and for the environment.
-Dominic P. Parker is an economist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, a senior fellow at the Property and Environment Research Center, and the Ilene and Morton Harris visiting fellow at Stanford’s Hoover Institutio
Second Alzheimer’s drug to slow disease’s progression may be approved in the US this year
“The modest benefits would likely not be questioned by patients, clinicians, or payers, if amyloid antibodies were low risk, inexpensive and simple to administer,” wrote UCSF’s Dr. Eric Widera, SUNY Upstate Medical University’s Dr. Sharon Brangman and the University of Wisconsin’s Dr. Nathaniel Chin. “However, they are none of these.”
Rasmussen Reports Is Using Its Polls To Push Conspiracy Theories
That level of influence is “sort of like Walmart, in a way,” said Barry Burden, director of the Elections Research Center and a political science professor at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.
Nearly 1 in 10 U.S. children have been diagnosed with a developmental disability, CDC reports
“It’s been a constant increase, it seems, with these national surveys, every time they measure it, it seems to go up,” said Maureen Durkin, chair of University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Department of Population Health Sciences.
Climate change ratchets up the stress on farmworkers on the front lines of a warming Earth
Climate change makes extreme heat more likely and more intense. Farm work is particularly dangerous because workers raise their internal body temperature by moving, lifting and walking at the same time they’re exposed to high heat and humidity, said Dr. Jonathan Patz, chair of health and the environment at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Greece migrant boat disaster: Mapping a tragedy on coast guard’s watch
Till Wagner, an assistant professor of atmospheric and oceanic sciences at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, Navid Constantinou, a physical oceanography research fellow at the Australian National University and Ian Eisenman, a professor of climate science and physical oceanography at the University of California at San Diego, used weather and ocean current data obtained from MarineTraffic to estimate the drift velocity using a method described in a 2022 study.
UW-Madison IceCube researchers produce first neutrino image of Milky Way
New data from the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s IceCube neutrino detector has led to the first ever image of our Milky Way galaxy using the subatomic “ghost particles.” An international team of researchers also found the Milky way is a neutrino desert compared to others.
Scientists Find Ghostly Neutrino Particles From the Milky Way
“Only cosmic rays make neutrinos, so if you see neutrinos, you see cosmic ray sources,” Francis Halzen, a member of the IceCube team and physicist at the University of Wisconsin, tells Popular Science. “The goal of neutrino physics, the prime goal, is to solve the 100-year-old cosmic ray problem.”
2 Leading Theories of Consciousness Square Off
Dr. Melanie Boly, a neurologist at the University of Wisconsin, came onstage to explain the other contender: the Integrated Information Theory. What makes consciousness special, Dr. Boly argued, is the way it manages to feel at once rich and unified over time.
A.I. Is Coming for Mathematics, Too
These days there is no shortage of gadgetry for optimizing our lives — diet, sleep, exercise. “We like to attach stuff to ourselves to make it a little easier to get things right,” Jordan Ellenberg, a mathematician at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said during a workshop break. A.I. gadgetry might do the same for mathematics, he added: “It’s very clear that the question is, What can machines do for us, not what will machines do to us.”
Neutrinos from the Milky Way finally detected
In 2013, IceCube detected the first cosmic neutrinos. In the years since, they’ve been able to narrow neutrino sources down to individual galaxies. “We have been detecting extragalactic neutrinos for 10 years now,” says Francis Halzen, a physicist at the University of Wisconsin and a member of the IceCube collaboration.
Astronomers Just Detected An Important High-Energy Particle In the Milky Way for the First Time
“We now hope to have established the multi-messenger techniques that will allow us to pinpoint the cosmic ray sources in the galaxy which, arguably, represents one of the oldest problems in astronomy,” Francis Halzen, IceCube principal investigator and physicist at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, tells Inverse.
IceCube detector finds neutrinos from the Milky Way for the first time
“It took us 10 years to find the galactic plane in neutrinos,” says IceCube head Francis Halzen at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “It’s totally counterintuitive. It’s like if you went outside at night and saw a sky bright in active, distant galaxies but no Milky Way.”
