UW In The News

How Could a ‘Sand Motor’ Help the Great Lakes?

Undergraduate research scholar Briana Shea is part of the team exploring this topic. The University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Undergraduate Research Scholars program gives first- and second-year students a taste of cutting-edge research in a variety of fields.

Wisconsin Supreme Court Election Latest Victory for Women

Quoted: “Strategically, politically, it was really, really effective,” said Ryan Owens, a law professor at the University of Wisconsin who heads the Tommy G. Thompson Center on Public Leadership.

$220 million building boom on UW-Madison campus will modernize chemistry and agriculture facilities

The longtime space crunch for students taking chemistry classes will finally begin to ease in a couple of years, the famous but antiquated Babcock Dairy Hall is getting a big addition and the meat science program will soon get a new building on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus.

Non-scientists can explore UW-Madison science work at annual open house this weekend

The hidden crisis on college campuses: Many students don’t have enough to eat

According to a first-of-its-kind survey released Tuesday by researchers at Temple University and the Wisconsin HOPE Lab, 36 percent of students at 66 surveyed colleges and universities do not get enough to eat, and a similar number lack a secure place to live.ADVERTISING

Take Care of Those Hammies

Quoted: “I’m definitely doing more overuse hamstring surgeries now,” says Geoffrey Baer, an orthopedic surgeon with the University of Wisconsin-Madison and team physician for the University of Wisconsin Athletic Department.

Scientists Propose Craft to Search Venus for Life

But for all the planet’s seemingly inhospitable traits, “Venus has had plenty of time to evolve life on its own,” said University of Wisconsin-Madison scientist Sanjay Limaye, who led the new study, in a press release. Limaye points to models that suggest Venus could have sustained a habitable climate with liquid water on its surface for as long as 2 billion years. “That’s much longer than is believed to have occurred on Mars,” says Limaye.

Groundwater Quality A Cause For Concern For Some Wisconsin Voters

Quoted: One of the biggest misconceptions about this issue is that the size of the farm is the main contributor to well contamination, said Becky Larson, a professor of biological systems engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and bio-waste specialist at UW-Extension.

Smiles Hide Many Messages—Some Unfriendly

“Different smiles have different impacts on people’s bodies,” said Jared D. Martin, a doctoral student who led the study in the lab of University of Wisconsin–Madison psychology professor Paula Niedenthal. Along with poker players, psychologists have long known that our facial expressions can betray our emotions. But no one has demonstrated exactly how this works, Mr. Martin said.

5 things to know about food delivery app EatStreet as its rapid national growth continues

The Madison-based food ordering and delivery app EatStreet is one of the recent success stories in the Wisconsin startup scene. The company founded in a dorm room at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2010 has become a real player in the online food ordering business across the United States. EatStreet connects diners in more than 250 cities to more than 15,000 restaurants.

As elections loom, Democrats vow not to be baited by Trump’s name-calling

Quoted: The danger for Trump’s opponents, said Dietram Scheufele, a professor of communications at the University of Wisconsin, was “letting him define the battlefield.”

New Evidence Suggests Possible Life on Venus

But for all the planet’s seemingly inhospitable traits, “Venus has had plenty of time to evolve life on its own,” said University of Wisconsin-Madison scientist Sanjay Limaye, who led the new study, in a press release. Limaye points to models that suggest Venus could have sustained a habitable climate with liquid water on its surface for as long as 2 billion years. “That’s much longer than is believed to have occurred on Mars,” says Limaye.

Hunger on campus: researchers say a quarter of U.S. college students went hungry

Jed Richardson, a scientist with the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and one of the researchers, said high-living costs, including tuition fees in some instances, might explain the results.

TV anchors decrying ‘fake’ news puts spotlight on Sinclair Broadcast Group

Quoted: TV anchors decrying ‘fake’ news puts spotlight on Sinclair Broadcast Group (with UW–Madison’s Lewis Friedland.)

Venus’ clouds could host extraterrestrial life, researchers say

The potential for Venus’ clouds to hold life was first examined in the late 1960s through a series of space probes, but lead author Sanjay Limaye of the University of Wisconsin–Madison’s Space Science and Engineering Center says the planet’s dark patches haven’t been thoroughly explored. Instruments that have tested Venus’ atmosphere in the past were “incapable of distinguishing between materials of an organic or inorganic nature,” Newsweek reports.

Who’s going to win the Amazon hustle?

“He is one of those executives who wants to be remembered as being on the right side of history,” said Thomas O’Guinn, a marketing professor at the University of Wisconsin at Madison School of Business. “Part of the quid pro quo is there will be none of this stupid gender bathroom stuff. They are going to demand that the city do everything it can to fight voter suppression. They are going to demand high attention paid to meaningful spending on the environment and more efficient greenhouse reductions.”

