University of Wisconsin–Madison

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Curiosities: Is it safe to reuse plastic knives and forks?

Single-use kitchen plastics — such things as plastic eating utensils, cups and containers from cottage cheese, sour cream, chip dip, margarine, and milk — are ubiquitous and it may seem environmentally sensible to wash and reuse them. “Upon exposure to detergents and hot water, the plastic material can begin to degrade, allowing chemicals to leach …

Curiosities: Is it true that cell phone use can cause health problems?

The major concern with the electromagnetic radiation from cell phones is brain cancer, but most studies find “nothing definitive,” says Bruce Thomadsen, a professor of medical physics and human oncology at UW-Madison.   The issue is very difficult to study for many reasons. For example, cell phone technology changes; phone users devote a varying amount …

To future archaeologists, old technology is beautiful technology

A couple of dozen students sit on plastic tarps under the trees at the edge of the Eagle Heights Community Gardens, at the west end of the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus. Their professor – a noted archaeologist – faces them, sitting on his own tarp, much as he would while supervising a dig in his specialty area, South Asia. Within arm’s reach, UW-Madison archaeology professor Jonathan Mark Kenoyer has some raw materials of ancient technology: boxes of arrows, stone tools, horns, hunks of obsidian and flint, cords, a chalkboard and a box of Band-Aids.