In a First, Scientists See Neutrinos Emitted by the Milky Way
IceCube had already definitively detected neutrinos streaming in from outside the Milky Way, but it couldn’t be said with certainty that any of them came from within the galaxy, says Francis Halzen, lead investigator of the project and a physicist at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. This was rather strange, considering the proximity of the Milky Way’s disk (in fact, our solar system is embedded in it) and the high likelihood that neutrinos form there.
A ‘loneliness loop’: How the American culture of busyness can increase isolation
Christine Whelan, clinical professor of Consumer Science at the School of Human Ecology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, says an individual’s work ethic is at the core of what it means to be an American. You demonstrate to other people you are pulling yourself up by the bootstraps and are busy, indicating a sense of success. “Affluence and busyness seem to go together as status symbols,” Whelan said in a telephone interview. “It is easy to criticize it, but the culture demands it from us. We need to be careful about individual actions versus cultural norms.”
Cancer drug shortages could put chemo patient treatment at risk
“We had to make some decisions about who we were going to prioritize during this difficult time,” said oncologist Dr. Kari Wisinski with the University of Wisconsin Health, who told CBS News she had never seen a shortage this serious.
The ‘Forbidden Planet’ That Escaped a Fiery Doom
Melinda Soares-Furtado, a NASA Hubble fellow at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who studies planetary engulfment, called the study an “exciting” example of the “unexpected properties” revealed in star-planet interactions. She suggested that future research about the system involve experts on blue stragglers, a class of luminous stars that are thought to be formed by stellar mergers.
Humans have significant impact on atmospheric CO2 | Fact check
However, in the context of climate change, the proportion of CO2 in the atmosphere is less relevant than the total amount of CO2 in the atmosphere, Grant Petty, a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and author of two textbooks on atmospheric physics, told USA TODAY in an email.
Tropical rainforests are still vanishing at an alarming rate
Brazil, again, offers a strong example: Some companies that slaughter cows for beef say they’re monitoring their supply chains to ensure that they aren’t driving deforestation; they’ve agreed to only source cattle from suppliers without recent forest loss. Yet those same cattle may have traveled through several other farms where deforestation happened before reaching the slaughterhouses’ direct suppliers, according to Amintas Brandão Jr., a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Wisconsin Madison. So in reality, those companies are implicated in environmental harm and misleading consumers.
How do you know if your water is safe from forever chemicals?
The EPA’s proposed limit amounts to one drop of water in twenty Olympic-size swimming pools, said Christy Remucal, an associate professor of civil and environmental engineering at the University of Wisconsin.
Tricky survival tactics of the flu virus uncovered in new study
The two main viruses that cause the flu — influenza A and B — have existed for centuries and, although some antiviral advances have been made, these bugs have proven extremely difficult to eradicate. Now, researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW-Madison) have identified at least one secret to the success of influenza A, a finding that might arm researchers with another way to combat it.
Why Some Americans Buy Guns
Nick Buttrick, a psychologist at University of Wisconsin-Madison, wanted to know whether firearms provided similar comfort to gun owners, serving as a sort of psychological security blanket.
Many Future Storms May Dump 50% More Rain, Overwhelming City Drains
But plenty of America’s infrastructure was laid down even earlier, meaning it was designed to specifications that are probably even more obsolete, said Daniel B. Wright, an associate professor of civil and environmental engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Unpaid internships have long been criticized. Why are they still around?
Matthew Hora, founding director of the Center for Research on College-Workforce Transitions at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said that he “wholeheartedly” endorses a ban on unpaid internships and associated training programs, but he isn’t optimistic that they are going away anytime soon. Some disciplines, like social work, make them mandatory for graduation; employers in some fields, such as the arts, have limited resources; and others, he said, pointing to government, seem to “ignore the unethical nature of free labor.
A linguist on why talking can sound like singing
To put this practice into context, I spoke to two experts: Langston Wilkins, expert in hip-hop and assistant professor at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, and Dan Charnas, historian of hip-hop and associate arts professor at New York University. Both confirmed that the use of repetition to add musicality to spoken vocal samples is a common practice in hip-hop, but neither was familiar with Deutsch’s framing of the phenomenon as an auditory illusion.
How to tell good advice from not-so-good advice
Humankind has long sought crowd-sourced answers to problems. From the 300-year history of the advice column to the plethora of advisers at our employ — spiritual, political, financial, emotional, professional, legal — people are inclined to make better choices when those actions have been guided by another. “We all have biases,” says Lyn Van Swol, a professor of communication science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, “and if you can meld your perspective with another good source of information, you’re starting to cancel out some of your biases.”
