UW In The News

Deepfakes raise alarm about AI in elections

What might have taken a studio budget and a production team to produce a few years ago can now be put together by everyday users with just a few clicks, said Barry Burden, a political science professor and director of the Elections Research Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. And with the ubiquity of social media platforms, fabricated content can be widely spread, with few formal checks in place.

Trump-backed GOP leaders call for embrace of early and mail-in voting even as former president continues to cast doubt

“The [Republican] Party does not have a single message about all of this, in contrast to the Democrats, who – at least in 2020 – had a really unified message,” said Barry Burden, the director of the Elections Research Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “And they also developed the infrastructure to figure out how to navigate the 50 state laws and determine who has already voted early and how to reach out to people who have requested absentee ballots but not returned them. That’s very much a state-by-state process.”

5 Things You Should Do First Thing In The Morning To Be Happier All Day

“You can start with a simple appreciation practice,” Cortland Dahl, a research scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Center for Healthy Minds, previously told HuffPost. Just bring a friend or loved one into your mind, then consciously focusing on the things you really cherish about them.

Why Do Colors Change during a Solar Eclipse?

For other animals, an eclipse-induced Purkinje effect may be even more intense, says Freya Mowat, an assistant professor of ophthalmology at the University of Wisconsin–Madison School of Veterinary Medicine. Birds have a fourth cone that lets them see ultraviolet light. It’s difficult to say exactly how the sudden light change during a solar eclipse would affect avian vision, Mowat, says but it’s possible that the shades of purple would be extra vivid and disorienting

How Baseball’s Official Historian Dug Up the Game’s Unknown Origins

The year Baseball in the Garden of Eden was published, Selig tapped Thorn as MLB’s second official historian. “John Thorn has been brilliant,” says Selig, who now teaches baseball history at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Arizona State.

Viral Genetics Confirms What On-the-Ground Activists Knew Early in the Mpox Outbreak

David O’Conner, a virologist at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, told me that COVID initially increased the collaborations between researchers and public health officials. He worries that in our supposedly post-COVID world, we’re returning to a baseline with public health and academics working with “less overlap than during the early [SARS-CoV-2] pandemic.”

Leading Economic Index went up for first time in two years

Menzie Chinn, an economics professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said even if the economy slows down this year, a recession is unlikely. “At least there’s strength in the economy, probably enough so that you’re not going to go into actual negative growth,” he said.

US housing market faces biggest shakeup in years – here’s what we know

“The decoupling of seller agent and buyer agent fees allows for a lot more flexibility and novelty in how agents are going to get paid,” said Max Besbris, associate professor of sociology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “The possibilities are more open now than ever before. We’re really going to see, generally, a lot more transparency.”

Patients Hate ‘Forever’ Drugs. Are Ozempic and Wegovy Different?

“People think they are doing fine, so they don’t need the medicine,” said Corrine Voils, a social psychologist at the University of Wisconsin who studies medicine compliance. “But the medicine is what is keeping them well.”

Bizarre ‘Hot Jupiter’ Planets Keep Surprising Astronomers

The next step in fully understanding hot Jupiters is to use these discoveries to establish the relative likelihoods of the three possible migration mechanisms in order to determine which systems formed which way. Jupiter-sized planets are the rulers of their planetary system because of their dominant gravitational influence and the way their migration pathway sculpts the architectures of their system. Understanding these worlds is the first step to constructing a unified theory of planet formation that scientists have been seeking for centuries.

-JULIETTE BECKER is an assistant professor of astronomy at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. She is also a founding member of the new Wisconsin Center for Origins Research (WiCOR).

Planet-Eating Stars Are Surprisingly Common, New Study Suggests

Numerous unanswered questions remain, such as what sorts of planets tend to be consumed and how to know with certainty whether any given star has wholly abstained from devouring members of its brood. Even so, “this work is super compelling,” says Melinda Soares-Furtado, an astrophysicist at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. “I’m excited about what we’re starting to find.”

5 Tips for a Healthier Relationship With Your Phone

If you want to peacefully coexist with technology, you need to get a handle on those impulses. Start by noticing when you have an urge to lift your phone or open social media on your browser window, said Richard J. Davidson, the founder and director of the Center for Healthy Minds at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Does a Houseplant Need to Glow for You to See It as Alive?

To see what other scientists thought of this petunia, I emailed Simon Gilroy, a botanist who leads a lab at the University of Wisconsin at Madison that uses green fluorescent proteins to study how a plant sends signals through its body. But the fluorescence of those proteins—originally synthesized from a jellyfish—is visible only with specialized lights, unlike the petunia now in my house, which glowed on its own. When I visited Gilroy’s lab in 2022, he showed me a tiny plant beneath a microscope lens, handed me a pair of tweezers, and instructed me to pinch it. I watched as a green luminance moved through the entire plant body: The experience permanently changed my view of plant life. Here was a lively, dynamic creature that absolutely knew I was touching it. Gilroy quickly wrote back: “I actually have 2 of those luminescent petunias on pre-order.”

Schools are using Yondr pouches to lock up kids’ cellphones

There’s also reason to believe that using cellphones in class is bad for learning. Studies on doctors, nurses, and others have shown that “multitasking during learning interferes with the long-term processing and retention of what you learn,” said Megan Moreno, a professor of pediatrics at the University of Wisconsin Madison. Some research suggests that curbing smartphone use in the classroom could help students stay focused on their lessons.