Dark Splotches on Venus Could Be Signs of Life

The lead author of the new study, Sanjay Limaye of the University of Wisconsin–Madison’s Space Science and Engineering Center, isn’t saying there’s life on Venus, but the new paper—a self-described “hypothesis article”—suggests we should look for signs of life in the planet’s cloudtops.

The hellish planet of Venus could hold life, study suggests

Now the astrobiologists of the University of Wisconsin’s Madison Space Science and Engineering Center say evidence of life could have been staring us in the face all along.

Portage part of history as doctor studies in first rural track for OB-GYNs

“We have to start somewhere,” the 27-year-old obstetrician-gynecologist said of her participation in the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s rural-residency program for OB-GYNs — the first such program in the nation.

Some See Bitter Wisconsin Race as Next Midterm Barometer

Quoted: While there’s no doubt that Democrats this year are more energized than Republicans, it’s dubious whether one election can be an accurate bellwether of what’s to come in November, said Ryan Owens, a law professor at the University of Wisconsin who heads the Tommy G. Thompson Center on Public Leadership.

Amazon’s HQ2 Search Is About Politics, Too

Quoted: “He is one of those executives who wants to be remembered as being on the right side of history,” said Thomas O’Guinn, a marketing professor at the University of Wisconsin school of business. “Part of the quid pro quo is there will be none of this stupid gender bathroom stuff. They are going to demand that the city do everything it can to fight voter suppression. They are going to demand high attention paid to meaningful spending on the environment and more efficient greenhouse reductions.”

Coffee cancer warning: What science says about cancer risk, coffee and acrylamide

Quoted: Amy Trenton-Dietz, public health specialist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said the California ruling contrasts with what science shows.”Studies in humans suggest that if anything, coffee is protective for some types of cancer,” she said. “As long as people are not putting a lot of sugar or sweeteners in, coffee, tea and water are the best things for people to be drinking.”

The clouds of Venus might support alien life, says study

A new study has revealed that the clouds of Venus might possibly be hosting alien life. Yes, the scientists of the study are of the notion that microbes may have evolved on Venus. Some of the models suggest that the planet once had a habitable climate and liquid water was present on its surface for about two billion years. Sanjay Limaye of the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the US, said, “That’s much longer than is believed to have occurred on Mars.”

Mexico’s fragile Lagoon of Seven Colors is threatened by development

We also saw a firsthand illustration of not-so-conscious tourism. We paid a visit to the Rapids, one of the greatest collections of stromatolites in the world, according to researchers at the University of Wisconsin, who have been studying these formations for a decade. Here, scores of swimmers ignore the warnings each day and clamber all over the fragile formations, some of which are believed to be up to 9,000 years old.

SciLine scores successes in first five months of operation

Quoted: “We need the support and engagement of the general public and of course government and private funding agencies, and it’s always useful to practice articulating what is interesting and important in our research,” said Pepperell, who works at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. “I also saw it as an opportunity to raise the profile of women in science, to increase the diversity of voices and perspectives that make up the ‘face’ of science—my hope is that all young people have the opportunity to see themselves as scientists, to consider science as a career and pursue it if that’s where their passions and skills lie.”

Here Is FEMA’s Plan If the Falling Chinese Satellite Takes Aim at a US City

Quoted: So would a warning even be worth it? “I imagine perhaps if there was a public information plan, it would generate more hysteria than would be warranted for something so unlikely,” Ruth Rand, historian of science, technology, and the environment during the Cold War at the University of Wisconsin told me. “I imagine some people might respond with undue fear and you might have a crisis in your hands.”

Cambridge Analytica psychology: The science isn’t that good at manipulation

Quoted: If the company did obtain a comprehensive set of user data from Facebook, as has been reported, then it may have gotten unique insight into what makes people vote and how. “Facebook allowed them to combine different data sources in a way that allowed them to understand voters maybe better than voters themselves did,” says Dietram Scheufele, science communication professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Weigh if a Part-Time MBA Program Is the Right Fit

Abrianna Barca, an IT supervisor at the University of Wisconsin—Madison, takes classes in the university’s lockstep program two evenings a week. When she graduates in spring 2018, she will have spent three years with her 55-person cohort, including a two-week intensive course in Hong Kong, China and Vietnam.

Leg genes give spiders segmented heads

That’s the somewhat surprising finding made by two scientists, Emily Setton and Prashant Sharma from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, US, during an investigation into the evolutionary origin of spider silk-spinning.

Tiangong-1, China’s falling space lab, is a prism for its space ambitions

Quoted: “When an object is uncontrolled, and its orbit is decaying, it starts tumbling,” Lisa Rand, a space junk scholar and a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Wisconsin’s Madison campus, told Quartz.