Experts say influential group’s guidance on CTE is too weak
“There are researchers out there who, rightfully so, want really strong data. We all should be striving for very strong evidence, but it’s very hard to come by in environmental exposure cases like this,” said neuroscientist Julie Stamm, a clinical assistant professor in the Department of Kinesiology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who was not involved in the consensus statement. She agreed that cohort studies will yield the best evidence regarding CTE, “but that’s going to take decades,” she said.
To fight berry-busting fruit flies, researchers focus on sterilizing the bugs
Lyric Bartholomay, a professor in the School of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who studies integrated pest management and public health entomology who was not part of the study, said “increasingly tailored genetic approaches” will be necessary in the future to protect crops and people from pests, especially as insecticide resistance increases.
Aspiring Fathers Open Up About the Emotional Toll of Fertility Issues
Plus, while the impact of age on a couple’s fertility has historically focused on the woman, “there has been a lot of data gathered over the last 10 years that indicates that, as men age, their fertility potential does decline over time,” said Daniel H. Williams, a urologist who specializes in male infertility at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health.
Cancer drug shortages highlight supply chain vulnerabilities
“This is the first time I’ve ever experienced drug rationing in my career,” said Marina Sharifi, medical oncologist at the University of Wisconsin’s Carbone Cancer Center.
The Simple Way to Fight Aging, According to Experts
Exercise can help your memory and learning ability, too. Moderate-intensity exercise is linked to an increase in cerebral blood flow and brain glucose metabolism, which are connected to cognitive functions, says University of Wisconsin neuroscientist Ozioma Okonkwo, who co-wrote two studies on the subject.
Mesoscale Convective Systems: The Science Behind These Thunderstorm Clusters
An MCS is a prolific lightning generator. A late-April 2014 MCS along the Gulf Coast produced 6,076 cloud-to-ground lightning strikes in just 15 minutes, according to the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s CIMSS Satellite blog.
The uncanny valley, explained: Why you might find AI creepy
It’s hard to say, says Bilge Mutlu, a professor of computer science at the University of Wisconsin Madison. While the researchers expect that with repeated exposure, the uncanny valley reaction might diminish, Mutlu says that for him, the feeling has only gotten stronger.
Good journalism can safeguard against AI disinformation, UW prof says
Dietram Scheufele, faculty researcher and chair in the Department of Life Sciences Communication at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, has spent decades studying the ways in which the public responds to new technologies.
Why does college tuition have so many extra fees?
In many states, there’s either political pressure to keep tuition low or flat, or there are mandates, said Nick Hillman, a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s School of Education. For example, he said Wisconsin temporarily kept tuition frozen for nearly a decade.
What happened to the common cold? Post-Covid, it feels like every sniffle needs a name.
Rhinovirus C, one of the most common cold-causing viruses, can lead to bacterial pneumonia in children who have or are susceptible to asthma, said Ann Palmenberg, a researcher and professor with the Institute for Molecular Virology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Newspapers Printed Unabomber’s Manifesto in 1995. It’s Still Fiercely Debated.
“I think today we have more conversations about minimizing harm, and I think that’s a good thing,” said Kathleen Culver, director of the Center for Journalism Ethics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Young Americans brace for ‘unprecedented’ return of student loan payments
The original pause to student loan payments originated from the early days of the pandemic, according to University of Wisconsin Madison professor Nick Hillman.
A dude and a desk: Why women really don’t get to host late-night TV
Mauk, a former Standards and Practices executive at Fox, says she spoke with Mary Huelsbeck, the archivist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (where Mauk completed her doctoral program) out of a desire to “prove that this is not the first time someone had spoken out and used their platform as a late-night television talk show host to do good political activation.” (Mauk’s husband, producer Hayden Mauk, used to work with Jimmy Kimmel.)
Homo naledi species, discovered in South Africa, may have buried its dead and carved symbols, studies suggest
These creatures had some traits in common with modern humans, like legs made for walking upright and hands that could work with objects, said University of Wisconsin-Madison anthropologist John Hawks, a member of the research team. But other features looked more ancient, including their small brains.