Daddy Longlegs Have Four Extra, Hidden Eyes, Researchers Say

The eyes are vestigial organs, or the remnants of body parts that no longer function—they are the “leftovers of evolution,” as study co-author Guilherme Gainett, who was a biologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison when he conducted the research but now works at Boston Children’s Hospital, tells Science News’ McKenzie Prillaman. In humans, vestigial organs include wisdom teeth and the appendix.

Opinion: How to make sure the 6% real estate home commission really does die

It might seem like the National Association of Realtors, which in the past few years has been the target of antitrust lawsuits and whose former president resigned in the wake of a sexual harassment scandal, is in crisis. Last year, a federal jury in Missouri found that the NAR, along with private brokerages, had colluded to keep broker fees artificially high and awarded nearly $1.8 billion to hundreds of thousands of home sellers. And on Friday, the NAR announced that instead of appealing it would settle the lawsuit. (Max Besbris is an associate professor of sociology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and is the author of “Upsold: Real Estate Agents, Prices, and Neighborhood Inequality.” )

Georgia primary votes not counted ‘in hours’

Barry Burden, the founding director of the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Elections Research Center, outlined several other reasons why votes were counted faster in the primaries than in the 2020 general election.

How Realtors’ settlement could change the buyer-agent relationship

That may sound like a more expensive arrangement for homebuyers. But economist Abdullah Yavas at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Business said under the traditional arrangement, sellers only technically pay for buyer’s agents. In reality, buyers were still footing the bill.

Nebraska and Maine allocate electoral college votes differently than other states

Nebraska and Maine long ago discarded the electoral college’s winner-take-all approach to allow split ballots if a candidate wins the popular vote in a congressional district. (Featuring quote from Barry Burden.)

COVID-19 misinformation continues to pose danger 4 years post-pandemic

Many people are disparaging or dismissive when talking about people who believe misinformation, but it can happen to anyone, said Sedona Chinn, an assistant professor in the life sciences communication department at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Obscure legal theory could weaken voters’ protections from racist laws

The ruling is part of a suite of attacks in recent years aiming to chip away at section 2, said Daniel Tokaji, an election law expert who is dean of the law school at the University of Wisconsin. “These are judges who are not terribly friendly to the voting rights and in particular to protections that racial minority groups have long had to wait for,” he said.

Powerful Realtor Group Agrees to Slash Commissions to Settle Lawsuits

“This will be a really fundamental shift in how Americans buy, search for, and purchase and sell their housing. It will absolutely transform the real estate industry,” said Max Besbris, an associate professor of sociology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the author of “Upsold,” a book exploring the link between housing prices and the real estate business.

Are we breaking the Atlantic Ocean? The Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, explained.

“This is a sort of $2 million question,” Till Wagner, an atmospheric and ocean scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, says. “Can this actually happen? And if so, when?”

Health food packaging buzzwords are confusing. This guide can help.

Kathleen Glass, associate director of the Food Research Institute at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, describes purchasing organic as “a lifestyle choice,” adding that there’s no evidence that organic is more microbiologically safe than conventionally grown foods.  Compared with 50 years ago, she says, the amount of pesticides and herbicides allowed on food are well below levels that could cause long-term health impacts.

Low-income Californians face steep water costs; rate help ahead?

Other states average significantly less. Manny Teodoro, a professor at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, has tracked the water rates of a sample of about 400 utilities across the country and found that the average monthly bill last year for a typical four-person, single-family household was $44.77. That represented a 25% increase from 2017.

House passes immigration bill named for murdered Georgia student

“Many politicians, law enforcement personnel and ordinary citizens are nonetheless incensed because this person should not have been in the country and thus capable of committing a crime,” Michael Light, a sociologist at the University of Wisconsin at Madison who has published several studies showing undocumented immigrants are not more crime-prone than native-born Americans, told The Washington Post last month. “This view that the person’s undocumented status is an aggravating factor is also likely a reason why these crimes generate such strong responses.”

The Era of the Much Older Sibling

This new norm of spaced-out siblings seems to be a by-product of the changing American family. The reasons are difficult to parse, but “we know that partner switching explains some of it,” Christine Schwartz, a sociology professor at the University of Wisconsin at Madison who co-authored that 2020 study on the phenomenon, told me.

Warm climate cuts short decades-long wolf study near Lake Superior, MI

Less ice could translate to longer fishing seasons, but winter storms could wreck nets and traps and destroy whitefish eggs that rely on the ice for protection, said Titus Seilheimer, a University of Wisconsin-Madison fisheries specialist.

Zero-proof and low-ABV drinks are becoming more popular

Christine Whelan studies the wellness economy at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She said this is one Gen Z and millennial health obsession she can get behind. “The movement away from alcohol is probably the best of the wellness remedies,” Whelan said, compared to, say, vitamins and supplements, in terms of its proven positive impact on our health.

How to address the problem of discarded donor organs

Column by Joshua Mezrich, a professor of surgery, transplant surgeon and holds the Mark A. Fischer Chair in Transplantation at UW Health and the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health.